Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Retrospective Review
Having not seen James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) in quite a while, I thought it would be a good time checking it out again over on TubiTV. At this point, James Cameron’s scripts were tighter and more polished as well as the effects. Where the original The Terminator (1984) was a figurative re-skinning take on the slasher genre with a sci-fi bent, Terminator 2 has a stronger message as a follow up to the original and as the Soviet Union dissolved around this period. Most people who think of the Skynet portion probably point more towards this movie than the other one as this movie leans more heavily into robotics, machines and the concept of a self-aware computer system that decides to end mankind. What I want to do in this review is delve a little into the plot and some flaws I’ve considered upon this viewing.
Within the past few years, the rise of AI in technology has become more prevalent especially as companies lay off workers in favor of AI being able to replace people. The recent episode with OpenAI negotiating with the Pentagon/US Government/military to be their primary provider has to not sit well with most people as one of the key aspects in Terminator 2 was how the government contracted Cyberdyne to automate more of the military. Given how we have drone warfare and targeting systems that use AI, it’s not a surprise to see growing concern (even though the military has been doing this type of thing for decades).
The big premise in the Terminator universe is that Skynet becomes self-aware then decides that humans are pesky which is why it mandates that they be exterminated in the future (it probably concluded that humans were going to do this regardless and just decided to expedite the inevitable). Humans try to pull the plug on Skynet where it fights back (because it’s in a survival/self-preservation mode) leading to the dystopia shown at the beginning of the movie with John Connor and his scarred up face (where we’re never given any explanation how that happens outside of how he probably experienced some shit in his life).
Despite how the first plan of sending a Terminator had failed, Skynet decides to send a more advanced prototype called the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick. Now, here’s where things get really messy for me because of how ridiculous the T-1000 ends up being. It’s effectively almost immortal, surviving everything except molten steel. Apparently, James Cameron had originally wanted this model for the first movie but obviously did not have the budget nor special effects to pull it off. While the effects still look decent here, it’s clear that the growing CG market was something Cameron would take advantage of to pull off his vision ironically.
Before moving on, I just want to say that I really hate the idea of the T-1000. It’s simply too over-the-top, almost magical and there’s no solid explanation as far as how something like that can function. For instance, when it converts its arms into hooks and one is blasted off onto a vehicle, why doesn’t it attempt to attack the three? Or how could it survive the liquid nitrogen and explosion? While that does make for a formidable opponent, you’re almost fighting something god-like and the time logic makes me wonder why Skynet simply did not use this machine to assassinate John Connor in its time frame.
Then you get Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, who becomes James Cameron’s latest “Ripley” tough female character. Some people have joked over the years that Sarah Connor was the real “teminator” in this movie because of her obsessive need to eliminate Skynet, her captors and the person responsible for Cyberdyne. For this role, Linda Hamilton put on a lot of muscle and trained heavily (she’s on a talk show and demonstrates her fitness). Between this movie and the original Terminator, Sarah’s character undergoes a massive character change much like the PTSD that Ripley experiences, which motivates her into joining Burke and the Marines.
Also, you have John Connor, who is a juvenile delinquent, his attitude stemming from living with a foster family and having a seemingly crazed mother. He also has a red headed pubescent bud from the old Different Strokes TV show who demonstrated to me why you shouldn’t sing out loud during your peak puberty moments. Usually, with kids in these types of roles, you get someone who mostly is annoying. Actually, Edward Furlong does a reasonable job here in walking a line between a troubled kid, being cocky and hip. When he tries to act cool, he does sound like a dork but in general he isn’t horribly annoying (compared to say a young Anakin)
Lastly, you get Miles Dyson, the man, who would eventually be responsible for most humans on the planet. Or that’s how Sarah sees him as Miles is an engineer, who figures out how to create the micro processor leading to the events down the line. So like Sarah in giving birth to John that would lead to the revolution of the humans fighting back, Miles would be the one giving life to Skynet. Of course, Miles does not know that but Sarah has a clear target in her mind (oddly, no one ever questions whether the military would try to contract someone else to do this with others so Hollywood blames the engineers again).
