The Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Cameron brought a new type of Terminator to life with the T-1000, a liquid metal Terminator that shapeshifted to approximate the appearance of a human as opposed to wearing a lifelike outer layer of skin. the Terminator franchise has dealt with for more than 30 years.

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Terminator Surrounded by Arnold Schwarzenegger from Various Terminator Movies
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Terminator 2’s T-1000 Raised The Bar Way Too High For Future Terminator Villains

Robert Patrick's Liquid Metal Terminator Was Perfectly Terrifying

Robert Patrick looking menacing as the T-1000 in Terminator 2 Judgment Day

It's not an exaggeration to say that Robert Patrick's T-1000 is among the greatest sci-fi or horror villains of all time. The character's demeanor, invulnerability, and complete lack of empathy or regret made it one of the most fearsome adversaries put on film at that time, and there are precious few characters that have measured up in the decades since T2 was released. However, with a villain that is inescapable and terrifying, there is really nowhere to go but down, and it's a problem that the Terminator franchise has suffered from ever since.

The Terminator Franchise - Key Details

Movie

Release Date

Budget

Box Office Gross

RT Tomatometer Score

RT Popcornmeter Score

The Terminator

1984

$6.4 million

$78.3 million

100%

89%

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

1991

$102 million

$520 million

91%

95%

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

2003

$187.3 million

$433.4 million

70%

46%

Terminator Salvation

2009

$200 million

$371.4 million

33%

53%

Terminator Genisys

2015

$158 million

$440.6 million

26%

52%

Terminator: Dark Fate

2019

$196 million

$261.6 million

70%

82%

It's impossible to blame director James Cameron for creating such a monster of a villain for his high-profile sequel. There's no way he would have known that the Terminator franchise would have been milked so thoroughly and for so long; he set out to make the best villain possible for his sequel, which was in itself a tall task given how beloved and frightening Schwarzenegger's T-800 was in the original Terminator. Unfortunately for everyone who touched the franchise after him, he set the bar too high.

Terminator Kept Trying To Replicate The T-1000’s Impact But Always Failed

He Was Copied, Brought Back, And "Improved" But No Villain Has Ever Measured Up

Gabriel Luna and a skeletal Terminator in Terminator: Dark Fate

The near perfection of James Cameron's T-1000 hasn't stopped other film-makers from trying to one-up the liquid metal menace. The very next sequel introduced the T-X, a sort of hybrid Terminator that had an endoskeleton like the T-800 models but was coated in the mimetic polyalloy of the T-1000, allowing it to shapeshift into any human. It was also loaded with futuristic weapons, but it still fell short of the T-1000's intimidation factor, as its endoskeleton was essentially a step backwards in design, regardless of how many bells and whistles were added.

The T-X also has a unique ability to take DNA scans from blood samples that it places on its tongue.

Later sequels made further attempts to replicate the success of the T-1000. The much-maligned Terminator: Genisys literally attempted to just bring the T-1000 back, although thanks to headache-inducing time travel shenanigans he was recast, and from another universe. Terminator: Dark Fate attempted the "two is better than one" tactic, as the Rev-9 Terminator was covered in the mimetic polyalloy and, despite having an endoskeleton, was able to split into two separate and independently functioning units. None of the attempts have ever come close to being as intimidating as Patrick's T-1000, especially factoring in the time period of T2's release.

The T-1000 Is Not The Only Thing Terminator 2 Did Better Than Other Sequels

It's By Far The Highest-Quality Movie In The Entire Terminator Franchise

The T-1000 villain might be the crown jewel, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day is widely considered the best sequel of all time for many reasons besides its incomparable villain. The 1991 movie was lauded for its then-revolutionary techniques in visual and makeup effects (particularly pertaining to the T-1000) and elite action sequences, for one. The sequel's narrative was excellent in that it added to the background and lore of the Terminator universe without over-complicating things, or losing any of what made the original Terminator great.

The Terminator franchise will certainly live on, but it remains nearly impossible for any villain to ever match the T-1000.

The shift in Schwarzenegger's character was also a celebrated evolution from the original movie, and fell more in line with Schwarzenegger's burgeoning popularity with families and the general movie-going public (Kindergarten Cop released the year before). Seeing an incredible sci-fi villain turn from killer to protector was part of what made the narrative so engaging, but it all would have been for naught had Robert Patrick's T-1000 not been such a staggeringly effective antagonist. The Terminator franchise will certainly live on, but it remains nearly impossible for any villain to ever match the T-1000.