What date does Terminator 2: Judgment Day identify as Judgment Day?

Terminator 2: Judgment Day identifies August 29, 1997, as the date of Judgment Day. In the film’s original future history, Skynet becomes self-aware and launches a nuclear attack on humanity on that date.

The date is important because it gives Sarah and John Connor a specific event to prevent rather than merely an abstract future threat. Sarah learns about it from Kyle Reese’s information and later from Miles Dyson’s connection to the technology that will lead to Skynet.

Terminator 2 changes the expected timeline by destroying the research and hardware linked to Skynet. As a result, the movie’s ending suggests that Judgment Day has been prevented, although later franchise entries introduce alternate timelines and different dates.

This date applies to the timeline described in Terminator 2. The franchise’s later films do not all preserve the same continuity, so dates associated with Judgment Day can differ between installments.