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Guy Movie of the Week, 5/10/99: Terminator 2
by Kerry Douglas Dye

published 5/10/99

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Kerry Douglas Dye is LeisureSuit.net's Manhattan-based Senior Editor.



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Subj: T1 1000
take me please I want the T1 1000 to take me instead of john please take me please.

-- williams kristin
Mar 9, 2003 at 12:43AM

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Terminator 2
Terminator 2 (James Cameron, 1991): I showed James Cameron some disrespect entering the theatre to see Terminator 2. Sure, I thought it would be great, but I thought it would be a typical sequel, which meant the same story played out with some sort of slight variation. Well, I knew there would be two Terminators this time. And I knew there would be a kid. I figured those were the variations. I thought too little of Cameron.

James Cameron, titanic ego aside, is a smarter filmmaker than that. T2 is exactly what a sequel should be: a film that stands on its own, yet continues, and deepens the story of its predecessor. In The Terminator, we learn that in the future, after a computer-engineered apocalypse, humans will be at war with the machines, and the son of Sarah Connor will lead the humans to victory. In T2, we actually meet that son, and the goal now isn't just to save his life--it's to change the future completely, and thwart the coming nuclear holocaust.

And now Schwarzenegger's Terminator is a good Terminator, and a newer model, the T-1000 liquid metal "mimetic polyalloy," is a bad Terminator. Schwarzenegger's got to protect Sarah Connor and her son, and the T-1000 has got to kill them.

The special effects in this film were the first of their kind. It may seem quaint now, but the audience oohed and aahed at such unheard of magic as a person morphing into another person right there on the screen. I know, looking back it's like turn-of-the-century farmhands kissing the floor to dodge a sepia-toned cow catcher, but at the time, these things had never been seen before. And as usual, Cameron was using the effects in service of his story, the film delivering at least half a dozen spectacular action pieces, and a whole lot of pathos and sentimental dialogue.

Oh, shit, but we were supposed to be talking about Linda Hamilton's character! The whole point of doing the Terminator movies was to show how a genteel chick like the Sarah Connor from the first one, could turn into an serious ass-kicker like the Sarah Connor in the second one . . .

Well shit, I don't know. She spent some time in the desert learning combat and munitions and stuff. And she knew the apocalypse was coming, and, well, that drove her a little crazy. But of course this all happens in between movies, so we never get to see it. By the time we catch up with her in T2, she's buff, deadly, and a bit of a whack-job. Sorry I don't have a deeper analysis, but what am I, a psychologist?

T2 is a smart, epic, and explosive action picture. The rare brilliant sequel. And listen, if there are any historians out there reading this, drop me an e-mail and confirm or deny this for me: wasn't "T2" the Nazi code name for the Treblinka extermination camp? I'm not saying that implies anything about the movie, but I'd just really like to know for sure.

[Special note: Ordinarily my co-editor Jordan Hoffman is hands-off on GMOTW, but this week he just had to get his two cents in. Quoth: "I will disallow any review of T2 to go up without pointing out this paradox: Arnold plays the perfect humanoid machine, who can do complex equations, recall data files and shoot at the same time, use site-specific logic to get out of a tricky situation, and can have bullets dug out of his skin without feeling pain (though acknowledging that bullets are harmful), YET he still speaks with that ridiuclous Austrian accent!"

A fascinating observation, from a serious movie geek.]


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Name: williams kristin
Subject: T1 1000
-- Mar 9, 2003 at 12:43AM
take me please I want the T1 1000 to take me instead of john please take me please.

Name: Kerry Douglas Dye Responds
Subject: Re: Guy Movie of the Week, 5/10/99: Terminator 2
-- Dec 30, 2002 at 9:05AM
Terry, you've got serious comprehension issues. Here's how it breaks down. I don't remember any of the actual dates, so let's talk about 2 eras which I'll call "Now" (that is, 1984 or whenever Sarah is a waitress) and "The age of the machines" (that is, when terminators ruled the land and humanity was struggling against extinction).

