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Terminator 2: judgment day, common sense media reviewers.

Thrilling sci-fi action sequel has lots of violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The idea of creating one's own future and fate is

John Connor teaches the Terminator sent to keep hi

Frequent and unrelenting violence. Postapocalyptic

Brief scene depicting a guard licking the face of

Frequent profanity: "f--k" and variations, "ass,"

A Pepsi can clearly shown.

Cigarette smoking. Tequila drinking.

Parents need to know that Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- the first sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger's sci-fi action hit The Terminator -- is extremely violent and features disturbing postapocalyptic imagery, all of which are likely to be more intense in the movie's 3D version. Characters are shot and…

Positive Messages

The idea of creating one's own future and fate is frequently discussed. This gives characters the hope and strength to try to change the destiny of the planet despite what they know of the future.

Positive Role Models

John Connor teaches the Terminator sent to keep him safe not to kill. He also explains why people cry and have feelings.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent and unrelenting violence. Postapocalyptic sci-fi violence. Vehicle chases. Gun and artillery fire. Explosions. Characters killed by swords through the head. Blood. Characters shot at in their homes by machine guns. Broken mop handle to the skull. In a recurring nightmare, adults and children laughing and enjoying the rides on a playground burn alive from nuclear war. In the parking lot of a desert diner, two young boys are shown chasing each other with what look like real guns, pretending to shoot at each other.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief scene depicting a guard licking the face of a restrained mental patient. Naked male buttocks when the Terminators make their first appearances.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent profanity: "f--k" and variations, "ass," "dips--t," "d--kwad."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Terminator 2: Judgment Day -- the first sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger 's sci-fi action hit The Terminator -- is extremely violent and features disturbing postapocalyptic imagery, all of which are likely to be more intense in the movie's 3D version. Characters are shot and killed, and blood is shown. There's lots of swearing, including "f--k" and its variations. Viewers will see naked bottoms when the Terminators make their first appearances. But the movie does a surprisingly good job of addressing the issue of collateral damage, which is often glazed over in big action films. The point is made by multiple characters, most importantly young John Connor, that killing bystanders must be avoided at all costs, even though the fate of the world may hang in the balance. In this way this movie has more of a conscience than many other films in its genre. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (41)
• Kids say (194)

Based on 41 parent reviews

THE BEST MOVIE EVER

I love all terminator movies, what's the story.

Continuing the story of the first film , TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY finds the Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger , sent back in time from the future again but this time switching sides to become the protector of the human race's future hope, John Connor ( Edward Furlong ). Meanwhile, Connor's mother Sarah ( Linda Hamilton ), who tries to spread the knowledge of an apocalyptic future that she acquired in the first film, is deemed insane and confined to an institution. The action is almost nonstop, with shopping-mall shoot-outs, truck/motorcycle chases, and various other action set pieces saturating the film.

Is It Any Good?

This is the film that made CGI effects seem palatable and, as such, can be considered a promulgator of all subsequent big-budget action effects movies. Its greatest technical achievement is the shape-shifting T1000 character who pursues John Connor and makes it necessary for the Terminator to act as protector. The film continually ratchets up the tension as the T1000 comes closer and closer to destroying young John, making Terminator 2 a thoroughly exciting thrill ride.

Though he plays the character with the same steely stoicism as in the original, Schwarzenegger obviously relishes the chance to be the "good guy" in this one, and the script provides him with plenty of silly one-liners to provide the otherwise dark film with some levity. Linda Hamilton turns in a frantic performance as a desperate mother locked away because everyone thinks she's insane.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the development of such amoral killing machines as the Terminators. What would the ramifications of the existence of such machines be?

What comments does this movie make about fate, destiny, and the future? Do you agree or disagree?

Why do you think violence is such a prominent feature in blockbuster action movies? Would anything have been lost from the story with half as much violence? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 3, 1991
• On DVD or streaming : October 22, 1997
• Cast : Arnold Schwarzenegger , Edward Furlong , Linda Hamilton
• Director : James Cameron
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Columbia Tristar
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Cars and Trucks , Adventures , Robots
• Run time : 147 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong sci-fi action and violence, and for language
• Last updated : February 23, 2024

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day : EW review

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most popular movie star in the world today — but when The Terminator came out in 1984, his career was in a state of impending fizzle. The reason seemed obvious: How many times could you watch this guy? With his steely Teutonic monotone and his, well, selective range of facial expressions (he had exactly two: the blank stare and the angry glower), he was like some grimly idealized worker off a Soviet propaganda poster from the ’30s. The Terminator changed all that. By casting Arnold the robot actor as a futuristic killing machine, this unbelievably canny thriller unshackled Schwarzenegger’s appeal in two ways: It merged his hulking gladiatorial presence with the gaudy, bloody nihilism of contemporary action flicks, effectively turning him into a post-punk Dirty Harry; and, more than that (for this was the movie’s genius), it transformed his lugubrious one-dimensionality into a comic attribute.

A lot has changed since then. Arnold, in his stardom, has become likable — an enforcer with charm, an outsize hero who proved he could step lightly in comedies like Twins and Kindergarten Cop . And so, in the enjoyably overwrought Terminator 2: Judgment Day , director-cowriter James Cameron pulls a smart switch: This time, Arnold’s terminator isn’t a menacing villain but a good guy, a father protector who is sent from the future to guard the son of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). The first movie, you may recall, ended with Sarah becoming pregnant. Her son, now a punky preteen (Edward Furlong), is destined to become the rebel leader in the coming war against the machines. Now another terminator has been dispatched to alter history by killing him.

