Deep Dive - Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Film: Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Release Date: July 3, 1991

Reception

Box Office

Trailer:
 

Synopsis: A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her teenage son, John Connor, from a more advanced and powerful cyborg.

Analysis: Most sequels play it safe and rehash the same plot of the first film, but with high stakes. T2 does an amazing job at using the same overall beats, yet it feels like an entirely different film.

 Grade: 8.5/10

Analysis: The first film was all about Sarah Connor's development. Sarah is still a huge part of this story, but most of her development takes place before the movie starts. This film is about the Terminator. As soon as "Bad to the Bone" hits in the opening scene you know that there is going to be a completely different tone to this character, and it works perfectly. Over the course of this film the terrifying villain of the first one somehow turns into a love-able fan favorite.

Grade: 8.7/10

Name: T-1000

Bio: The T-1000 Advanced Prototype is a Terminator series produced by Skynet in 2029. The 1000 Series Terminator is fully autonomous, and unlike previous Infiltrator models that used rubber skin — and then finally living tissue over a metallic endoskeleton, the T-1000 is entirely made of a liquid metal called "mimetic polyalloy", meaning it can reform into any shape it touches of the approximate size, thus calling it a "shape-changer". It can impersonate other people as well as morph its arms into blades.

 Evil Plan: Go back in time and eliminate John Connor, before he can become the leader of the resistance.

Analysis: Damn upgrades. How do you make a villain that can stand up to the likes of Arnold? Giving him creepy knife hands and making him impenetrable to bullets is a good start.

Grade: 8.7/10

BAMF

Future John Connor's Past Self

Bad Knees

Future Screw Up

Analysis: Both of the Connor's are amazing in this film, but Sarah takes the cake. Linda Hamilton solidifies herself as one of the best female action stars of all time along with Sigourney Weaver's Ripley.

Grade: 8.7/10

Analysis: Remember that awesome twist where Kyle Reese became John Connor's father by going back in time? How do you top that? Well, how about the fact that Skynet and The Terminators exist because of the T800's hand that was left behind.

Grade: /10

B-b-b-b-b-aaad

Why?

THE FEELS!

Have you seen this boy?

Analysis: This film is among the gold standards of sequels. It took all of the elements that we loved about the first film and brought it to another level. I'm sure that there were talks of doing a sequel after the success of the first film, but they waiting until the right point to tackle T2. The look and feel of the effects still hold up to this day.

Grade: 9.2/10

Cover Image: StudioCanal (Vivendi)