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Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(****)
The 1984 Cameron thriller "Terminator" has long been hailed as a spectacular film, on numerous top ten lists of the year. I agree, it was a fine film. A sequel was inevitable, and in 1991 James Cameron released Terminator 2. He not only reached the bar set by Terminator; he surpassed it by leagues. The point of the original Terminator was twofold. First of all, it was a chase movie. The emotionless cyborg comes after the young woman, she runs away. She keeps running until she's finally cornered. More important is the second story. It was a localized love story. Two people are drawn together because of unforeseen circumstances, and they bond forever.
Terminator 2 is not about this. It begins like Terminator, as a chase film. But it quickly turns around and becomes a thought-provoking mission of the meaning of "humanity".
In 1984, Cyberdyne systems sent a terminator to kill Sarah Connor to stop her unborn son from being born and leading the human resistance against the machines. It failed, and now it's been ten years. John Connor (Furlong) has been born, and his mother Sarah (Hamilton) is locked in a mental institution. And here is where it all starts again. Like before, a terminator is sent after John. And again, a protector is sent to help out. This time, the protector is a reprogrammed terminator.
I really hate to give this away. But I suppose anyone who watches television knows that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the "good" terminator and Robert Patrick is the "bad" T-1000. However, when you watch the movie it's obvious that you're not supposed to know this until the movie has developed a bit. Patrick has the sleek looks of Michael Biehn, who was Sarah's protector in Terminator, and it's difficult to figure out who the bad guy is. Hell, Arnold is running around with a shotgun looking for the kid, and Robert Patrick is dressed as a cop looking for him.
But that's my pet peeve. Enough of that. Terminator 2 is a film existing on two time lines. Sure, it doesn't quite make sense that Cyberdyne would bother sending a Terminator after John Connor. After all, if Connor has already won, that would mean that the terminators both failed, wouldn't it? Fortunately, the movie ignores such little details and concentrates on the present.
It's time to get into what really makes Terminator 2 a great movie. This is one of the few sequels that I have seen that not only equals the original, but also in some ways surpasses it. The reason for this is that it develops into much more than a chase film. The T-800 comes to the present with a single mission: protect John Connor. However, from his dealings with Connor he learns the meaning of humanity. To paraphrase the film, he learns why humans cry. That's the important part. Perhaps I'm overanalyzing here, but I see a lot of really great things to Terminator 2.
I don't mean to imply that it's the smartest script ever written. It works because it works on an emotional level. Cameron's best work exists on this level. Aliens works because it relies on that famous fear of the bogeyman, and The Abyss works because of its sense of awe towards the unknown.
Some day, when you're watching this movie again, I recommend paying close attention to the music and how it works on the characters. Listen for the Terminator theme, in the beginning it comes up for Schwarzenegger and Patrick. However, as the film progresses it becomes a theme for Sarah Connor too. Why is this? Sarah begins the film emotionally closed; her job is to make John ready to save humanity. Through it all she forgot that he's still a scared little boy who needs his mother. And pay attention when she goes to kill Miles Dyson. All traces of humanity have gone away.
For that matter, pay attention to the visual motif of the sunglasses. In the first Terminator, Schwarzenegger starts off mimicking humans, and later puts on the glasses. Covering his eyes gives him an insect look, shielding him from any association with humans. In T2 the opposite is true. He starts out wearing them, but as he spends time with John he loses his cyborg feel, and when he loses the glasses he becomes more human than many humans.
I dunno, maybe I'm wrong. But it feels so right. Terminator 2 simply works.