Film Plot Summary

The film took place 11 years after the events of the first movie, in the year 1995, two years before a nuclear holocaust; the film opened with the voice-over of 29 year-old Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who envisaged the August, 1997 nuclear holocaust.

Two cyborg Terminators were sent from future Earth back in time to Los Angeles -- an older T-800 model (or Model 101) (Arnold Schwarzenegger) similar to the one from the first film, and the other, a seemingly-indestructible prototype T-1000 android (Robert Patrick), who had the uncanny ability to 'morph' his body into any solid shape, impersonate other persons and even camouflage himself with the background.

They were both in pursuit of Sarah's rebellious, 10 year-old foster child son John Connor (Edward Furlong) - who was the savior of future humanity in a war with a deadly machine complex called SkyNet; now a muscle-bound warrior-woman, Sarah was hospitalized in a mental institution (Pescadero State Hospital) for acting delusional and insane over thoughts of an apocalypse; she had been arrested for attempting to blow-up Cyberdyne Systems (and the SkyNet computer labs to wipe out any trace of Terminator technology).

It was revealed that the Terminator T-800 was sent from the future to protect the future leader, while the other was sent to kill the boy who would lead humans to victory over the cyborgs; Miles Dyson (Joe Morton), a Cyberdyne Systems engineer, was shown entering a high-security vault where he viewed the CPU and arm of the Terminator from the first film, proving Sarah's claim about the existence of future Terminators; the two Terminators located young John in the Galleria shopping mall which led to a gunfight-confrontation in a hallway, and a chase scene down within LA's flood control channel; the T-800 rescued John and revealed his mission to protect him.

Both Terminators entered the mental hospital to save/kill Sarah Connor, revealing to her that the T-800 was there to help save her (with the familiar words: "Come with me if you want to live"); after their successful escape, they fled southward to Mexico in a stolen station wagon, and Sarah learned that Miles Dyson was "directly responsible" for building SkyNet after inventing a revolutionary new microprocessor - he was the "director of special projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation" - and when "human decisions are removed from strategic defense" - SkyNet became "self-aware" by late August 1997 and it was too late to disarm the system; in retaliation against being unplugged, SkyNet launched missiles against Russian targets, causing the nuclear holocaust; [the microchip that Miles was designing at Cyberdyne was based upon the salvaged CPU from the original T-800 - "it didn't work, but it gave us ideas, took us in new directions"].

John began to bond as the Terminator learned about human emotions and feelings, and John had a male/parent/father figure to relate to; Sarah experienced further nightmarish, end-of-the world cataclysmic dreams, in which she envisaged the fiery effects on a children's playground and herself; resolved to change the future, Sarah prepared to kill Miles Dyson ("She's gonna blow him away") but couldn't complete the act in front of his family; she explained how he would be responsible for the deaths of 3 billion people; after being convinced, Dyson became their ally in a mission to destroy the fateful Terminator artifacts at Cyberdyne, and in the lab sequence at Cyberdyne, the Terminator T-800 held off police and SWAT teams as Dyson met an heroic death.

The T-1000 pursued their SWAT van in a helicopter and then in a liquid nitrogen truck that spilled and froze the T-1000, although he reconstituted himself; this led to the final sequence at the steel foundry where the two Terminators dueled and battled to the death; the 'good' Terminator sent the T-1000 to his death in a vat of molten steel - and then heroically sacrificed himself for the sake of humankind by being lowered into the vat (with thumbs-up) after a tearful goodbye to surrogate son John: "I have to go away...I must go away, John...I'm sorry...It has to end here...I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do"; his death ensured that his own CPU micro-chip would not be found.

The film ended with Sarah's voice-over, a tribute to the Terminator: "The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope, because if a machine, a terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too."

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

This box-office hit, budgeted at about $102 million, brought in almost $205 million in revenues (domestically), and almost $520 million (worldwide). It was also the first film in history to cost $100 million to produce.

The film acquired four technical Academy Awards (Best Makeup, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound Effects Editing) from its six nominations.

The film explored issues of fate, responsibility, loyalty, and the essences of humanity. The sequel was made possible by Cameron's hugely successful blockbuster Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989). Unlike The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day would gross half its budget in its opening weekend, despite a running time of over two and a half hours, and end up making back twice its budget in the United States alone.

The chief selling point, aside from the computer-generated special effects and dazzling, non-stop action sequences, were the two major stars, Schwarzenegger and Hamilton, who starred in the original.

Set-pieces: the Terminator T-800's biker bar confrontation with rednecks, the Galleria shopping mall and the Flood Control Channel Chases (with Arnold's one-handed Harley-shotgun cocking-reload), the scene of Sarah's breakout from the hospital, Sarah's attempt to terminate Dyson at his home, the Cyberdyne Systems building infiltration and police-team assault, followed by the T-1000's helicopter and liquid nitrogen truck chase, and the final action sequence at the steel foundry.