Right now onto part 2 of my Terminator posts, which is all about Terminator 2: Judgment Day, James Cameron's multi-million dollar follow up to the original, so let's have a look at it shall we?
OK starting with the usual stuff (i.e. the massive plot summary, actually its not that big for a change!) the story of the film begins back in 1995, where John Connor (Edward Furlong) is just a 10 year old boy, who at this time lives in Los Angeles with his foster parents. John's mother Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) however has been sent to an asylum after she tried to blow up a computer factory, and is monitored by Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) from the first film. Skynet in the future, still set on destroying the resistance, sends a new terminator back in time to kill the young John Connor, the terminator, a T-1000 model, is far more advanced than the T-800 model, which is composed of liquid metal and can imitate anyone it comes into contact with, as well morph its hands into stabbing weapons. The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) assumes the identity of a police officer, and starts to track down John, but at the same time, the future resistance send back an older T-800 model Terminator (Arnie) to protect John. Both terminators eventually track John to a mall, and they end both fighting each other, with John barely escaping on his motorbike. The T-1000 chases John in a truck along the freeway and before he is run over, the T-800 rescues him, and shoots out one of the truck's tyres, causing to crash and explode, but the T-1000 soon emerges unharmed, as it morphs back into its normal form.
The T-800 (or Terminator as I will call him from now on!) then explains to John that his mission is to protect him and that he was sent by the future John. The terminator tells John that the T-1000 in attempt to kill him, will wait for John to contact his mother, who he will assume her identity and kill her. John orders the Terminator to help him avoid Sarah from being killed, and they soon rescue her from the maximum security hospital, as she was in the process of trying to escape herself, but they are soon intercepted by the T-1000 who gives them chase, but they escape. John, Sarah and the Terminator then travel out south where Sarah meets with an old friend, who helped her during her resistance days. Sarah during their stay has a terrible nightmare about the nuclear holocaust of Judgment day and this pre-empts her to go after the man responsible for creating Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). With the knowledge the Terminator has given Sarah, she travels out to Dyson's home and attempts to assassinate him, on entering his house however, on the verge of pulling the trigger, with Dyson's family around him, she can't bring herself to do it. John and the Terminator soon arrive once they realise what Sarah is doing, and they tell Dyson about Judgment day and the future. Dyson agrees to go to Cyberdyne labs with them to destroy his research, however they are soon surrounded by police, and as the police breach the building, they shoot Dyson, who holds the detonator, wired to blow up his research, on his dying breath he lets it go, and blows the labs up.
John, Sarah and the terminator manage to escape the Cyberdyne building, but they are pursued by the T-1000 who chases them on the freeway, and they eventually arrive at a steel mill, where they face the T-1000 in the final final confrontation.....
After the surprise success of the original Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day had quite a bit to live up to, and for the most part it delivers on its promise in doing so. At its time it was easily the most expensive film ever made, budgeting at just under $100 million dollars, and CGI just in its infancy, it proved to be one of the most groundbreaking visual films in the last 20 years or so, which paved the way for computer imaged based films since. And Terminator 2 definitely is one heck of thrill ride as there are plenty of great action set pieces throughout the film, of which some of the highlights are the first scene where John confronts the two terminators at the mall, the scene where Sarah tries to escape the hospital and stumbles into the Terminator coming out the lift. And of course one of the biggest set pieces is the police seige at the Cyberdyne building, with the Terminator using a mini-gun to take out the police cars (with zero human casulaties).
And if there is one thing that has changed in the terminator universe in the 2nd film then that is the added morality of the T-800 terminator being re-programmed to protect John Connor, and John ordering it to not kill anyone, and all of a sudden the terminator has become a tamer version of its former self. But that's not to say the terminator still doesn't do a fair amount of damage in the film, as he certainly does that, with him throwing people through windows, stabbing them in the shoulders, or kneecapping them with a gun, as well as blowing shit up. The terminator also takes on a father figure for John in T2 where its mission is to protect John, comes like a paternal one, which helps bridge the gap of not having a dad in John's life, but in the end the Terminator admits to John that its something he could never do, in which is one of the film's rare poignant moments at the end when terminator gently consoles John, before he sacrifices himself by lowering himself into the lava pit in the steel mill.
As for the cast well things are pretty good here, with the new inclusion of Edward Furlong as John Connor, he does a fine job as the young cocky upstart, who despite his mischievious youth, realises the importance of his future existance and he also starts to take on a commanding position later in the film. Admittedly though at times Furlong can be a bit annoying when he is being cocky, and telling the Terminator how to talk and sound cool among people, "and if you really wanna shine them on, then its "hasta la vista, baby!", but overall he does a good job. But I can't quite digest him as being a 10 year old in the film, as he clearly looks a little too old to be 10 (Ed was in fact 13 at the time), and he comes across as being that bit more precocious than a 10 year old might be at that point. Robert Patrick as the new and improved T-1000 model terminator is perfect, as he plays the terminator almost like a cat, who is very cool and detached, and his ability to move in a smooth and stealth like manner, suits his ability to play the part perfectly in the film. I quite like the scene where he attacks John, Sarah and the terminator just as they escape the hospital in a police car, and he tries to swipe at them with his liquid metal knive shaped hands, and he get's shot off the car, and a piece of a metal lies on the boot of the car, which John throws off, and the T-1000 walks up to it, as the piece of liquid metal slides back into his shoe.