This new terminator (Robert Patrick) is boyishly handsome but with pursed lips and cold, dead eyes. He suggests a stoic, emaciated James Dean — he’s like Dean as a troop leader of the Hitler Youth. For most of his screen time he skulks around in a policeman’s uniform, pursuing his prey as relentlessly as Arnold did in the first picture. This time, though, Cameron adds a special-effects coup. Where Arnold has a metal skeleton under his synthetic skin, the evil terminator, one of the advanced T-1000 series, is made entirely of liquid metal. He’s a kind of mutating mercury globule who can bleed through bars, pour through windows, and take on the physical characteristics of any object he touches, from a person to a floor. His arms instantly convert into three-foot-long stilettos, and when he’s shot in the head, his exploded ”flesh” simply welds itself back together. The transformation effects are spectacular, in part because there’s real magic to them, a sense of technological wonder. By the end of the movie, we feel that this shape-shifting terminator, this sinister mass of chameleonic metal, has an identity all its own.

I wish I could say the rest of the movie was as good. It’s a solid thriller — witty at times, and packed with extravagantly violent sequences in which helicopters, diesel trucks, and entire buildings are blown up with delirious gusto. Cameron, director of the first Terminator , Aliens , and the underrated deep-sea epic The Abyss , has become our reigning master of heavy-metal action. Yet he has obviously labored to make Terminator 2 a kick-ass fantasy with soul, a pop vision that taps into apocalyptic fears and yearnings. And compared to such visionary spectacles as RoboCop or the Mad Max films, it’s really little more than a $90 million B movie.

The first hour has a genuine emotional pull. Sarah has been confined to a mental institution because she can’t stop babbling about terminators and the nuclear holocaust she knows will occur in 1997, when the automatic defense system set up by the United States — it’s called Skynet — takes on a life of its own. Hamilton brings these scenes a raw anguish, especially when she stares down the weasely Dr. Silberman (Earl Boen), whose bureaucratic manner is a form of petty sadism.

But once she escapes and hooks up with her son and Arnold, the movie’s narrative power leaks away. Cameron introduces the fantastically hokey idea that world-destroying computer technology could all be the creation of one relatively innocent scientist (Joe Morton). He also makes the mistake of dropping the evil terminator out of the picture for nearly an hour, while Sarah has elegiac nuclear nightmares in the desert. For a while, the movie loses its pace, its kinetic thrust — even if it is fun to watch Arnold’s terminator get humanized (like a hulking Mr. Spock) by learning such catchphrases as ” Hasta la vista , baby!”

The movie becomes a glorified countdown to the big blowout between the terminators. When it’s finally King Kong vs. Godzilla time, Cameron delivers the goods. The movie preserves the underlying joke of the original Terminator — that these murderous robots aren’t at all malevolent in intent. They’re just maximally efficient , programmed to carry out a mission at any cost. And so if cars and phone booths have to get smashed, and innocent bystanders are blown away — well, that’s just so much meaningless detritus.

This reckless indifference to human life is, of course, intrinsic to the appeal of Terminator 2 . The movie is a great big feast of wreckage. But that’s also what makes it a bit numbing. At one point, Sarah’s son, whom Arnold is programmed to obey, forces him to pledge that he won’t kill anyone. Arnold takes the pledge — and then, in order to stay true to it, he keeps shooting people in the kneecaps and smashing them against walls not quite forcefully enough to kill them. I kept wondering if Arnold’s pledge was such a good idea. From the looks of it, these people may live, but they’ll all end up in wheelchairs. Terminator 2 is a state-of-the-art action movie, all right: It gets you thinking that the most reasonable thing might just have been to blow everyone away. B+

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Film Review: ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’

By Variety Staff

Variety Staff

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As with Aliens, director James Cameron has again taken a first-rate science fiction film and crafted a sequel that’s in some ways more impressive — expanding on the original rather than merely remaking it. This time he’s managed the trick by bringing two cyborgs back from the future into the sort-of present (the math doesn’t quite work out) to respectively menace and defend the juvenile John Connor (Edward Furlong) – leader of the human resistance against machines that rule the war devastated world of 2029.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is more comfortable and assured here than the first time around, reprising a role so perfectly suited to the voice and physique that have established him as a larger-than-life film persona.

The story finds Connor living with foster parents, his mother Sarah ( Linda Hamilton ) having been captured and committed to an asylum for insisting on the veracity of events depicted in the first film. The machines who rule the future dispatch a new cyborg to slay him while the human resistance sends its own reprogrammed Terminator back – this one bearing a remarkable resemblance to the evil one that appeared in 1984.

The film’s great innovation involves the second cyborg: an advanced model composed of a liquid metal alloy that can metamorphose into the shape of any person it contacts and sprout metal appendages to skewer its victims.

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Script by Cameron and William Wisher at times gets lost amid all the carnage. Hamilton’s heavy-handed narration also is at times unintentionally amusing, though through her Cameron again offers the sci-fi crowd a fiercely heroic female lead, albeit one who looks like she’s been going to Madonna’s physical trainer.

If the reported $100 million budget is a study in excess, at least a lot of it ended up on the screen.

• Production: Carolco/Pacific Western. Director James Cameron; Producer James Cameron; Screenplay James Cameron, William Wisher; Camera Adam Greenberg; Editor Conrad Buff, Mark Goldblatt, Richard A. Harris; Music Brad Fiedel; Art Director Joseph Nemec III
• Crew: (Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1991. Running time: 136 MIN.
• With: Arnold Schwarzenegger Linda Hamilton Edward Furlong Robert Patrick Earl Boen Joe Morton

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day Review

16 Aug 1991

136 minutes

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Tipping the scales at a reputed $100 million dollars, this is allegedly the most expensive movie ever made. The original 1984 film cost one-twelfth as much, but obviously the nice people at Carolco did their sums right because this sequel hauled in more than the gross of the first picture, in its first two days of release in America.

With James Cameron needing to re-establish himself commercially after the semi-flop of The Abyss, and Big Arnie revisiting the role that still stands as his best, there was obviously a lot of pressure on this one to deliver the goods, and it certainly does. No-one can walk out of this and say they didn't see the whole hundred mil up there on the screen in exploding vehicles, wrecked buildings, monster effects and sheer sweaty action.

