Terminator 2: Judgement Day is one of those rare films that is tonally different from its predecessor and still somehow manages to be better. While that second point is arguable up to a point, there’s no denying that the movie helped to revolutionize cinema and the way summer blockbusters are made. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of T2, which makes me feel like Methuselah as I clearly recall seeing it in the theater in the summer of ’91.
The movie, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in a reprise of his role as a murderous android from the future, except this time he’s tasked with protecting John Connor instead of trying to wipe him from the timeline. I won’t bother to get into the plot of the movie as I’m sure most of you have already seen it. And as long as you don’t contemplate the intricacies of the time travel elements throughout the series (because seriously, it makes no sense), T2 is an absolute blast to watch.
One thing Terminator 2: Judgement Day did was cement Sarah Connor, played by the inimitable Linda Hamilton, as a bad-ass action hero chick. In the first Terminator movie, Sarah was more of a “final girl.” For those unfamiliar, the phrase “final girl” comes from the horror genre and describes the character, which is most often a woman, who survives the serial killer’s rampage while all of her friends are murdered. Think Laurie Strode in Halloween and Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Since Terminator had more in common thematically with the horror genre than with action, this is how Sarah was portrayed; the damsel in distress who needs help escaping from the bad guy until her urge to live overpowers her ineptitude and she prevails. However, with T2 being a firm action film, Sarah’s character evolved so that she became fully capable in most situations and only needed help because of the supernatural circumstances she faced.
This isn’t the first time director James Cameron evolved a character in such a way; we see similar changes to Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, in the Alien franchise. In the first film, Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, Ripley is a tough and capable warrant officer aboard the Nostromo. After the alien is brought aboard, she is the only one to survives its onslaught (classic “final girl” trope). But when Cameron came aboard to direct the sequel Aliens, he steered away from the “haunted house in space” vibe of the first film and made the second an allegory of the Vietnam war. Though Aliens retained aspects of the horror genre, it evolved into more of an action film, requiring Ripley to evolve with it.
I watched T2 for the first time in a few years to prep for this article, and I was reminded of a few things about the movie that I really liked. One of my favorite things is the scene in the ravine, when the T-1000, driving the cab of a tractor trailer, is chasing John on his dirtbike. Besides just being a great chase scene and really emphasizing the viciousness of the T-1000, there’s a moment when the T-1000 drives the truck off a bridge and, as it lands on the ground, the windshield breaks loose. However, in the very next shot, the windshield is still in place, just cracked a little. It’s one of those “You never noticed this” moments that sites like Buzzfeed like to publish, but I have noticed, and for some reason I love it.
And can we just talk about the T-1000 for a second? That role was one of Robert Patrick’s earliest and easiest his breakout performance. Prior to T2, he’d had bit parts in a few movies and TV shows, even showing up in Die Hard 2: Die Harder. But it wasn’t until T2 did Patrick become a household name. Ever since his take as the liquid metal T-1000, he’d gained notoriety and become one of Hollywood’s heavy hitters.
Besides that, there’s also the subtle nod to rock group Guns N’ Roses. Their song, “You Could Be Mine” appears prominently in the film and sort of became the official track of the movie Cameron alluded to the band on screen in a shot where the T-800 hide a shotgun in a box of long-stemmed roses. It’s a simple touch, but one that stands out in the movie for its visual characteristics.
I also loved the inclusion of twin actors Dan and Don Stanton as the security guard at the Pescadero State Hospital. The Stantons were featured in Gremlins 2 as a pair of scientists named Martin and Lewis. In T2, however, they play a lone security guard being copied by the T-1000. Using twins allowed Cameron to utilize the T-1000 to fully mimic a human and not rely on CGI, which at the time would have looked weird and clunky. The effect is amazing and that it was all done with practical effects (besides the rising puddle of mercury) is even more impressive.
