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DILLON ON FILM

Terminator 2: Judgment Day: 35 Years On

James Cameron’s 1991 blockbuster sci-fi action sequel still thrills

6 min readJul 28, 2026

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“Come with me if you want to live…” Credit: Carolco/Tri-Star/StudioCanal

Warning: Contains spoilers

Ah, the summer of 1991. When sixteen-year-old me was all but foaming at the mouth in anticipation of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Whilst nervously awaiting my GCSE results, terrified I’d have to retake Maths (I passed, mercifully), my excitement levels were at lunatic levels, thanks to this trailer, and the fact that James Cameron had previously knocked my socks off with The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), and The Abyss (1989). Incidentally, I was one of the approximately two people who actually saw the latter on the big screen during the original run; a significant item on my cinema viewing CV, since The Abyss was the one James Cameron film that didn’t terminate box office records.

But I digress. Yes, obviously, Terminator 2: Judgment Day did not disappoint when I finally saw the film on the opening day of release with a couple of my friends. One of them had to leave about ten minutes before the end because he had to catch a bus, which was unfortunate. He told me afterwards that he was concerned his grumpy expression upon exiting the cinema might have been misinterpreted by the cinema staff as an objection to the violence, which greatly…

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Simon Dillon
Simon Dillon

Written by Simon Dillon⁠

Novelist and Short Story-ist. Film and Book Lover. If you cut me, I bleed celluloid and paper pulp. Blog: www.simondillonbooks.uk