When it debuted in 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day blew the collective minds of action movie junkies and, well, everyone who enjoys movies. What size this production has, what innovation, and what crowd-pleasing excitement. Marked by its breakthrough special effects, an unending series of bravura action sequences, and clever narrative inversion of the 1984 original, the production sells itself: Arnold Schwarzenegger, then at the height of his popularity, plays the good guy this time around, protecting the future’s rebel leader, John Connor, played by newcomer Edward Furlong. Linda Hamilton committed to her transformation into a ferocious survivalist and earned Oscar buzz for her performance. The new CGI technology renders an iconic movie villain, played by Robert Patrick, composed of liquid metal. And director James Cameron, in his prime after Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989), takes the scope far beyond what he achieved in the first, offering unexpected emotional value on top of his breakneck spectacle. T2 was the most expensive film ever made then, and it outperformed all box-office projections. This would be a trend for Cameron, which he would repeat with Titanic (1997) and his Avatar films. In its day, there was hardly a film more talked about or at the forefront of the zeitgeist than T2, and it would change the way blockbusters were made for the foreseeable future.

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