Mario's Musings (Anniversary Edition): Terminator 2: Judgement Day
It’s been thirty years since Terminator 2? It feels like only yesterday we had a 35th anniversary post about the original Terminator.
I’ve explained the origins of me seeing this film in theaters, which you can read here. After the original Terminator, Cameron was given the keys to the kingdom in regards to the Aliens franchise, and with it, a bigger budget. With that movie becoming a success, he got to go back to what brought him mainstream success and do with it an even better budget. What we got was a movie whose special effects stand the test of time to this day, a rare feat only accomplished by other special effects heavy films like Jurassic Park.
Like I said, the plot is the same, Skynet sends a Terminator back to the past to kill in order to help them win in the future. This time, Skynet sends the T-1000, a shape-shifting Terminator that can transform it’s body into liquid substances to blend into the environment, to kill Sarah’s son John.
But wait, you ask, I thought the first Terminator movie was Skynet’s last ditch effort to turn the tide of the war? Well, that’s what I’m here for, to answer the tough questions. Spoilers for a 36 year old movie: after Kyle Reese sacrifices himself to paralyze the T-800 from the waist down using a pipe bomb, an injured Sarah is left to fend for herself against what is left. She lures it into a hydraulic press, where she crushes it. However, what we learn is that part of the T-800’s CPU and one of it’s arm remained, and was taken by Cyberdyne Systems. Basically, this must have changed events in the future and extended the war to the point where Skynet was able to send ANOTHER Terminator, while the human resistance was able to capture a T-800 and reprogram it to go back and fight the T-1000.
Look at him, he seems so nice!
Hindsight being 20/20, whoever cut the trailer should have left out the fact that the T-800 was now fighting for the Connors. The first half hour or so of the film plays up the T-800 as the villain, showing him brutally manhandling the bikers in the bar that he steals the clothes and bike from. Meanwhile, the T-1000 is shown quickly knocking out a cop and taking his car and clothes, and amicably interacting with John’s foster parents and two girls on his search for John. It’s not until the T-1000 sees John that his demeanor completely changes from nice guy to stone cold. It’s when the T-800 says “Get down” to John that everyone should have reacted “oh wow, he’s the good guy!” but instead, we all went in knowing the twist.
Cigarette and a machine gun. Sarah has changed.
The biggest change from the original is Sarah Connor herself. When we leave her in Terminator, she’s an expecting mother recording tapes to her unborn son, still hopeful of the future. When we’re introduced to her in the sequel, she’s doing chin-ups in her padded room at a mental hospital, while Doctor Silberman explains her “condition” to his interns. You see the look in Sarah’s eyes, she’s not the same person anymore. She’s Ripley on steroids. She even manages to make her escape from the hospital on her own, after LAPD detectives inform her that “the man who shot up the police station” is back. However, despite her new tense nature, she almost regresses back to that naive young woman she was in the first movie at the sight of the T-800. It’s not until he utters the first words that Kyle Reese said to her: “Come with me if you want to live” that she regains her senses and realizes something is different.
And with that moment, we’re brought on a thrill ride unlike no other with insane special effects and great moments of character building, as that’s at the heart of this film, the relationship between John, Sarah, and the T-800. John comes to see the T-800 as a father figure he never had, Sarah sees eventually sees him in the same way but without the human flaws, and the T-800 gets an insight into humanity and even learns to understand them (“Now I know why you cry, but it is something I can never do”). And that entire relationship comes to a head at the end, when the T-800 informs John and Sarah that it too must go into the molten steel along with the original T-800’s arm and CPU. Edward Furlong’s acting here is really the bright spot of an otherwise somewhat spotty performance, as he’s really just a kid begging the only father figure he’s ever had not to leave him. Sarah too, is distraught in her own way, and she offers the T-800 a handshake as a show of thanks and respect. It’s a beautiful scene, topped off with the T-800 giving a thumbs up as it descends into the molten steel to it’s demise.
Opinions may vary on this moment, but I love it.
So it’s the July 4th weekend, so let’s all sit back and watch some REAL fireworks that is a James Cameron sequel. And then you can watch Independence Day.