I’m on record declaring James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) to be The Best Damn Sequel of All Time, and I stand by that assessment. August 29, the fictional date (in 1997) of the franchise’s original nuclear holocaust, is fast approaching, and Judgment Day is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. So StudioCanal has decided to mark both occasions with a special theatrical re-release of the film this weekend.
What better time to revisit some of our favorite scenes from this seminal sci-fi action blockbuster? Nobody really expected 1984’s The Terminator to be a hit, but it racked up an impressive $78 million at the box office against its modest $6.4 million budget. Star Arnold Schwarzenegger was keen to do a sequel, but Cameron was busy on other projects, including Aliens in 1986 (another killer sequel).
There were also legal complications over the film rights, until Schwarzenegger convinced Carolco Pictures, the studio behind Total Recall (1990), to buy everyone out and hire Cameron to make Judgment Day. Cameron wrote the script in about six weeks, diverging significantly from the stripped-down feel of its predecessor (which some have described as a “science fiction slasher”). Instead, Cameron chose to make his original Terminator the reprogrammed hero of the sequel, serving as a mechanical father figure to a young John Connor (Edward Furlong).
Cameron likened the transformation to the Tin Man getting a heart in The Wizard of Oz. Linda Hamilton agreed to reprise her role as Sarah Connor, and this “found family” triad became the emotional core of the film. Hamilton worked out like a fiend for the role, and her resulting lean-yet-ripped physique made her an action heroine on par with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.
Released over the July 4th holiday weekend in 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a critical and financial smash hit, despite predictions that the film would bomb and lose its estimated $70 million production budget. It ended up grossing $520 million, which sadly was not enough to protect Carolco from other film losses. (The studio went bankrupt in 1995.) It’s the perfect sci-fi action film, expertly paced with well-drawn character dynamics, amazing special effects, emotional beats, and humorous touches to keep things from getting too grim. No subsequent film in the franchise even comes close.
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