While Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a sci-fi horror classic, the sequel does underutilize one of the legendary villain T-1000's most chilling skills. After the success of 1984's The Terminator, it seemed impossible for Terminator 2: Judgment Day to top the original sci-fi horror movie's success. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator villain, the T-800, was an instantly iconic figure, and the movie's relentless pace resulted in dozens of imitators, none of which could recreate its intensity and effectiveness.
However, Terminator 2: Judgment Day pulled off the task of reinventing the franchise with one ingenious twist, making Schwarzenegger's T-800 the hero this time around and forcing him to face down an even more evolved, ruthless, and unstoppable villain. Since a bigger, tougher Terminator model could well have looked silly thanks to the Schwarzenegger's already-imposing frame, Terminator 2: Judgment Day took the opposite approach and introduced a small, lithe, shape-shifting Terminator model who was much more unassuming and all the more lethal as a result. However, for all of the successful sequel's best qualities, Terminator 2: Judgment Day did underuse the T-1000's shapeshifting capabilities.
The T-1000's unsettling cop disguise and the brief, creepy scene where the character mimics Janelle Voight, John's foster mom, show that the villain could pass himself as another person whenever he needed. While he does use this skill to imitate the asylum security guard Lewis and later to mimic Sarah Connor during the final battle, the T-1000 never thinks to take the form of Arnie's trustworthy T-800, nor does he consider imitating Sarah earlier in the movie when John was still more likely to fall for his tricks. By the time the T-1000 takes the shape of Sarah near Terminator 2: Judgment Day's ending, John is well aware of its abilities, whereas earlier, he could easily have been fooled.
Why Terminator's T-1000 Never Took The Form Of The T-800
Admittedly, Terminator 2: Judgment Day's genius dynamic flip turned Sarah Connor into a hardened anti-heroine, so there is a good chance that John Connor wouldn't have found someone claiming to be his mother a particularly comforting presence earlier in the movie's story. Equally, choosing to imitate Janelle rather than John's brash, boorish foster father made sense for the T-1000, and this disguise was only foiled by the T-800's quick thinking. However, the fact that the T-1000 never simply takes the form of the T-800 when it knows that John trusts the older Terminator model is harder to excuse.
John's fondness for the T-850 grows as Terminator 2: Judgment Day's story continues, and by the movie's midpoint, he trusts the character with his life. While it was easy for John to spot an impostor when it came to his mother and his foster mother, the character couldn't have possibly told the difference between the real T-800 and a T-1000 imitating the robot. As such, it is an odd oversight for Terminator 2: Judgment Day's iconic villain to never assume the form of his rival in his attempts to track down John Connor.