Terminator 2: Judgment Day (also promoted as T2) is a 1991 American science fiction action film produced and directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong. It is the sequel to the 1984 film The Terminator and the second installment in the Terminator franchise. In its plot, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a Terminator—a highly advanced killing machine—back in time to 1995 to kill the future leader of the human resistance, John Connor, when he is a child. The resistance sends back its own reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity.
Talks of a follow-up to The Terminator arose following its release, but its development was stalled because of technical limitations of the vital computer-generated imagery required to realize a liquid metal Terminator, and legal issues with original producer Hemdale Film Corporation, who controlled half of the franchise rights. In 1990, Carolco Pictures acquired the rights from Hemdale and production immediately began, with Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, and Cameron returning. Principal photography began in October 1990 and lasted until March 1991. Its visual effects saw breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery, including the first use of natural human motion for a computer-generated character and the first partially computer-generated main character. At the time of its release, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the most expensive film ever made.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in the United States on July 3, 1991, by TriStar Pictures. It was a critical success upon release, with praise for the acting, action scenes, and visual effects. Regarded by many critics as superior to the original and one of the best sequels ever made, the film influenced popular culture, especially the use of visual effects in films. It received several accolades, including Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects, and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form.
Other films followed: two sequels, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Terminator Salvation (2009); a reboot, Terminator Genisys (2015); and the Cameron-produced film Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) which was intended to be an alternate sequel and retcon from Rise of the Machines onward. A sequel television series, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, ran from 2008 to 2009. In 2017, Terminator 2 was re-released in 3D 4K resolution for AMC and Cineplex theaters, and internationally, debuting at number one in the United Kingdom on its release weekend.
DETAILED PLOT
In 1995, John Connor is living in Los Angeles with his foster parents. His mother, Sarah Connor, had been preparing him throughout his childhood for his future role as the human resistance leader against Skynet, the artificial intelligence that will be given control of the United States' nuclear missiles and initiate a nuclear holocaust on August 29, 1997, known thereafter as "Judgment Day". However, Sarah was arrested and imprisoned at a mental hospital after attempting to bomb a computer factory. In 2029, Skynet sends a new Terminator, the T-1000, back in time to kill John. The T-1000 is an advanced prototype made out of a "mimetic polyalloy", a pliable metal, that enables it to assume the shape and appearance of almost anything it touches, and to transform its arms into blades and other shapes at will. The T-1000 arrives, kills a police officer, and assumes his identity; he also uses the police computer to track down John. Meanwhile, the future John Connor has sent back a reprogrammed Model 101 Terminator to protect his younger self.
The Terminator and the T-1000 converge on John in a shopping mall, and a chase ensues after which John and the Terminator escape together on a motorcycle. Fearing that the T-1000 will kill Sarah in order to get to him, John orders the Terminator to help free her, after discovering that the Terminator must follow his orders. They encounter Sarah as she is escaping from the hospital, although she is initially reluctant to trust the Model 101. After the trio escape from the T-1000 in a police car, the Terminator informs John and Sarah about Skynet's history.[a] Sarah learns that the man most directly responsible for Skynet's creation is Miles Bennett Dyson, a Cyberdyne Systems engineer working on a revolutionary new microprocessor that will form the basis for Skynet.
Sarah gathers weapons from an old friend and plans to flee to Mexico with John, but a nightmare about Judgment Day prompts her to prevent it by instead killing Dyson. Finding him at his home, she wounds him but finds herself unable to kill him in front of his family. John and the Terminator arrive and inform Dyson of the future consequences of his work. They learn that much of his research has been reverse engineered from the damaged CPU and the right arm of the previous Terminator who attacked Sarah back in 1984. Convincing him that these items and his designs must be destroyed, they break into the Cyberdyne building, retrieve the CPU and the arm, and set explosives to destroy Dyson's lab. Though the police shoot and fatally wound Dyson when they storm the lab, he successfully detonates the explosives as he dies. The T-1000 pursues the surviving trio, eventually cornering them in a steel mill.
The T-1000 and Model 101 fight and the more advanced model seriously damages and shuts down the Model 101. However, unbeknownst to the T-1000, the Model 101 brings itself back online using an alternate power source. Sarah's shotgun blasts fail to knock the T-1000 into a vat of molten steel; as it is about to kill John, the Model 101 shoots it with a grenade launcher, knocking it into the steel where it melts. John tosses the arm and CPU of the original Terminator into the vat as well, but the Model 101 explains that its own CPU must also be destroyed in order to ensure that Cyberdyne cannot use it to reverse-engineer Skynet. Acting against John's tearful pleas and orders, the Model 101 says goodbye, has Sarah lower it into the vat because it cannot act to destroy itself, and gives a final thumbs-up before submerging. Sarah drives down a highway at night with John, reflecting on her renewed hope for the future based on the Model 101's actions.