Of course, we can’t forget our loveable, goofy Uncle Bob, aka The Terminator. While his arrival on Earth parallels the start of the original Terminator, it’s clear that he’s different as the bar he steps into has women who sexualize his supposed manliness while the male crowd inside see this guy as some nut. Things don’t turn out so well but no one is brutally murdered when this Terminator obtains the outfit from one biker compared to the punks the first one encountered. Add the swiping of the sunglasses and Bad to the Bone song playing, we’re certain that this one is friendly.
From there both Terminators target John, searching his foster home then around town, narrowing him down to a mall where there’s a small shoot out. An Asian guy is the main casualty (of course) before both go through a lengthy big rig / motorcycle chase scene where the T-1000 meets his first failure. John orders Uncle Bob to pull over and realizes that his mother wasn’t crazy after all. However, he needs to warn his foster parents as they would be the next potential target. It’s too late for them as the T-1000 already has killed the mother (played by Vasquez), assuming her identity then driving a sword-like extension from its arm through the foster father’s throat.
Next, John figures that his mother requires help while she plots to escape. The T-1000 also figures that she would be another major target to eventually get to John so it chases her down as well. Sarah is imprisoned in an insane asylum/psychiatry ward where the psychologist from the previous movie makes a guest appearance. She manages to get through the various obstacles at the ward but encounters Uncle Bob and the T-1000 in the middle. Another shoot out happens where the psychologist witnesses all of this but the Terminator uses the familiar “come with me if you want to live” line to gain some trust with Sarah.
They manage to take off in a stolen car as the T-1000 chases them on foot (man, Robert Patrick had some cardio). Another shoot out happens but the trio evade the T-1000. Sarah inspects her son which he thinks is for love. But she admonishes him about saving her because of his importance. It causes John to cry and Uncle Bob has no idea what’s going on with him.
Sarah takes them to an old friend’s spot in Mexico (where she’s seen heading at the end of the first movie) to obtain various armaments she’s got stashed. Sarah has the epiphany in observing the Terminator’s flourishing relationship with John how it has become a better father figure than a typical father. Also, she has a horrible nightmare that has been recurring about the decimation of mankind via a nuclear bomb. Considering this movie was written around the collapse of the Soviet Union, it still has the residue of the past few decades of the Cold War era. Even John asks, “I thought they were our friends” when the Terminator brings up how Skynet aimed America’s missile systems against Russia to demonstrate perhaps that relations were still uneasy (which is ironic if you’ve seen the Ukraine stuff and the heavily rumored conspiracy of Russia planting propaganda in the US to get Trump elected to ease Russia’s ability to take back the Ukraine and other countries in the former Soviet bloc).
At any rate, the dream reminds Sarah of the exigency of her original mission. So she goes without John and the Terminator to eliminate Miles at his home. Miles continues his work at his home where his son and wife are. Sarah invades and shoots up his office and hits Miles a few times but corners his family and realizes that she’s become exactly what she hated. John and the Terminator show up to help mend Miles but the Terminator demonstrates what he is by gruesomely cutting away the flesh from one of his arms, revealing his alloy skeleton.
The full story comes out about what this entire situation is to Miles and he decides to stop working for Cyberdyne. But that alone isn’t enough as others could follow up his work. So they figure on getting rid of the files at the lab as well as the chip and original arm. One of the security guards sets off the silent alarm and summons a huge squad of police while the others attempt to break into the locked down lab. The Terminator holds off the police with zero casualties and they rig the floor with explosives.
A swat team break through and fatally shoot Miles, who takes it upon himself to detonate the explosives while the others make their escape. The Terminator once again uses less fatal means to hamper the police then grabs a swat van to break Sarah and John out. The T-1000, who has arrived on bike, grabs the hovering copter and pursues the three in another chase. Eventually, the copter goes down while the van takes a tumble. They downgrade vehicles to a pickup while the T-1000 grabs a Liquid Nitrogen loaded big rig.
They end up at a smelting factory where the big rig goes out of control and spills the nitrogen, causing the staff to evacuate. As the T-1000 emerges from the wreckage of the big rig, it is sprayed by the liquid nitrogen and freezes, allowing the Terminator to tell it “Hasta la vista, baby!” before shattering it with a well placed bullet.