It opens with an intriguing re-run of the first movie's premise as a gigantic cyborg (Schwarzenegger) and a slimline ordinary joe (Patrick) are zapped back from the future, this time to seek out ten-year-old John Connor (Edward Furlong), the son of the heroine (Hamilton) of The Terminator, and struggle over his life, with the balance of a future that may or not be ruined by a cataclysmic war between man and machines up for grabs in the titanic struggle. However, the twist is that Patrick, a fresh-faced type who impersonates a cop, is the deadly mechanical baddie, and Arnie, in biker leathers and mean shades, has been reprogrammed to protect the brat and his mom and, in between the extensive carnage, gets to reveal that biomechanical killing machines from the future can have their sensitive sides.

While the rewriting of Arnie's persona smacks of commercial cop-out, a sop to the Kindergarten Cop audience, this strategy really pays off when it comes to Patrick's villain, who is constructed from a liquid metal that can shape itself into anything it wants and also pull itself back together if blasted apart. A high-tech version of the Blob, utilising some of the most astonishing and surreal effects ever filmed, Patrick's T-1000 stands as one of the great monsters of the cinema. Like all Cameron movies, this shuffles its character stuff out of the way in the first two-thirds, and then delivers a succession of untoppable climaxes that are routinely out-awesomed by the next set-piece. Because it is a sequel, it's less satisfying than the more idea-driven original, but this is still top-flight kick-ass entertainment, and firepower fans will be in Heaven when Arnie does his shotgun twirl.

Buy now on Amazon.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• A cyborg, 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.
• Over ten years have passed since the first machine called The Terminator tried to kill Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John. The man who will become the future leader of the human resistance against the Machines is now a healthy young boy. However, another Terminator, called the T-1000, is sent back through time by the supercomputer Skynet. This new Terminator is more advanced and more powerful than its predecessor and its mission is to kill John Connor when he's still a child. However, Sarah and John do not have to face the threat of the T-1000 alone. Another Terminator (identical to the same model that tried and failed to kill Sarah Connor in 1984) is also sent back through time to protect them. Now, the battle for tomorrow has begun. — Eric ggg
• In 1995, one long decade after the Terminator's failed assassination mission in The Terminator (1984) , a now-ten-year-old John Connor finds himself in foster care, after the imprisonment of his mother, Sarah, at a mental institution. To prevent John from changing the course of history and becoming the leader of the human Resistance Army, the self-aware computer system, Skynet, sends another cybernetic assassin; this time, a nearly indestructible, shape-shifting killer. Now, against the backdrop of an imminent nuclear Armageddon, two unstoppable cyborgs--the antiquated but lethal, T-800, and the far superior, liquid-metal model, T-1000--are after the same vulnerable target. Can Sarah and John avert the coming Judgment Day? — Nick Riganas
• Nearly 10 years have passed since Sarah Connor was targeted for termination by a cyborg from the future. Now her son, John, the future leader of the resistance, is the target for a newer, more deadly terminator. Once again, the resistance has managed to send a protector back to attempt to save John and his mother Sarah. — Colin Tinto <[email protected]>
• Skynet, the 21st century computer waging a losing war on humans sends a second terminator back in time to destroy the leader of the human resistance while he is still a boy. His mother is the only one who knows of the existence of the Terminators, human-like robots that exist only to kill and are nearly indestructible, and Sarah, the boy's mother is currently in a state mental hospital because of her 'delusions'. — John Vogel <[email protected]>
• LA in 2029 AD. The world has become a wasteland of wrecked cars, destroyed buildings. The voice of Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) starts narrating: "3 billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They only lived to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines." A battle is starting between human guerrilla troops and a technically far superior robotic army. A man is saluted by his soldiers as he crosses a destroyed hallway and starts to inspect the battlefield from a safe distance. Sarahs voice-over: "Skynet, the computer that controlled the machines, sent two terminators back through time; their mission: to destroy the leader of the human resistance: John Connor, my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me in the year 1984, before John was born. It failed. The second was set to strike at John himself when he was just a child." "As before, the Resistance was able to send a lone warrior as a protector for John. Flashback to present day. A man (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is transported to the past. It is a Terminator. In a different part of town, a police officer calls in a strange electrical disturbance to Headquarters. A strange round hole burned into a fence, he is approached from behind by another naked man (Robert Patrick), slenderer than Terminator, who instantly kills him. The man picks up the cop's gun, enters the police car fully clothed, and accesses the cars computer to find the address of John Connor. John Connor lives with his foster parents Todd and Janelle Voight and leaves on his bike with his friend Tim (Danny Cooksey). Sarah is in Percadero State Hospital as nobody believes her narration of the first terminator movie. John tells Tim that Sarah is a complete psycho, because she got arrested for trying to blow up a computer factory. Sarah has visions of Reece telling him that John is in danger & she needs to save him. Sarah tries to reason with the staff doctor to let her see her son, but he refuses. Meanwhile, in a computer lab elsewhere, a computer developer called Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) is asked permission to conduct a test with a fragment of a computer chip, and a metal robot arm that was clearly once attached to a Terminator. The Terminator identifies John passing through a Galleria & goes after him. The fake cop is there as well. The cop finds John & is about to attack when Terminator opens fire on the fake cop with his shot gun. The gaping holes in the fake cop get filled quickly & he is back on his feet. John escapes on his back into a canal & the fake cop follows in a truck. Terminator rides a bike & jumps in front of the truck & picks up John before he is crushed by the truck. Then Terminator blows the truck tire, causing it to blow up in flames after crashing into a column. But the fake cop walks from it unharmed. John asks the Terminator to pull over the bike. His rescuer confirms it is a Terminator. John realizes that the Terminator has not come to kill him. Terminator explains that John himself reprogrammed it 35 years in the future to be his protector in the present. Terminator explains that the other guy is a T-1000: an advanced liquid metal. They leave city to escape the T-1000. John insists on calling the house, but Terminator fakes his voice & asks a trick question. Upon receiving the wrong answer, he knows it's the T-1000 which has killed John's foster parents. Terminator explains to John that the T-1000 can imitate everything of equal size that it has sampled previously by physical contact. It can't become a bomb or other complex machines with chemicals and moving parts, but it can form knives and stabbing weapons. At the hospital a policeman shows Sarah photos of the Terminator & tells her that John is missing. John orders Terminator to help him rescue Sarah. Terminator is mission bound to obey John's orders & has to comply even though he thinks rescuing Sarah will be dangerous as T-1000 is likely to be there. Terminator & T-1000 reach the hospital at the same time. At first Sarah thinks Terminator is there to kill her & John, just like in the first movie. But then she finds T-1000 coming behind her & Terminator attacking him. John assures Sarah that Terminator is there to help them & this time it's the T-1000 that's the threat. Terminator gets into a fight with T-1000 but is no match for its advanced weaponry. Sarah, Terminator & John escape in a a car. Sarah admonishes John for coming to the hospital to rescue her as he is way too important for that. Sarah asks Terminator about who is responsible for building Skynet. Terminator tells her that it is Miles Bennett Dyson, a high- ranking employee at Cyberdyne Systems, who will invent a new microprocessor that will revolutionize the entire military computer system. Cyberdyne computers will completely replace human functions and decisions in strategic defense systems as the Skynet program goes on-line on August 4th, 1997. It learns at such a fast rate that it becomes self-aware on August 29th. As the humans try to shut it down, Skynet starts a nuclear strike that plunges Earths nations into a nuclear war. After an overnight stop, John & terminator find Sarah gone & know that she is after Dyson. Sarah enters the Dyson household & shoot him in the arm. But she can't bring herself to kill him in front of his wife & kids. Terminator arrives with John & tells Dyson that he is a machine sent from the future. Terminator convinces Dyson to destroy the chip prototype & the mechanical arm (from the previous terminator) in his lab. That is the only way to stop the development of Skynet. Terminator reaches Cyberdyne systems HQ with Dyson, Sarah & John & blows up a way inside. This triggers an alarm that T-1000 reads on his police scanner. The terminator keeps the police at bay as Dyson & Sarah work their way inside the vault to reach the chip & the metal arm. The SWAT team surrounds the building & starts shooting which fatally wounds Dyson. Dyson offers to hold the SWAT team by holding on to a detonator that will destroy the lab. He gives Sarah, John & Terminator few precious moments to escape before he dies & the detonator sets off the explosives. The T-1000 arrives & sees the trio escape. He takes hold of a police chopper & pursues. The T-1000 crashes the helicopter at the back of the escape van & the helicopter is destroyed, but the van escapes without much damage. The T-1000 then takes hold of a truck & resumes his pursuit. The trio move into a steel factory & the truck crashes releasing its cargo of Liquid Nitrogen. This freezes the T-1000 & Terminator destroys it with his shot gun. But as the effect dissipates, the broken crystals melt, combine together & the T-1000 reappears in his fake cop format. The trio move further inside the steel mill to avoid the T-100. The Terminator & T-1000 engage in a deadly fight in which the T-1000 eliminates the Terminator by driving a steel rod through its "spine". The red light of the terminator goes out. As the T-1000 goes after Sarah & John, the Terminator revives itself by finding an alternate power route. He gets up & follows the T-1000. As the T-1000 attacks John & Sarah, the Terminator arrives from behind & shoots T-1000 several times with his shot gun & making him fall over into a hot tub containing molten iron. The T-1000 dissolves & dissipates. John throws the metal arm and the chip in the Iron molting pot as well. Terminator reminds them that there is still one more chip which must be destroyed; it points at its skull. It takes the pulley & step into the iron molten mix over the screams of John who wants Terminator to be there for him. The Terminator is dissolved & dissipated & the red light of his eyes goes out.

