Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (also promoted as T2) is a 1991 American science fiction action film produced and directed by James Cameron, who also co-wrote it with William Wisher. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong as its principal cast. It is the sequel to the 1984 film The Terminator, as well as the second installment in the Terminator franchise. Terminator 2 follows Sarah Connor (Hamilton) and her ten-year-old son John (Furlong) as they are pursued by a new, more advanced Terminator: the liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 (Patrick), sent back in time to kill John Connor and prevent him from becoming the leader of the human resistance. A second, less advanced Terminator (Schwarzenegger) is also sent back in time to protect John.

While talks of a followup to The Terminator arose following its release, its development was stalled due to technical limitations regarding computer-generated imagery, a vital aspect of the film, and legal issues with original producer Hemdale Film Corporation, who controlled half of the franchise rights. In 1990, Carolco Pictures acquired the rights from Hemdale and production was immediately started, with Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, and Cameron returning. Principal photography began in October 1990 and lasted until March 1991. Its visual effects saw breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery, including the first use of natural human motion for a computer-generated character and the first partially computer-generated main character. At the time of its release, with a budget of $102 million, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the most expensive film ever made.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in the United States on July 3, 1991 by TriStar Pictures. It was a critical success upon its release, with praise going towards the performances of its cast, the action scenes, and its visual effects. Regarded as superior to the original film and one of the best sequels ever made, the film influenced popular culture, especially the use of visual effects in films. It grossed $517 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1991 and of Schwarzenegger's career, as well as the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, until The Matrix Reloaded surpassed it in 2003. It received several accolades, including Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects.

Other sequels followed, starting with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003. The 2019 Cameron-produced film, Terminator: Dark Fate, serves as a direct sequel to Terminator 2 and disregards all other Terminator works as occurring in alternate timelines. In 2017, Terminator 2 was re-released in 3D 4K resolution for AMC and Cineplex theaters, debuting at number one in the United Kingdom on its release weekend.

Plot
In 1995, John Connor is living in Los Angeles with foster parents. His mother, Sarah Connor, had been preparing him throughout his childhood for his future role as the human resistance leader against Skynet, the artificial intelligence that will be given control of the United States' nuclear missiles and initiate a nuclear holocaust on August 29, 1997, known thereafter as "Judgment Day". However, Sarah was arrested and imprisoned at a mental hospital after attempting to bomb a computer factory. In 2029, Skynet sends a new Terminator, designated as T-1000, back in time to kill John. The T-1000 is an advanced prototype made out of liquid metal (referred to as "mimetic polyalloy") that gives it the ability to take on the shape and appearance of almost anything it touches, and to transform its arms into blades and other shapes at will. The T-1000 arrives, kills a policeman, and assumes his identity. Meanwhile, the future John Connor has sent back a reprogrammed Model 101 Terminator to protect his young self.

The Terminator and the T-1000 converge on John in a shopping mall, and a chase ensues after which John and the Terminator escape together on a motorcycle. Fearing that the T-1000 will kill Sarah in order to get to him, John orders the Terminator to help free her, after discovering that the Terminator must follow his orders. They encounter Sarah as she is escaping from the hospital, although she is initially reluctant to trust the Model 101. After the trio escape from the T-1000 in a police car, the Terminator informs John and Sarah about Skynet's history. Sarah learns that the man most directly responsible for Skynet's creation is Miles Bennett Dyson, a Cyberdyne Systems engineer working on a revolutionary new microprocessor that will form the basis for Skynet.

Sarah gathers weapons from an old friend and plans to flee with John to Mexico, but after having a nightmare about Judgment Day, she instead sets out to kill Dyson in order to prevent Judgment Day from occurring. Finding him at his home, she wounds him but finds herself unable to kill him in front of his family. John and the Terminator arrive and inform Dyson of the future consequences of his work. They learn that much of his research has been reverse engineered from the damaged CPU and the right arm of the previous Terminator who attacked Sarah back in 1984. Convincing him that these items and his designs must be destroyed, they break into the Cyberdyne building, retrieve the CPU and the arm, and set explosives to destroy Dyson's lab. The police arrive and Dyson is fatally shot, but he rigs an improvised dead man's switch that detonates the explosives when he dies. The T-1000 relentlessly pursues the surviving trio, eventually cornering them in a steel mill.

