History Film / Terminator2JudgmentDay

* TookALevelInKindness: Sarah Connor. In addition to the narration where she accepts the T-800 as a ParentalSubstitute for John, as stated in ItHasBeenAnHonor, no words are spoken, but she is almost hesitant to lower the T-800 into the steel. Further, once the T-800 is destroyed, John sobs and throws her arms around her, and she genuinely comforts him. This is a stark contrast to her behavior earlier, where John goes for a hug and Sarah merely pats him down for injuries.

* ComesGreatResponsibility: While John's first reaction to the fact that the Terminator is programmed to obey his orders is to [[PowerHigh remark about how cool it is to have his own Terminator]], he learns this quickly after he orders the Terminator to fight off the two guys who came to see if he was okay and it almost kills one of them. [[HeelRealization Realizing that having the Terminator at his command means that he is in control of a lethal weapon]], he not only [[EstablishingCharacterMoment lectures it about not killing]], his second official order [[note]]the first one being that it help him rescue his mom[[/note]] is that ThouShaltNotKill.

* WhatTheHellHero

** The film plays with this trope. The T-800 (Arnold), the 6'2" unstoppable killer robot who was one of the most menacing movie villains ever in the previous film, gets thrown around like a ragdoll by the considerably shorter and slimmer T-1000, which is a more advanced model. This demonstrates the superior technology of the T-1000. The "playing with" part is that the true advantage depends on the type of combat involved. If it's a gunfight, the impervious T-800 will win, but if it's a fistfight, the {{intangible|man}} T-1000 will win.
** The T-1000 also does this to the T-800 another way. Early in the film in the first real action sequence, the T-1000 chases John on his minibake and eventually commandeers a tow truck, which the T-800 blows up. In the first film, a similar explosion destroyed the T-800's flesh and damaged it so it couldn't walk. The T-1000, on the other hand, [[OutOfTheInferno walks out of the flames]], reforms its human disguise, and looks perfectly fine. This is a signal that it will be far harder to kill than the original T-800 was.

[[caption-width-right:300:Come with him if you want to live.]]

* LicensedGame: Wiki/TheOtherWiki lists ''eight'' different games released under the ''Terminator 2'' title, including a chess game and a video slot machine game.

* AllTherapistsAreMuggles: Odds are Sarah Connor could have benefited from therapy... had the therapists realized that the whole 'Genocidal future A. I. sent a killbot back in time after me because my kid is destined to be a successful resistance leader, and may go for a follow up' thing was the ''[[GoMadFromTheRevelation root cause]]'' rather than a symptom.

* MakeTheBearAngryAgain: The T-800 reveals that Skynet started JudgmentDay by attacking Russia, since they would be forced to retailiate.

* OpenSaysMe: Miles Dyson tries to open a locked door, but the building's silent alarm has neutralized all security codes. [[RobotBuddy The T-800]] steps up with [[NoKillLikeOverkill a grenade launcher...]]

** The Terminator's one-liner before he reveals himself as a good guy this time around: "Get down!"
** The T-1000 shoves aside a bunch of small children trying to get to John Connor. Until this moment, he actually seemed like a good guy. Although to be fair, as this was still ''before'' TheReveal, it could have appeared to be because he knew he needed to get to John before the Terminator (whom he'd before been told about by John's foster parents) did.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HemisphericBias: The original introduction was much longer in the draft script, and had adult John giving a voiceover explaining that most of humanity north of the equator died in the nuclear exchange - because most of the powerful nuclear-armed nations are in the northern hemisphere (USA, Europe, Russia, China). John says he survived because he was in Argentina at the time. A subtle detail in the script notes that was supposed to be a pervasive background element in the future scenes is that background chatter between Resistance forces over the radio should be in Spanish, Swahili, and Australian-accented English: countries from the southern hemisphere where more people survived.

** Intimidated by the Terminator's willingness to shoot innocents (other than John), John asks him to swear to never kill anyone. Terminator however doesn't know what the word swear means.