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TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY

What You Need To Know:

(LLL, VVV, S, Ab) 40 or more obscenities & roughly 15 profanities; extreme, graphic violence; sexual innuendo; and, anti-biblical philosophy.

More Detail:

True to his words, “I’ll be back,” in the 1984 TERMINATOR original, Arnold Schwarzenegger does just that in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY. Understandably so, since TERMINATOR 2, estimated at a cost of $85 to 100 million dollars (biggest budget tally ever–much of which went to Arnold), is this summer’s most hotly anticipated sequel.

The title refers to an August 29, 1997, nuclear holocaust that wipes out over 3 billion people. Schwarzenegger’s cyborg, back from the shop and reconstituted as a good guy, makes for an effective killing machine in his new mission of protecting teenage future hero John Connor (born of the Connor-Reese liaison in 1984 TERMINATOR) from alien forces.

Meanwhile, Connor’s mother, Sarah, languishes at Pescadero State Hospital for the mentally insane in California. Seems she keeps talking about “Terminators” and the world being destroyed in a nuclear holocaust on August 29, 1997. Of course, no one believes her, so she is kept heavily sedated in solitary confinement.

The scene shifts to John and his foster parents’ house where John’s foster father tells him to do some chores. Ignoring him, a surly and rebellious John takes off with a friend on his cycle. So much for the Proverb “Children obey your parents” (Ephesians 6:1).

Shortly, a clean-cut policeman comes to the house and asks for John but will not say why he wants him. When he locates John a little later, the chase is on, since he is the evil Terminator who wants to kill John. He is also Schwarzenegger’s deadly antagonist. Connor, according to TERMINATOR I, is destined to lead the humans against the machines in the mother of all battles on August 29, 1997.

Fortunately, for John, Schwarzenegger comes to his rescue. Not wanting to divulge the film’s outcome, suffice it to say that a chase makes up the rest of the film with the evil Terminator assuming various shapes, ruthlessly killing any human in his way, and becoming nearly impossible to destroy.

