I'll be back : A retrospective look at Terminator 2

 

This James Cameron masterpiece starring action megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger has to be one of the greatest syfy thrillers ever produced. Even though there have been several more Terminator movies, this one remains the yardstick which all  others are measured against. Much like the Star Wars movies before this, the VFX developed for this movie was way ahead of its time. It's visionary directors such as Cameron, Lucas and Spielberg that continued to push the envelope,  making movies like Jurassic Park and the Avengers possible today. I remember being totally captivated by the action sequences and VFX as a teen and ran my two pack VHS tapes into the ground. One contained the theatrical release of the movie, and the other contained a BTS documentary. I spent a good amount of time discussing the intricacies of the movie with my peers. We even adopted some of the vernacular from the movie into our everyday speak. Some of the most memorable lines include I'll be back ','Hasta la Vista baby' and 'Chill out dickward'. I actually like this one a lot more than the first one.

The story follows the events of the first movie. Linda Hamilton reprises her role as Sara Connor, the birth mother of the future leader of the resistance, John Connor, now played by Edward Furlong. Sara is locked up at a psych ward at the Pascadero state penitentiary and John now lives with his foster parents. Turns out that Sara has been trying to warn mankind of what's coming but people think that she has lost her mind. Things start to unravel when a T800, Arnold's character is sent back in time by future John Connor to prevent judgment day when Skynet becomes self aware and launches nukes that leads to the annihilation of mankind. Skynet senses this as well and sends a more lethal and advanced Terminator, a liquid metal, or a mimetic poly alloy T1000, played by Robert Patrick to assassinate John. What follows is a mad dash to save Sara from prison, track down the creator of Skynet, Miles Dyson of CyberDyne Industries and convince him to destroy all his research and development on what would become Skynet and to stay alive. Our heroes get into some skirmishes with the T1000, like in the prison where the T1000 melts through the prison bars in pursuit of Sara. Arnold also gets to say the now immortal line 'Come with me if you want to live' after Sara sees him for the first time and thinks he is the Terminator from the previous film. We also learn that Terminators can be taught to be more human. John grows really close to his guardian as a result of this.

This movie features some of the biggest and best action sequences like the bike and truck chase in the monsoon drain, the highway chase ending at the steel mill and the final showdown between a badly damaged T800 and the seemingly undefeatable T1000. The use of practical effects for the majority of the movie is what separates this from the current crop of blockbusters. There may be be bigger and more bombastic movies out there but Terminator 2 Judgement Day will always have a special place in my heart.