** Although the Connors are shown destroying the T-800 and the remains of the T-800 from the first movie, they are not shown finding or destroying the T-800's left arm that was ripped off after being caught in the gears at the steel mill.

** The T-800 cocks a lever-action shotgun by flipping it over his fingers while using the other hand to handle a motorcycle. This was possible only because the loop was made larger than normal; at one point, Arnold tried to flip-cock an unmodified prop shotgun and nearly broke several of his fingers.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: In a heartwarming moment, John flatly refuses to flee in the steel mill, wanting his mother, the T-800 and he to protect the other. Its mission in jeopardy, the T-800 ''[[ContinueYourMissionDammit orders him]]'' to run.

* NighInvulnerability: A running comparison is made between the heavy skeleton of the T-800 and the liquid metal T-1000. The T-800 is sturdier, able to NoSell hails of gunfire with little to no reaction. The T-1000 is easily pushed around with almost any degree of physical impact, but its regenerative abilities made it difficult to inflict lasting damage. By the end the T-800 is missing an arm, limping, and half its face ripped off, but the T-1000 is going strong (the DirectorsCut does indicate that being frozen, shattered, and melted back down was having an impact on its abilities).

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: In stark contrast to the first movie, where Sarah's room-mate and (implicitly) mother, along with two other Sarah Connors, a couple of female bystanders at Tech Noir, and at least one female police officer were part of the body count, here the only female casualty is Janelle, and even then it's only inferred from the T-1000 taking her form rather than actually shown outright.

* MaterialMimicry: In the DirectorsCut, after the T-1000 gets frozen and shattered, he exhibits some malfunctions with his morphing ability. When he touches a steel railing in the factory, his hands take on the texture and painted warning stripes of the material.

** While operating the helicopter at the end, one can just make out that the T-1000 has formed two additional arms so it can load and fire its weapon without releasing the flight controls.

** Also the T-800 and Skynet. Though both attain sentience, Skynet sees humanity as a threat and try to exterminate it, while the T-800 begins to love humanity and willingly sacrifices itself for it.

* FailedASpotCheck: While trying to pin Sarah, the orderlies at Pescadero fail to notice a gigantic, musclebound man with a shotgun walking toward them. It isn't until he literally picks one of them up and tosses him through a glass window that they even realize he's there.

** James Cameron initially wanted the movie to end at the playground with children merrily playing just like they were at the beginning ([[spoiler: plus John [[BabiesEverAfter having his own daughter]]]]), but test audiences rejected this sugary, saccharine ending as inconsistent with the movie's dark, angry tone. Though this ending was kept for the director's cut.

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

** There are a few clues for viewers coming to the film blind as to which Terminator is the good guy. The scene where the T-800 starts a BarBrawl and equips himself with clothing and weapons from the vanquished bikers is partially PlayedForLaughs, plus he merely robs the bar flies instead of killing them -- contrast the previous film where the original Terminator murdered the guys he took the clothes from. The equivalent scene for the T-1000 is played much straighter, and he does kill his selected victim. Both scenes are shot with just enough ambiguity and [[GoryDiscretionShot gore discretion]] to keep the audience guessing. A slightly bigger clue is that Kyle Reese was CoveredWithScars, while the T-1000's skin is completely unblemished.

* BadassBystander: Notably averted. The barkeep at the biker bar ''tries'' to do this by pulling a shotgun on the huge naked guy who just beat up all of his customers and is trying to steal one of their motorcycles. The T-800 just walks up and takes the gun out of its hands (along with his sunglasses).

** After breaking Silberman's arm, Sarah says that there are 215 bones in the human body, the arm is only one. Technically there are 206 bones and since Sarah broke Silberman's forearm, she broke two (the two forearm bones are the ulna and radius).

* AnimalsHateHim: John Connor's pet dog Max barks incessantly at the cold presence of the T-1000, who is disguised as Janelle Voight at the time. The T-800 uses this clue to [[BluffTheImposter trick the T-1000]] by asking whether "Wolfie" is okay. Its response tells the T-800 that John's foster parents are already dead.