Terminator (franchise)/Awesome

The Terminator

• The Tech Noir scene. The T-800 gets the drop on Sarah, and is about to shoot her through the head, when Kyle Reese pulls out a Sawed-Off Shotgun and blasts him to the floor. Then the T-800 pulls out an Uzi and starts shooting up the nightclub. He almost gets Sarah again when Kyle manages to reload the shotgun and blast him out the front window. He then kneels down next to Sarah and tells her "Come with me if you want to live." Best Establishing Character Moment ever.
• The Car Chase afterward also counts. The T-800 jumps Out of the Inferno onto the hood of the car, punches through the windshield, and is about to kill Sarah when he's flung off by the sudden impact. He manages to catch up with them again after stealing a cop car, only for Kyle to outmaneuver him and send him crashing straight into a wall.
• The Police Station Massacre is one long Moment of Awesome for the T-800. He tells the officer at the front desk "I'll be back," and, true to his word, drives a car through the front of the building. He then goes in Guns Akimbo with an assault rifle and a shotgun, gunning down every single cop in his way. That one scene demonstrates just how terrifyingly effective a killing machine the Terminator is.
• The second Car Chase is remembered most for its satisfying conclusion, when Kyle shoves a pipe bomb up the exhaust pipe of a gas tanker and causes it to explode, supposedly taking the T-800 with it. Sarah also deserves props for managing to stay ahead of the truck on foot for about thirty seconds.
• Kyle's Heroic Sacrifice definitely counts, when he pulls the same trick as he did with the tanker, only this time he shoves the pipe bomb directly into the T-800's chassis, blowing its legs off.
  • His line before taking the T-800 on is pretty cool too.

 Kyle Reese: Come on Motherfucker.

• Sarah gets a Moment of Awesome of her own after that when, after barely managing to crawl ahead of the T-800, who is still trying to kill her, she manages to trap it in a hydraulic press and pushes the button after saying: "You're terminated, fucker."

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• The T-800's introductory scene, in which he goes into a pool hall and demands that a burly biker dude gives him his clothes. When he disagrees, The T-800 wipes the floor with the patrons, which includes throwing the biker on top of a burning stove, and walks out of there dressed in the coolest black leather ensemble ever, while "Bad to the Bone" plays in the background. The owner comes after him with a shotgun, and the Terminator calmly walks up to him, snatches the gun away, and grabs the guy's sunglasses. Forget the Tech Noir scene, this is the greatest Establishing Character Moment ever put to film.
  • The best part, he doesn't kill anyone.
    • Even better: this is before he was prohibited from killing anyone.
• The Galleria Scene and the motorcycle chase right after. Those two scenes immediately establish that T2 is bigger, awesomer, and more explodey than anything that came before.
• Sarah Connor's escape from Pescadero State Hospital, which involves beating an orderly senseless (he licked her face earlier, though), holding Dr. Silberman hostage with a syringe full of cleaner, and generally kicking ass. When the T-1000 goes after them in the elevator, she demonstrates that she is not the frightened damsel that she was in the previous film (as if it wasn't obvious already) by grabbing a pistol from the T-800's belt and shooting straight through the roof. She doesn't stop shooting until they lose the T-1000.
• The T-1000 gets a few of his own in that scene, including becoming part of the floor in order to sneak up on a guard (whose form he then assumes after stabbing him in the eye), and walking through a door by shapeshifting around it.
• After Sarah's assassination attempt on Dyson, it's John who takes control of the situation. Compared to the other examples here, it's very mundane, but it shows that even at the age of 10, he has the qualities of an excellent leader.
• The Minigun Scene. The T-800 kicks a desk through a window, then opens up on the cops with a freaking minigun. Once the ammo for that runs out, he blows up their cars with a handheld grenade launcher. All with 0.0 casualties.
• And right after that, he wades through the cops' fire in order to get close enough to shoot them in such a way where they'll live if they get medical attention. He really meant it when he promised not to kill anybody.
• The T-1000 gets one immediately afterward when he drives a motorcycle into the building, up the stairs and out the window in order to hijack a helicopter.
• The Car Chase that follows is the stuff legends are made of. They drive a police van out onto the highway, while the T-1000 follows in the helicopter, keeping it perfectly level about three feet off the pavement. And shoots at them while doing it. The T-800 eventually gets the bright idea to let the helicopter crash into them, which gets rid of it as a threat but also disables their own vehicle. They end up commandeering a truck while the T-1000 follows in a liquid nitrogen tanker. John takes the wheel, and the T-800 climbs onto the hood of the tanker and shoots the T-1000 in the face repeatedly until they all crash into a steel factory.
  • Perhaps the coolest part of the T-1000 chasing them in the helicopter is a very easy to miss example of Awesome Yet Practical and Mundane Utility. In a blink and you miss it cut, you can see the T-1000 has given himself four arms in order to pilot the chopper, fire the submachinegun, and reload at the same time.
• Once they're in the factory, the T-1000 has a little trouble moving in the liquid nitrogen, and the T-800 tells him "Hasta la vista, baby," before shattering him into a million pieces. He gets better, but that was still pretty damn awesome.
• Sarah gets yet another one near the very end, when the T-1000 assumes her form to try and trick John. She tells her son to get down, then blasts the Terminator from behind with a huge-ass shotgun, which she then pumps one-handed, and fires again, and again, and again, until the T-1000 is standing right over the edge. She runs out of ammo before she can land the killing blow, but that's where the T-800 comes in, riding a cog up and blasting the T-1000 with the last round of his grenade launcher, sending it into the steel below.
  • The scene is perhaps the best demonstration of Sarah having taken a level in badass. She goes from the standard Damsel in Distress in the first film to nearly being able to destroy the T-1000 on her own, without the T-800's help.
• Okay, this is from the Guns N' Roses music video. After the song we are shown a stinger with the band leaving the gig where they come across the T-800. As he walks past he identifies the band members by name, then when he identifies Axel Rose his Stat-O-Vision declares Waste of ammunition, Arnie lowers the shotgun, and smirks. Yeeeeaaaahhhh.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

