There is a date in my life that I will always remember: July 3, 1991, the U.S. release date of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It was the night I fell in love with movies; a night that one filmmaker’s creation changed my life forever.
This past weekend, a digitally remastered version of T2 had a worldwide release in 3D. James Cameron worked together with Studiocanal and DMG to convert the film using StereoD technology. This new release is a rare opportunity for cinemagoers to experience this sci-fi masterpiece again on the big screen; or for those movie fans who were born in the 26 years since its original release and may live where revival screenings are few or far between, to see it for the first time.
Although I’ve seen the film hundreds of times, the trip to the multiplex was worth it for me. This isn’t reach out and grab you gimmicky 3D. In the beginning of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, we see John Connor leading the resistance against the machines and the new format gives the aerial Hunter Killers some depth as they sweep the sky searching for humans. It’s breathtaking. But the 3D is subtle in other ways which are much more powerful, and represent Cameron’s primary intent in choosing this format. Somehow, it made me feel even closer to these riveting characters this time around, and I left the theater with my eyes blood shot from crying after witnessing John Connor pleading with the Terminator, “Stay with us, it will be okay,” even though he knows the Terminator’s CPU must be destroyed.
When James Cameron developed the idea for this sequel, he wanted it to be a love story, like the original, but this time a paternal one between a boy and his terminator. Schwarzenegger’s model, CSM-101 would be sent back in time to protect the future savior of humanity, John Connor and through their friendship, John’s moral core and belief system would be further shaped. We see John begin his transformation into the leader he is destined to be, and it’s astonishing. The film could have completely fallen apart if Cameron and his team cast the wrong actor as John Connor. But fate was on their side when casting director, Mali Finn, discovered Edward Furlong in a Boys and Girl Club in Pasadena. Furlong, like John, never knew his father and didn’t live with his mother; and his vulnerability, expressive eyes and inner soul made this kid, who had never acted a day in his life, the perfect John. He doesn’t have a single missed note in the film. In particular, the heartbreaking scene after the Pescadero breakout when John thinks his mother, Sarah is hugging him only to realize that she is checking for wounds, and the incredibly moving scene where John sits and comforts his mom in a heap on the floor after she almost kills the man responsible for the creation of Skynet, Miles Dyson.
As we see John teach a Terminator the value of human life, we also see Sarah Connor’s journey to regain her own humanity. In the original film, she is a sweet waitress completely unprepared to grasp that she will one day teach her unborn son how to fight, organize and lead the resistance against the machines. At the beginning of T2, we are floored to see how Sarah has transformed into a warrior. Linda Hamilton prepared with a trainer for a year to mold her physique, in addition to training with a former Israeli commando and Mossad agent to become a soldier. The Sarah we meet now is someone who believes the ends justify the means- her only goals are to prepare her son for the future war and try to stop it. She’s cold, tough and will stop at nothing- just like a Terminator. The scene where Sarah Connor attempts her break out of the mental institution is one of the most jaw dropping and exhilarating in the film; we see what Sarah is capable of but we also see what she has become and the cost it has had on her mental state. When she is anxiously waiting for the elevator to open during her escape, and the Terminator steps off with his rifle, we are instantly hit with the realization of everything she has been through when she falls back to the ground screaming in terror and tries to scramble in the other direction. She thinks the terminator is back to end her life, but the audience knows it’s there to save it.
During production of T2, James Cameron called it “the first action movie advocating world peace” but it’s even more profound than that. The story is more timely today than ever before. It warns of our obsession with technology, shows us in stark detail what a real nuclear blast in Los Angeles would look like, and examines how every single life on this planet is valuable even though it may be in “our nature to destroy ourselves.” The film ends with a haunting but hopeful visual of a dark road to an unknown future.
Every facet of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, from the groundbreaking special effects, the spectacular performances, the sweeping music, the explosive action sequences to the insightful story is absolute perfection. It’s an extraordinary cinematic achievement and I don’t believe there will ever be a film in my lifetime that will have the same impact on me.
A personal essay and review by Becky D’Anna carried out for TheTerminatorFans.com