History Film / Terminator2JudgmentDay

** A variation is used by the T-800 wherein he ''flips'' the shotgun to reload it.

* BluffTheImpostor:
-->'''The Terminator:''' [''to John''] What is the dog's name? \\
'''John Connor:''' Max. \\
'''The Terminator:''' [''impersonating John's voice''] Hey Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking. Is he okay? \\
'''Janelle (T-1000):''' Wolfie's fine, John. Wolfie's just fine. Where are you? \\

* YouShallNotPass: Sarah Connor tricks John into escaping without her, then stays behind to prevent the T-1000 from following and killing him.

** One of the most {{badass}} examples in film history is a scene in which the T-1000 rams his tanker into the rear of the good guys' pickup truck and the T-800 responds by grabbing an assault rifle, walking from the back up the pickup to the front of the tanker, shoots the T-1000 through the glass[[hottip:*:As in - unloads the entire clip into the guy's ''face'']], grabs the wheel from the outside and makes it turn on its side and then rides the top of the sliding truck until it comes to a stop.

* LaserGuidedKarma: A guard at the mental hospital commits a [[{{Squick}} sexual assault]] on Sarah and harasses the other patients by tapping their door jambs with his nightstick. Guess who's the second casualty in that scene?[[hottip:* : Not from the Terminator!]]

* MasterOfUnlocking: John has a palmtop computer[[hottip:*:Specifically, an {{Atari}} [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Portfolio Portfolio]] with a code-cracking program he apparently uses to brute-force [=PINs=] on stolen credit cards. [[spoiler:Later, he uses the same program to crack door codes at Cyberdyne; in one of the comics, he was shown using the same program again to ''destroy [=SkyNet=]'', with the final prompt being "Easy money."]]

''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' (1991) is the second film in the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' franchise. Creator/JamesCameron returned to the director's chair for the sequel.

[=SkyNet=] sends a more advanced Terminator -- the [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]], [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] T-1000 Model -- to the past. In response, John Connor sends back a T-800 Model Terminator that he has reprogrammed to protect his past self. Both Terminators arrive at a time when a ten-year-old John lives with foster parents and Sarah sits in an asylum after an attempt to blow up a computer factory. The T-1000 kills anyone it chooses to replicate, and when John figures out the T-1000 will attempt to replicate Sarah, he forces the T-800 to rescue his mother. With the three of them united, they set off on a race against time to stop Skynet from ever being built, and thus, avert Judgement day.

'''The Terminator:''' [''hangs up''] Your foster parents are dead.

* [[ChekhovsGun/{{Film}} Chekhov's Gun]]: Multiple examples

* CurbStompBattle: The T-800's fistfight in the steel mill against the T-1000, due to the fact he has ''nothing'' that can even harm his liquid-metal opponent. A solid punch to the T-1000's face even ends badly for him!

* DeadlyDelivery: The T-800 carries a longbox that looks like it's full of roses. And it is, but it's also got a shotgun in it. This also qualifies as a VisualPun on "Guns 'N' Roses", whose song "You Could Be Mine" is heard in the film (the video for said song also has a Terminator cameo).

* DeathIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:The T-800 at the end realizes he must destroy himself to prevent reverse engineering of his design, however he [[ICannotSelfTerminate cannot self-terminate.]] John Connor has to push the button.]]

* DistantFinale: The director's cut has a 2037 HappyEnding where John is a senator and has a daughter. They are together with Sarah in a playground.

* ExactWords: "I swear I will not kill anyone." After knee-capping a security guard: "He'll live."

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Before his/its true nature is revealed, the T-1000 shoots a brief puzzled glance at a silvery mannequin in the mall shop.

* FromASingleCell: The T-1000 reassembles completely after being frozen and scattered once it heats to a liquid state again. Melting however... (It still struggled after re-forming the first time, though. See ResurrectionSickness.)

* GenreShift: From the second movie onward, the ''Terminator'' movies became an action/sci-fi series while the first film was more of a standard horror movie with a sci-fi backdrop.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: {{Discussed|Trope}} -- John is surprised that Russia will fire its nuclear missiles at the U.S., given that "Russians are our friends now;" the latter line was actually added late to the script following this happening in RealLife. Also, in the first Cyberdyne scene, a lollipop-licking employee is shown wearing a black souvenir T-shirt with the Russian coat-of-arms, implying that he went on a trip to Moscow, which was next to impossible before ''perestroika''.
** Those who saw ''T2'' in a movie theater in August of 1991, when the attempted Soviet coup d'état attempt was going on or had just been put down, laughed [[FunnyAneurysmMoment a bit nervously]] when John says how Russia and America are now "friends."
* GoodVersusGood: The T-800 versus the police. Arnie wants to ensure the destruction of Cyberdyne, whereas the police merely do their job, stopping an apparent terrorist act.

