Ranking The Terminator Franchise From Worst To Best

Terminator 2: Judgement Day features groundbreaking shots and effects that legitimately make it one of the greatest action movies of all time.

Beyond the ILM and Stan Winston magic, T2 works best as a natural conclusion to the story, themes, and character arcs established in The Terminator. T2 picks up years after The Terminator ends. Sarah Connor is in a mental hospital, John Connor is a tween living with foster parents. But then two Terminators arrive - one to kill John, another to protect him. And then all hell breaks loose until the story finally picks with John, Sarah, and the T-800 (in a twist) deciding to change the future and destroy the early version of Skynet via Cyberdyne.

"No fate, but what we make for ourselves," is the emotional core of this movie. One doesn't have to back down, one is control of their own destiny. This theme is played wonderfully as the driving force between Linda Hamilton's rabid performance as Sarah, Edward Furlong's breakout emotional performance as John, and Arnie's stone-cold performance as the Terminator.

The only flaw of T2 is that it virtually replicates the action beats of The Terminator. Nonethless, T2 is the definitive sequel, gourgeous looking, more expensive, and a superb end to the franchise, if you don't want to deal with a drop in quality.