The sci-fi effects in TERMINATOR 2 are dazzling and remarkable. Not only are the pyrotechnics impressive in certain scenes with huge blazing fires and thick, billowing smoke, but the evil Terminator’s “oozing” in and out of various materials, such as flooring, as he first melds with the substance, then resumes his own silvery robotic shape, takes one’s breath away.

Although TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, for Sci-fi buffs, is probably the ultimate in its genre, it also has a down side. The distorted view of women and mothers as depicted by Connor is deplorable. She curses like a sailor and physically attacks everyone in her way (after escaping from the hospital). The mother-son relationship, understandably, turns out to be strange. How does a child relate to a violent, foul-mouthed mother? The example set for young people in this regard is unfortunate.

The film also contains considerable violence which limits its audience. One of the questions that needs to be asked in light of film’s violence and killing (the Terminator, for example, skewers people with his sword-like arms): Can young people separate the fantastical, unreal elements (such as the Terminator being repeatedly shot or “killed” in another way but always emerging seemingly unscathed) from the truth of our own mortality? Extensive research emphatically says, “No,” which is especially disturbing when we look at the effects of such violent role-modeling on our youth and consider that over 130,000 teenagers carry a gun to school every day in the United States.

The so-called superhumans in so many movies today becomes quite disturbing when one tries to separate the real from the unreal. To the child or young person unable to make the distinction, the results could prove disastrous as he attempts to leap off buildings, play with fire, or even shoot at a friend, thinking the bullets will not harm him.

Near film’s end, Sarah Connor claims to have learned from a machine not to fear the future. As Christians, however, we don’t have to fear the future because we know the God who holds the future. Thus, the Lord says in Revelation, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (21:6). We can trust Him with whatever the future holds instead of being anxious and worried about it like Sarah in this film.

Chances are you will want to skip TERMINATOR 2 (despite the special effects). In addition to the earlier problems, the pace slows to the point of boredom, the message becomes garbled and Schwarzenegger’s role switch is, finally, quite unbelievable. Despite the criticism, however, TERMINATOR 3 is undoubtedly in the works and will surface in the near future (surely before August 29, 1997!).

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In “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” the future once again comes hunting to kill John Connor . Though the world after the nuclear holocaust of 1997 is ruled by machines, a single man can still make a difference - and that man is Connor, who is a youngster as the movie opens but is destined to grow up into the leader of the human resistance movement against the cyborgs.

You will recall from the original “The Terminator” (1984), or perhaps you will not, that the first Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger , was sent back from the future to kill Connor’s mother ( Linda Hamilton ). That mission failed, and the young man was born, and so, now, in “Terminator 2,” two Terminators journey back from the future: A good one, played by Schwarzenegger, who is assigned to protect young Connor, and a bad one, played by Robert Patrick , whose mission is to destroy him. (Terminators, by the way, look like humans but are made of high-tech materials and have computer brains; the bad one, named T-1000, was apparently named after his great-grandfather, a Toshiba laptop.) You'd think those machines of the future would realize that their mission is futile; that, because Connor is manifestly the leader of the human resistance, their mission to kill him obviously must fail. But such paradoxes are ignored by “Terminator 2,” which overlooks an even larger one: If indeed, in the last scene of the film, the computer chips necessary to invent Terminators are all destroyed, then there couldn't have been any Terminators - so how come they exist in the first place? Science fiction has had fun toying with such paradoxes for generations, but “Terminator 2” takes the prudent course of simply ignoring them and centering its action in the present, where young John Connor (Eddie Furlong) is a wild street kid, being raised in a foster home because his birth mother (Hamilton) is a prisoner in a mental hospital. They think she’s crazy, of course, because she keeps trying to warn mankind about the approaching nuclear disaster.

From the opening chase scene - in which young Connor, on a fast motorcycle, outruns T-1000, at the wheel of a semi - “Terminator 2” develops a close relationship between the young boy and the good Terminator. Before long young Connor even discovers that Schwarzenegger is programmed to follow his instructions, and so he orders the awesome machine to stop killing people. The result is a neat twist on the tradition of the Schwarzenegger special effects film; this time, instead of corpses littering the screen, the Arnold character shoots to maim or frighten.

It’s fun for a kid, having his own pet Terminator, and that’s one of the inspirations in the screenplay by director James Cameron and William Wisher . Schwarzenegger becomes a father figure for young Connor, who has never met his own father because, as nearly as I can recall, his own father came from the future. Another intriguing screenplay idea is to develop the Terminator’s lack of emotions; like Mr. Spock in “ Star Trek ,” he does not understand why humans cry.

Schwarzenegger’s genius as a movie star is to find roles that build on, rather than undermine, his physical and vocal characteristics. Here he becomes the straight man in a human drama - and in a human comedy, too, as the kid tells him to lighten up and stop talking like a computer. After the kid’s mother is freed from the mental home, the threesome work together to defeat T-1000, while at the same time creating an unlikely but effective family unit.

While that’s happening on the story level, the movie surpasses itself with special effects. There are the usual car chases, explosions and fight scenes, of course, all well done, but what people will remember is the way the movie envisions T-1000. This cyborg is made out of a newly invented liquid metal that makes him all but invincible. Shoot a hole in him, and you can see right through him, but the sides of the hole run together again, and he’s repaired and ready for action.

These scenes involve ingenious creative work by Industrial Light & Magic, the George Lucas special effects shop. The basic idea for T-1000 was first tried out by ILM in “Abyss” (1990), in which an undersea station was invaded by a creature with a body made entirely of water. The trick is to create a computer simulation of the movement desired and then use a computer paintbox program to give it surface color and texture - in this case, the appearance of liquid mercury. The computer images are then combined with the live action; T-1000 turns from shiny liquid into a human being through a dissolve from the effect to the actor.

