It’s a little jarring that the post-nuclear wasteland introduced in Terminator 1 is set in Los Angeles 2029, just five years from now.
And that the premise is based on artificial intelligence: Skynet invented the Defense Network Computers that were programmed to acquire exponential knowledge. Faced with a shut down when their human masters saw the Frankenstein they’d created, the machines launched a nuclear war. Hasta la vista, human race.
Does that really seem so farfetched now?
Couple thoughts:
T2 is orders of magnitude better than T1, which, honestly, is a little dumb. But T2 is pure adrenaline. I was literally screaming at the TV, “Go faster!” Plus, it’s fun to see Linda Hamilton as a badass.
Why are there always so many big trucks in movies like these? It’s not as if you see massive semis filled with liquid nitrogen cruising the streets of L.A.
Lots of good exposition that felt natural, not talky.
Fun 1980s-era nods to nostalgia: Phonebooks listing people’s name, number and address! (Did we not have identity theft back in then?) Cigarettes, puffy hair, and paper address books.
The nuclear threat was scary and real in 1094 when T1 was made, but by the time T2 came along in 1991, the Berlin Wall was down and the Soviet Union had collapsed. The latter movie’s message that we humans got smart, stared down the future, and averted nuclear disaster ran parallel to world events. The End of History!