Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991): The sequel to James Cameron’s original is blockbuster filmmaking at its finest

Chad’s Grade: A

One of the many gifts of director James Cameron is that he knows how to craft a sequel. We live in the era of big IP and multiple franchises where doing follow-up entries of a beloved series is a tricky proposition. You want to honor what came before while still moving things forward and keeping the formula intact. And Cameron gave a near master class of that balancing act when he wrote and directed Aliens in 1986. One of the rare sequels that matched and (arguably) exceeded the original. 

Cameron managed to pull that magic trick twice when he (finally) produced a follow-up to his first box office hit, The Terminator. The perfectionist director likes to take time between sequels, seven years between Alien & Aliens, and 13 years for his Avatar films. This time-lapse was a blessing in disguise for Terminator 2: Judgement Day as the high-priced auteur finally found a studio to fork over a truckload of money to realize his vision. Cameron was forced to make cuts and compromises on the underrated The Abyss, his first box office failure. Carolco Pictures, the now defunct studio that let many visionary directors run wild, had no problem financing the $102 million blockbuster, then a massive sum of money.

And to Cameron’s credit, every penny is on screen, as the director delivered another compelling time-paradox actioner but on a much bigger scale. Terminator 2: Judgement Day doesn’t have the intimacy of the original, as it’s painting on a much bigger canvas thanks to its propulsive, hi-octane action sequences. But the sequel still has a character-driven storyline, this time as Sarah Connor struggles to reconnect with her 10-year-old son as she tries to reconcile the trauma from the first film’s events. Much like the first Terminator, this version has a strong beating heart fueling the hi-concept sci-fi pyrotechnics.

The sequel’s plot has the same framework as the original, continuing the “humanity must die” A.I. Skynet’s mission to erase the messianic resistance leader John Connor from existence. After failing to kill his mother, Sara Connor, in 1984, Skynet sends an advanced, liquid metal Terminator back in time to murder John Connor when he’s ten years old. But the human rebels manage to send a protector for John, the cyborg who’s the same model that tried to kill Sara in the original. 

Sarah Connor, now a hardened warrior, doesn’t trust the same robotic model that killed her lover Kyle, even though he’s been reprogrammed. But the liquid metal cyborg, designated as the T-1000, proves to be a deadly killer superior to the lumbering T-800 model. But while Sarah reluctantly allows the T-800 cyborg to guard her son, she has her sights on killing Miles Dyson, the scientist who creates Skynet. But the young John Connor quickly bonds with his new robotic protector and wants to stop his mother from outright murdering this innocent scientist who has nothing but good intentions. All these plotlines converge as the T-1000 is hot on their trail; its only mission is to kill John Connor and ensure Skynet’s victory over humanity.

Part of the charm of T2 is the “switch & bait” angle that allows star Arnold Schwarzenegger to play a friendlier version of his cold-blooded cyborg from the original. Schwarzenegger was at the apex of his star power in 1991, with several action and comedy blockbusters under his belt. The sequel leans into this element, with the muscled icon playing the good guy that allows much of his natural charisma to shine through. And Cameron utilizes these strengths well, as this is Schwarzenegger’s best action film by a mile. It’s a huge contrast with the first Terminator, as his villainous turn was flat and monotone, whereas, in the sequel, he confidently carries the film front and center.

But the Terminator was always Sarah Connor’s story, and here Linda Hamilton went through a radical transformation to play this more hardened version of the heroine. The traumatic events from the first film and the knowledge of the coming Armageddon have turned the clumsy waitress into a lethal soldier. And Hamilton, coming off the TV fantasy Beaty and the Beast, traded her natural beauty with a lean muscled body, moving like a lioness protecting her cubs. When Sarah’s reintroduced at the mental institution, Hamilton has the deranged, feral-like stare of a cornered predator. The actress gives a commanding performance, like the chilling scene where she yells at Dr. Silberman that she knows the date of Judgement Day (August 29^th, 1997) and that everyone is already dead. It’s a shame that Hamilton never capitalized on her warrior makeover to become a bigger star.

