Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster
Film Fixation: Terminator 2

Terminator 2: Judgment Day Quotes

"It's nothing personal."

R 1991 · 2h 17m
82
Audience
82
Audience
31 quotes
A Mother's Reflection on Unconventional Protection
Sarah Connor Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop. It would never leave him. It would never hurt him, never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one that measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice.
A Promise to Avoid Violence
Terminator Why do we stop now?
John Now, you gotta promise me you're not gonna kill anyone, right?
Terminator Right.
John Swear?
Terminator What?
John Just put up your hand and say, I swear I won't kill anyone.
Terminator I swear I will not kill anyone.
[raises hand]
John Alright, let's go.
Guard Visiting hours is 10 to 4 Monday through Friday.
John What the hell are you doing?!?
Guard You son of a bitch, you shot me! You crazy bastard! Don't shoot me again, don't kill me!
Terminator He'll live.
Hope and Humanity in Uncertain Times
Sarah Connor August 29, 1997, came and went. Nothing much happened. Michael Jackson turned 40. There was no Judgment Day. People went to work as they always do. Laughed, complained, watched TV, made love. I wanted to run to through the street yelling to grab them all and say, "Every day from this day on is a gift. Use it well." Instead, I got drunk. That was 30 years ago. But the dark future which never came still exists for me. And it always will, like the traces of a dream. John fights the war differently than it was foretold. Here, on the battlefield of the Senate, his weapons were common sense and hope. The luxury of hope was given me by the Terminator. Because if a machine can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.
[alternate epilogue]
Hope in the Face of Uncertainty
Sarah Connor The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope, because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.
[epilogue]
From Destruction to Protection: A New Mission
Taglines Once he was programmed to destroy the future. Now his mission is to protect it.
[from trailer]
Understanding the T-1000 Terminator Prototype
John So, this other guy, he's a Terminator like you, right?
Terminator Not like me. A T-1000. Advanced prototype.
John You mean more advanced than you are?
Terminator Yes. A mimetic polyalloy.
John What the hell does that mean?
Terminator Liquid metal.
John Where are we going?
Terminator We have to get out of the city immediately. And avoid the authorities.
John Listen, I gotta stop at my house first. I wanna pick up some stuff.
Terminator Negative. The T-1000 will definitely try to reacquire you there.
John You sure?
Terminator I would.
A Promise of Return
Taglines He said he'd be back.
Visions of Cataclysm and Despair
Sarah It's like a giant strobe light, burning right through my eyes. Somehow I can still see... Look, we know the dream's the same every night. Why do I have to--?
Silberman Please continue.
Sarah Children look like burnt paper... black... not moving... and then then the blast wave hits them... and they fly apart like leaves!
[sobs]
Silberman Dreams of cataclysm, the end of the world are very common.
Sarah It's not a dream, you moron, it's real. I know the date it happens!
Silberman I'm sure it feels very real to you.
Sarah On August 29th, 1997, it's gonna feel pretty fucking real to you, too! Anybody not wearing two-million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day, get it?!
John Now don't take this the wrong way, but you are a Terminator, right?
Terminator Yes. Cyberdyne Systems Model 101.
John Holy shit! You're really real! I mean, you're like a machine underneath, right? But sort of alive outside?
[pokes at one of Terminator's bullet wounds]
Terminator I'm a cybernetic organism. Living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.
John This is intense. Get a grip, John. Okay, um, you're not here to kill me. I figured that part out for myself. So what's the deal?
[pokes another wound, sees blood on his fingertips]
Terminator My mission is to protect you.
John Yeah? Who sent you?
Terminator You did. Thirty-five years from now, you reprogrammed me to be your protector here, in this time.
John Oh, this is deep.
A Demanding Request for Essential Gear
The Terminator I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.
Trust and Responsibility in Crisis
Terminator I'll take care of the police.
John Hey, wait! You swore!
Terminator Trust me.
[grins]
Responsibility and Consequences of Creation
Sarah Dyson listened while the Terminator laid it all down. Skynet, Judgment Day, the history of things to come. It's not every day that you find out you're responsible for three billion deaths. He took it pretty well.
[voiceover]
Miles Dyson I feel like I'm gonna throw up. You're judging me on things I haven't even done yet. How were we supposed to know?
[after the Terminator completes his story]
Sarah Yeah. Right. How were you supposed to know? Fucking men like you built the hydrogen bomb. Men like you thought it up. You think you're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something, to create a life, feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death and destruction–!
John Mom! We need to be a little more constructive here, okay? We still have to stop this from happening, don't we?
Tarissa Dyson But I thought... Aren't we changing things, I mean right now, changing the way it goes?
Dyson That's right. There's no way I'm gonna finish the new processor, not now. Forget it. I'm out of it. I'll quit Cyberdyne tomorrow.
Sarah That's not good enough.
Terminator No one must follow your work.
A Tense Confrontation Over Medication and Bones
Silberman Yeah, you're right about number 24. Increase the medication to 250 milligrams.
Orderly Same kind?
Silberman You...you broke my arm!
Sarah There are 215 bones in the human body. That's one. Now don't move!
[fills the syringe with drain cleaner]
Silberman What are you going to do?
The Unknown Factor in Their Mission
Taglines They know its face. They know its mission. But there's one thing they don't know: This time there are two.
[from teaser]
Nothing Personal in the Face of Conflict
Taglines It's nothing personal.
Decision to destroy a threat
John Is it dead?
Terminator Terminated.
John Will this melt in there?
[brings out the robot arm]
Terminator Yes. Throw it in.
John Adios.
[throws the arm into the molten steel vat]
Terminator And the chip.
[John throws chip into the molten steel vat]
