30 Years Later, it’s time we admit Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the best movie ever made.
“Trust me”
I was in second grade and my parents owned a cable descrambler. For those who may not know what that is, a cable descrambler is a little black box with unscrambles the signal sent to a cable box and opens up every channel including Pay-Per-View. I remember one day chancing upon the Pay-Per-View movie channel, which got things a year ahead of any network TV. I heard melodic music played over a trance-like shot of Los Angeles traffic. A montage of Los Angeles followed, but the music created an overwhelming sense of tension and dread that something was about to go down. Something did. A nuclear holocaust.
What emerged from the blast was a wasteland of creepy skeleton robots and human skulls. Neon lights filled the sky. My eight-year-old brain was transfixed in wonder. We all see films when we are young and the nostalgia blinds us to their flaws. This film didn’t have any. This film was and is the greatest movie ever made.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh
It’s frequently referred to as cinema's greatest sequel — but that is selling it short. When we talk about the greatest films ever made we reference films that might not have swept the Oscars or made the most money (although, at the time, this did), but that defined and forever changed an era. Terminator 2: Judgment Day did not just lay waste to Hollywood onscreen, it forever changed the landscape of Hollywood in real life. It’s not just me that would be changed forever, it would be the world.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day has everything going for it. It’s a masterpiece of one of cinema's great auteur directors, James Cameron. The Oscars would finally recognize him for Titanic, but they absolutely missed the boat (no pun intended) on this film. This is his Magnum Opus. It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, now at the height of his stardom, returning as the T-800, but this time a heroic one instead of a villainous stalker. It also brought back Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. She had also undergone a transformation. Instead of a hapless waitress, she was now a nearly unstoppable badass. Locked in a mental institution for rightly claiming a Terminator from the future tried to kill her and her lover Kyle Reese (also from the future) she had trained for years to try to avert the fate of judgment day — a day on August 27, 1997 when three billion lives would end in a nuclear holocaust triggered by a self-aware A.I. called Skynet. Skynet was a program made to ferret out threats. That it did. Once online the A.I. made the most rational decision it could “we are the threat”. Us. Humanity as a whole.
Arnold would spell it out clearly for the young John Connor in the film.
“It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves”
John Connor was in the film this time. He was played by two actors. One played the future John Connor, a silent part played memorably by Michael Edwards. The other substantial role, that of young John Connor, was played by newcomer Edward Furlong. He is protected by Arnold’s Terminator who, over the course of the film becomes a father figure to him. Furlong’s Connor teaches Arnold cool lingo, such as the film’s most quotable line “hasta la vista, baby.” He also tells his not to kill, effectively making the Terminator into a guardian angel.
They eventually intercept Sarah Connor who has escaped from her confinement at the mental institution and the trio make the determination that Skynet must be destroyed. This cements the theme of the film:
There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.
The film usually doesn’t get credit for being as deeply philosophical as it is. There’s no reason for the protagonists to believe the plan will work. They take it as an article of faith that they can avert the impending crisis of Judgment Day.
Opposing them is yet another Terminator, the T-1000, played by another newcomer by the name of Robert Patrick. Robert Patrick had been a firefighter until he hurt his back. He moved to Hollywood to become an actor, but he had trouble getting roles. This was his big break, something he has been eternally grateful for. He does an excellent job.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day doesn’t give away the goat either. In the beginning, the movie is ambiguous as to whether Arnold, the first film’s villain, or Robert Patrick, the new character, is the antagonist. The police don’t always have the greatest reputation, but the car says “serve and protect”, right? No way can a soulless cyborg in a leather jacket who terrorizes a biker bar be the good guy this time, right?
One mark of a good director is both finding the right people for the role and getting a performance out of those actors. James Cameron excels at this. Outside of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was a B-movie actor prior to his casting in the first Terminator, is the only true household name in this film. Even still none of the cast was ever recognized by Hollywood for their acting ability, yet here they are absolutely perfect. You one hundred percent believe these people are these characters — so much so people struggle to accept anyone else in these roles.
The movie did receive critical praise for its special effects. Credit to Stan Winston Studios, the master FX craftsmen. The film used CGI, something that wasn’t well regarded back then, to create the liquid metal T-1000. It still holds up today.
