10 Best ‘Terminator’ Moments

It’s rare that movies ever get the chance to go back to the movie theater, but that’s exactly what’s happening this weekend when Terminator 2: Judgement Day returns to the cinema in 3D for one full week! The sci-fi action extravaganza has stood the test of time and seeing it remastered in 3D has us so excited that PopCulture.com decided to go back and rank the 10 Best Terminator Moments!

Now – if you’re one of the unlucky few who hasn’t seen Terminator 2: Judgement Day, then it’s especially important you go see this at the theater. It was one of those rare sequels that improved upon the original in every conceivable way (and The Terminator itself if a sci-fi classic).

Released in 1991, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was groundbreaking in the way it meshed CGI into the film in a believable way that still holds up today (compared to many movies since with noticeably dated CGI). It was directed by James Cameron and featured Arnold Schwarzenegger returning as the time-traveling T-800 “cybernetic organism.”

In the original film, Arnold played the villain, sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of John Connor, who turns out to be the human leader of the resistance in the war against the machines. This time, however, the T-800 is sent from the future to protect John Connor, now a teenager, from a far more advanced and deadly Terminator, the T-1000, played to stoic perfection by Robert Patrick.

While some of the sequels that followed T2 had their moments, you could easily fill a Top 10 list with iconic moments just from the first two Terminator films alone. Take for example our No. 4 pick (which comes from T2) – When Arnold Schwarzenegger teleports into 1991 butt-naked, destroys a gang of bikers, and acquires, as he describes it, “clothes, boots, and your motorcycle,” all to the tune of Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Has there ever been a song in a film that perfectly encapsulates the pure badassery of Arnold as a walking and talking killing robot? We think not, which is why it lands so high on our list.

What’s your favorite moment from the Terminator films? Check out the video above to see if it won the top spot, and make sure you go see Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 3-D this weekend!