Terminator (franchise)/Nightmare Fuel

From Sarah Connor's nightmares to yours!

James Cameron once had a nightmare about a metallic creature. Said creature now scares many people worldwide.

---

• The scene where Sarah is talking to her mother, before it's revealed that it's actually the Terminator using the mother's voice!
• If you are not even marginally horrified by the chillingly realistic portrayal of a nuclear holocaust in Terminator 2 Judgment Day, check to see if you have a pulse.
• Before Sarah Connor's dream in Terminator 2 stole the spotlight as the reigning king of Nightmare Fuel in the series, the future war scenes from the first film filled that role. These scenes featured a destroyed cityscape washed with blue moonlight, and massive tower-like tanks rolling over human skulls scattered around like debris. Later on comes Kyle Reese's flashback of a terminator attack on a base of La Résistance. The door guards let a group of refugees into the shelter, when suddenly one of them throws up his garments to reveal a massive gun. Before anyone can react, the cyborg opens fire on the soldiers, as well as on women and children. Kyle attempts to fight back, but an explosion knocks him to the ground, sending his photograph of Sarah Connor into the inferno. As he watches it burn, he gazes up to see the silhouette of the terminator, eyes burning fiendishly red.
• The death of the T-1000. It was just so utterly surreal, and somehow completely lacked the satisfaction that should have come with seeing that thing killed...
  • Not to mention the T-1000's face turning inside-out before slowly melting away...
• The fact that Reese is not even remotely joking, exaggerating, or lying when he says that a Terminator will never ever ever ever ever EVER stop trying to kill you. No matter how badly damaged it is, it will not falter; no matter how many times you escape, it will not give up; no matter how many times you put it down, it will not despair. From its creation to its utter destruction, that thing is your death.
• The third movie, while considered inferior by many, still has many scary scenes. One in particular: a disguised T-X is in the back seat of a police car. She makes her arm go through the driver's seat and the driver.
  • There's a creepy scene where Scott Mason awakens, thinking that his fiancee, Kate Brewster, is sitting on his bed. It turns out to be the T-X, who contorts her upper body to face him before murdering him. The visuals aren't perfect and there is no sound, but the scene can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89xKjdD8wGk
  • The ending of T3 gives us the rather chilling sequence of the nuclear missiles being launched on Judgment Day. With a soft violin piece playing in the background just in case the imagery wasn't enough.
• Terminator Salvation: The thick bulky T-600s, despite being the precursor model to the T-800, are much less refined in human design. From a distance they appear human, but the simplistic rubber skin sends them right off into Uncanny Valley.
• Anyone else kinda creeped out by the homage to the original films' openings with the T-800 (or whichever one looks actually human) just trudging out of the fire as John Connor repeatedly shoots it with grenades? Then there was the factory...the fact that at any moment, one of those Terminators could wake up...and then there's the one pursuing the heroes, which appears out of FREAKING NOWHERE from behind a row of moving inactive Terminators.
• Hell, the theme can inspire fear because there's something so primal about it. CHNKCHNK CHNK CHNKCHNK. CHNKCHNK CHNK CHNKCHNK. CHNKCHNK CHNK CHNKCHNK. CHNKCHNK CHNK CHNKCHNK.
• Two Words: Obvious Trope. "GET OUT"
• The number of Jump Scares in the movie, particularly the one at the gas station. Everything suddenly goes quiet...then BOOM, a giant robotic hand smashes through the roof and grabs someone.
• In-universe Fuel for T2. An escaped mental patient with a history of violence and known to have previously attacked tech companies launches an attack on one of the biggest ones. She is aided by her delinquent son and a man who matches the description of a cop killer from '85, and is apparently immune to any conventional weapons. Not a story I'd want to be in the middle of.
• From the 4th movie, and also counts as Scenery Gorn -- Marcus standing on a hill, overlooking a bombed out Los Angeles. Also the scene where John Connor and Marcus Wright are talking admist flaming trees. Did these guys reach into my childhood nightmares or what?
• The T-800's rampage through the police station in T1. It really drives home how unstoppable this thing is, especially when the police break out the big guns and still get mowed down like grass.
• The T-1000, full stop. Not only is the very concept of a thing that can mimic anything it touches Nightmare Fuel incarnate, it seems like it was occasionally enjoying itself. Both T-800's were scary, but there was something truly malevolent about the T-1000.

---

Back to Terminator (franchise)