* GunPorn: ''T2'' is one big showcase of just about all CoolGuns ever made and then some.

* HandSignals: SWAT team leaders use them twice: to direct team movement during the infiltration of Cyberdyne, and to order that tear gas be fired at the T-800.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Sarah stops attacking Miles Dyson when she realizes, from the horrified reactions of his wife and son, that she's acting like the merciless Terminators she hates so much.

* HeroicSuicide: [[spoiler:The T-800 ally must kill himself at the end to destroy the last possible source of Terminator technology that could let people reverse-engineer Terminators and Skynet.]]

* HijackedByGanon: Played with in a creative manner: The severed arm of the first T-800 is locked away at Cyberdyne. The camera shot implies that it's reaching from the grave.
* HonorBeforeReason: John Connor is an admirable example this trope -- he stops his mother from killing Dyson even believing it would prevent Judgment Day, and his idealism allowed a war for humanity's future to be waged and won without murdering a single innocent human being.
* HollywoodSilencer: When Sarah Connor tries to assassinate Miles Dyson, she uses a Colt Commando CAR-15 assault rifle with a supressor. Not quite as silent as some examples, but still quieter than it would be in real life.

* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Clearly the favorite form for the T-1000 Terminator to take is that of a Los Angeles patrolman. Not surprisingly, an LAPD cop was the first person the T-1000 encountered upon arrival from its time-travel. That form also avails the T-1000 to plentiful information and resources.

* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Unstated when Sarah and the T-800 finally shake hands.
* JawDrop: Combined with DramaticDrop. The syringe cap Silberman was holding in his mouth drops to the ground when he sees T-1000 walk through the barred door. And I do mean ''[[ShapeShifting through]]'' the door.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: For the entire first act of the movie, John Connor acts like your typical rotten little brat. He's crass, thieving, and has no respect for authority. He even gets a couple of well-intentioned rescuers needlessly beat up by the T-800 when crying for help, then dismissing them flippantly. However, John has the utmost respect for human life, ordering the T-800 to never kill (despite the complications this presents later) and then potentially endangering his own life to prevent Sarah from becoming a murderer herself.
* KickTheDog: A deleted scene has the T-1000 realizing it has been duped and killing John's dog Max. Mostly a SoundOnlyDeath with some blood on the collar.
* KidWithTheLeash: John Connor. [[spoiler: His older self hands it to him]]

** Also, the therapist who exploits Sarah so he can get on TV and be in medical journals is eventually left the only member of the hospital staff alive who knows exactly what's going on -- after years of telling Sarah she's insane for having a similar experience, who's going to believe him?
** Shown by the third movie, he never told anyone what he saw and convinced himself it didn't really happen.

* MakingUseOfTheTwin: ''Thrice'', in fact. The scene where the T-1000 turns into the hospital security guard right in front of the real guard is played by twins Don and Dan Stanton, and in the cut scene showing Sarah removing the T-800's CPU, that's no mirror; the Arnie head in the foreground is a fake, being operated on by Linda Hamilton's twin sister Leslie while the real Linda mimics her movements on the real Arnie for the reflection. Leslie also plays the T-1000 version of Sarah near the end of the movie, and was the mother in the playground scene.

** Also it is said that Linda Hamilton, who took role preparation VERY seriously (just look at her), in fact picked both the harness lock and the door lock with pieces of a paper clip on-camera. She explicitly refused to imitate it, because she was given lockpicking training prior to shooting.

** Sarah attacks Dyson's home like a ruthless killing machine because he's reverse-engineering technology from the first Terminator and his research leads to the creation of Skynet. She breaks down when she realises that they're an innocent family with no inkling of their impact on the future, and the arrival of her son to see her this way.
** Dyson goes through this once convinced that the fascinating technical problems he's working on will cause the doom of mankind.

