Review by Tim Robins
A cyborg from the future, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten-year-old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.
It be back! Terminator 2: Judgement Day has returned in a theatrical release of Studio Canal’s 2017, 4K and 4K 3D restorations, also being screened in 35mm and 70mm. “T2 was made for theatres”, enthused the film’s director, James Cameron.“Our lovingly-prepared 3D version is the absolute best way to see the film”.
Cameron should know. Back in the day, he oversaw the film’s conversion to 3D. Completists should also know up-front that this 65th anniversary release T2 is not the ‘Special Edition’, so does not contain 16 minutes of additional material. Neither is it the ‘Ultimate Cut’, which had two additional scenes. And thank goodness for that.
Cameron has always said that the theatrical version, first released in America on July 3rd 1991, was the best. But that doesn’t mean the director didn’t make some changes when he had the chance. For example, the rather obviously masked face of stunt man Peter Kent was digitally replaced with the face of star Arnold Schwarzenegger for a scene where the two Terminators chase each other along one of LA’s flood control channels.
Apart from a few effects upgrades, the original 137-min, 1991 cut IS the Director’s Cut. (For a full comparison of different editions and additions, you could do worse than this link).
T2 is a direct sequel to Terminator (1984). That film tells of a cyborg assassin (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back from the future by a genocidal AI called Skynet. The so-called ‘terminator’ is programmed to kill a young woman, Sarah Connor (Lynda Hamilton), who will one day give birth to a son who will, in turn, grow up to lead the human resistance. Connor learns of her role from a resistance fighter, Kyle Rees (Michael Bien), sent back by her son to protect her.
I loved Terminator. The film sounds and looks like the time in which it was made. After Arnie arrives on Earth much ‘action’ (violence) and a distinctly Eighties, synthesizer soundtrack ensues. Much like Robocop (1987), the film (1984) was also the embodiment of the British comic, 2000AD, without actually ripping off its stories (as Hardware, 1990, would do). Terminator was a shock from a future that was lying in wait to f*ck you in the face.
However, Terminator didn’t escape allegations of copyright infringement. Cameron, who allegedly dreamt-up the film in a fever dream during the release of Piranha II: The Spawning (1982). However, SF author Harlen Ellison felt Cameron had perchanced to dream of the 1964 Outer Limits’ episode, “Soldier”, adapted by the author from his own, 1957, short story, “Soldier From Tomorrow”. Cameron’s sleep produced a probably reasonable threat of lawsuits, especially after he said as much in interviews, quoted as acknowledging The Outer Limits as an inspiration in the October 1985 issue of Cinefantastiqe.
The case was settled out of court. Reportedly, Ellison was given in the region $65,000 by Orion Pictures, while subsequent releases of Terminator, such as the VHS and DVD, carried the credit “Acknowledgment to the Works of Harlan Ellison”. Cameron went on to describe the legal action as a “nuisance suit” and Ellison as a “parasite who can kiss my ass.”
T2 is set in 1995. Sarah Connor is now sectioned in Pescadero State Hospital while John (Edward Furlong), her 10-year-old, trouble-making son, is living with foster parents. Unknown to Sarah and John, Skynet has sent another cyborg assassin, the shape shifting T-1000 (played by Robert Patrik with a relentless, steely eyed insanity), back in time to terminate the life of John. However, back in the future, the adult John Connor has sent another Terminator to the past, a T-800, programmed to protect his younger self.
The T-800 suffers mission creep when the young John orders the machine to release his mother from the mental asylum. Once free, Sarah arms herself and sets out to assassinate Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), a computer developer for tech company Cyberdine Systems. Unknown to Dyson, his work on a Computer Processing Unit, taken from the remains of the first film’s Terminator, is destined to bring Skynet to life.
Will the odd-ball group of a computer scientist, a cyborg from the future, a 10-year-old and his battle ready mother successfully fight the future?“ I believe it’s safe to do spoilers after 35 years,” says director Cameron, “so SPOILER ALERT: the good guys win against the AI superintelligence! And maybe that’s a message of hope we all could use this summer.”
Maybe. But the real world has a different message. The news has recently reported warnings from an actual computer developer that AI may destroy us all in 10 years time. On the day of writing this review (10/09/2026), The Daily Star’s front page carried a photograph of Arnold Schwarzenegger in full Terminator garb pasted against a nuclear mushroom cloud and a Dalek yelling “Exterminate” (?) . Citing a “Boff’s” prediction “AI to kill us in 10 years”, also plays with Arnie’s well known catchphrasing, reading “Hasta la vista!” and ‘“We won’t be back”. Oo er.
