Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Edward Furlong, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen, Joe Morton
The Terminator (1984) was compelling and worked on the level of a horror film. It laid the groundwork for its superior sequel, which combines the horror elements of something relentlessly stalking you that can't be killed with terrifying visions of a future in which most of humankind is obliterated by computers and machines. If there was ever an argument against artificial intelligence, this is it. With the advent of the Internet, Alexa, and a whole new generation of computers, cell phones, and super smart technology still to come, Terminator 2: Judgment Day foreshadows how technology can be dangerous in the wrong hands.
In the original 1984 film, which also starred Schwarzenegger and directed by James Cameron, Schwarzenegger played a "terminator" sent from the future to kill a woman (Hamilton) who would later give birth to the leader of the resistance against the very machines which rule the bleak, dark future. The mission did not succeed, which the machines should have realized would happen since the leader, John Connor, exists in the future. So, the machines try again by sending a new and improved terminator, the T-1000 (Patrick) back to the past to kill a now teenage, juvenile delinquent Connor (Furlong), who is now being raised by uncaring foster parents while his real mother Sarah (Hamilton) is locked away in a mental institution for ranting about the impending doom of the future.
The twist is: A second terminator, a rewired one played again by Schwarzenegger, is sent back by the future Connor to protect himself from the T-1000. This is no easy task. Both terminators look human from the outside, but contain robotic skeletons and computers for brains. The Schwarzenegger model lacks the shape-shifting, identity-assuming ability, and liquid core of the T-1000, although he can still impersonate others with his voice. When the terminators do battle, it is the irresistible force vs. the immovable object and an exercise in futility since both can take a licking and keep on ticking. Schwarzenegger vs. Patrick is a good matchup.
John comes to understand that Schwarzenegger is his de facto bodyguard, but also teaches him to be more "human" and not kill everyone in his path. He just wounds them instead, and there is a funny allusion to the first film in which Schwarzenegger ripped the heart out of an unsuspecting lout who refused to give him his clothes. Terminator 2 takes its time to slow down from the car chases, explosions, and fights to develop some comic, touching moments between John and his terminator. But, the film is about action, and it delivers some riveting scenes in which we think the T-1000 is destroyed, only to find it will simply reconstruct itself and keep moving. The T-1000 is an improved model on Schwarzenegger's 1984 version, which is a triumph in itself, since that terminator wasn't exactly easy to kill either.
Cameron relies heavily on convincing visuals and scary predictions of what's to come. John, Sarah, and their terminator soon try to stop the terrible future which awaits from happening altogether, while eluding the tireless T-1000. What happens is inevitable and ultimately hopeful...at least until Hollywood dipped its toe into these waters again with the pedestrian Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), which wasn't bad, but unnecessary. This film brought the saga to its logical end and it was more than satisfactory, but then the series didn't quit while it was ahead.
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