The T-1000 and Model 101 fight and the more advanced model seriously damages and shuts down the Model 101. However, unbeknownst to the T-1000, the Model 101 brings itself back online using emergency power. The T-1000 nearly kills John and Sarah but the Model 101 takes it by surprise and blasts it into a vat of molten steel with a grenade launcher, destroying it. John tosses the arm and CPU of the original Terminator into the vat as well. As Sarah expresses relief that the ordeal is over, the Terminator explains that to ensure that it is not used for reverse engineering it must also be destroyed. It asks Sarah to assist in lowering it into the vat of molten steel, since it is unable to "self-terminate". Although John begs and eventually orders the Terminator to reconsider, it makes the decision to disobey him, bids them farewell and hugs a tearful John before it is lowered into the vat, giving a final thumbs-up as it disappears into the molten steel. John and Sarah drive down a highway and Sarah says in a voice over, “The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can, too."

Cast

 * Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Model 101, also known as a T-800 and credited as "The Terminator": An android, built as a synthetic organism composed of living tissue over a titanium "hyperalloy" endoskeleton, reprogrammed and sent back in time to protect John Connor, becoming his surrogate father in the process. Schwarzenegger was reportedly paid $15 million for the role. Stuntman Matt McColm served as his body double.
 * Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor: The mother of John, the future leader of the Resistance in the war against Skynet. Hamilton reprised her role from the 1984 film for a salary of $1 million. In preparation for the role, Hamilton underwent an extensive thirteen-week training regimen with personal trainer Anthony Cortes, training for three hours each day, six days a week before filming began. She additionally lost 12 lbs on a low-fat diet, conducted throughout the film's six-month shoot. Actor and former Israeli commando Uzi Gal provided her with training for her action scenes. On her work with Gal, Hamilton stated that she undertook "judo and heavy-duty military training" and "learned to load clips, change mags, check out a room upon entry, verify kills." Hamilton's twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren also portrayed Sarah when it was required that there be two of the character in the same shot.
 * Robert Patrick as T-1000: An advanced shapeshifting prototypical Terminator composed of liquid metal sent back in time to assassinate John. Cameron stated that he "wanted to find someone who would be a good contrast to Arnold. If the 800 series is a kind of human Panzer tank, then the 1000 series had to be a Porsche."
 * Edward Furlong as John Connor: The ten-year-old son of Sarah, given survival training from a young age, but taken into foster care after his mother is institutionalized. Furlong was discovered by casting director Mali Finn while visiting the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club. Furlong, who had no acting ambitions at the time, stated, "I fell into [acting], it wasn't something that I planned".
 * Michael Edwards as Old John Connor
 * Joe Morton as Miles Dyson: The director of special projects at Cyberdyne, whose research will lead to the formation of Skynet. Dyson has a wife and son.
 * Earl Boen as Dr. Silberman: Sarah's psychiatrist, Boen reprises his character from the 1984 film. Dr. Silberman is trying to convince Sarah that the Terminator is not real, but when he witnesses the T-1000 and T-800 he begins to doubt himself.

The cast was rounded out with Jenette Goldstein and Xander Berkeley, who portray John's foster parents, Janelle and Todd Voight. S. Epatha Merkerson plays Tarissa Dyson, the wife of Miles Dyson. Cástulo Guerra plays Sarah's friend, Enrique Salceda, who provides her with weapons. Danny Cooksey plays Tim, John's friend. Michael Biehn returned to the series as Kyle Reese, a soldier from 2029, in a short appearance in Sarah's dream. Biehn's scene was not featured in the theatrical release of the film, but it was restored in extended versions of the film. Hamilton's then-twenty-month-old son Dalton plays her on-screen son in a dream sequence set in a playground. Sven-Ole Thorsen played a security guard when John is at the Galleria with his friend Tim. DeVaughn Nixon played Danny Dyson, the son of Miles and Tarissa Dyson.

