The mother of the future. When so many sequels are content to retrace the steps of the previous film with almost no development, a huge part of why James Cameron's sequel to The Terminator remains so effective to this day is the progression of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor. Far from the soft and gentle young woman of the original, T2's Sarah is as hard as they come, having spent a decade both raising her child and preparing for war. The sequel does get a bit too sentimental at times. Edward Furlong's John struggles to find any hint of motherly affection from a matriarch who brings new meaning to the word overprotective, but once the floodgates open the tearful tenderness gets a bit much. But no matter, because it's the action sequences that T2 is rightly remembered for - and when the bullets and fists start flying, it's often questionable whether John needs the extra protection from the Terminator at all.
