Metrograph

After breaking heads in his first outing as Skynet’s T-800, Schwarzenegger broke hearts as a kinder, gentler war machine, tasked with protecting teen John Connor (Edward Furlong) from the liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick), sent back in time to eliminate the snot-nosed mallrat and with him any hope for the survival of humanity. Riveting from its opening nightmare vision of nuclear Armageddon, jam-packed with magisterial set pieces (the chase down the Bull Creek spillway; the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems headquarters…) and, of course, eminently quotable. If you don’t shed a single tear at Arnie’s parting thumb’s up, you may not be human yourself.

Distributor: Rialto Pictures