Top Ten Terminator Movie Moments: C.C.C. Issue #39

Top Ten Terminator Movie Moments

With the new sequel/reboot Terminator: Genisys hitting theatres this week, I thought it would be a good excuse to revisit the original four films in the franchise and pick out the top ten standout moments from them. I’ll start off by giving my thoughts in brief on each film—The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), and Terminator: Salvation (2009)—before getting into the top ten. Spoilers throughout, obviously.

The Terminator series is similar to the Alien series in terms of quality and fan reception. The first film is a classic in every sense. It has some fantastic action sequences, but it’s as much a horror film as it is an action film. The cast is great, with Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the unsuspecting victim and mother of the future resistance leader who will lead the war against the machines, and Kyle Reese, the chosen warrior sent back in time to protect her. But of course, the star is Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800, the ruthless cyborg sent to kill Sarah before her son can ever be born. Schwarzenegger is the ultimate villain, and despite being in a number of other action franchises—some good, some bad—I always will think of him as the original Terminator, he’s just that memorable and iconic.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is to the Terminator franchise what Aliens is to the Alien franchise (fun fact,Aliens was also written and directed by James Cameron, writer and director of T1 and T2). The sequel ups the ante with more terminators, more action, and more character depth, in the way only James Cameron knows how to do. Like Aliens, T2 is often considered a better film than the original, and I would contest that T2 is better than the original Terminator. Although the plot is quite similar on the surface, the stakes feel higher, the special effects are slick and hold up well today, and having Schwarzenegger as the protector defending a young John Connor (Edward Furlong) and his mother from the even more frightening T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a liquid metal Terminator more advanced than Arnie’s model, makes this my favourite Terminator film. I love the original, but this one holds up better, thanks to a bigger budget, wider scope, and more epic action scenes.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is my least favourite film in the franchise, and unlike the first two, which got better the more times I watched them, and are still awesome to re-watch, T3 gets worse with each subsequent re-watch. First off, it completely negates the ending of T2, which says the future is not set, and maybe Judgment Day can be stopped. Nope. Apparently it was only postponed. Arnold returns as the hero again to fight Kristanna Loken’s T-X, a Terminator that is apparently more powerful than even the T-1000, despite going back to having a solid mechanical body with liquid metal skin overtop. The biggest problem I have is, you can’t beat the T-1000 in terms of concept. The T-X, despite having some advantages over both the previous Terminator models (including being female), is just not as cool, nor is it believable that it’s more powerful. There are some good action scenes throughout the film, but the writing and plot overall are weak, the character’s are flawed, and there are too many silly moments. Most Terminator fans will agree this is the worst film in the franchise.

Terminator: Salvation was the long-awaited continuation of the series that finally showed fans John Connor fighting against Skynet in the future, post-Judgment Day, with the resistance. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what fans were hoping for. Christian Bale plays John Connor, who discovers Skynet has created the T-800 Terminator many years earlier than originally prophesized, and he finds Marcus Wright, a prisoner who was on death row (Sam Worthington) who’s now a half-human, half-Terminator, but he doesn’t know it. Marcus teams up with a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), and tries to survive Skynet’s array of Terminators, but once Kyle Reese is captured, Marcus and John must work together to save him. Again, like T3, there’s some decent action scenes, but there are a lot of problems. It definitely tries to do something different, to varying success, but ultimately, it’s more of a story about the Marcus Wright character than it is about John Connor, and the post-apocalyptic world doesn’t have the same feel or look as depicted in James Cameron’s first two films. The ending is weak and the plot jumps around, but despite being a messy film, I still find it more enjoyable than T3, and it makes better references to the first two.

That’s the breakdown of the series. Unfortunately, Terminator: Salvation was not the hit with fans or audiences that everyone was hoping for, so plans for a follow-up fell through, and now we have the new reboot Terminator: Genisys, which, in all honesty, looks terrible. But, we will see how it turns out, I will have a review up for it as soon as possible, and in the meantime, it’s time to count down the best Terminator moments!

Honourable Mention: Precinct Assault, The Terminator

While not quite a cut above the other ten I have on my list, I have to bring up the sequence in which the Terminator attacks the police precinct in pursuit of Sarah Connor, beginning with the most quotable line, “I’ll be back,”. The T-800 tears through the cops like nobody’s business, tallying up a high kill count, but still failing to terminate Sarah, thanks to Kyle’s heroic rescue. It’s a terrifying scene—you would think being in a building full of cops, who know how to use all the guns that are also in the building, would make you safe, but there’s no safety when the Terminator’s around. It’s a memorable massacre, but doesn’t stand out to me the same way these ten other scenes, moments, or sequences do. 

