The 7 Best Action Scenes in the Terminator Franchise

The Terminator franchise is highly cherished by science fiction lovers, but it is also an action fan’s dream. Conceived in the mind of legendary filmmaker James Cameron, 1984’s The Terminator introduces Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s titular Terminator as a cybernetic assassin from the future, sent back in time to assassinate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), before she gives birth to the leader of the human resistance, John Connor. Cameron’s 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day ramped up the action and effects of its predecessor in every way imaginable, including making Arnold’s T-800 a hero sent to protect John. T2 became one of the biggest box office hits of its time, with the two Terminator movies followed by four sequels, a television series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and a Netflix anime series, Terminator Zero.

While the Terminator movies are the epitome of sci-fi, they are just as much the epitome of action, launching Arnold Schwarzenegger to the status of an action movie titan while establishing Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn as action icons, as well. With Cameron’s well-known filmmaking philosophy of “go big or go home”, the action sequences of the Terminator franchise are every bit as grand and explosive as Cameron’s overall filmmaking legacy.

Here are the 7 best action scenes in the Terminator franchise.

The Motorcycle & Diesel Truck Chase – The Terminator

Chase scenes are part and parcel of the Terminator franchise, and the original Terminator culminates in one of the series’ most intense sequences, when Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) and Sarah Connor narrowly escape the T-800 when it tracks them to a local motel. Considering The Terminator‘s miniscule budget of $6.4 million, the movie’s climactic chase is a great early example of Cameron’s skill as an action filmmaker even without his standard $200 million-plus budget on his side. Budget be damned, The Terminator‘s diesel truck chase is pure action madness of car and motorcycle stunts, phenomenal make-up on the T-800’s partially torn-off face, and pyrotechnics in the fiery climax.

Final Battle With The T-800 – The Terminator

Directly on the heels of Kyle and Sarah thinking they’ve defeated the T-800, the mechanized assassin rises from the flames with its human epidermis burned off, revealing the skeletal metallic killer within. The T-800’s stop-motion pursuit of Kyle and Sarah into a nearby factory is the stuff nightmares are made of, a fitting finale for the film indeed, given that James Cameron’s concept for the Terminator came from a nightmare he experienced. Kyle’s heroic sacrifice to save Sarah also sets the time loop of the Terminator franchise into motion, as the audience comes to understand that he is John Connor’s father, while Sarah’s transformation into a dauntless warrior begins with her defeat of the T-800 and an unforgettable one-liner.

The Dam Showdown – Terminator: Dark Fate

2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate plays with the franchise’s abundance of alternate timelines. In this new future, a new machine intelligence known as Legion declares war on humanity in the future, with Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) as the new leader of the human resistance.

Terminator: Dark Fate ends on a massive showdown in a hydro-electric dam, with Dani and her allies Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), future resistance fighter Grace (Mackenzie Davis), and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newly humanized T-800 battling the new Terminator model Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), sent from the future to eliminate Dani. While the latter day Terminator movies have often had trouble matching the impact of the first two installments, Dark Fate’s finale delivers epically on the kind of action that is the stock and trade of the Terminator franchise, along with ending on one of the most emotional Terminator death scenes for an Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator.

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The Terminator vs. The T-X – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines gave the world its first female Terminator in Kristanna Loken’s T-X, described by John Connor (Nick Stahl) as “an anti-Terminator, Terminator” for her strength and ability to control other machines.

The T-X indeed puts Arnold’s T-800 to the test in the two machines’ wall-shattering smackdown. The T-800 and T-X clobber each other with bathroom urinals and leave a military headquarters’ restroom in shambles. Terminator 3‘s battle of two cyborgs from the future is unforgettable indeed as one of the Terminator franchise’s all-time best fight scenes.

The Canal Chase – Terminator 2: Judgment Day

James Cameron wasted no time in establishing the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) as a terrifying and relentlessly determined killer from the future in the Los Angeles canal chase of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. With John Connor (Edward Furlong) barely keeping ahead of the semi-truck-driving T-1000 on his mini-bike, Arnold’s T-800 enters the chase like a futuristic gun slinger, complete with his instantly show-stealing (and much-imitated) shotgun twirl to reload fresh rounds. Sure, there’s a rather obvious swap out for a motorcycle stuntman at one point that could have been far better hidden, but T2‘s canal chase gets the movie’s engine running into overdrive with its first action sequence (and one of the best chases of the ’90s) in one fell swoop.

The Helicopter Chase – Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Right after destroying Cyberdyne headquarters, John, Sarah, and the T-800 are on the run from the T-1000 again, in another all-time classic car chase. Cameron doesn’t just keep the action moving fast, but extremely varied, with both the heroes and the T-1000 switching from one vehicle to another as the chase progresses. The chase also has some jaw-dropping aerial stunt work when the T-1000 pilots a police helicopter, pursuing his targets over and under overpasses and flying just feet above the ground at points with the camera working double time to capture all the action. It all ends with the T-1000 being frozen by liquid nitrogen and shot into a million pieces by the T-800, with Arnold delivering one of the most immortal quotes in movie history, “Hasta la vista, baby!”

The Steel Mill Showdown – Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Mere seconds after the T-1000’s apparent defeat, the villainous cyborg reconstitutes its thawed and shattered body for round two. The T-800, John, and Sarah are forced to stage a final battle against the T-1000 in a steel mill. While it lacks the breakneck pace of the chase sequence that precedes it, Terminator 2‘s steel mill battle makes up for that in pure hide-and-seek tension, with the T-1000 easily beating the T-800 into submission, not once but twice, in the same set piece. Linda Hamilton matches Arnold’s twirling shotgun reload with some flashy one-handed shotgun work of her own, and like the classic machine villain that he is, the T-1000 goes out in memorable style – followed shortly thereafter by the T-800’s own sacrifice to save the future. Terminator 2‘s classic status as an action film has never and will never be in dispute, especially with the movie concluding on such a masterful action sequence as the steel mill showdown with the T-1000.

The Terminator is now streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video; T2 is now streaming on Pluto TV; Terminator: Dark Fate is now streaming on Hulu.