Development


Talk of a potential sequel to The Terminator arose soon after its release, but several outstanding issues precluded such a production. There were technical limitations regarding computer-generated imagery, an aspect of the film essential to the creation of the T-1000 Terminator. The production of James Cameron's 1989 film The Abyss provided the proof of concept needed to satisfactorily resolve the technical concerns. Perhaps more serious were the intellectual property disputes between Hemdale Film Corporation, which owned 50% of the rights to the franchise and stymied efforts to produce a sequel, and Carolco Pictures. Given that Hemdale was then experiencing financial problems, Schwarzenegger urged Mario Kassar, head of Carolco, to bid for the rights: "I reminded Mario that this is something that we've been looking for four years, and that it should be him that should go all-out, no matter what it takes to make this deal." Carolco eventually paid Hemdale $5 million for the franchise in 1990, resolving the legal gridlock.

The end of the legal disputes coincided with the willingness and availability of Cameron, Schwarzenegger, and Hamilton to participate in the sequel; Schwarzenegger, who portrayed the Terminator in the first film, commented: "I always felt we should continue the story of The Terminator, I told Jim that right after we finished the first film." He and Hamilton reprised their roles from the first Terminator film. After an extensive casting search, 13-year-old Edward Furlong was selected from hundreds of candidates to portray John Connor; Robert Patrick was chosen to play the T-1000 Terminator because his slender physique would create a contrast between the advanced T-1000 and Schwarzenegger's older T-800. Patrick had previously appeared in the action feature Die Hard 2, but Furlong had no formal acting experience. Joe Morton was picked to portray Miles Dyson, a Cyberdyne scientist whose work would eventually lead to the creation of Skynet.

Calling themselves T2 Productions, James and co-producers Stephanie Austin and B.J. Rack rented an office in North Hollywood before starting to assemble the crew. Adam Greenberg, who worked on The Terminator and Ghost (1990), became director of photography, while Joseph Nemec III, who had worked with Cameron on The Abyss, was tasked with production design. The team conducted a national search for a steel mill suitable for the film's climax, and selected a dormant Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, California, after weeks of negotiations. Locating the Cyberdyne building was more difficult, as the site was to host numerous stunts, shootouts, and explosions. An industrial park in Fremont, California, was eventually rented for the duration of the film's production. Cameron and William Wisher completed the 140-page screenplay draft on May 10, 1990, and by July 15, the first shooting draft had been distributed to the cast and crew; particulars of the technically detailed scripts were shrouded in secrecy. Both the six-week turnaround for the script and the film's accelerated production schedule were to enable a 1991 Fourth of July release.

Filming
Principal photography of Terminator 2 spanned 171 days between October 9, 1990, and March 28, 1991,  during which the crew filmed at the Mojave Desert before visiting 20 different sites throughout California and New Mexico. These locations ran the gamut from the crowded Santa Monica Place shopping mall, where the two Terminators converged on John, with brief shots coming from the Westfield MainPlace and Los Cerritos Center, to flood control channels in the San Fernando Valley, which played host to the chase between the Terminators and John; a river had to be redirected to allow filming on the otherwise wet channels. Cameron and his crew also filmed Terminator 2 at The Corral Bar and the Lake View Medical Center (known as Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in the film), both located in Lake View Terrace. The external shots of Cyberdyne Systems Corporation were filmed on location at an office building on the corner of Gateway Boulevard and Bayside Parkway in Fremont, California. Working with up to 1,000 crew members, the production team oversaw numerous stunts and chase sequences, the most notable of which took place on the Los Angeles–Long Beach Terminal Island Freeway, prior to Terminator 2's climax. Ten miles (16 km) of electric cables were laid to illuminate the night-time chase, which saw a full-scale helicopter crash, a sliding tanker, and other elaborate paraphernalia.

Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, was used in some shots that required two Sarahs, including a scene where Sarah and John perform repairs on the Terminator's head (deleted from the theatrical release, but restored on the extended edition), and in some of the shots where the T-1000 impersonates Sarah. Gearren is playing whichever "Sarah" is farthest from the camera, alternating between the real Sarah and the T-1000 based on camera position. Linda Hamilton's son, Dalton Abbott, appeared as the toddler John Connor in Sarah's nuclear nightmare. Another set of twins, Don and Dan Stanton, were used to depict a scene where the T-1000 mimics a guard at the asylum.

An unprecedented budget of $102 million (1991 dollars)—3.5 times the cost of the average film and approximately 15 times the $6.4 million budget of The Terminator —was reserved for Terminator 2 making it the most expensive film made up to that point. A significant proportion of this was for actor and film-crew salaries. According to The Daily Sentinel  and The Daily Beast, Arnold Schwarzenegger was given an $11–12 million Gulfstream III business jet, while $5–6 million was allocated towards James Cameron's salary. The production itself, which included special effects and stunts, totalled $51 million. Although the film was commonly described by the media as the most expensive film ever made at the time, if adjusted for inflation, Cleopatra (1963), would have cost $219 million in 1995 dollars. Despite the significant expenditure, the film had nearly recovered its budget prior to its release. Worldwide rights were sold for $65 million, video rights for $10 million, and television rights for $7 million.

Effects


Terminator 2 made extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to vivify the main two Terminators. The use of such technology was the most ambitious since the 1982 and 1984 science fiction films Tron and The Last Starfighter respectively, and would be integral to the critical success of the film. CGI was required particularly for the T-1000, a "mimetic poly-alloy" (liquid metal) structure, since the shapeshifting character can transform into almost anything it touches. Most of the key Terminator effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), and Pacific Data Images (PDI) for computer graphics and Stan Winston for practical effects. Creation of the visual effects cost $5 million and took 35 people, including animators, computer scientists, technicians and artists, ten months to produce, for a total of 25 man-years. Despite the large amount of time spent, the CGI sequences only total five minutes of running time. Enlisted to produce articulated puppets and prosthetic effects was Stan Winston's studio, who was also responsible for the metal skeleton effects of the T-800. ILM's Visual Effects Supervisor, Dennis Muren, remarked, "We still have not lost the spirit of amazement when we see ... [the visual effects on the T-1000] coming up." Such was the role and creation of CGI that the visual-effects team was awarded the 1992 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

For Sarah's nuclear nightmare scene, Robert and Dennis Skotak of 4-Ward Production constructed a cityscape of Los Angeles using large-scale miniature buildings and realistic roads and vehicles. The pair, after having studied actual footages of nuclear tests, then simulated the nuclear blast by using air mortars to knock over the cityscape, including the intricately built buildings.

Marketing


The film was adapted by Marvel Comics as a three issue miniseries, which was collected into a trade paperback. In the years following its release, several books based on the film were released, including Malibu Comics Terminator 2 – Judgment Day: Cybernetic Dawn, Terminator 2 – Judgment Day: Nuclear Twilight, IDW Comics T2: Infiltrator, T2: Rising Storm and T2: Future War' by S.M. Stirling, and The John Connor Chronicles by Russell Blackford.

In 1996, Cameron directed an attraction at Universal Studios Theme Parks, titled T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, which saw the return of Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, Patrick, and Furlong to their respective roles. Costing $60 million to produce, with a running time of only 12 minutes, it became the most expensive venture per minute in the history of film. The attraction opened in the Universal Studios Florida in mid-1996, with additional venues opening in the Universal Studios Hollywood in May 1999, and the Universal Studios Japan in March 2001.

Seven games were created based on the film, made available for home consoles and arcade machines. A line of trading cards was also released. A novelization, written by Randall Frakes, was published through Sphere ISBN 978-0747410324.

Soundtrack
The score by Brad Fiedel was commercially released as the Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) CD and cassette tape and contained twenty tracks with a runtime of 53 minutes. The score spent six weeks on the Billboard 200, reaching a peak of No. 70. The album was re-issued in 2010 by Silva Screen Records and featured a collectible booklet. In the DVD commentary, Fiedel mentions that the recurring metallic sound in the main title was produced by hitting a cast-iron frying pan with a hammer.

