Terminator 2: Judgment Day Was Released in Theaters 30 Years Ago Today

It’s now been thirty years since John Connor and the T-800 successfully stopped the rise of Skynet and the war between man and machine… at least until Terminator 3, anyway. In the summer of 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day premiered in theaters about seven years after the release of the original movie. It was met with instant success and has since become widely known as one of the very best sequels of all time.

James Cameron returned to direct Terminator 2, using a screenplay co-written with William Wisher. Also back in the lead role was Arnold Schwarzenegger as a killer robot from the future, but not the same one that he played in The Terminator. In the original movie, Arnold’s T-800 was the antagonist, a time-traveling robot on a mission to terminate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). It failed when human time traveler Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) intervened, saving Sarah and fathering John.

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Terminator 2 reveals that Sarah Conner has since been locked up in a mental asylum, and teenage John (Edward Furlong) has become quite the troublemaker. That’s when the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a more powerful terminator with the ability to shape-shift, arrives from the future, targeting John specifically this time instead of his mother. From the future, an older John also sent back a reprogrammed T-800 (Schwarzenegger) to protect his teenage self, as John must stay alive to lead the human resistance in the war against the machines.

Various sequels have been released over the years, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the Fox TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate. The original movie from 1984 is also very popular with fans of the series. Even so, many still consider T2 to be the best installment of the franchise, and some go so far as to call it one of the very best action movies ever made.

“One of the best pure sequels ever made was released 30 years ago&• today. And man, it still holds up,” tweets Craiger’s Cinema Corner.

“30 years since Terminator 2: Judgment Day premiered in theaters,” another tweet reads. “Arguably the best sequel of all time, and to many far better than the original. Lots of character growth, and full of effects that really changed how movies were made.”

Another fan who just finished another viewing in honor of the anniversary wrote: “Just re-watched Terminator 2, released 30 years ago. And it still holds up as an amazing movie!”

“30 years ago on this day, James Cameron released one of the most groundbreaking sequels ever made: Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” writes another fan.

And another fan tweeted, “Happy 30th birthday to the best film ever made. Saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day three times in the cinema (no mean feat for a first year uni student) and it remains my favourite film in the world.”

If you want to revisit the movie, Pluto TV will be streaming Terminator 2: Judgment Day for free at 8 p.m. in honor of the movie’s 30th anniversary. The iconic sequel is also currently streaming on Netflix. You can also see what others are saying about the movie in celebration of its anniversary on Twitter. Hasta la vista, baby.

Topics: Terminator 2, Terminator

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