Released: 1991
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, Edward Furlong, Earl Boen, Joe Morton
Oscar Wins: Best Make Up (Stan Winston, Jeff Dawn), Best Sound (Tom Johnson, Gary Rydstrom, Gary Summers, Lee Orloff), Best Sound Editing (Gary Rydstrom, Gloria S. Borders), Best Visual Effects (Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Gene Warren Jr., Robert Skotak)
Oscar Nominations: Best Cinematography (Adam Greenberg), Best Film Editing (Conrad Bluff, mark Goldblatt, Richard A. Harris)
SUMMARY: Ten years after her first encounter with a Terminator, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is residing in a mental hospital, having attempted to blow up a computer factory, then telling the authorities about the Terminators. Her son John Connor (Edward Furlong) lives with foster parents in Los Angeles. John believes that his mother is crazy, because she has spent his entire life dragging him from place to place, teaching him various fighting skills (in the future, John becomes the leader of the Human Resistance, fighting against Skynet). Having failed in their previous attempt to kill Sarah Connor (The Terminator), Skynet has sent a new model of Terminator back, this time to kill John. However, future John has again managed to send back a protector – this time, it is an older model of Terminator that has been reprogrammed to protect John. This older Terminator, a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is the same model that tried to kill Sarah ten years earlier. The new model, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), has vast improvements, including a liquid metal body that allows it to shape-shift; it can also change parts of itself into knives. Both Terminators locate John at a shopping mall arcade; because the T-1000 is dressed as a police officer, the delinquent John runs away, and a chase starts. John tries to escape on his dirtbike, while the T-1000 chases him in a semi: he is rescued at the last second by the T-800 on a motorcycle. John realizes that his mother is not delusional, but was telling him the truth about the Terminators. He also realizes that this particular T-800 has been programmed to obey John’s orders. Realizing that Sarah is probably the T-1000’s next target, John orders the T-800 to help him rescue her from the mental hospital. Unbeknownst to them, Sarah is making an escape attempt at the same time. When they meet, Sarah is initially horrified to see the Terminator who previously attacked her, but John manages to convince her that he is now on their side. As John anticipated, the T-1000 has come looking for Sarah, and another chase ensues; again, the Connors and the T-800 escape.
The T-800 tells Sarah and John about how Skynet takes control of the Earth, on what he calls Judgment Day: he also reveals that the man most responsible for creating Skynet is a programmer named Miles Bennett Dyson. Dyson works for a company called Cyberdyne Systems, which recovered the CPU from the original Terminator: they are using this chip to build what will become Skynet. Sarah originally plans to escape to Mexico with John, but soon decides that if the three of them could stop Skynet from being built, Judgment Day wouldn’t happen. Without telling John or the T-800, she goes to Dyson’s house, where she intends to kill him. However, when she sees that Dyson has a family, she cannot do it. John and the T-800, having realized what she intended to do, arrive soon after, and the T-800 explains to Dyson what will happen if he finishes his work. Dyson agrees that this must not happen, and agrees to help the group destroy all the Skynet work, which is at the Cyberdyne building. The four get in successfully, but a suspicious guard calls the police. John gets the CPU and robotic arm (the only surviving piece of the first Terminator), while Sarah, the T-800 and Dyson lay explosives through the lab. Before they can blow it, the police arrive, and shoot Miles. However, before he dies Miles manages to set off the explosives, and destroys the lab and all the Skynet work. Along with the police, the T-1000 has also arrived, and again tries to find John. He follows the group to a steel mill, where he is attacked by the T-800. The T-1000 seems to “kill” the T-800, but a backup power system brings him back. After an extended chase/fight through the mill, the T-1000 corners Sarah above a vat of molten metal. However, the T-800 reappears, and uses a grenade launcher to push the T-1000 into the vat, where it is permanently destroyed. John then puts both the original Terminator’s arm and CPU in the vat, destroying them as well. Sarah and John believe things are now over, but the T-800 points out that there is still one CPU left: him. Since he is unable to destroy himself, the T-800 asks Sarah to lower him into the metal, which she does. Finally, all the CPUS, and any possibility of building Skynet, is destroyed. Sarah and John set out for a new life, one that does not include the threat of Judgment Day.
MY TAKE: Before I watched this movie, I was confused about two things. First, that the Terminator somehow went from a bad guy to a hero; second, how the Terminator came back when he was destroyed at the end of the first movie (since Arnold played both). This latter issue was resolved pretty easily: all the T-800s look like Arnold, so it’s not the exact same one from the first movie, just the same model. The answer to the first problem was also quite simple: future John Connor reprogrammed the Terminator. Most of them are still bent on destroying people, like the T-1000 tries to do. It’s pretty rare that a sequel is as good as or better than the original movie, so if that sequel makes it onto the 1001 Movies list, you know it has to be pretty good (other sequels include The Godfather Part II and Aliens; The Dark Knight, Skyfall and The Bride of Frankenstein could arguably be considered sequels). There are a number of movies on the list that have sequels that are not on the list, including Kill Bill Volume 1 and Beverly Hills Cop (as well as the third Godfather and the other Terminator movies). Because of this, I was not altogether surprised that I liked this movie better than the original. The plot seemed to be more developed: instead of just constantly running away from a Terminator, the Connors and the T-800 were actually working toward something. There’s also more humor involved, mostly when John is teaching the Terminator how to be more human (it’s John who teaches him the famous line, “Hasta la vista, baby.”). The special effects, which were revolutionary at the time, have aged pretty well. Watching the T-1000 turn from liquid metal to a human is cool. Coincidentally (or maybe ironically), like the first movie, this one ends with a showdown in a factory, with the Terminator finally being destroyed by something in the factory (machinery, molten steel). This is probably intended to be a statement, but I only really noticed the similarities between the films.
RATING: Enjoyable; better than the first.
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