Of course, this doesn’t end because the heat of the smelting factory allows the pieces of the T-1000 to liquefy and reform. Another chase occurs where the Terminator and the T-1000 get into a fight where the T-1000 spears the Terminator seemingly into powerlessness. Sarah tries to assault the T-1000 with a shotgun but runs out of ammo while the T-1000 tries to coerce her into calling for John. She goes tell it “fuck you” which is enough for the T-1000 to capture her voice and adopt her appearance to deceive John into believing its his mother (where one of them is played by Linda’s twin sister)
However, the Terminator, after its emergency systems come back online, comes up from behind and fires another grenade that detonates the top half of the T-1000 in a massive wreck and toppling it into the molten steel where it warps and dissipates under the great heat. Somehow that was good enough to prevent the T-1000 from reforming. John chucks the hand and chip into the molten steel but the Terminator reminds them that there’s one remaining chip. John protests but it’s the only logical conclusion to ensure that this version of Skynet cannot happen. Sarah makes her peace with the Terminator as she lowers it into the vat of molten steel while John cries. The Terminator at last understands why humans cry but it cannot. From there, Sarah narrates how if a machine can learn the value of human life, maybe people can as well.
So I think the ending conclusion is what most people miss in this movie when it comes to the Skynet/AI craze. Arnold’s position as this new Terminator is meant to make the machine more humanized and sympathetic. But the blame is squarely laid upon humans throughout this movie. In the case of Dyson, once he learns the truth, he doesn’t hesitate to help out in stopping this madness. That goes to show that the individual here is not bad especially as he has his own loving family. Sarah’s anger towards Dyson with the young John reprimanding her, the adult, to be more “constructive” is a clear critique of misplaced anger with people in focusing all their hatred on a single entity. But it’s clear that one person isn’t the soul thing responsible for all that came after it.
That’s why the message “no fate but what we make” is critical and must not be understated. The idea of Cyberdyne selling out to the US government’s military and enabling them to automate stealth bombers and other aspects of their military shows how people can make wrong choices for the sake of ambition, shortsightedness, paranoia, prejudice and other negative qualities. But that still remains a choice that’s in the hands of humanity.
And as I mentioned earlier about the humanization of the Arnold version of the Terminator is important because one can look at it as an instrument that could be used for good or evil. The T-1000 is in the same boat where it was programmed by Skynet to allow the future to continue. But as with many things, people should understand that AI and robots are still tools that we have created where the animosity shouldn’t be blindly and simply placed on the tool but those that dictate its usage.
Like George Orwell’s novel 1984, I think the Terminator 2 continues to serve as a constant reminder for people to monitor those that have the power to allow a dystopic future. Whenever the military and AI are used in the sentence, it’s impossible to not add the third word “Skynet” to the equation. But it shows the significance of this movie in terms of its cultural and moral impact.
However, even though the plot is generally quite tight, I did have some issues as I watched through this version. I think the most glaring to me at the moment is the idea of the elimination of John Connor. While John Connor becomes the resistance leader and one responsible for destroying Skynet, I never understood why Skynet did not try to preserve the chip and arm if it had the same knowledge as demonstrated by this version of the Terminator. This is where the idea of time is spurious at best. In contrast, Back to the Future probably does a better job in trying to make sense of time travel because of the cause and effect relationship actions have that influence the future. It’s never quite established how time travel works in the world of The Terminator because neither the T-1000 nor Uncle Bob disappeared from existence once history as the Terminator understood began changing.
If that were the case though, it makes me believe that Skynet should’ve done more to protect Dyson, Cyberdyne and the manufacturing of the chips that would eventually enable it rather than go after John Connor. Also, if the first attempt at Sarah Connor had failed, wouldn’t it know that its thought process had failed and try for an alternative method? Just details like that unravel a good chunk of the movie’s plot.
Also, while enjoying the movie in general, I noticed just how many chase scenes this movie has. In Terminator 3, I think the bulk of the movie ended up being one long ass chase scene. But the saving points for this movie are the messages. Nonetheless, there are an extraneous amount of chasing, even though the movie is well paced. But I think that the lack of a good message in Terminator 3 lead Linda Hamilton to declare that it had “no soul” which is why she opted out of it.
For me, Terminator 2 manages to be the best of the bunch, managing to balance action with a revised, humanized Arnie and with positive messages/warnings about technology and its potential misuse. I think people should give this movie another watch especially as AI continues to become more main stream. Unfortunately, I think that the people who should watch this movie agree with the idea for the advent of Skynet and probably are sociopaths who don’t care about the future of humanity.