Sarah Connor is one of the most underrated characters in cinema history

 Opinion: Sarah Connor is one of the most underrated characters in cinema history.

Before I begin, I want to start with a brief disclaimer: I'd like to explore this topic/argument in more detail, potentially putting a video essay together, so if it seems like I've rushed over something or if I keep saying 'I'll talk about that another time' that's why. Also, this is all for fun, I'm no film professor or anything, just a guy who loves movies (and REALLY loves Terminator 2) so take everything I say with a pinch of salt.

I must have watched Terminator 2 close more than 50 times. There's no doubt in my mind that it's the reason I love movies so much. I know it sounds a bit cringy but, after watching T2 for the first time, I realised that movies were (or at least could be) more than just stories. In short, I love Terminator 2, it's a top 3 movie for me. However, I watched it recently and felt embarrassed. Despite having watched it so many times, something had gone over my head. When I realised it, honestly, I felt kinda stupid, although admittedly, that doesn't take much these days...

There's a scene in the latter half of the movie, wherein Sarah Connor takes it upon herself to try and stop the creation of Skynet. She decides to do that by going to the home of Miles Dyson; the man who will later create Skynet (which will of course in turn wipe out most of humanity) in order to kill him. It was only watching it now that I realised; in this scene, Sarah was the Terminator. She became the very thing she feared, the thing she hated, the thing she was trying to destroy.

Admittedly, writing it out makes me feel even more stupid having missed it so many times, but I think what made me feel even more stupid was just how obvious Cameron makes it in this scene. There's obviously what she's doing that frames the idea of her being the Terminator at this point, but there's so much other things happening in the scene that scream it at us.

- Body language:

When she doesn't hit Dyson with a single accurate shot, she resorts to firing indiscriminately, which sounds exactly like the actions of a Terminator to me.

- Clothes maketh 

Up until this point, most of the time we've seen Sarah, she's been dressed in all white hospital attire, now she's geared up, dressed all in black military gear. The choice of clothing couldn't make it clearer that she means business. Whilst the clothes she wore in hospital (and of course the situation she found herself in) saw her very much being controlled, this change in outfits see's her very in control, making her choice to kill Dyson all the more terrifying.

-Horror?

To be honest with you, I'd completely forgotten how the first Terminator movie is basically a horror film, so many things that frame it as a truly scary experience (but more on that another time) and this scene is undeniably a call-back to that. Whether it's the darker lighting, more suspenseful music or the climax of the scene that sees the Terminator remove his skin in a body-horror-esque moment that upon reflection (pun intended) is reminiscent of the mirror scene from the first film. What Sarah's doing here is scary and Cameron wants us to feel that.

There's a ton of other stuff happening as well, but like I said, I want to save some of this for another time so watch this space for more on that. The point I wanna make is, that in this scene, it's impossible to escape the fact that Sarah Connor has become a Terminator. In the first movie, she was weak, dependent on Kyle Reese to protect her and fought only when faced with no other option. however now, she's a cold, remorseless killer, seeking to kill a man as punishment for something he is yet to do.

What's really impressive about this however is the fact that this transformation, despite being one of the most dramatic in cinema history is entirely believable. Even though she's not even really the same person anymore when we see her in Terminator 2 and even though she's gone through something that fairly ridiculous (I mean come one, she was pursued by a time travelling Austrian robot), it's almost impossible to accept this transformation of Sarah. Why? well, this is something I'd like to expand on another time (I promise I will) but, I'd give a 'provisional' argument that the reason Sarah's transformation is so drastic yet believable is because of the traumatic ordeal she goes through. We as the audience know Sarah is telling the truth, yet she's surrounded by people who treat her as anyone outside of the audience would; with utter disbelief. Having the people around her act in a more grounded way alongside the horror that we know she's been through helps us to accept that not only does she have to deal with the trauma of not only knowing how the world ends and having been hunted down to ensure it happens but also being labelled as delusional despite knowing this is the truth.

Like I said, I know that's not particularly fleshed out but this is something I'm working on at the moment and want to go into more detail on another time, probably in another format, but maybe here as well I'm not sure yet.

Cheers.