The rest of the effects were mostly practical. Most of what you see is really there in-camera. As a result, the movie looks magnificent. You never feel like you are watching something that isn’t happening. There is no uncanny valley like in so many films today.
The script is perfection. It is perfectly paced. The movie starts and never lets you go. You never feel the runtime or get bored. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve watched this movie, only to start it over and watch it again. The dialogue is always on point with nearly every line being memorable. The film’s exposition, something that usually grinds a film to a halt, is delivered mostly while a character is driving or riding. This is a trick Cameron used in the first Terminator with Kyle Reese, and he uses it again here. You take one breath in on the opening shot, and you don’t exhale until the credits roll.
The film has incredible attention to detail. While in the mall the T-1000 passes a silver mannequin foreshadowing his as of yet unseen liquid metal form. Everything happens for a reason. When the T-1000 crashes the stolen tow truck while driving through the Los Angeles river it doesn’t just casually explode, but we actually get a shot of the battery arcing sparks which cause it to explode. Not a single frame is wasted either. During the film’s climactic chase there is a single fleeting shot of a liquid nitrogen truck before it gets stolen by the T-1000 minutes later. Every set-up has a payoff, including Arnold’s awkward smile which now appears natural as he turns as says “trust me” before the epic “mini-gun” sequence. The film contains many callback lines that both reference the old while putting a new spin on them, none of which feel forced or out of place.
The score is also one of the best ever in a film. It is composed by Brad Friedel who had composed the score for the first film. The first film has a great neo-noir techno sound to it. The second is far more operatic. It sets a mood that is just so unique to this film. If you play just a few notes from the Terminator’s main theme it is instantly recognizable.
Finally the action. The action is top-notch. Beyond anything in the era, and well beyond many movies made today. One of the film's greatest sequences involves Arnold confronting a squadron of police. He kicks a desk through the window and emerges. “That’s a damn mini-gun!” shouts a helicopter pilot as he lays waste to a series of cop cars with no human casualties. That’s only one of many action sequences. The film almost never lets up.
The action set pieces are amazingly simple. They are mostly car chases and shoot outs. There are no sky lasers or hordes of CGI aliens. Instead, they square off against orderlies, police, and one cockroach of a T-1000 that never stays dead. The T-1000 is killed many times over the course of the movie yet never seems to stay down for very long. When he finally corners them inside a smelting plant the fear that they may finally be in for it is palpable, even after we’re made to believe Skynet, the A.I. that sent this Terminator, is all but vanquished for good.
The film also contains perhaps the most perfect ending. Reminiscent of Old Yeller. With the T-1000 destroyed, as well as the remnants of the first film’s Terminator T-800 model, The new T-800 who has formed an emotional attachment with the young John Connor reveals there is one last chip that needs to be destroyed. He points to his head. John cries and orders him not to go. Then the T-800 hands Sarah Connor a remote device to lower him into the vat of molten metal. As he descends he gives John Connor a final thumbs up and there is not a dry eye in the house.
I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do.
Films are never fully understood or appreciated in their time. Citizen Kane didn’t win the best picture, yet it influenced film forever and is widely regarded as the best ever made. Terminator 2 Judgment Day won four, most notable for best visual effects. While it did receive a best cinematography nomination, deservedly so, it didn’t receive one for best screenplay or best picture, which it should have (and should have won). Today on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 93% critical reception and 94% audience reception, one of the few films to have a nearly perfect critic and audience agreement. Honestly, I don’t want to know who are the roughly 6% of people that think this film is bad.
It is true that there had been blockbusters before it, but it was one of the first sequels to outperform its popular predecessor both critically and financially. Until The Matrix Reloaded in 2003, it was the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. It cemented the importance of the summer blockbuster. Every Marvel superhero, every gun-toting badass, every quick-witted summer protagonist, every writer trying to come up with that new catchphrase has on some level been trying to replicate this film. They’ve been trying to find that perfect blend of action, tension, humor, warmth, and family that this R-rated Sci-Fi action film found back in 1991. To date, this has never happened. No action movie has ever held a candle to Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s blazing inferno.
No blockbuster has ever lived up to this film. None of them. They all want to replicate this film, but they can’t. It is film perfection.
If someone tells you there’s no such thing as the “best movie ever made” then they haven’t seen Terminator 2: Judgment Day.