10 Movie Sequels That Turn Wimps Into Total Badasses

5. Sarah Connor - Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The Mummy Rachel Weisz
TriStar Pictures

Sarah Connor isn't exactly in the best of places when we first meet her in Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

After the events of the first film, she's been arrested and locked up in a mental hospital after attempting to bomb a computer factory - apparently, mentioning that she'd been attacked by a machine from the future didn't go down too well with the authorities.

But, of course, we know that she shouldn't be in that hospital. We know that Terminators are real, they're dangerous, and they must be stopped.

And it's this that makes Sarah such a compelling, thrilling-to-watch protagonist in the Terminator sequel. She just doesn't give up - she's been tossed in a loony bin but stays driven, spending her time working out, strengthening her body for the inevitable battle with Skynet.

She's gone from being the hunted to being the hunter from movie to movie, her mission to end the Terminator threat consuming every ounce of her energy; she shows no mercy (and would've killed Miles Dyson had her bullet not missed) and will not let the robots win, even willing to sacrifice herself rather than call out to John during the final fight.

She's a far cry from the scared, panic-stricken and mostly helpless Sarah we spent time with in The Terminator, a character who needed the help of Kyle Reese in order to survive.

But in Terminator 2, you get the sense that she could fight Skynet all on her own.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.