All of that work would simply be an exercise if the character itself were not effective, but T1000, as played by Patrick, is a splendid villain, with compact good lucks and a bland expression. His most fearsome quality is his implacability; no matter what you do to him, he doesn't get disturbed and he doesn't get discouraged. He just pulls himself together and keeps on coming.

The key element in any action picture, I think, is a good villain.

“Terminator 2” has one, along with an intriguing hero and fierce heroine, and a young boy who is played by Furlong with guts and energy. The movie responds to criticisms of excessive movie violence by tempering the Terminator’s blood lust, but nobody, I think, will complain that it doesn't have enough action.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

135 minutes

Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor

Joe Morton as Miles Dyson

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator

Robert Patrick as T-1000

Earl Boen as Dr. Silberman

Edward Furlong as John Connor

• Brad Fiedel
• Richard A. Harris
• Conrad Buff
• Mark Goldblatt

Produced and Directed by

• James Cameron

Photographed by

• Adam Greenberg
• William Wisher

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Netflix's New Terminator Show Already Looks Better Than Terminator 7 With Arnold Schwarzenegger

• Terminator Zero shifts focus from old characters to new ones, signaling positive change for the franchise's future.
• An animated series like Terminator Zero can revitalize interest in the franchise, moving beyond box office struggles.
• The premise of Terminator Zero sets the stage for creative storytelling and proves that a sequel like Terminator 7 is unnecessary.

Plans for an upcoming installment in the Terminator franchise indicate an exciting new future for the saga, moving the long-running sci-fi series beyond original star Arnold Schwarzenegger and a potential Terminator 7 movie . Announced by Netflix, Terminator Zero is an animated series that is set to reshape the Terminator series' convoluted timeline once again, being set at a crucial juncture in the overall story. However, despite this potential for complication, the show is a much more positive step than other possible options.

Unlike other recent additions in the Terminator series, Terminator Zero has made an explicit commitment to move beyond franchise stalwarts like Sarah and John Connor, Kyle Reese, and, in particular, Schwarzenegger's titular cyborg. In a press release, Netflix has confirmed that " the eight-episode series will be part of the Terminator universe but will center around new characters ". While this means leaving behind major players who have shaped the Terminator franchise for 40 years, it is also the best decision possible for the series' future.

The Terminator Movie Franchise Has Been Struggling For Years

While an animated series with an all-new cast of characters is a bold move for a franchise that has broadly been movie-based, Terminator Zero 's new format is a tacit acceptance that Terminator movies are no longer the box office draw they once were. From the heady days of the series' early entries (with Terminator 2 generally accepted to be the third-highest-grossing movie ever made at the time of release), the series has seen underwhelming recent returns – culminating in Dark Fate 's $261 million global box office – the worst in the series, after the low-budget success of the first film.

Every Terminator Viewing Order: Chronological, Release, & More

The Terminator timeline is tricky so here are some of the potential viewing orders for movies in the Terminator franchise.

Although some entries, such as Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys performed reasonably at the box office, where the franchise has really struggled is with the critics. Until Dark Fate corrected the trend, the films had been on a steep downward trajectory since Rise of the Machines , with each movie securing progressively worse critical scores. This, combined with innumerable retcons, reboots, and timeline changes, made the Terminator franchise both incoherent and underwhelming. The fact that most critics considered Dark Fate a major improvement, and it still bombed at the box office highlights the depth of the issues with the franchise.

Terminator Zero Is Exactly The Kind Of Shift The Franchise Needed After Dark Fate

Dark Fate presented an interesting problem for the entire Terminator franchise . On the one hand, the movie is generally regarded as a return to form and a huge improvement over the previous two entries. On the other, the film underperformed so badly at the box office that it made clear that something radical was needed to reignite audience interest in Terminator as a property. As an animated series with new characters and little connection to what's come before, Terminator Zero has the potential to be exactly that kind of radical step.

Setting up a new story while still adhering to the basic, time-traveling Terminator premise is exactly the kind of direction the franchise needs to move in. However, there's also evidence that the long-term future of the Terminator series has always been on TV. Although it was canceled, many fans praise the Fox series The Sarah Connor Chronicles as the best entry in the franchise since the original trilogy , highlighting how the TV format is perfectly suited to the wider story. Although Terminator Zero will not involve Sarah Connor herself, the show can still provide an important template for how to handle a Terminator story more episodically.

Terminator Zero Proves Terminator 7 Doesn't Need To Happen

The fact that the franchise looks set to radically reinvent itself is both an exciting and bold move, while also providing a clear indication that a potential Terminator 7 movie is unnecessary. While this is not to say the franchise has no cinematic future, any film that follows the previous theatrical template of bringing back an older Schwarzenegger alongside other characters from the franchise's history would be a bad idea. The combination of Terminator Genisys and Dark Fate has proved that such stories are either unsatisfying or hold little audience appeal .

...the premise for Terminator Zero proves that the franchise has plenty of interesting creative avenues to explore.

By contrast, the premise for Terminator Zero proves that the franchise has plenty of interesting creative avenues to explore. According to the official Netflix synopsis, the show will feature a soldier who " arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee who works to launch a new AI system designed to compete with Skynet’s impending attack on humanity. " Already, this setup has introduced multiple new elements to the saga that won't necessarily alter the fundamentals of the story. TV shows like Terminator Zero provide a better avenue for Terminator to explore these stories before recommitting to another risky movie.

Movie(s) Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), Terminator Genisys (2015), Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), The Terminator (1984)

First Film The Terminator (1984)

Cast Sam Worthington, Natalia Reyes, Edward Furlong, Linda Hamilton, Christian Bale, Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Michael Biehn, Mackenzie Davis, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Claire Danes, Arnold Schwarzenegger

TV Show(s) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008)

Character(s) Dani Ramos, Grace (Terminator), Marcus Wright, Kate Brewster, T-1000, John Connor, Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor, The Terminator

RETRO REVIEW: Terminator: Salvation Is an Ambitious Film That No One Asked For

After 15 years, Terminator: Salvation may not be a movie fans wanted, but it is an ambitious look at the front lines of the war against the machines.