And one thing that T2 needs to be given credit for is its humanizing a robotic character. There’s one scene in the film in which Sarah Connor watches as John interacts with the T-800, and she’s contemplating the relationship between the two. She draws parallels between the cyborg and the idea of absentee men, the kind of men who come in and out of a fatherless child’s life, and she understands that the robot would be the best kind of role model for her child. Then, later in the film after the team defeat the T-1000, the T-800 tells Sarah and John that he, too, must be destroyed. He says to John, “I must go away, John,” which is a weird thing for a cyborg to say. However, it’s the kind of phrase that a man who has bonded with a young boy would say after a breakup with the boy’s mother. Having seen this movie more than a dozen times in my life, I never picked up on that until recently and it blew my mind a little.
Though T2 is a damn fine movie, it’s not exactly perfect. Maybe it’s just me, but I do have a couple of qualms with it. One of them is just a tiny thing, easily overlooked, and that’s the “Bad to the Bone” musical cue that occurs after Arnie steps out of the roughneck bar after getting the biker’s clothes. Using the George Thorogood has forever been cinematic shorthand to show that a character is a hard ass and not to be trifled with. Meanwhile, Cameron uses the riff after showing Arnold Schwarzenegger taking on a room full of bikers single-handedly after having a cigar put out on his chest. The audience didn’t need a “shorthand” to show how hard this character is; we’ve already seen it.
The second problem I have with the movie is far more prevalent, and that’s Edward Furlong’s acting. Sure, T2 was his first acting credit, and he was 13 when the movie was made, but holy hell, he makes me cringe in almost every scene. He’s so over the top in almost everything he does. And sure, there are a few sincere moments where Furlong does deliver his lines better than a first-year improv student, like when John is consoling Sarah after she breaks down while trying to kill Miles Dyson in his home, but other than that, he’s just so hard to take. I strongly believe that if the internet were around in 1991, Furlong would have been bullied as badly as Jake Lloyd had after The Phantom Menace came out.
Despite this, Terminator 2 was massive when it hit theaters, grossing $520 million worldwide and, adjusted for inflation, was the tenth-highest grossing R-rated film of all time (at the time of its release). It also began a major merchandising blitz that hadn’t occurred after the first film, mostly because the first Terminator is more of a horror film while T2 is a straight-up action/adventure.
Kenner made a full line of action figures, which were released around the same time as the film, featuring Arnold’s T-800 and the T-1000. There’s also a single John Connor figure in the wave, and while there is no Sarah Connor anywhere to be found, there is a Bioflesh Regenerator playset, which allowed kids to mold skin around a T-800 skeleton, which could then be torn to shreds through active play, so really, the full interactivity of the line makes up for a few glaring omissions.
In addition to those toys, Halloween 1991 was also a great time to be a Terminator fan. One specific company (whose name I was unable to find) created a Terminator 2 Metallic Cyborg Makeup Kit to allow children to dress up as futuristic murderous cyborgs around their own neighborhoods. What’s most exciting about this is that I actually had the kit and dressed up as the T-800 that Halloween. The makeup was so hard to put in place and the fake skin was super sticky and looked kind of weird when it was applied since it stretched when I was trying to get my fingers off it, but the light-up eye looked really cool in the dark, even though that early-90s battery pack died pretty quickly. Credit to @DinosaurDracula for sharing this not too long ago and bringing back that memory.
I shoulda bought this pic.twitter.com/k94w7Hz887
— Dinosaur Dracula ??♂️ (@DinosaurDracula) March 31, 2019
There’s so much more that I could gush about Terminator 2, like how great Miles Dyson’s death scene was (and really showcased the under-utilized talent of Joe Morton), or how long the T-1000 disappears during the second act but still the movie doesn’t suffer at all, or even the blatant Pepsi product placement, but I feel like this review has gone on for long enough. I can say confidently that Terminator 2: Judgement Day was the last great Terminator film that we got, and I’m sure that no matter how you feel about Terminator 3, Genisys, or Dark Fate, you would agree with me. (Although I will say that The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a great show that was cancelled way too early, and I am looking forward to the upcoming anime on Netflix.)
So, celebrate the 30th anniversary of Terminator 2: Judgement Day by cracking open an ice-cold Pepsi, putting your copy of Guns N’ Roses’ “Use Your Illusion II” on repeat, and planting yourself on the couch for another viewing. After about twenty minutes, you’ll be saying hasta la vista, baby to all of your worries. (Sorry, that’s the pithiest way I could think to end this article.)