Songs not included within the soundtrack
 * "Guitars, Cadillacs" – performed by Dwight Yoakam
 * "Bad to the Bone" – performed by George Thorogood & the Destroyers
 * "You Could Be Mine" – performed by Guns N' Roses

Release
Terminator 2 had its worldwide premiere at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas in Century City, Los Angeles, on July 1, 1991, attended by VIPs including Nicolas Cage, Christian Slater, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver. Following its domestic release on July 3, the film was progressively distributed to cinemas in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Spain, and at least ten other countries by the end of the year.

3D conversion
On August 29, 2016 (a reference to August 29, 1997 — the date on which Skynet becomes self-aware in the films), it was announced that the film would be digitally remastered in 3D to commemorate its 25th anniversary, with a worldwide re-release planned for summer 2017. The version to be remastered and rereleased in 3D was the original 137 minute theatrical cut, as the extended edition is not James Cameron's preferred version. Multiple camera shots from the opening chase sequence were digitally altered to fix a minor continuity error which had troubled Cameron since the 1991 release. DMG Entertainment and StudioCanal worked together with Cameron to convert the film using the StereoD technology. The 3D version premiered on February 17, 2017, at the Berlin International Film Festival, with the theatrical re-release being scheduled for August 25, 2017. Similar to Cameron's Titanic 3D, Lightstorm Entertainment oversaw the work on the 3D version of Terminator 2, which took around 1800 artists about eight months to finish. The restoration was released by Distrib Films US, a company which typically distributes foreign films. The studio released the film exclusively for one week in AMC Theatres nationwide, and said that it will expand depending on the film's performances in its first week.

The 3D version opened Friday, August 25, 2017, across 371 theaters (or 463 3D auditoriums), earning $552,773 in its opening weekend, averaging $1,490 per screen; this was considered an amount lower than what other '80s and '90s re-releases earned in their respective opening weekends such as Top Gun ($1.9 million, which also played in IMAX), Raiders of the Lost Ark ($1.6 million), as well as more high-profile reissues of Titanic, The Lion King and Jurassic Park over the last several years. During its opening weekend, Titanic 3D grossed $17.3 million in 2,674 theaters, averaging $6,464 in April 2012. While not major contributing factors, the release performance of the film is thought to have suffered from coinciding with Hurricane Harvey, which eased moviegoing admissions in many parts of the country, the much anticipated boxing fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor, and the season 7 finale of Game of Thrones.

Home media
The 137-minute theatrical cut of the movie was first released on VHS in November 1991. On November 24, 1993, the Terminator 2: Judgment Day – Special Edition cut of the film was released to Laserdisc and VHS, containing 15 minutes of previously unseen footage including scenes with Michael Biehn reprising his role as Kyle Reese in a dream sequence. Some scenes, however, were still not included in the two-cassette VHS cut. In October 1997, the film received its first DVD release which featured the original theatrical cut. In 1998 and 1999, the film was released on DVD only in Australia, France and Brazil by Columbia TriStar Home Video.

The "Extreme Edition" DVD has several DVD-ROM features, including an "Infiltration Unit Simulator" and the "T2 FX Studio", an application where images of a person can be imported and transformed into a T-800 or T-1000, and the "Skynet Combat Chassis Designer", a program where viewers could build a fighting machine and be able to track progress online. The Extreme DVD also contains a WMV-HD theatrical edition of T2, where the film could be watched, for the first time, in Full HD 1080p format.

In 2006, Lionsgate released a Blu-ray of the film that is presented in a slightly washed-out 1080p transfer and included no special features and a DTS 5.1 audio track from the DVDs instead of a lossless audio track. On May 19, 2009, Lionsgate re-released the film on Blu-ray in the form of a "Skynet Edition", with an enhanced and improved video transfer, as well as a THX certified DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 audio. This edition has a runtime of 152 minutes. The Skynet Edition also saw a limited collector's edition encased in an Endoskull, including the 2009 Blu-ray, as well as the Extreme Edition and Ultimate Edition DVDs and a digital copy of the film.