It's been 15 years since Terminator: Salvation debuted in theaters and earned more than $370 million at the global box office. Because the film cost $200 million to make and studios split receipts with theaters, it was still, technically, a flop. Thankfully, the home media release (which was also director McG's preferred extended cut) pushed the film into break-even territory. Overshadowed by its performance and an on-set argument, Terminator: Salvation was never fairly judged on its merits as a film or a part of the Terminator universe.

Before the film's debut, audio of star Christian Bale (who played the adult John Connor) berating Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut went viral. In the clip, he rants about Hurlbut interrupting an intense scene with him and Bryce Dallas Howard (playing John's wife, Kate Connor). Reaction to this was not positive for Bale and the film, even though the actor apologized and said he and Hurlbut reconciled their differences. But even without this controversy, Terminator: Salvation had an uphill battle to fight.

Terminator: Salvation was the first in the series without original star Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was busy being Governor of California at the time) . It was also the first that abandoned the franchise's core time-travel aspect. Set in 2018 and mere months after "Judgment Day," the movie depicted the war between the machines and the human resistance. This war, seen only in glimpses in past movies, could almost never be realized on-screen in a "better" way than what Terminator fans imagined. Yet, with hindsight, Terminator: Salvation is much better than its reputation suggests, particularly its Director's Cut.

Kyle Reese’s Origin Story Is the Best Part of Terminator: Salvation

The late great anton yelchin shined as john connor’s teenage father, netflix reveals terminator anime series' first-look images & worldwide release date.

Anton Yelchin appears as Kyle Reese in the same year he appeared as Chekov in 2009's Star Trek . Originated in the first film by actor Michael Biehn, Reese is the human resistance operative who is sent back to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the T-800 Terminator sent to kill her.

In this film, Reese is a lone teenaged resistance fighter in a destroyed Los Angeles, caring for a girl named Star (Jadagrace Michiko Gordy-Nash). Along the way, he meets Marcus Wright, the resurrected cyborg played by Sam Worthington. Marcus's last memories are of his execution in the '90s, when his last act was donating his body to science. Specifically, Cyberdyne Industries.

The glimpses of the Earth after Judgment Day that Kyle, Star and Marcus see during their travels together are the most thrilling part of the film. In one scene, Kyle, Marcus and Star come upon a gas station populated by a group of humans. It's almost immediately destroyed by giant machines, which is endemic of where this film falters.

From the beginning to end, Terminator: Salvation is a wall-to-wall action spectacle. It's obvious that much of the $200 million budget was put on the screen. Yet, especially in the theatrical cut, there are not enough moments for the characters. Sure, people wanted to see humans shooting uselessly at Terminators and SkyNet's other machines (especially the terrifying Hunter-Killers and the colossal Harvesters), but the reason these battles are fun and scary is because audiences cares about the humans, both named and otherwise. This isn't the case in Terminator: Salvation.

In the back half of the movie, Kyle and Star are captured and sent to SkyNet headquarters in San Francisco. Why these humans are being kept prisoner is never made quite clear, but it should've been. Similarly, the biggest flaw in Terminator: Salvation is that audiences don't get to see enough of Yelchin's performance and his great interpretation of Kyle. Yelchin's Kyle is a hero in every scene, brave and defiant in the way that Biehn's version was. He deserved more scenes, and arguably should've been the main character.

The examination of SkyNet's Earth and its plans for what remained of humanity could have made Terminator: Salvation a modern sci-fi classic and a beloved installment of the Terminator universe. As it stands, the movie is more of an ode to missed potential than anything else. But even without this world-building and background lore, the film does an excellent job of living up to fans' ideas about what the war with the machines was like.

The War Against the Machines Was the Most Difficult Thing to Realize

John connor had to lose and win at the same time, 'kill me off': linda hamilton says she'll never return to the terminator franchise.

One brilliant thing about Terminator: Salvation is that almost every encounter with the machines is a trap. The first scene is an operation where John and his unit find human prisoners and information about both the T-800 and the "signal" that shuts down the machines.

John is the only survivor, almost by chance, because the moment the data they discovered is transferred to the resistance command, the entire area is nuked. What seems like action-movie hackery is actually clever foreshadowing that the machines wanted the humans to find this signal.

Similarly, Marcus stumbling on Kyle seems like a bit of plot convenience, but Marcus was also programmed to subconsciously seek out the people on SkyNet's kill list. Why the machines didn't immediately kill Kyle and John when they could is up to interpretation. It's fate. It's "plot armor," since both characters have to survive. Perhaps it's meant to show that SkyNet is not immune from hubris.

Still, Terminator: Salvation works much better when one goes in knowing the Resistance's plans are doomed from the outset. In fact, hiding that fact as long as the movie does is perhaps a case of the filmmakers trying to be "too clever by half." The handling of the war is, frankly, better than it even needed to be. The victories in the film drive the story and the need for action, but these wins are Pyrrhic at best.

Similarly, making the T-800 a new as-yet unencountered Terminator also works. The humans can kill the T-600s left and right without undoing the threat of the original Terminator. In fact, the T-800 that shows up is a digital recreation of Schwarzenegger, so even though the actor wasn't involved, his likeness and legacy were. However, Bale's take on John is a different matter entirely.

The Human Resistance's Leadership Was Too Stupid to Survive

Demystifying john connor was a good idea, but his conflict with the resitance's leaders wasn't, 'so embarrassing': terminator 2 star recalls blowing return as john connor in t3.

To the credit of Terminator: Salvation's filmmakers , they did try to examine the inherent conflict of prophecy and John's destiny as humanity's savior. But instead of doing a proper deep dive on this, the movie merely served as a tension point to showcase how foolish Resistance leadership was. For example, General Ashdown (Michael Ironsides) put a gun to John's head just after he survived a traumatic mission. Then, he assigned the most important mission in the war to him.

