Top Terminations!

UK Film Mag EMPIRE have listed the top 10 termination scenes from the first three Terminator movies!

"Four films in, and we've learned a few things. The terminators are out there. They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. Also, they're so expert at killing that they make Rambo look like Mary Poppins. We've assembled the very best kills from the first three Terminator films to prove just how good at their job these things are.

The Terminated: Punk Leader, Punk, Punk (Brian Thompson, Bill Paxton, Brad Rearden)

The Terminator: The T-800

The Termination: "Nice night for a walk." "Wash day tomorrow - nothing clean, right?" "Your clothes, give them to me - now." James Cameron probably didn't need to craft a lot of dialogue for this simple scene which showcases the Terminator's sheer badass fighting skills - not to mention his bad ass. But the fact that he did, and quotable gems too, is a bonus and just one of the many little nuances that make The Terminator an enduring classic. The scene itself is simple: three punks, hanging out round a pay-as-you-go telescope (as you do), are amused by the sight of a naked Arnie ambling along towards them. Some ball-busting remarks are exchanged, before the punks - including a young Bill Paxton, with a shocking blue dye job - decide to unleash a chavalanche of pain. But they haven't reckoned on their naked quarry being a robotic killing machine from the future - and Arnie soon dispatches them with little fuss. Although he does rip out the heart of the leader (X-Files/Cobra nutjob, Brian Thompson), which seems a little harsh.

9. The Ending

The Terminated: Virtually the entire human race

The Terminator: SkyNet

The Termination: With the best will in the world, Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines is a bit of a self-parodic, tired retread of what's gone before, particularly T2. But then, out of nowhere, comes an ending as bold and brilliant as anything in sci-fi cinema's long and illustrious history. Director Jonathan Mostow brilliantly wrongfoots not only his lead characters, John Connor and Kate Brewster, by luring them to an old missile silo that they actually think is SkyNet, but also tricks the entire audience. We're expecting a massive showdown with SkyNet, in which John will bravely pull the plug on his nemesis, thus securing a bright and brilliant future for the human race. But what we actually get is an incredibly bleak and brave ending in which John and Kate gradually realise that Schwarzenegger's Terminator has led them here, precisely so they can survive what's coming: the imminent nuclear annihilation of the human race. For a movie that started with Arnie wearing a pair of Elton John shades, it's a conclusion that packs a hell of a punch, as Mostow shows nuclear mushroom clouds blossoming all across the globe. Rise of the Machines, indeed.

8. Back Seat Driver

The Terminated: Lewis (Don Stanton)

The Terminator: The T-1000

The Termination: When the cuddly, wouldn't hurt a fly Lewis, a security guard at the mental asylum where Sarah Connor is being kept, heads off for a coffee, he doesn't suspect that it'll be the last coffee he ever buys. Because the floor he's standing on isn't a floor… well, it is, but layered on top of it is that duplicitious T-1000, disguised as the floor. And as Lewis examines his cup of coffee, noting with childish glee that he's won the stupid little game they print on the cup to give night owls like Lewis some meaning in life, the T-1000 morphs into an exact mirror image of its unsuspecting prey. Well, almost a mirror image - in fact, the T-1000 Lewis is played by Dan Stanton, Don's identical twin. And when Lewis turns round, he gets the shock of his life as he confronts his doppelganger, who promptly stabs him in the eye with a nasty finger-prong. The coffee? It winds up on the floor, just another casualty of SkyNet's war against humanity.

7. Boyfriend Punches Arm Through The Cop's Chest

The Terminated: Detective Edwards (Kim Robillard)

The Terminator: The T-X

The Termination: Another sneaky one, this, with the T-X disguised as Scott Petersen, the (now-deceased) boyfriend of Claire Danes' Kate Brewster. Riding along in the back seat of a cop car, ostensibly en route to be reunited with Kate, Scott/T-X doesn't hang around once Detective Edwards mentions, in an offhand but incredibly detailed way, that Kate is holed up at a nearby cemetery. Without even missing a beat, the T-X punches through the poor cop's chest, before taking out his partner with an elbow smash. Then, to compound the indignity for poor Edwards, who's still not quite dead, the T-X starts to drive the cop car, using the arm that's still poking through Edwards' gory guts. We don't care what driving school you go to - that's a serious fault, and an automatic fail.