On July 2017, two new Blu-ray releases of the film were announced. First, a 4K remaster, and later a Blu-ray 3D release of the 3D conversion due out in August 2017. These re-releases would include new extras, including trailers, making-of documentaries, and "Seamless Branching of the Theatrical cut, Director's Cut and Special extended edition". The Director's Cut version has a runtime of 154 minutes. Additionally, an "Endo-arm Special Edition" bundle was announced, including both the 3D and 4K versions, and a CD audio soundtrack.

Extended Edition
In 2015, Sony released the extended version of the film as part of the Terminator Quadrilogy box set containing the first four Terminator films. However, it contains no special features. The subsequent "Ultimate Edition" and "Extreme Edition" DVD releases also included the extended version of the film.

Alongside other numerous re-added deleted scenes, the Extended Edition features an alternate ending, which shows an elderly Sarah Connor watching an adult John, who is a U.S. Senator, playing with his daughter in a Washington playground in the year 2029, narrating that Judgment Day never happened. The extended version of the film is also included in the "Skynet Edition" Blu-ray.

Box office
Opening in 2,274 theaters in the United States, Terminator 2 earned a then record $52 million during its Fourth of July five-day opening weekend. In terms of the traditional three day – Friday to Sunday – period however, the film made $31 million, the second-biggest opening weekend of all time after Batman's $42 million opening in 1989. Elsewhere, the film grossed $3.4 million in Australia and $7.1 million in Germany during their opening weekends in September and October 1991, respectively.

Terminator 2 was a box-office success, earning $204.8 million in the United States and Canada alone, and $517 million worldwide. Its domestic total was 3.9 times its opening weekend; adjusted for inflation, its release is the tenth-highest grossing of all time for an R-rated film. Globally, it was the highest-grossing film of 1991, beating Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the third-biggest global grosser ever just behind Star Wars ($530 million prior to the 1997 reissue) and E.T.: the Extra Terrestrial ($619 million before its various reissues) and is TriStar Pictures' highest-grossing film to date. Moreover, it was the first film to earn more than $300 million internationally, a milestone not repeated until the release of Jurassic Park in 1993. The film is ranked 110 in box office earnings of all time in the U.S. and Canada, and 84 worldwide. The original Terminator grossed $38 million in the U.S. in its theatrical run, with Terminator 2 achieving 434 percent increase in box office revenue. The film sold an estimated 48,656,400 tickets in North America.

Critical response
Terminator 2: Judgment Day received widespread critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – established on the Web in 1998 – retroactively reports that the film earned 93% positive reviews, based on 81 reviews with an average score of 8.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "T2 features thrilling action sequences and eye-popping visual effects, but what takes this sci-fi/action landmark to the next level is the depth of the human (and cyborg) characters." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 75 out of 100 from 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.

The Montreal Film Journal called it "one of the best crafted Hollywood action flicks." Syd Field lauded the plot of Terminator 2, writing: "every scene sets up the next, like links in a chain of dramatic action." Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, and wrote: "Schwarzenegger's genius as a movie star is to find roles that build on, rather than undermine, his physical and vocal characteristics." Hal Hinson, reviewer for The Washington Post, was also positive, writing that: "No one in the movies today can match Cameron's talent for this kind of hyperbolic, big-screen action. Cameron, who directed the first Terminator and Aliens, doesn't just slam us over the head with the action. In staging the movie's gigantic set pieces, he has an eye for both grandeur and beauty; he possesses that rare director's gift for transforming the objects he shoots so that we see, for example, the lyrical muscularity of an 18-wheel truck. Because of Cameron, the movie is the opposite of its Terminator character; it's a machine with a human heart." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune was enthusiastic about the film, giving it 3 1/2 stars: "thanks to some truly spectacular and at times mystifying special effects – as well as some surprisingly solid acting – this is one terrific action picture, more enjoyable than the original". Halliwell's Film Guide also rated the film as an improvement on its predecessor, giving it two stars out of four and describing it as a "thunderous, high-voltage action movie with dazzling special effects that provide a distraction from the often silly narrative."