Linda Hamilton also gives a fine performance once again as Sarah Connor, who by now has become half crazed by her nightmares, and being imprisoned in a maximum security hospital, when she desparately wants to protect her son and try and end the nightmare that would become Skynet. And she is a far cry from the Sarah in the first film, as she has become a more hardened, physically stronger woman, Linda's most amusing moment in the film comes in her first scene where she is doing pull ups in her cell and Dr Silberman, who is giving a tour of the hospital to some guests, say good morning to her through the speaker com, and she says "Good morning, Dr Silberman, how's the knee?". Earl Boen also makes another appearance as Dr Silberman, and he provides a fair bit of amusement as the smarmy criminal psychologist, who does everything he can to keep Sarah down. My favourite moment with him are when he sees through Sarah's attempts to try agree that she no longer believes in the prophecy of judgment and the terminator never existed, and she tries to throttle him, and he gets away as the staff move in to restrain her he looks to the video camera recording the interview, and he says sarcastically "model citizen".
And finally we have of course Arnie as the terminator, and once again he is terrific at playing the cyborg, and his terminator in this film becomes a more humanised version of the cold blooded killer in the original. And there is plenty of room for humour in this film, where the terminator learns from John Connor how to adapt and ape human behaviour, as well as pick up phrases from him such as "hasta la vista baby" and "chill out, dickwad". His opening scene is great where he enters the biker's bar, naked, and he asks one of the bikers for their clothes and their motorcycle, and he ends up fighting off some of the bikers, and eventually takes the biker's clothes and bike, where he is confronted by the owner outside, who fires a warning shot from a shotgun, but the terminator cooly gets off his bike and slowly moves up to him and takes the shotgun and his shades from him and leaves. Another funny scene and one of my favs is where John asks him to swear to promise not to kill anyone, which he does, just as they arrive at the hospital gates, the terminator kneecaps the security guard at the gate, and he says afterwards to John "he'll live".
But no matter how entertaining T2 is it isn't without its flaws, one of the main ones for me is Linda Hamilton's at times cringeworthy narration, which at times is embarrassing to listen to. An example of which is the scene where Sarah watches John with the terminator who tries to make him learn human phrases and give a thumbs up, and she says "in an insane world, without a father, the terminator was the sanest choice". Also the her final line is probably the worst where she says "because if a terminator can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too!". Gawd almighty! The tone of T2 is also a bit more cheesy overall than the straight dramatic tone of the original, and it allows for some pretty corny moments, especially with John and his young friend with the mullet hairdo (despite the fact this film was made in 1991, they still hadn't quite yet got out of the 80s!) saying "cool, piece of cake!" etc etc. Some of the additional scenes in the special edition, while most of them are good, the one with Dyson's family is also a bit cheesy, as he is so obssessed with his work, his wife comes in and reminds him "why don't you make time for your other babies!" as his kids peep their heads round the corner and race into the room. The film also falls foul to that rather annoying tradition in action movies of its time where they keep referring to dialogue from the original film such as Arnie saying "stay here I'll be back!" or the T-1000 saying "Get out", which Arnie said in the first Terminator film when he tells a truck drive to beat it out the tanker.
Also from a narrative stand point the whole time travel thing, while in terms of the events being changed by the actions of the terminators and John and Sarah it all seems fairly plausable, it just makes me wonder, when they help make the change in the film, i.e. when Sarah is rescued in the first film, is the future John Connor ever in threat, ala Back to the Future style, in how Marty nearly vanishes when his dad meekly walks away from Lorraine on the dance floor on prom night??? Or have I just confused everybody???? Basically what I mean is, if the events that take place change the future, when these events happen in the present, how soon will they impact on the future, based in the future time, will it be instantenous???? Who knows??? But it does raise a continuity flaw within the series, as when at the end when the T-1000 is destroyed and the T-800 sacrifices itself by being lowered into the steel mill lava pit, doesn't this mean that Skynet will no longer exist? As if the only two surviving terminator cpus, are the one which came from the first terminator as well as the remains of its skeletal arm, which Dyson used for his research, and the one inside the T-800 in this film, once they are destroyed along with Dyson's research at Cyberdyne, does this not change the timeline and thereby Skynet will be pre-emptively aborted? Because if Terminator 3 is anything to go by then this certainly isn't the case, as it would appear the destruction of the two cpus and the cyborg arm, would only postpone judgment day, and the hellish future world will still remain the same. And this is where the whole logic of the timelines becomes blurred, and in that regard it was something that was done that bit better in Back to the Future!;-) But we can leave that for another time and another post.
But despite all that Terminator 2 is still a highly entertaining film, and visually for its time it still looks stunning, and the CGI effects of the T-1000 still remain impressive, especially in the scenes where it morphs into the floor, and rises up and takes the identity of a cop and kills him, and the scene where it moves through a metal gate in the hospital. Not to mention the various gunshot wounds it takes, and how it gets those silly squidgy white entry wounds on its body when it gets shot. And one of the best moments in the film comes from when the T-1000 takes the shape of John's foster mother, who is on the phone to John, and with the other hand we think she has shut a door as we hear a noise, but instead the camera moves to the left to reveal she has shaped her hand into a sharp knife and has stabbed John's foster dad through the mouth with it. Brad Fidel once again provides a fine score for the film, although its not probably quite as good as the first one, but it still remains more than good enough to keep the pace of the film going. James Cameron himself has done a great job with creating a credible sequel to the first film, and he keeps the action and suspense going really well throughout. And it has to be said that the special edition is the much better one over the original theatrical cut, which felt like an abbreviated version of the film, that was cut a bit too short, but the special edition works better as a whole.
So that's it for my T2 post, which remains an excellent sequel to the original, and James Cameron deserved much credit for bringing the terminator back to the big screen in such a big spectacular and entertaining way.
And that's it for part 2, part 3 up next.....
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