Terminator 2: Judgement Day is an R-rated film. Teenagecritic.net does not condone the use of anything seen in the movie, and you should be accompanied by an adult when seeing this movie.
Terminator 2(or T2, as I will be calling it) is a great film, and a stellar action movie. It has all the cliches, plus a great story and good characters. It is a fun film to sit through, and has one of my favorite actors ever, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER. Now, let’s get to it.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day is an action-adventure/sci-fi movie released in 1991 and directed by James Cameron. It stars ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER as The T-800, Edward Furlong as John Conner, Robert Patrick as The T-1000, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Conner, Joe Morton as Miles Bennett Dyson, and Earl Boen as Dr. Silberman. It grossed $523.7 million, and is the 2nd film in the Terminator franchise.(Chronologically, I don’t care. there are only 3 movies.)
Here Comes The Plot, boys
n 1995, John Connor is living in Los Angeles with foster parents. His mother Sarah Connor had been preparing him throughout his childhood for his future role as the Human Resistance leader against Skynet – the artificial intelligence that will be given control of the United States’ nuclear missiles and initiate a nuclear holocaust called “Judgment Day” on August 29, 1997 – but was arrested and imprisoned at a mental hospital after attempting to bomb a computer factory. In 2029, Skynet sends a new Terminator, designated as T-1000, back in time to kill John. The T-1000 is an advanced prototype made out of liquid metal (referred to as “mimetic polyalloy”) that gives it the ability to take on the shape and appearance of almost anything it touches, and to transform its arms into blades and other shapes at will, but it can’t form any complex machines like guns or vehicles. The T-1000 arrives under a freeway, kills a policeman, and assumes his identity. Meanwhile, the future John Connor has sent back a reprogrammed T-800 (Model 101) Terminator to protect his young self.
The Terminator and the T-1000 converge on John in a shopping mall, and a chase ensues after which John and the Terminator escape together on a motorcycle. Fearing that the T-1000 will kill Sarah in order to get to him, John orders the Terminator to help free her, after discovering that the Terminator must follow his orders. They encounter Sarah as she is escaping from the hospital, although she is initially reluctant to trust the T-800. After the trio escapes from the T-1000 in a police car, the Terminator informs John and Sarah about Skynet’s history. Sarah learns that the man most directly responsible for Skynet’s creation is Miles Bennett Dyson, a Cyberdyne Systems engineer working on a revolutionary new neural net processor that will form the basis for Skynet.
Sarah gathers weapons from an old friend and plans to flee with John to Mexico, but after having a nightmare about Judgment Day, she instead sets out to kill Dyson in order to prevent Judgment Day from occurring. Finding him at his home, she wounds him but finds herself unable to kill him in front of his family. John and the Terminator arrive and inform Dyson of the future consequences of his work. They learn that much of his research has been reverse-engineered from the damaged CPU and the right arm of the previous Terminator who attacked Sarah back in 1984. Convincing him that these items and his designs must be destroyed, they break into the Cyberdyne building, retrieve the CPU and the arm, and set explosives to destroy Dyson’s lab. The police arrive and Dyson is fatally shot, but he rigs an improvised dead man’s switch that detonates the explosives when he dies. The T-1000 relentlessly pursues the surviving trio, eventually cornering them in a steel mill.. The T-1000 is frozen with liquid nitrogen and shattered, but manages to reform itself.The T-1000 and the T-800 engage in physical combat and the more advanced model seriously damages and shuts down the T-800. However, unbeknownst to the T-1000, the T-800 brings itself back online using emergency power. The T-1000 nearly kills John and Sarah but the T-800 takes it by surprise and blasts it into a vat of molten steel with a Grenade Launcher, destroying it. John tosses the arm and CPU of the original Terminator into the vat as well. As Sarah expresses relief that the ordeal is over, the Terminator explains that to ensure that it is not used for reverse engineering it must also be destroyed. It asks Sarah to assist in lowering it into the vat of molten steel, since it is unable to “self-terminate”. Although John begs and eventually orders the Terminator to reconsider, it makes the decision to disobey him, bids them farewell and hugs a tearful John before it is lowered into the vat, giving a final thumbs-up as it disappears into the molten steel. John and Sarah drive down a highway into the great unknown.
The Best Scene of T2 has a lot of contenders, but I would have to say a tie between the T-800’s introduction scene at the bar, and the chase scene between the T-1000 and John Conner. The bar scene shows how awesome and cool ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is, even without killing anyone(which is a shame because bad guy ARNOLD was the best part of the first one). The chase scene shows how relentless the T-1000 is, even continuing the chase when the T-800 shows up. Robert Patrick does a phenomenal job.
You Ready For The Cast? Yeah, Me Neither.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is an Austrian actor(age 72) and former governor of California. He is an imposing presence in his films, both figuratively and literally. His accent sounds like heaven, and he is easily the best part of whatever film he is in. He does a great job as the T-800, but I prefer him as the bad guy. His career includes: Conan The Barbarian, Commando, Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, The Running Man, Twins, True Lies, Kindergarten Cop, and The Last Action Hero.
Robert Patrick is an American actor(age 60) who does a terrific job of making my terrified of him throughout the entire film. He put in insane effort into tiny details of the movie(when firing a gun, he doesn’t blink. Nor does he blink in the movie.), and they do indeed pay off. His showdown with ARNOLD is quite fun to watch. His career includes: The X-Files, Walk The Line, The Sopranos, Bridge to Teribithia, Wayne’s World, and Spy Kids.
Edward Furlong is an American actor(age 42)and is the worst part of this movie. He doesn’t do a bad job, exactly, but he is just so annoying that I don’t want him to be saved. If he was less winy, he would be fine. His career includes: American History X, Pet Semetary Two, and Detroit Rock City.
Linda Hamilton is an American actress (age 62) who is quite good in this role. Her transformation from waitress in the last film to Commando/survivalist in this film is awesome. Her voice-overs in the film are quite bland, so that’s a downside. Her career includes: Terminator, Dante’s Peak, and The Children Of The Corn(1984)
How’s About That Crew, Huh?
James Cameron is a Canadian director(age 65) who held the record of highest-grossing movie for 10 years. He is brilliant in this movie, turning a sequel of an OK 80’s movie into a work of art. He spared no expense with this movie, and filmed it for so long that actors visibly age between shots. His career includes: Titanic, Avatar, Aliens, Terminator, The Abyss, True Lies, and Rambo: First Blood Part II
Brad Fiedel is an American composer(age 68) who composed the famous Terminator theme. That’s all I could find on him. His career includes: Terminator, Gladiator, and that’s it.
Critic Reviews
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
IMDB: 8.5/10
Metacritic: 75%
Terminator Two is quite a good movie. With ARNOLD’S biceps taking up half the screen all the time, it’s hard to see. Otherwise, it’s a really fun movie, and a good watch overall.
The Underage Critic 