• The scene where the T-X crashed into a building to catch John Connor and Katherine Brewster, only for her to be crushed by the T-850 crashing through the building in an even bigger helicopter...then he steps out and proclaims "I'm back!" Damn near worth the ticket price alone...
• There's also the scene in the graveyard where The T-850 pulls up in a hearse and shoots the T-X point blank with an RPG.
• The car chase scene certainly deserves a mention, even though it is quite stupid in some ways (no director Mostow, cars aren't electrical, they're mechanical. You cannot make them press the gas pedal remotely).
• What, T-850's Heroic Sacrifice combined with his one liner (which is a callback to the first movie) to take down T-X doesn't qualify?

T-850: You are terminated. (boom)

• • Building on that, there's a subtle nod (subtle, in this case, mainly because of the action surrounding it) at just how awesome the Terminator's raw power has become. One arm is holding a frantic half of a far more advanced killing machine, and the other is holding up a hydraulic door big enough to make the press that did in the first Terminator look like a nutcracker.
• The Terminator calling John's bluff when he threatens to kill himself:

"Based on your pupil dilation, skin temperature, and motor functions, I calculate an 83% probability that you will not pull the trigger."

• Also in the graveyard scene, the Terminator sick of John whining and moaning while under the influence of SWAT Teargas. He grabs John by the throat strangling him repeating the lines John said to him prompting John to say the following line of Dialogue:

Terminator: You're right, you aren't the one I want. I'm just wasting time.
John: Fuck you, you fucking MACHINE!!!!

• • Though it later turns out that Terminator was using Reverse Psychology on Connor.
• Kate, who has been alternating between The Chick and The Load for the whole movie, has her own when she grabs an AK and unleashes hell on a drone that is attacking her and John.

Terminator: Salvation

• John Connor manages to wipe out Skynet's main base and apparently primary factory in one night and almost by mistake. While at the same time proving that his conspiracy theory was absolutely correct. While saving his teenage father. While resuscitating Marcus. While not dying from a massive chest wound. Just John in general.
  • How about just screaming, "Do it, you son of a bitch!" and getting his facial lacerations from the T-800's cooling hand?!
  • He gets a smaller one when he first appears, landing a helicopter on a Terminator and shooting it twice in the head.
• The sudden appearance of the T-800, which happens to look exactly like Arnold in 1984. Also notable in that this is the first time in the film that the iconic Terminator theme actually plays.
• The opening scene is awesome as well. Not only does it hammer in the fact that the war against the machines has begun, but after seeing a lot of scenes of the future from the previous films where everything is dark and hopeless, as if humanity is fighting a losing war, it's just epic and blood-pumping to see that humanity is able to kick ass and take names.
• Teen Kyle Reese and Star, a little girl, taking out a terminator by themselves. And apparently being the only members of the Los Angeles Resistance as well.
• Marcus being told that he is a Skynet programme designed to infiltrate the resistance. His creator tells him that he will not be the hero of the story and that he cannot save John Connor. Marcus' response? "Watch Me".

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