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RETROSPECTIVE
Terminator 2:
Judgment Day
Starring: Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl
Boen
Directed by: James Cameron
Produced by: Stephanie Austin,
James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, Mario Kassar, B.J. Rack
Written by: James Cameron, William Wisher
Distributed By: TriStar Pictures |
In this action
packed thriller, Arnold Schwarzenegger continues the epic of the
machines. But rather than playing the villainous robot sent back to
kill John Connor’s mother (played by Linda Hamilton), he is sent back to
protect John (Edward Furlong) himself. The machines, or robots, that
are sent back to kill either Connor’s mother or Connor himself are from
the future, 2026 to be exact.
The story line
is as follows: in the late nineties, the world finally creates
artificial intelligence. A man named Miles Dyson, working for the
Cyberdyne Systems Company primarily creates the machines. As the
technology of the machines becomes more advanced, they are given more
and more responsibility and power in government, military equipment, and
decision-making. Eventually, the machines actually are given complete
control of our nuclear weapons. The humans begin to see that the
machines’ power is getting to be overwhelming, but for the time being,
they do nothing. The machines continue to gain power, and the humans
see that they can’t allow them to continue. They try to put a stop to
it and stop the machines from becoming too powerful. But it has become
too late already. The machines retaliate. They launch our nuclear
warheads against their targets in Russia. This, as the machines
planned, triggers the Russians to launch their missiles against the
United States. After that, there is a continuing war between the humans
and the machines.
This is where
the movie starts to tie in to this story. The leader of the Human
Resistance is John Connor. The technology has become very advanced, and
they now have time portals. The machines have sent two warriors back to
try to kill either John Connor or his mother before Connor is born.
Likewise, the humans have been able to send two warriors back to protect
him. The first sent back was a human, who protected John’s mother—the
story of the first movie. Ironically, in the first Terminator,
Schwarzenegger plays the robot sent back to kill John’s mother. In the
second film, Arnold plays the robot sent to protect John.
However, in both
films, the protector of John is outmatched technologically by the
assassin. In the first movie, the assassin is a machine and the
protector is a human. In the second, both are machines, but the
assassin is liquid metal, and bullets may have an immediate effect on
him, but no long-term effect. So he recovers quite quickly whenever he
is shot. He can also change what he looks like. Once he comes in
contact with any person, he can change himself to look exactly like
them. He can also turn his body parts into basic stabbing and slamming
weapons. However, as is explained in the movie, he can not form any
complex devices like bombs or guns, nothing with moving parts. Either
way, the protector is highly outmatched by the assassin. But, in both
films, despite the gross mismatch between the protector and the
assassin, the protector always ends up winning, too bad the Red Sox
can’t do that against the Yankees.
However, there
is a big difference between the first and second films, and it’s not the
side Schwarzenegger is on. In the first, when the assassin is finally
destroyed, the Cyberdyne Systems Company uses the remaining pieces of
the robot, an arm and the CPU from his head, to create the artificial
intelligence. It’s really a brain-twister, because if the company
needed the chip and arm to create the intelligence in the first place,
then where did the original arm and chip come from? It’s still a great
film, though.
In the first
one, the machines are started and in the second, they are stopped. They
are stopped because John’s mother, along with the Terminator and John
himself go to Dyson’s house to first try to kill him. Then, they
explain what was going to happen. Dyson decides to aid in the
destruction of all the material that would enable the humans to create
the robots. Dyson takes them to the Cyberdyne Building and they
essentially blow up the entire building in order to destroy all
possibility of the robots. However, they still have the arm and chip to
destroy and the evil terminator is on their backs now, so they flee.
They get to a steel plant and that is the location of the final
showdown.
The protector
seems to be being beat because the two meet and Arnold is getting
waxed. Finally, he is disabled but having a stake driven through his
body and into the grating of the catwalk. Then the assassin goes out to
look for John and his mother. It seems that the evil terminator will
end up winning, but Schwarzenegger is so determined, he finds
alternative power and is able to bring himself back into commission. He
then surprises the assassin and shoots him with a grenade launcher he
had been using at the building. The evil terminator is so blown apart
that he loses his balance and falls to his doom into a big vat of liquid
steel. That is also where John throws the arm and chip. They believe
it is finally over, but Schwarzenegger explains that he must also be
destroyed because there is one more chip, in his head. He is then
lowered into the molten steel. And there ends the threat of the
machines.
The special
effects in this film were incredible for the time and still are quite
amazing. The creation of the liquid steel monster and the explosions
that are there add a lot to this classic movie. But what made it a
great movie was the fact that it had a good story, with wonderful
special effects, too. It was considered great when it was first
released, and has now become a classic, and will continue to develop
into our culture as so many great movies in the past have.
-Steven Cipriano, Bucket Reviews
