James Cameron‘s sequel to his movie The Terminator (1984) offers an example of a film revisited with another story Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) of similar or better quality as the first. Cameron had accomplished a similar outcome in revisiting the Ridley Scott movie Alien (1979) with Aliens (1986). To accomplish two outstanding sequels in close succession, while additionally offering three superior films in less than ten years, really cemented a solid place for the director we review today with Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day picks up slightly more than ten years after The Terminator, which had offered the viewers a sense that time travel was possible, killer robots and people could be selectively sent back in time, and that Sarah Connor’s son, John Connor, would lead a human war against intelligent machines called Terminators. Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator reprised their roles from the original film. John Connor, as the son of Sarah Connor, was born after the timeline of the original movie, as shared with us. John Connor was portrayed by Edward Furlong.
The Terminator returns at roughly the same time, about 10-years after the original movie, in southern California. The more advanced T-1000 Terminator, as portrayed by Robert Patrick, also returns. Sarah Connor is locked up in a mental hospital under the care of Dr. Silberman, as reprised by Earl Boen from the original film. It takes a bit of time to connect the motivations of the two competing terminators, as well as to bring together the necessary relationships of Sarah and her son, John. John Connor had been in foster care.
A really intelligent brand of storytelling for the second movie was to revisit the relationships from the original film, introduce some of the origin story for how the notion of intelligent machines developed in the first place, and to continue things to a point of confrontation spoken of in The Terminator movie. It is in this space that we learn more of the backstory for what had happened between John and Sarah over the 10 years we missed, plus we learned why we should care about Miles Dyson and Tarissa Dyson, as portrayed by Joe Morton and S. Epatha Merkerson, respectively.
The graphic scope of the tale for the first two movies, with an origin story so completely relevant to the very real political climate that existed in the era that began with the first movie, made for compelling cinema by itself. That a compelling science fiction accounting for the fears that were afloat in a way that delivered a punch made for a compelling sequel movie that stood-up every bit as well as the original film. The offering of a sequel that could and did engage the audience with quality cinema was quite the accomplishment.
The James Cameron movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day receives 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, September 18, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 