* NotSoDifferent: Sarah Connor has effectively ''become'' a Terminator by this point. Noticable during the scene where she attempts to murder Dyson, where she performs their signature OminousWalk, as well as attempt to murder someone in the past in order to change the future. Sound ''familiar'', Sarah? Her realisation of this causes her to suffer a minor breakdown. When John arrives to save Dyson, she says: "You came back to stop me", which is literally what Kyle Reese did to the original Terminator.
** For someone that's only supposed to imitate humans both physically and emotionally, T-1000 acts a lot more human near the climax of the film. Hell the last look on his face during the ShapeShifterSwan moment, showed that he was genuinely afraid of dying.

** He's wary of "Sarah" in the steel mill when she ''asks him for help'', not 24 hours after she berates him for helping her, confirmed when...

* ResurrectionSickness: A very subtle example. Edited out of the theatrical release but included in the LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition, after being frozen, shattered, melted and re-formed at the steel mill, the T-1000 is shown struggling to keep its form. Its feet and hands keep "merging" into the floor and handrails, and its entire body refreshes itself from head to toe repeatedly.

* SequelEscalation: ''Terminator 2'' is certainly bigger and full of explosions, but in one way this was averted; rather than the enemy just being an even bigger and badder Terminator, it's a leaner, less muscular, yet arguably a ''more deadly'' Terminator.

** The Terminator carrying a shotgun in a box full of roses is a reference to Music/GunsNRoses, who are in the soundtrack and a shout-out to ''Film/TheGodfather'', where Clemenza uses this concealment.

* SmallStepsHero: John refuses to sacrifice a human life to save himself or prevent the BadFuture. In the end, he even teaches ''the Terminator'' himself to be one!

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The pre-release publicity campaign involved releasing three trailers. The first, a teaser, showed a factory assembling a Terminator, step-by-step, then a close-up on an Arnie's face with the words "I'll be back" heard. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KfJ9kqRec4 The second trailer]] revealed there were two terminators, but deliberately avoided spoiling the twist that the T-800 was the [[spoiler: good]] guy. The final trailer, which did spoil it, was released shortly before the film's premiere and is now one of the most famous example of this trope.

* [[invoked]]UncannyValley: Invoked. The T-1000 fits this trope for most of his screentime in T2. On the commentary, co-writer Bill Wisher points out that throughout the film, Robert Patrick, who plays the T-1000, moves like a human being but just a ''tad'' smoother (because he's a liquid creature). In the scene where he talks to John's foster parents and again when he arrives at the mental hospital to ask the night nurse to see Sarah Connor, he behaves like a normal person(even smiling in a natural way in the former scene), but still puts out a subtly menacing vibe. Being a more advanced terminator and remaining more true to James Cameron's original idea of the terminator as an under-the-radar infiltrator (he disguises himself as a ''cop'' for crying out loud), it's expected that he could more accurately mimic a human posture, mannerisms and demeanor, but still do so in such a way that there was still something "off" and spooky about him. James Cameron mentioned in the "making of" video that part of why he cast Robert Patrick was because "he moves like a cat", and the T-1000 regards its environment in an almost feline way.

* WallOfWeapons: Sarah Connor has an underground cache of weapons hidden in the desert. Not that we need convincing she's a {{Badass}} by this point in the film. John Connor mentions this as well--"One thing about my mom... she always plans ahead."
* WeHaveTheKeys: The T-800 punches through a car window, then hot-wires the car. John flips down the windshield visor to reveal the keys, waving them in the terminator's face and making a snide remark about "learning". [[CallBack The second time he's required to steal a car, he gets in and flips down the visor…and finds the keys.]]

** John calls the T-800 out on his deadliness, arguing his defense is a DisproportionateRetribution, but also on his kneecapping policy.
** John calls his mother Sarah out on her unheroic and ruthless ways. In the director's cut, he has to stop her from destroying the T-800, a massive asset.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: By the time they reach the guerrilla, an ironic thing happens. T-800 becomes more human, while Sarah becomes a Terminator, with sunglasses, black army clothes, and a desire to kill an innocent (the soundtrack when she goes off to kill Dyson even has the iconic metallic beats).

----

* MadeOfPlasticine: As tough as it is, actually ''damaging'' the T-1000 is easier than damaging the earlier model (mainly [[[GoodThingYouCanHeal as an excuse to show off]] its HealingFactor as much as possible). It's significantly slowed down by pistol shots, while the T-800 can [[UnflinchingWalk walk steadily through a hail of rifle fire]], and an iron bar swung by T-800 cuts most of the way through the 1000's torso.