10. Crane Chase, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Even though I don’t really like the movie, I had to throw this one on the list. Undoubtedly the best parts of T3 are the action scenes—and most, including this one, were actually shot in-camera, without an over-reliance on cgi. The action scene that stands out to me is this one, where the T-800 is pursuing the T-X on a cop bike, while the T-X is in a crane truck, chasing John Connor and Kate Brewster. The T-800 ends up hanging from the ball/hook on the end of the crane, and the T-X smashes him through a building—the actual destruction of said building all done practically. It’s the kind of action scene that feels like a true Terminator action scene, unlike subsequent scenes with cgi explosions and cgi body doubles and poor use of green screen. The effects aren’t all that consistent in T3, but this scene is great nonetheless.

9. Future Glimpse, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

I’m focusing on the flash-forward in T2, but I have to give credit to the flash-forward at the beginning of T3, which is the only other moment that stands out to me from that film. There’s an incredible shot of an H-K (hunter-killer) flying over a river, the bottom of which is lined with human skulls, and then it goes to an army of Terminators walking by, carrying plasma rifles. The visual effects in this flash-forward are quite well done, and the moment when one of the Terminators looks directly at the screen is genuinely unsettling. As great as it is, though, no glimpse of the future has been as cool, or probably will ever be as cool, as the one at the very beginning of T2. We see a bombed-out L.A—burnt cars, charred skeletons, a destroyed playground—and then a mechanical Terminator foot comes down and crushes a human skull. An armada of Terminators walks out with guns blazing, fighting the resistance; H-K’s flying overhead, explosions, madness! Though the first Terminator opens with a very similar sequence, it’s not nearly as refined or wide in scope as in T2. It’s an incredible bit of action, filmed mainly with miniatures and Stan Winston’s animatronics, which gives it a more realistic feel than the scene in T3.

8. Opening Credits, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Following the brief look at the horrific future for humanity ahead, the opening credits of the film begin, played over shots of a burning L.A. This footage is, presumably, depicting the moment after Skynet becomes self aware and fires nuclear weapons all over the planet, nearly wiping out the human race. Swing sets are on fire, buildings crumble, the horizon is a bright orange, and it’s all set to Brad Fiedel’s epic musical score, with the instantly recognizable themes. The soundtrack is more orchestral than Terminator’s techno-80’s themes, but I like it considerably more than the Terminator soundtrack. I think the Terminator soundtrack suited that film very well, but I’m a bigger fan of the orchestral rendition. The credits end with a slow zoom-in on the chrome skull of a T-800 among flames, staring straight at the screen. It’s a striking image, and the music overlaid with it gives me chills to this day. T2 has one of the best openings of any film, in my opinion, and these opening credits—the footage combined with the score—contributes hugely to why I think that.

7. “You’re foster parents are dead,” Terminator 2: Judgment Day

At this point in the film, John Connor is aware a T-800 has been sent back to protect him, and a T-1000 is out to kill him, so he decides to warm his foster parents Todd and Janelle, since the T-1000 might try to find him at their house. He phones them and Janelle answers, asking where he is. John suspects something is up, so the Terminator uses John’s voice to talk to her. The dog is barking in the background. The Terminator asks John what the dog’s name is, but uses an incorrect name to test Janelle. She doesn’t acknowledge the name is wrong, and then the Terminator hangs up and announces the quote above. It cuts back to Janelle on the other end of the phone, and reveals her arm is a giant sword, which has impaled Todd in the head, the blade having gone right through the carton of milk he was drinking from! This reveal scared the shit out of me the first time I saw this movie, and even today, the effect of the T-1000 morphing from one form to another is totally convincing. It’s a shocking and well-executed bit of horror.

6. T-1000 vs. T-800, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The entire final battle in the steel mill makes for a terrific finale, but one thing fans specifically wanted to see was Arnold’s T-800 fight the new T-1000 in a one-on-one fight, and James Cameron knew fans would want that. Poor Arnold gets beaten like a rag doll, as the T-1000 easily outmaneuvers him and slams him all around. The sound effects as the T-1000 smashes a steel girder against the T-800’s head are perfect. You can feel the weight of it and the crunching of the metal bits as the T-800’s face gets ripped off, and the famous red eye becomes exposed once again. Though the fight ends with the T-800 losing, he gets to redeem himself by re-routing power, pulling the steel bar out of his torso, and firing a grenade launcher at the T-1000, knocking him back into molten metal, and finally terminating him. I mean, it, not him, it.