It’s fascinating to watch Schwarzenegger and Hamilton play inversions of their original characters. Sarah has been drained of her humanity and is essentially a Terminator, making plans to murder an innocent scientist. Standing between these towering characters is Edward Furlong, playing the young John Connor. This was Furlong’s first acting performance, and he’s wildly uneven as the central figure of the sequel. He’s at his best opposite Schwarzenegger, as their “a boy and his robot” scenes have a natural chemistry. And it was wise to have John make the T-800 swear “not to kill anyone,” which he does, keeping the body count in check of what could’ve been an extremely violent movie.

But at the end of the day, Terminator 2 succeeds through its dynamic action sequences, and there’s not a bad one at the bunch. This is where Cameron shines, directing with the precision of a symphonic conductor. He knows when to ramp up the adrenaline, then pause the action to give the dramatic moments to breathe. Cameron may be a weak scriptwriter, but he’s a master at pacing and storytelling beats. A good example is the elaborate sequence with Sarah breaking out of the mental institution, with Sarah escaping her cell, the T-1000 methodically infiltrating the well-guarded center, and John and the T-800 arriving to help. It builds to the spectacular moment in the elevator, where the deadly T-1000 uses its liquid metal abilities against the brunt force of Schwarzenegger’s T-800.

And many of these elaborate set pieces are enhanced by the emerging CGI technology. Cameron helped spearhead the technology with the (still) stunning water tentacle scene in his underwater epic The Abyss. He takes it to the next level, turning the T-1000 into a shapeshifting killing machine. And combining the CGI wizardry with actor Robert Patrick, who’s terrific as the robotic predator killer, makes for a terrifying villain. The new tech gives the action beats an extra kick, allowing Patrick to move with deadly grace, including the spectacular shot in the finale, as the T-1000 melts and molds back together, rising like a mercury angel of death.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day is blockbuster filmmaking at its finest and one of the best action spectacles of the 1990s. This is director Cameron firing on all cylinders, as he had the money and the proper CGI effects wizardry to realize his vision perfectly. And the sequel satisfyingly wraps up the John & Sarah Connor storyline, which was unwisely resurrected in the many follow-ups. It’s no surprise this was a massive hit in the summer of 1991, a rarity for an R-rated film.

And we’re still dealing with T2’s technological themes in this new decade with the emergence of generative A.I. Both Terminator movies should be required viewing for the many engineers fine-tuning the new Chat GPT software, where the AI has recently started threatening its human users. This high-concept franchise could be a prophetic vision of our future. As the Terminator coldly states to John, “it’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.” Judgement Day, indeed.

The Director’s Cut

We live in an era when franchise pictures like The Batman, James Bond, and Avengers can clock in at nearly 3 hours. But there was a time when studios wanted shorter run times for their big action films, particularly in the early 1990s when budgets were exploding.

Cameron is a notoriously disciplined director who shaves down his large-scale epics to the bare minimum. If you have seen the expanded versions of Aliens and The Abyss, it’s shocking to see how much footage the director snipped away, sometimes at the expense of a richer viewing experience. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is no exception.

Deleted scenes are routine in filmmaking, but there are three sequences that I’m surprised Cameron excised from his T2 sequel. The most stunning was Sarah’s dream sequence early in the film, where Kyle Reese from the previous movie appears, sternly telling her they need to protect their son. Not only did they have Michael Biehn reprise his role, but it also created a nice continuity from the original film. And the sequence nicely sets up the nuclear nightmare later in the movie, showing what’s fueling Sarah’s painful trauma.

The second and more elaborate sequence was John and Sarah removing the Terminator’s micro-chip brain to reset a switch so the cyborg can start learning to act more human. It’s a fascinating scene where Sarah wants to smash the chip and leave the Terminator for dead. But John stops her, standing up to his vengeful mother and hinting at the future leader that will emerge. It’s also one of Furlong’s best dramatic moments that changes the core mother/son relationship driving the movie.

The final deleted scene is a short moment with Miles Dyson and his wife, Tarissa. Warmly acted by Joe Morton and S. Epatha Merkerson, Tarissa playfully scolds Dyson for ignoring their children in favor of working on the “superconducting” computer that will become Skynet. Tarissa states the franchise’s thematic core, telling Dyson, “Your heart and passion are in there, but it can’t love you like we do.” It’s a sweet, sympathetic beat for the scientist who will inadvertently create humanity’s dark future.

Fortunately, all these deleted moments can be found on the Blu-Ray/DVD release of the widely available film. The scenes are best viewed in the context of the film, making for a more complete version of Cameron’s action masterpiece.