TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991)

Proof that Bigger Doesn't Always Mean Better

Grade: B

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1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a highly acclaimed film and is regarded as one of the greatest action movies of all time. In many ways, it is an improvement over its predecessor, 1984’s The Terminator. It has greater and more convincing special effects and more elaborate action scenes, and it also explores deeper themes of the future and the fate of mankind. But even with all its advantages, it still ultimately falls short of the first movie.

Taking place some ten years after the first film, Terminator 2 follows young John Connor, a boy living with a foster family after his mother, Sarah, was locked up in an insane asylum for trying to blow up a computer factory. In the first movie, Sarah was pursued by a Terminator, a cyborg from a machine-dominated future, who sought to kill her before she gave birth to John, since he would grow up to lead mankind against the machines. Her incarceration has led John to disbelieve her story…until he encounters two new Terminators: The T-1000, sent back to kill him, and the T-800, who was reprogrammed to protect him. After John and the T-800 spring Sarah from the asylum, they all set out to destroy the machinery and data that will lead to the existence of the artificial intelligence Skynet, hoping that this will avert “Judgment Day,” the nuclear holocaust that will wipe out three billion people.

T2’s story allows it to be deeper than its predecessor, with its more complex main characters and ideas. Sarah Connor, an innocent woman in the first movie, is here portrayed more as an antihero, attacking the orderlies and psychiatrists in the asylum and later attempting to kill the scientist Miles Dyson before he develops Skynet (she backs down when she sees him huddling with his horrified family). John, meanwhile, forms a close friendship with the T-800, who comes as close to loving him a machine can get.

So what is it about the first movie that makes it superior to the second? Mainly its intensity, its simplicity, and its atmosphere. Produced on a meager budget of $6.4 million, The Terminator featured a straightforward story of a terrified woman in 1984 being chased by an unstoppable, murderous machine, aided only by a human soldier sent back by her future son to protect her. Essentially a horror film, The Terminator was very dark in tone, and its action sequences were intense: The Terminator in that movie was an absolute monster, brutally killing everyone in its relentless pursuit of Sarah. The situation is made worse by the fact that Kyle Reese, the future soldier, is only human, which makes him and Sarah far outmatched by the Terminator. And during that film’s climax, when the Terminator’s flesh is burned away by fire to reveal the metal endoskeleton beneath, the audience is left horrified. All these elements make for a truly effective movie.

This atmosphere is largely absent from T2, with its lighter (but still serious) tone and more complex story. The T-1000, as played by Robert Patrick, is still a formidable threat, with its ability to shapeshift and convert parts of its body into pointed objects, but its menace is lessened by the fact that the T-800 is more of a match for it. Additionally, the original’s tone, budget, and intensity help it stand out. By contrast, in the decades that followed

T2’s release, more action movies have matched its scale and complexity, making it considerably less unique in its genre. Ultimately, T2 feels like a sequel that fails to justify its existence, despite all the positives, since the low-budget intensity of the first film was effective enough.

Terminator 2 is not a bad movie; if anything, it’s still a great sequel, avoiding the all-too-common sin of being a mere rehash of the first film. The Terminator and Terminator 2 are two separate entities, and both are triumphs in the science-fiction and action genres. Ultimately, it will be up to the viewer to decide which one is superior. As for me, because the first one was darker, more intense, and less restrained in its action, it had a greater impact on me than the second film. Terminator 2 may be deeper and more complex, but sometimes the best stories are the simplest ones.

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Director: James Cameron

Producer: James Cameron

Screenplay: James Cameron, William Wisher

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (T-800), Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor), Robert Patrick (T-1000), Joe Morton (Miles Dyson), Earl Boen (Dr. Silberman), Edward Furlong (John Connor)

Rated: R (for sci-fi action and violence, and for language)