Writing for Time, Richard Corliss was far less pleased, stating that the film was a "humongous, visionary parable that intermittently enthralls and ultimately disappoints. T2 is half of a terrific movie—the wrong half." Leonard Maltin gave the movie only 2 1/2 stars, stating, "like so many sequels, [it] lacks the freshness of the first film and gives us no one to root for." In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw agreed, saying of Terminator 2 that it was "in my view lacking the steely clarity and force of the original" while acknowledging that it was "dynamically filmed".

Legacy
In June 2001, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Terminator 2 at number 77 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, a list of films considered to be the most thrilling in film history. In 2003, the AFI released the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains, a list of the 100 greatest screen heroes and villains of all time. The Terminator, as portrayed by Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, was ranked at number 48 on the list of heroes, as well as at number 22 on the list of villains for its appearance in the first Terminator film. The character was the only entry to appear on both lists, though they are different characters based on the same model. In 2005, Schwarzenegger's famous quote "Hasta la vista, baby" was ranked at number 76 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes best film quotes list.

The film placed number 33 on Total Film's 2006 list of The Top 100 Films of All Time. Empire ranked the film number 35 on its list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. In 2008, the film was voted the eighth-best science fiction film ever on AFI's 10 Top 10. IGN named the film the tenth-greatest science fiction film of all time, saying that it was "one example of a sequel coming along and just destroying the original in every regard." Empire ranked Terminator 2: Judgment Day as the third-best film sequel of all time. In 2012, Total Film placed the film at eighth place on its list of "50 Sequels That Were Better Than The Original". In 2016, Playboy ranked the film number one on its list of 15 Sequels That Are Way Better Than The Originals. Richard Roeper named Judgment Day the third-best film sequel ever made, stating that it "surpasses the original in every level."

American Film Institute recognition

 * 2001: AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #77
 * 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
 * Terminator – #48 Hero
 * 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
 * "Hasta la vista, baby." – #76
 * 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10 – #8 Science Fiction Film

Cultural references
Robert Patrick makes a cameo appearance in Wayne's World (1992) as the T-1000 character in a scene where he pulls Wayne's car over, holds up a photo of John Connor and asks, "Have you seen this boy?", to which Wayne screams in panic and drives away from him. Patrick also makes a cameo appearance as the T-1000 in Last Action Hero (1993), when he is seen walking by Schwarzenegger as he enters Los Angeles Police Department headquarters. In the same film, actor Sylvester Stallone is featured as the Terminator on a Terminator 2 poster instead of Schwarzenegger. In Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), a caricature of Saddam Hussein is frozen, shattered, and reformed in a direct parody of the T-1000 from the final scene of Terminator 2.

The opening credits show four burning horses of a carousel as the allegory of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The film is referenced multiple times in a variety of animated series, such as The Simpsons, including episodes "Homer Loves Flanders" (1994), "Treehouse of Horror VI" (1995), "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" (1995), and "Day of the Jackanapes" (2001). The film is also parodied in Family Guy and American Dad!. In the 2014 film The Lego Movie, Wyldstyle says to Emmet, "Come with me if you wanna not die." A trailer for WWE 2K16 reenacts the bar scene with Schwarzenegger interacting with various wrestlers.

Sequels
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was followed by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015). All were made without Cameron; Schwarzenegger returned for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Genisys, with a digital cameo in Terminator Salvation.

While Terminator Genisys was intended to start a new rebooted trilogy, its disappointing critical and commercial performance determined that Terminator: Dark Fate would serve as an alternate sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring the events from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines onward. The film was released on November 1, 2019, with Cameron (this time as producer), Schwarzenegger and Hamilton returning.

Video games
Various video games based on the film were released. An arcade version was released in 1991 by Midway Manufacturing Company, and was ported to numerous game consoles. A computer game, published by Ocean Software, was released in 1991.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day was also released for Game Boy in 1991, and for SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1993. An 8-bit version was also released for Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Game Gear and Master System.

A themed pinball machine was released in July 1991 by Williams Electronics.