The worldwide theatrical release of T2 has been rolled out from August 23rd 2026 (in America). Apparently this marks the date when Skynet decided to end all human life on Earth by provoking a nuclear war between Russia and America. The AI ensured Russia fired first, a scenario that tapped directly into the West’s real-world fear of the Evil Empire. We’re still afraid of Russia’s nuclear capability – Biden certainly was – but these days it’s a toss up whether Russia or America will use nukes first and whether they’ll still target each other or Iran, Ukraine and Greenland.
I saw T2 on its first release. Despite compelling performances from the central cast, particularly Hamilton, I didn’t like it. Seeing the film again reminded me why.
For a start, the film genre shifts the Terminator franchise from horror to action adventure. In doing so, it loses the first film’s appeal. That had the dark, dingy appeal of a straight to video exploitation pic. But T2 was, at the time, the most expensive film ever made. And it shows. It’s a glossy, effects, spectacle. Its estimated $94-$102 million budget was there on the screen. But this meant skewing the film to a wider, younger audience. T2 dialed back the violence. John orders Arnie’s Terminator not to kill people, so he just shoots his adversaries in the knee, “He didn’t die!”.
The T-1000 takes the brunt of the flack. Near the end, the machine is almost blown to pieces, its head almost sundered from its body. At times, the effects work of Stan Winston appears to channel some of the body horror achieved by Rob Bottin for John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).
I wasn’t terribly happy with the inclusion of a young boy. Edward Furlong didn’t make a convincing tech-punk. And his role was often to make the T-800 look silly. He makes it lift a leg on command, sort out problems of his own making but mostly mines the same kind of laughs we get from other characters trying and failing to fit in with humanity. Yes, I’m talking Star Trek’s Spock and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data, although the same source of humour can be found by sending any of the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise (s) back in time.
Of course, Cameron had introduced a child in Aliens (1986), his sequel to Alien. In the end, Newt (Rebecca Jorden) provided an effective, if somewhat cheap, scare achieved by menacing a young girl. Of course, it’s different for boys. Young John is a lippy, surly type, prone to saying his thoughts out loud. That said, Furlong plays off Schwarzenegger well, provoking the cyborg to give the film some of its most famous lines:
John Connor: You gotta listen to the way people talk. You don’t say “affirmative,” or some shit like that.
You say “no problemo.” And if someone comes on to you with an attitude you say “eat me.” And if you want to shine them on it’s “hasta la vista, baby.”
The Terminator: Hasta la vista, baby.
John Connor: Yeah but later, dickwad. And if someone gets upset you say, “chill out”! Or you can do combinations.
The Terminator: Chill out, dickwad.
John Connor: Great! See, you’re getting it!
The Terminator: No problemo.
It is John who facilitates The Terminator’s story arc. By the end of the film, they have developed a heartfelt story arc. The moment when John realises that The Terminator has become determined to sacrifice itself to ensure a better future is extraordinarily powerful. John is reduced to tears. The script (by Cameron and William Wisher) resonates with reality – a father leaving home or on their deathbed. Sometimes, we have no choice but to say goodbye forever to someone we love.
I saw T2 3D with two friends half my age. They had never seen the film in the cinema before, but, over the decades since its original release, they have watched it again and again on television and DVD. After the end credits rolled, I joined them in the lobby. I noticed they look flush faced and drained. I asked, “Are you OK?” They told me that they’d been crying.
Odeon are currently running a marketing campaign claiming that seeing a film on your own is even better than seeing it with your mates (!). But thanks to my mates, I saw T2 through different eyes. I recognised it not only as an action adventure but as a powerful piece of storytelling. After talking about what the film meant to them, I knew why they cried. And it wasn’t mere tears in the rain.
Tim Robins
Terminator 2: Judgement Day is in select cinemas now | Cineworld | Odeon | Vue
Head downthetubes for…
• Screenrant: James Cameron’s Terminator Script Lawsuit & Controversy Explained
• Harlan Ellison: Official Site
• Leonard Maltin: Remembering Harlan Ellison
• Terminator Salvation: Final Battle (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Back in 2013 Dark Horse launched Terminator Salvation: Final Battle, a 12-issue series by Michael Straczynski and Pete Wood, collected in two volumes
In 2029, John Connor and the resistance prepare for the final assault on Skynet, but the malicious computer intelligence has laid the seeds in 2003 for its counterattack! Integrating the mind of a murderous psychopath, Skynet and its Terminators develop a new creativity in killing, the last tool they need to crush humanity once and for all! How can Connor hope to survive when the machines are now as ferocious as man?
- About the Author
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
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