5. “Trust Me,” Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Here’s yet another one from T2 (can you tell it’s my favourite?) The cops show up at Cyberdyne to stop Sarah Connor and company from destroying the computer factory. How many cops? All of them, according to John. It seems they’re trapped, but the T-800 has a plan. Earlier, John explains that, although he’s a Terminator by nature, he can’t just kill people. Programmed to listen to John’s commands, the Terminator can’t kill any of the cops, but he can still stop them. He smashes a desk through a giant window, fires his mini-gun, grenade launcher, machine guns, and takes dozens of bullets, but manages to destroy all the cop cars, immobilize all the cops, and do so without killing anybody. The Terminator’s vision reveals NUMBER OF CASUALTIES: 0.0. How there could be .0 deaths I’m not sure—it was probably James Cameron being cheeky.

4. Factory Pursuit, The Terminator

Just like T2, the whole final chase/battle at the end of The Terminator is full of tension, excitement, and even genuine horror. Specifically, after Sarah and Kyle have broken into a factory, with the T-800 in pursuit, and Kyle sticks a bomb in the Terminator’s torso, thus blowing it to bits and killing himself, Sarah is left laying on the floor with a piece of metal embedded in her leg, leaving her unable to walk. Just when it seems the Terminator is finally terminated, nope! His legless body comes crawling after her, in an agonizingly slow moving but nail-biting pursuit. It sounds boring put into words, but James Cameron’s directing, combined with the robotic effects from Stan Winston, makes it one of the scariest moments not just in a Terminator movie, but any movie. Sarah crawls under a hydraulic press, the Terminator—despite being almost unable to function except for its grasping arm—tries and tries to get at her, and just before making the hydraulic press go down, she says, “You’re terminated, fucker”. The press crushes the T-800, but the arm and hand are still extended toward Sarah. You wonder, as the camera lingers on her, if it’s going to come back to life and grab her.

3. “Goodbye”, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

As great as the ending for The Terminator is, the ending of T2 is even better in my eyes. After defeating the T-1000 and destroying the arm and broken chip from the original T-800, John and Sarah think they have stopped Judgment Day. But the Terminator points out one chip remains, referring to his CPU. He offers the controls to Sarah, for the Terminator cannot self terminate. John pleads for him not to do it, but they all know it’s what must be done to prevent Skynet from becoming self aware and destroying humanity. The T-800 is slowly lowered into the molten metal, sinking down as John cries on his mother’s shoulder. Just as the hand goes under, it gives the thumbs up, just like John had taught it earlier in the film. Its CPU crackles, buzzes, then shuts down, and it is terminated. The ending is emotional on a level that seems impossible, given the character isn’t even human, but it’s thanks to the brilliant script and character development that this ending works so well. It’s such a perfect way to end the movie, with the final line in voiceover by Sarah, “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.”; it’s one of the reasons T3 did not win me over. The existence of that movie negates this ending completely.

2. L.A. River Chase, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The best action scene from any Terminator movie has to be the first major chase in T2. John is trying to escape the T-1000 from the mall. He’s on his dirt bike, going down the L.A. River, thinking he has escaped it. Then, out of nowhere, the T-1000 crashes through a bridge in a Semi, landing right behind him. He takes off, with the T-1000 in hot pursuit. Following behind both of them is Arnold’s T-800 on a motorcycle. It’s a high-speed chase, meticulously planned out, with all in-camera stunts and effects that surely would have been done with cgi had it been made today. The Terminator saves John, blows out the Semi’s front tire, causing the T-1000 to crash into a barrier, and the truck explodes in a huge fireball. John and the T-800 take off, but then, emerging from the flames, is the T-1000, in its liquid metal form. This was the first reveal of the liquid metal effect, and it looks as good today as it did back in 1991. Despite having seen this movie more times than I can count on both hands, the chase through the L.A. River still gets my adrenaline pumping.

1. Rise from the Ashes, The Terminator

Even though T2 is my favourite Terminator movie, my actual favourite moment comes from the original. It’s not an action sequence—it actually comes after one, after what appears to be the defeat of the Terminator, when Kyle Reese throws one of his bombs in the tailpipe of the Semi the T-800 is driving, blowing it up. The T-800 crawls out of the wreckage on fire, then stops moving. Yup, he’s got to be dead, everyone thought. Sarah and Kyle reunite and hug it out, but then, in the background, the Terminator crawls up from the ashes, with a new form. James Cameron, the creator of the Terminator character and lore, came up with the idea when he had a fever, and dreamed of a robot rising out of the ashes of a fire. Not only is this iconic image my favourite moment of any Terminator movie; it’s the one that inspired the entire concept. I remember seeing this movie for the first time at a young age, and realizing, as the Terminator sustained more and more damage over the course of the movie, that he really was mechanical underneath, but I didn’t fully realize just how different he looked underneath his skin until the moment the chrome endoskeleton appeared in full. It’s one of the most intense reveals ever in a film, one I will never forget, and the number one thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word...Terminator.