John's overall importance to the Resistance was relegated to him just being a voice on the radio that Resistance fighters far afield heard from time to time. Also, the leadership doesn't seem to care why an "unknown" civilian, Kyle, was at the top of SkyNet's kill list. It would've made more sense for them to dig a bit deeper into what the machines may want with a seemingly irrelevant resistance fighter.

Connor himself seemed to struggle with his destiny, but this was also not satisfyingly examined. Bale growls through his scenes, and when Connor is required to fight, the character works. Yet, from his meeting with the rebel leadership to his interactions with his unit as they test the machine-shutdown signal, why John is the "chosen one" is never made evident or examined.

Perhaps part of the reason Bale's behind-the-scenes blow-up was so vitriolic was because the actor played John as a driven madman. This was an interpretation that didn't really serve the character, especially when he goes solo to rescue Kyle from the machines. The detail that Kyle was Connor's father is seemingly a closely guarded secret, even when it's fairly obvious to literally any Terminator fan.

If Terminator: Salvation had shown how dedicated John was to the fight without tension with leadership, it may have played better with fans. The movie could've seen him being thrust into leadership he didn't want, rather than having him seize it by delaying the big offensive. Even the Director's Cut didn't make it fully clear that any unit using the signal would've been destroyed. Some viewers might read this moment as Connor deliberately getting the leadership killed, because the rest of the Resistance didn't act. Either way, it was no great loss.

Marcus Wright Was a Good Character Who Saved Both the Film & John Connor

Sam worthington portrayed marcus’s struggle between being human and machine well, 'it's been done to death': linda hamilton says the terminator franchise needs to end.

In Terminator: Salvation's climax, Marcus realized that he was a pawn in SkyNet's plan all along. They used his brain and heart to create the cyborg version of him, which is why he possessed all of Marcus's memories. The scenes in which Marcus discovers he's not fully human are extremely well-done.

For a movie with a lot of moments of Dramatic Screaming™, Worthington's performance when he sees his cybernetic parts was perfect. It was terrifying and engendered genuine empathy from an audience trained to be skeptical. Of course, he was everything John thought he was, too. Marcus ripping out his secondary machine cortex as a display of his choice to retain his humanity is the most powerful this movie gets to make. More so than Marcus choosing to give up his heart to save John, anyway.

In a franchise filled with disappointing sequels, Terminator: Salvation was a much better movie than fans gave it credit for at the time of release. Despite its many shortcomings, it was only in hindsight that the movie's choice to eschew Terminator's established formula to be a bleak and dirty war movie was appreciated and respected. Due to Terminator: Salvation's perceived failures, the franchise became more risk-averse and kept recycling its greatest hits. It would've been interesting if this version of the Terminator universe got to continue for another film or two.

Terminator: Salvation is available to own on DVD, Blu-ray, digital and streams on Max.

Terminator Salvation

In 2018, a mysterious new weapon in the war against the machines, half-human and half-machine, comes to John Connor on the eve of a resistance attack on Skynet. But whose side is he on, and can he be trusted?

• Ambitious and well-made action sequences throughout.
• Marcus Wright and Kyle Reese are great characters worthy of examination.
• Well-crafted story showing the futility of the resistance and why it surives.
• John Connor's conflict with the Resistance Leaders felt forced.
• Not enough time spent on character moments and examining their beliefs or motives for fighting.
• Theatrical Cut lacks important scenes and proper 'Terminator-style' action.

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Netflix’s Terminator anime takes the cyborg time war to Tokyo, with a new AI twist

Come with me if you want a look at the first pics

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Share All sharing options for: Netflix’s Terminator anime takes the cyborg time war to Tokyo, with a new AI twist

Netflix and anime studio Production IG’s take on the Terminator arrives this summer, marking a big year for James Cameron’s killer cyborgs. Terminator: Zero will be a somewhat-familiar time-travelling tale with a twist: While we have our standard future warrior sent to the past to protect humanity from killing machines, there will also be a new protector in the form of an AI designed to battle Skynet’s genocidal ambitions.

Terminator: Zero ’s hero is an as-yet unnamed soldier sent back in time to change humanity’s fate. She travels from a war-ravaged 2022 to 1997 Tokyo to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee, who’s developing a rival AI system to fend off Skynet’s attack on humanity. “As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation,” Netflix said in a new synopsis for the animated series, “he is hunted by an unrelenting assassin from the future which forever alters the fate of his three children.”

As Netflix’s first images of Terminator: Zero reveal, Lee’s Skynet competitor is presented as something we haven’t seen in the live-action Terminator films before: a virtual maiden.

Netflix also revealed images of its stand in for Kyle Reese — who is reportedly not part of the Sarah Connor lineage, since the anime’s showrunner says this is not a Connor family story — and what she’ll be battling: your standard T-800 Terminator model disguised as a human being.

When it was originally announced in 2021 , showrunner and executive producer Mattson Tomlin said the anime series would “approach Terminator in a way that breaks conventions, subverts expectations, and has real guts.” Tomlin’s credits include writing the stories for Matt Reeves’ The Batman (and its sequel ) and Netflix’s Project Power . Production I.G, the veteran anime production studio known for its work on series like Ghost in the Shell , Haikyu!! , and Psycho-Pass , is lending its creative talents to adapt The Terminator for animation. The eight-episode series is directed by Masashi Kudo ( Bleach , Chain Chronicle ).

Terminator: Zero will premiere on Netflix on Aug. 29.

Two months later, Terminator fans will get their hands on a big new survival game based on the franchise. Nacon’s Terminator: Survivors will launch in early access on Steam for Windows PC on Oct. 24, just days before the 40th anniversary of the franchise’s launch. Survivors is also coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X at a later date.

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