Sarah It's over.
[relieved]
Terminator No. There is one more chip. And it must be destroyed also. Here. I cannot self-terminate. You must lower me into the steel.
[points to his own head; hands Sarah the controller for the winch]
John No. No!
[tearfully, hugging the T-800]
Terminator I'm sorry, John. I'm sorry.
John No! It'll be okay! Stay with us! It'll be okay!
Terminator I have to go away.
John No! Don't do it, please! Don't go!
Terminator I must go away, John.
John No! No, wait! Wait, you don't have to do this!
Terminator I'm sorry.
[gets the chain]
John No, don't do it! Don't go!
Terminator It has to end here.
John I order you not to go. I order you not to go! I order you not to go!!!
[breaks down sobbing]
Terminator I know now why you cry. But it's something I can never do. Goodbye.
[gently wipes a tear from John's face; hugs John, turns to face Sarah, who shakes his hand; the Terminator then grabs the chain and holds onto it; gets lowered by Sarah into vat, but flashes John and Sarah a thumbs-up before he disappears completely]
Contrasting Purposes of Two Programmed Beings
Taglines One programmed to destroy. The other programmed to protect.
[from teaser]
A Command to Remain in Place
The Terminator Stay here. ].
[[W:I’ll be back|I’ll be back]
The Future Remains Unwritten
Taglines The future is not set.
Urgent Call for Survival
The Terminator Come with me if you want to live.
[offers his hand to Sarah Connor]
Discussion of the Cyberdyne chip
Dyson We have to destroy all the stuff at the lab; the files, the disk drives, everything, everything here. Everything. I don't care. The chip. Do you know about the chip?
[Realizes something]
Sarah What chip?
Dyson They keep it in the vault at Cyberdyne. It must be from the other one, like you.
Terminator The CPU from the first Terminator?
Sarah Son of a bitch, I knew it!
Dyson They told us not to ask where they got it.
Sarah Those lying motherfuckers!...
Dyson It was scary stuff, but radically advanced. I mean, it was smashed, it didn't work, but...it gave us ideas, took us in new directions. I mean, things we would have never...All my work was based on it.
Terminator It must be destroyed.
Machines Attempt Another Assassination of John Connor
Taglines Ten years ago, the machines who rule the future sent an unstoppable Terminator to assassinate the yet unborn John Connor. They failed. In 1991, the machines will try again.
Identifying the Creator of Skynet
Sarah Connor I need to know how Skynet gets built. Who's responsible?
Terminator The man most directly responsible is Miles Bennett Dyson.
Sarah Who is that?
Terminator He's the director of special projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation.
Sarah Why him?
Terminator In a few months, he creates a revolutionary type of microprocessor.
Sarah Go on. Then what?
Terminator In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online on August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM, Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Sarah Skynet fights back.
Terminator Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.
John Connor Why attack Russia? Aren't they our friends now?
Terminator Because Skynet knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here.
Sarah Jesus. How much do you know about Dyson?
[sighs]
Terminator I have detailed files.
Sarah I want to know everything. What he looks like, where he lives, everything.
Expect the unexpected in a familiar world
Taglines If you thought you had seen it all...look again.
[from trailer]
Understanding the Limitations of Transformation
John I need a minute here. You're telling me this thing can make itself look like anything it touches?
Terminator Anything it samples by physical contact.
John Get real. So it could disguise itself as a pack of cigarettes?
Terminator No, only an object of equal size.
John Well, why not just become a bomb or something and come get me?
Terminator It can't form complex machines. Guns and explosives have chemicals, moving parts. It doesn't work that way. But it can form solid metal shapes.
John Like what?
Terminator Knives and stabbing weapons.
Human Nature and Self-Destruction
John We're not gonna make it, are we? People, I mean.
Terminator It's in your nature to destroy yourselves.
Loyalty and Danger in a Dystopian Future
Taglines His loyalty is to a child, and his enemy is the deadliest machine ever built.
[from trailer]
The Consequences of Judgment Day
Sarah Connor Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the Machines. The computer which controlled the machines, Skynet, sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the human Resistance, John Connor, my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me, in the year 1984, before John was born. It failed. The second was sent to strike at John himself, when he was still a child. As before, the Resistance was able to send a lone warrior, a protector for John. It was just a question of which one of them would reach him first.
Dual Protectors Rise in Battle
Taglines This time there are two.
Adapting Language for Human Interaction
Sarah Keep it under 65. We don't wanna get pulled over.
Terminator Affirmative.
John No, no, no, no. You gotta listen to way people talk, You don't say "Affirmative" or some shit like that. You say "No problemo." And if someone comes on to you with an attitude, you say "Eat me". And if you want to shine them on, it's "Hasta la vista, baby".
Terminator ]?
[[W:Hasta la vista, baby|Hasta la vista, baby]
John Yeah Or "Later, dick wad." And if someone gets upset, you say "Chill out!" Or you can do combinations.
Terminator Chill out, dick wad.
John Great! See, you're getting it!
Terminator No problemo.
Revised Purpose for a Familiar Entity
Taglines Same Make. Same Model. New Mission.
The Complexity of Family and Time Travel
John I wish I could have met my real dad.
Terminator You will.
John Yeah, I guess. When I'm like, 45, I guess. They sent him back through time to 1984. Man. He hadn't even been born yet. It messes with your head. Mom and him were only together for, like, one night, but she still loves him, I guess. I see her crying sometimes. She denies it totally of course, like she got something stuck in her eye.
Terminator Why do you cry?
[pause]
John You mean people?
Terminator Yes.
John I don't know. We just cry. You know. When it hurts.
Terminator Pain causes it?
John Uh-unh, no, it's different... It's when there's nothing wrong with you but you hurt anyways. You get it?
Terminator No.