Nerds That Geek Movie Review - 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day'

Written by Scott Edwards

If you knew what the future had in store for you, would you try to change it? I for one do not want to know what the future has in store for me, since I do not feel like the future has been written yet, but there are people that believe differently. I just cannot imagine what life would be like if you already know what happens to you, especially if you are not allowed to change it. But if you do know what is going to happen and you decide to change something that should effect what happens, how do you know if it works, much less if you made a hint of a difference to what has already been predetermined.

Sarah Connor is alive and well, even after a Terminator tried to complete its assassination of her. Now with her son, John Connor, Sarah has more to worry about than just bills and food, she has to find a way from keeping the future that she has been told about from taking place. But she has found that to be very difficult as she has been locked up in a mental hospital and is under the supervision of a doctor who is trying to get her to believe everything she experienced in 1984 was a delusion. Without any help, Sarah has to find a way to get out of the hospital to see her son and make sure he understands how important he is to the future survival of the species.

John Connor is living in at a foster house while his mother is incarcerated.  Not paying any attention to his new parents, John feels like his own mother is crazy as well. Without trusting any adults in his life, John has several methods of getting around and making it seem too easy. With the training this his mother gave him before she was locked away, John knows plenty about computers and can manipulate them into doing what he wants. But when he meets his new parental figure in the mall, he will gain an all new understanding as to what a machine can do.

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Being chased by a cop, John runs into the machine that has haunted his mother's dreams since before he was born. But the T-800 is not here to terminate the young man, but to protect him from the next killing machine that has been sent back to kill mankind's leader before Judgment Day takes place. Having to trust his new toy, John teaches the T-800 how to speak and act in different situations and although his mother does not know what to expect from the circumstance, she has to put her faith in the machine as well. Needing to stop Skynet from being created, Sarah has a new target and a way to kill him off before things go bad in the following years, but she will have to become someone that she is not, becoming a hunter/killer of her own.

The T-1000 is the most advanced prototype that the machines have manufactured, composed of a mimetic poly-alloy, it is able to transform its appearance and become anyone that it comes in contact with. But this is not the only benefit to the new design, it is also impervious to being stopped, much less destroyed. Being able to regenerate after being shot by anything, the T-1000 is in on the hunt for young John Connor and is surprised when it sees that a former model is protecting the boy. Needing to find a way to accomplish its goal, the T-1000 takes on many different faces, even the ones of John’s trusted inner circle to gain access to the boy, but it still has a fatal flaw...just like its predecessor, the dogs can tell the difference.

The second film in the Terminator franchise is just as good as the first. With more explosions and better special effects, the story is a little bit more believable. With Sarah Connor being locked up and accused of being mentally ill, her own son believes it as well and it is troubling her more than anything. Wanting to protect her boy and trying to stop judgment day before the world goes into the dark ages, Sarah has her own inner demons to fight off, in addition to a new terminator that is trying to kill her son. John is just a normal kid, but has learned so many things down the road and is able to fall upon his skills of being a mechanic and a hacker to get by in his everyday world, but he did not know what his mother was really preparing him for. Being smarter than most kids, John is forced to grow up quickly when his life is put into the crosshairs and he finds out that everything that his mother has been telling him all of these years is the truth and not just the rantings of a crazy person. Also a reluctant scientist takes to the stage in this edition, Miles Dyson, the original creator of the learning system that will lead to Skynet. Although he knows enough to make an old microchip come back to life, he also heeds the warnings from Sarah Connor about what he has created and steps up to destroy his work before it falls into the wrong hands. I think I liked this movie better than the first and I don’t say that a lot about sequels, but this one was just faster paced and had a better storyline than the first. And I have to do it for the signoff, I’ll be back.

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