Here's the timeline: in The Age of the Machines, Kyle is, say, 30 years old. J.C. sends him back in time to Now. At this point he's still 30 years old. After saving and impregnating Sarah Connor in Now, he dies, still at age 30 years.

So when/why do you think he became an old man?

Name: Terry
Subject: Guy Movie of the Week, 5/10/99: Terminator 2
-- Dec 29, 2002 at 7:44PM
In 1980 something he is in his "20's" when he gets Sarah pregnant, right? So John sends him back to protect Sarah and John has to be in his 20's, 30's right? So if I do the math he should be in his 40's minimum. And why did he still look like the younger age while back into the future, when the picture was burning up? But I am more interested in how you explain the timeline. Is it circular? Because it seems that it cannot be linear. I appreciate your help.

Name: Kerry Douglas Dye Responds
Subject: Re: Questions?
-- Dec 27, 2002 at 1:54PM
I assume you're referring to The Terminator, not T2? Where on Earth do you get the idea Reese has to be 50 or 60?

And he got the picture from John Connor.

Name: Terry
Subject: Questions?
-- Dec 27, 2002 at 12:39PM
Can anyone explain the timeline with Reese coming back in time as a twenty something, when he had to be 50-60 before he was sent back? And how did he have the picture of Sarah in the future when he looked 20 something?

Name: Steve
Subject: T2 questions
-- Dec 21, 2001 at 5:04PM
Don't get me wrong--I loved both T1 and T2, but there are some problems I have:
.>If only living material could be transported with the time machine, wouldn't it prevent T1000 from going through?
.>Same thing, only with the Old Model Terminator: wouldn't he appear as a boneless heap, with the endoskeleton left behind in the time machine?
.>What of the "inventor" of the technology that led up to Skynet? He would have been in 'protective custody' by the time Sarah found out about him. She would have broken into a house full of nasty little machines with Uzis.

Name: Heather
Subject: Time paradoxes
-- Mar 24, 2001 at 3:32AM
There are lots of "scientific&quo t; theories about time trips. Certainly nothing but real invention of the "time mashine" can submit or destroy any of them. But I cannot find any logical base for this two films. One of them - I think the second - must be paradoxal. But if there is the third, there will be no logic at all in this, because everybody can see there was no nuclear war in 1997.
And what about the film itself, not to think about physics and philosofy, it's the movie I like most of all - but I'm not sure that it's not infrasound resonance or something like that...

Name: herb
Subject: linda hamilton
-- Feb 25, 2001 at 2:56PM
does anyone know her e-mail address?

Name: chris ruff
Subject: an accent-free hyper-metal alloy...
-- Dec 8, 2000 at 1:18PM
I wanna know if Chris Carter is gonna make good use of our knowledge of Robert Patrick in an episode this year? like maybe he could morph into Mulder or something of the ilk.
just thinking here....

Name: The Editors Respond
Subject: Re: morphing
-- Nov 16, 2000 at 7:03AM
> the first time morpging
> was used was in "the
> abyss".

Indeed--like the water arm that turned from just regular water to Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's face. A nice effect, but not nearly as startling as the "person morphing into another person" referenced above. For that, we had to wait for this, and Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video.

Name: meny
Subject: morphing
-- Nov 16, 2000 at 6:55AM
the first time morpging was used was in "the abyss".

Name: Jimmy
Subject: terminator 2
-- Feb 18, 2000 at 9:26PM
I think this arguably one of the best science fiction movies ever, the effects were amazing

Name: dud
Subject: re: what are you thinkin?
-- Feb 2, 2000 at 5:53PM
Does make one wonder about danny boy's criteria, doesn't it?

Name: Havok
Subject: what are you thinkin?
-- Jan 13, 2000 at 11:42PM
T2 best movie ever??? hehehehehe *fallz down in fitz of laughter*

Name: daniel
Subject: terrminator 2
-- Jan 13, 2000 at 7:09PM
terminator 2 is the best movie ever, period.

Name: Robby
Subject: Humanick
-- Oct 15, 1999 at 3:02AM
T2 is without a doubt one of the greatest sci fi-action flicks ever made. 4 stars.


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