The Unexpected Father Figure

This story originally appeared on Medium.com (7/5/2021).

30 years after its release, Terminator 2: Judgment Day still holds its own as a classic summer tent pole blockbuster with a substantive story. My favorite thing about one of the all-time great sci-fi action movies is something I’m not sure many people expected from a movie that arrived with many expectations. People were hyped for this sequel. The production was massive (it was most expensive movie ever made at that time). It had a big-name director (James Cameron), who was on a hot streak off great movies that began with The Terminator. It had a Hollywood action movie mega-star (Arnie) at his career zenith, peaking here with what would be the highest grossing movie he has starred in to date. It was supposed to have crazy ground-breaking effects and wild action sequences. It was going to feature an intriguing role reversal with the Terminator as the good guy protecting John and Sarah Connor from the upgraded, relentless killing machine, the T-1000. There was tangible excitement leading up to its release. I remember lunch time discussions with the other boys in my third-grade class revolving around T2 as we prepped for the summer break.

The movie came out on July 3rd, 1991, and it delivered on all fronts. With all of the cool effects, intense action, and memorable lines, one of the most enduring things about T2 is the relationship that develops between John and the Terminator. We had our expectations going in, but that thread in the story and the emotion it carries was not one of them. It’s really what makes T2 better than the original. Some of the tension of the long chase, the killer machine hunting our heroes, carries over from The Terminator, but the sequel spent more time developing the humanity in its characters, especially with Arnold’s Terminator. He is still perfect for this role, walking like a cyborg and talking with a mechanical cadence, but this script allowed for the cyborg to learn a little about what it means to be human through its relationship with young John and evolve into something more than the machine it was at the beginning of the movie. It’s obvious that the Terminator had a tremendous effect on John, who never really had a father-figure in his life he respected let alone loved. Just when things seemed to be okay, when the T-1000 had been cooked in the molten metal, John had to say goodbye to the Terminator he grew to love; another hard circumstance we all endure in our lifetime.

Sarah Connor experiences a similar type of arc with the Terminator. She is locked up in a psych hospital, still suffering PTSD from her encounter with the first Terminator, blabbering about the upcoming nuclear holocaust that some self-aware AI called Skynet will launch against humanity. An unlikely hero, another Terminator, and her pre-pubescent son help her escape the hospital. She quickly finds a common goal with the Terminator, protecting John from the T-1000. By the end of the movie, Sarah develops a respect for the Terminator and an understanding that this one was not like the others. If fate can change, then maybe a cyborg can, too.

It’s impossible to imagine a scenario where a normal, happy life could have played out for John, Sarah, and the Terminator. Their relationship was doomed from the beginning. A pessimist will tell you that this is the way of all relationships people form in life. No one gets out unscathed, but then again, getting burned or bruised along the way is part of what makes this journey interesting. Most people experience this figuratively, traversing emotional ups and downs, but surely, we also suffer in some physical way at some point in life. For the protagonists in T2, they are pushed to their physical, mental, and emotional limits during the movie, something this film’s predecessor also achieved. However, T2 also has bigger, better action sequences and a a more threatening villain, but what really makes it one of the few sequels to outshine the original is that it has a soul.

Here’s one of my favorite scenes from the movie. Happy 30th anniversary!