Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong, it is the sequel to The Terminator (1984) and is the second installment in the Terminator franchise.

In the film, 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 a less advanced, reprogrammed Terminator to protect Connor and ensure the future of humanity.

The Terminator was considered a significant success, enhancing Schwarzenegger’s and Cameron’s careers, but work on a sequel stalled because of animosity between the pair and Hemdale Film Corporation, which partially owned the film’s rights.

In 1990, Schwarzenegger and Cameron persuaded Carolco Pictures to purchase the rights from The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and Hemdale, which was financially struggling.

A release date was set for the following year, leaving Cameron and Wisher seven weeks to write the script.

Principal photography began from October 1990 to March 1991, taking place in and around Los Angeles on an estimated $94–102 million budget, making it the most expensive film made at the time.

The advanced visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which include the first use of a computer-generated main character in a blockbuster film, resulted in a schedule overrun.

Theatrical prints were not delivered to theaters until the night before the picture’s release on July 3, 1991.

Terminator 2 was a critical and commercial success, grossing $519–520.9 million at the box office to become the highest-grossing film of 1991 worldwide and the third-highest-grossing film of its time.

The film won several accolades, including Saturn, BAFTA, and Academy awards. Terminator 2 merchandise includes video games, comic books, novels, and T2-3D: Battle Across Time, a live-action attraction.

Terminator 2 is considered one of the best science fiction, action, and sequel films ever made.

It is also seen as a major influence on visual effects in films, helping usher in the transition from practical effects to reliance on computer-generated imagery.

The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2023. Although Cameron intended for Terminator 2 to be the end of the franchise,

it was followed by a series of sequels, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), as well as a 2008 television series.

Skynet sends the T-1000—an advanced, prototype, shape-shifting Terminator made of virtually indestructible liquid metal—back in time to kill resistance leader John Connor when he is a child.

To protect Connor, the resistance sends back a reprogrammed T-800 Terminator, a less-advanced metal endoskeleton covered in synthetic flesh.

In 1995 Los Angeles, John’s mother Sarah is incarcerated in Pescadero State Hospital for her violent efforts to prevent “Judgment Day”—the prophesied events of August 29, 1997, when Skynet will gain sentience and,

In response to its creators’ attempts to deactivate it, incite a nuclear holocaust. John, living with foster parents, considers Sarah delusional and resents her efforts to prepare him for his future role.

The T-1000 locates John in a shopping mall, but the T-800 intervenes, coming to John’s aid and enabling his escape.

John calls to warn his foster parents, but the T-800 deduces the T-1000 has already killed them. Realizing the T-800 is programmed to obey him, John forbids it from killing people and orders it to save Sarah from the T-1000.

The T-800 and John intercept Sarah during an escape attempt but Sarah flees in horror because the T-800 resembles the Terminator sent to kill her in 1984. John and the T-800 persuade her to join them, and they escape the pursuing T-1000.

Although distrustful of the T-800, Sarah uses its knowledge of the future to learn that a revolutionary microprocessor, being developed by Cyberdyne engineer Miles Dyson, will be crucial to Skynet’s creation. Over the course of their journey,

Sarah sees the T-800 serving as a friend and father figure to John, who teaches it catchphrases and hand signs while encouraging it to become more human-like.

Sarah plans to escape to Mexico with John, but a nightmare about Judgment Day convinces her to kill Dyson. She attacks Dyson in his home but realizes she cannot kill a person and relents.

John arrives and reconciles with Sarah while the T-800 convinces Dyson of the future consequences of his work. Dyson reveals his research has been reverse engineered from the CPU and severed arm of the 1984 Terminator.

Believing his work must be destroyed, Dyson aids Sarah, John, and the T-800 to break into Cyberdyne, retrieve the CPU and the arm, and set explosives to destroy the lab.

The police assault the building and fatally shoot Dyson, but he detonates the explosives as he dies. The T-1000 pursues the surviving trio, cornering them in a steel mill.

Sarah and John split up to escape while the T-1000 mangles the T-800 and briefly deactivates it by destroying its power source.

The T-1000 assumes Sarah’s appearance to lure out John, but Sarah intervenes and, along with the reactivated T-800, pushes it into a vat of molten steel, where it disintegrates.

The T-800 explains it must also be destroyed to prevent it from serving as a foundation for Skynet. Despite John’s tearful protests, the T-800 persuades him its destruction is the only way to protect their future.

Sarah shakes the T-800’s hand and having come to respect it, lowers it into the vat. The T-800 gives John a thumbs-up as it is incinerated. As Sarah drives down a highway with John,

She reflects on her renewed hope for an unknown future, musing if the T-800 could learn the value of life, so can humanity.