Artisan James's Photo T 2 : J u d g e m e n t . D a y ... 1991 #3875571716507836589

In my opinion, T2 is the best movie sequel of all time due to the film's amplification in comparison to it's predecessor, The Terminator (1987).

T1 was gorilla filmmaking at it's finest. Only having a mere 6 million dollar budget yet every ounce of that budget is on the screen... from the practical models in the future war stuff to car chases to explosions to multiple locations-- the night club, the police station, the hotel, the factory... and even a lot of night shooting which typically inflates budget... as well as Stan Winston building a full scale endoskeleton from the torso up to showcase in the third act and to compliment the stop motion one.

But... by the time we get to T2 7 years later we have a 100 million dollar film... of course Arnold got a good chunk of that but to go from a 6 million dollar film to a 100 million dollar sequel was and is practically unheard of... there's no other real examples of that... but the amplification goes beyond just the budget though.

For example.. the scene in T1 in which it's revealed that the Terminator has killed Sarah's mother and is mimicking her voice was the real "Holy Shit" moment... the contrast to that scene in T2 was when it's revealed that the T-1000 has mimicked John's stepmother and has taken her entire human form... so we go from the Terminator being able to copy human voices to the T-1000 being able to copy humans... literally... and appear like them... that was the amplification in the villain's capabilities.

The amplification of the police station shoot out from T1 was the mini gun shoot out from the Cyberdyne window... the canal chase with the tow truck from T2 contrasts the early car chase sequence in T1, and of course the steel mill in T2 contrasts the factory from T1... and even Sarah Connor herself was amplified, going from timid waitress in T1 to a hardened warrior in T2.

So everything was amplified in T2 and that was the key.. the budget, the action, the acting, the characters, the story, the soundtrack, the spectacle, the villain, the villain's capabilities and more... and that's what makes T2 the best movie sequel of all time... AJ