* LudicrousPrecision: The somewhat infamous "Human Casualties: 0.0." What the decimal is for or how tenths of being dead would be calculated is not all that clear; the implication that the Terminator could half-kill someone twice and end up counting a whole kill without actually killing anyone leads to [[FridgeLogic a bad place where your brain turns to cottage cheese]].
** In the commentary, James Cameron acknowledges that the concept of 0.1 casualties is slightly nuts, but says that they tried it with just 0 and it looked dumb. 0.0 gives an "air of precision."
** One should also note that Casualties does not simply refer to combatants being killed, but rather all costs of combat which includes injuries. In this case [[FanWank one side of the decimal point could represent deaths, the other side injuries]]. 0.0 indicates that not only did he not kill any of the officers he avoided causing any noteworthy injuries to them as well.

* [[spoiler:DeathIsTheOnlyOption: The T-800 at the end realizes he must destroy himself to prevent reverse engineering of his design, however he [[ICannotSelfTerminate cannot self-terminate.]] John Connor has to push the button.]]

[=SkyNet=] sends a more advanced Terminator -- the [[NighInvulnerability nigh-invulnerable]], [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] T-1000 Model -- to the past. In response, John Connor sends back a T-800 Model Terminator that he has reprogrammed to protect his past self. Both Terminators arrive at a time when a ten-year-old John lives with foster parents and Sarah sits in an asylum after an attempt to blow up a computer factory. The T-1000 kills anyone it chooses to replicate, and when John figures out the T-1000 will attempt to replicate Sarah, he forces the T-800 to rescue his mother.

After being freed, Sarah -- now an ActionGirl after [[TookALevelInBadass years of preparing for Judgment Day and beyond]] -- learns details of [=SkyNet=]'s history from the T-800 and attempts to assassinate Miles Dyson, the man who will go on to create [=SkyNet=]. Sarah eventually falters before she can pull the trigger, and after John and the T-800 arrive, the trio pumps Dyson for information. They learn that Cyberdyne -- the company Dyson works for and (as revealed in a deleted scene from the first film) the owners of the factory where Sarah destroyed the T-800 -- will build [=SkyNet=] after it reverse-engineers technology from the components of the original T-800 (which makes [=SkyNet=] itself part of the StableTimeLoop). The Connors, the T-800, and Dyson infiltrate the Cyberdyne building, steal the T-800 remains, and destroy all of Dyson's research in an attempt to thwart the creation of [=SkyNet=]. The T-1000 eventually catches up to the group, and after a lengthy battle inside an industrial factory, the T-1000, the remains of the original T-800, and the reprogrammed T-800 end up dissolved in a vat of molten steel.

-->'''The Terminator:''' [''to John''] What's the dog's name? \\

* BigNo: Sarah almost makes it out of the asylum, but she sees the T-800 walking out of an elevator. After [[SmallNo saying "no" in a low tone of disbelief]], it turns into this out of sheer terror.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: Averted during the foundry scene while the protagonists are trying to escape the T-1000. When they approach a vat of molten steel, Sarah says "Wait. No No. It's too hot. Go back."

* DeadlyDelivery: The T-800 carries a longbox that looks like it's full of roses. And it is, but it's also got a shotgun in it.
** This also qualifies as a VisualPun on Guns 'N' Roses, whose song "You Could Be Mine" is heard in the film (the video for said song also has a Terminator cameo).

* FromASingleCell: The T-1000 reassembles completely after being frozen and scattered once it's in liquid state again. Melting however...
** It still struggled after re-forming the first time, though. See ResurrectionSickness.

* GenreShift: From the second movie onward, the Terminator movies became an action/sci-fi series while the first film was more of a standard horror movie with a sci-fi backdrop.

** Sarah loses it when she sees the T-800, which looks ''exactly'' like the machine that chased her for days and killed her lover in the first film, and has probably haunted her nightmares ever since. Until this point, she believes she's in a StableTimeLoop in which no new players would arrive from the future, since that's what Reese told her. After this point, she knows things have been changed and she can keep changing them.
** Also, when she gets a "MyGodWhatHaveIDone" moment in Dyson's house.

