Is Terminator 2: Judgment Day worth watching in 2025?

The first Terminator film came out in 1984, over 40 years ago. The franchise, which includes six films, peaked with the blockbuster sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day released in 1991.  

Now, a new generation that may never have seen movies are being introduced to the characters through the video game, Mortal Kombat 1, which has released the liquid-metal antagonist from Terminator 2 as a playable character. 

This is not the iconic robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger who was the bad guy of the first film and the hero of the second. Instead, it is the upgraded terminator model from the second film that he squares off against. 

Video game fans being introduced to these characters for the first time may wonder whether the films are worth revisiting in 2025. 

Terminator 2 is a sci-fi action film that came out during 1991 and includes period tropes like a kid being a hacker, and a cool character who wears sunglasses. Before I watched it, I went in thinking this was just going to be a generic movie where one monster fights another monster. But this movie goes deep into how AI doesn’t understand the value of life.  

The plot has high stakes. In a post-apocalyptic future where humans and robots are at war, the robots sent a single robot back in time to assassinate the leader of the human resistance when he was still a kid. In response, the future humans also sent a robot back to the past to save him. 

The protagonist is John Conor played by Jude Collie. He lived with his foster parents because his mother, Sarah Connor, protagonist of the original film, was institutionalized. Sarah Connor, played by Leslie Hamilton, and T-800 played by Arnold Schwarzenegger are both trying to keep John Connor safe.  

The main villain of the Terminator universe is Skynet—an AI system created to help humanity, but which developed self-awareness and saw humans as threats. This caused it to create robots like the T-800 and the T-1000 to terminate all of humanity. The T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in this film is one that was captured and reprogrammed by human resistance. Since he is the same model of terminator that tried to kill Sarah Connor in the first movie, she was terrified when she saw him and assumed that he was trying to assassinate her again.  

The film plays up the idea that even technology is threatened by other technologies due to advancements and obsolescence. The T-800’s arsenal isn’t that big. Other than super strength and regeneration, he doesn’t have many abilities. However, the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, is made of liquid metal that can form itself into the most necessary shapes. This allows the T-1000 to heal almost instantaneously from any damage that he receives and disguise himself as other people. 

The movie mixes a lot of comedy to lighten the tension. When Sarah Connor saw the T-800 and got a flash back to when she was attacked by a terminator. She started to crawl away from him. The T-800 put out his hand and said, “come with me if you want to live.”  The same happens in humorous scenes where it feels more serious than it is. For example, when John Connor was trying to teach the T-1000 how to smile; they see 2 kids shooting toy guns at each other pretending to kill each other. This decision to have mood switches from serious to humor works in the movies favor. The tension between some scenes is broken by something funny, it’s entertaining enough to forget how sad the scene originally was. For example, the main character tells the T-800 “you can’t just go around killing people.” A bit later, they break into a psych ward and shoot the security guards in the knees, leaving them alive but crippled.  

During the first half of the movie, it felt like a horror movie because the main characters were defenseless against T-1000, which was always hot on their trail.   During the second half of the movie, the T-1000 had less screen time, and it was mostly focused on family issues and whether AI should be created in the first place. I really wished that the T-1000 got more screen time, because he was such a cool character and the concept of him being made of liquid metal was sick. Even after thirty years, this CGI holds up really well. 

I also wished that there was more hand-to-hand fighting between the T-1000 and the T-800, because most of the time T-800 was just shooting T-1000 with a gun, and this doesn’t showcase the potential of what T-1000 can do. Both terminators are extremely durable, and guns did mostly nothing to them except slow them down. It would have been better to see the two strongest characters in the movie have a standoff where they are both on an even playing field. Most of the time it’s just T-1000 outclassing T-800 or T-800 just slowing T-1000 down but never finishing him, because he doesn’t have a method of killing him. 

All the actors in the movie excelled at portraying their characters, especially the two terminators. Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert Patrick did a great job of acting without emotions and looking non-human.  Robert Patrick was exceptional especially because of his dedication to his character off screen. He practiced for the role so much that he was able to run at top speed without breathing and was able to shoot a gun without flinching. 

Overall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a great movie that can stand up to movies today. Young people coming across these characters due to their recent additions to Mortal Kombat may find themselves quickly becoming big fans. 

Image Credit: Tri-Star Pictures