* NoMereWindmill: We are introduced to a crazy woman who is obviously a paranoid schizophrenic. She even believes that evil robots from the future are out to get her, imagine that. To the great surprise of everyone except the audience, it eventually turns out that the robots are real and Sarah is completely sane (although traumatized). She knows exactly what a terminator really is, a straight Type B of this trope.

* BigNo: Sarah almost makes it out of the asylum, but she sees the T-800 walking out of an elevator. After saying "no" in a low tone of disbelief, it turns into this out of sheer terror.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Though it's hard to tell, the film is actually set in 1995, not 1991 (the only indications are John's age in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse at his record on a police computer). Because it doesn't feature futuristic elements and thus averts ZeeRust (instead simply saying it was four years ahead), it is one of the most accurate depictions of the future.

-->"He'll live."

** One should also note that Casualties does not simply refer to combatants being killed, but rather all costs of combat which includes injuries. In this case one side of the decimal point would represent deaths, the other side injuries. 0.0 indicates that not only did he not kill any of the officers he avoided causing any noteworthy injuries to them as well.
* MadeOfIron: ''Liquid'' Iron. T-1000 is even harder to stop than the T-800 from the first film. All they manage to do for most of the film is just ''slow it down''.

* MurderByCremation: More of an "assisted suicide" than murder, but still...

** Done by Sarah at the foundry at the end. Justified in that she's wounded in the other arm.

* SelfMutilationDemonstration: John Connor orders the T-800 to show Dyson he really is a robot. The T-800 peels off the skin and muscle of his arm, only to look at the exposed endoskeleton dispassionately.

* ShapeShifterSwanSong: The T-1000 changes forms rapidly when it finally melts. That doesn't save it.

* TotallyRadical: John teaching the T-800 how to talk like a human. The film actually made "Hasta la vista, baby" into a genuinely cool phrase, but "No problem-o" is still cringe-worthy.

* WeHaveTheKeys: The T-800 punches through a car window, then hot-wires the car. John flips down the windshield visor to reveal the keys. Apparently, he learns this since the second time he's required to steal a car, he gets in and flips down the visor…and finds the keys.

* TheWorfEffect: We see the T-800 (Arnold), the 6'2" unstoppable killer robot who for the whole last movie was one of the most menacing things ever put to film, get thrown around like a rag-doll by the considerably shorter and skinnier T-1000. Mainly at the end of the movie, though; earlier in the film he tends to keep the upper hand. For the most part, if its a gunfight, the impervious T-800 will win. If it's a fistfight, the intangible T-1000 will win.

* [[{{YouShallNotPass/Film}} You Shall Not Pass]]: Sarah Connor tricks John into escaping without her, then stays behind to prevent the T-1000 from following and killing him.

* LoopholeAbuse: The T-800 is explicitly instructed [[ThouShaltNotLive not to kill]]. It works out that maiming people isn't going against that instruction.

* KidWithTheLeash: John Connor.

!This film provides examples of:

* ElevatorActionSequence: There is a rather memorable Elevator Action Sequence in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' as Sarah, John, and the T-800 escape from the mental institution. The T-1000 attempts to sword-thrust its way into the elevator at several points.
** Linda Hamilton apparently forgot her earplugs for this scene and incurred permanent hearing damage from all the gunshots fired in an enclosed space.

* UnorthodoxReload: The T-800 cocks a lever-action shotgun by flipping it over his fingers while using the other hand to handle a motorcycle (only possible because the loop was modified). Also, Sarah using her SWAT-issue shotgun on the T-1000.
** Schwarzenegger commented during an interview that doing this nearly broke his fingers when he accidentally flip-cocked the unmodified gun instead of the prop gun specially modified to be flip-cocked in that shot.

* ElevatorActionSequence

* DeathIsTheOnlyOption: The T-800 at the end realizes he must destroy himself to prevent reverse engineering of his design, however he [[ICannotSelfTerminate cannot self-terminate.]] John Connor has to push the button.

* LecherousLicking: The male nurse who licks Sarah Connor's face.

* YouTasteDelicious: While Sarah is being held in the mental hospital an attendant licks her face while she's tied to a bed.

* WallOfWeapons: Sarah Connor has an underground cache of weapons hidden in the desert. Not that we need convincing she's a BadAss by this point in the film. John Connor mentions this as well--"One thing about my mom... she always plans ahead."