6. Got Milk?

The Terminated: Todd Voight (Xander Berkeley)

The Terminator: The T-1000

The Termination: This, hands down, is the T-1000's best kill. From the off, we suspect that something isn't quite right as John Connor (Edward Furlong) holds a phone conversation with his stepmother, Janelle (Jenette Goldstein). For a start, she's acting funny, all flinty and cold-blooded. Secondly, the dog's barking furiously - and seasoned Terminator viewers know that that's not a good sign, as dogs can spot a Terminator a mile off. Max's barking is so loud, in fact, that even John's douchebag stepdad, Todd, notices that something is up. "We should tell John to get rid of that fuckin' mutt," he mumbles, while taking a drink from a carton of milk (a slovenly habit, tsk tsk). Calmly, Janelle switches the phone from one hand to the other makes a brief motion with her left arm, and carries on the conversation. It's only when she hangs up that Cameron pulls back to reveal that 'Janelle', who we know by now is actually the T-1000, has skewered Todd with her hand-spike, milk carton and all. Spectacular, and not a little cool.

5. Sarah Connor? Yes.

The Terminated: Sarah Connor (Marianne Muellerleile)

The Terminator: The T-800

The Termination: A preview of the no-nonsense execution that awaits the Sarah Connor he's looking for, the first Sarah Connor kill is pretty brutal. Starting with a neat sight gag, in which the Terminator's car crushes a small toy in the middle of the road, it's a beautifully composed, confident little sequence in which Muellerleile's mousy housewife tentatively opens the door. "Sarah Connor?" barks Arnie. "Yes...?" replies Muellerleile - more than enough to make up the Terminator's mind. As he breaks down the door, pursues Connor into her living room and shoots her in cold blood, with the gun where you put the red dot where you want the bullet to go, Empire immediately vowed never to admit to our true identity if we ever open the door to a giant Austrian.

4. "I'll Be Back"

The Terminated: Desk Sergeant (Bruce M. Kerner)

The Terminator: The T-800

The Termination: Given that he was The Terminator's Executive In Charge Of Production, and had clearly been roped in for a brief, money-saving cameo (exactly the sort of decision an Executive In Charge Of Production might make, in fact), it's entirely possible that Bruce M. Kerner had no idea that he was going to take part in one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. To wit: Arnie's Terminator, having ascertained that Sarah Connor is holed up in a police station, comes to the front desk posing as her friend. When he's stonewalled by Kerner's jobsworth desk sergeant ("Want to wait? There's a bench over there…"), Arnie calmly surveys the surroundings, almost as if calculating the odds on a successful assault on the station, turns to the sarge and says, "I'll be back." You may have heard of it; it's become something of a catchphrase. With that, Arnie saunters out of the station, and we stay on Kerner, milking his 15 minutes as he fills out some paperwork before looking up in surprise as Arnie, true to his word, comes flying through the station's front wall in a car, pinning the poor bastard to the wall.

3. Guns. Lots Of Guns

The Terminated: Pawnshop Clerk (Dick Miller)

The Terminator: The T-800

The Termination: Even in his casting, Cameron didn't put a foot wrong while making The Terminator (of course, had he gone with O.J. as the titular killer, we might not be saying that now), as evidenced by the brief appearance of Roger Corman regular, Dick Miller, in this highly memorable scene. Cameron was a Corman apprentice, and his use of Miller here is a neat nod to his mentor. Not to mention the fact that Miller, then 65, strikes the perfect note of salesman sleaze here as the unfortunate owner of Alamo Guns (although he's billed as Pawnshop Clerk) who gets increasingly bewildered as Arnie reels off a shopping list of hardcore weaponry. Miller only has a few lines, but it's his last that's the most memorable. "Hey, you can't do that," he says as Arnie starts loading a shotgun with shells. "Wrong," says Arnie, not unreasonably, as he points the shotgun at Miller, and blams him out of existence.

2. You're Terminated, Fucker

The Terminated: The T-800

The Terminator: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton)

The Termination: With the T-800's Arnie veneer burned away, the implacable metal bastard just keeps on coming in the factory-set conclusion to Cameron's original. Even when Kyle Reese sacrifices himself to blow the grinning, leering loon in two, it still lurches back to life and continues to go after Sarah Connor. Crawling along on its severed torso, it pursues an injured Sarah through a variety of machines until there's nowhere left for the mother of the Resistance to run. Desperate, Sarah presses a button that traps the Terminator in a metal cage - but still he comes on, his cold metal fingers closing around her neck. Defiant, she scrambles to reach another button and, as she presses it, whispers, "You're terminated, fucker!" And, as a hydraulic press crushes the eerie red light out of its eyes, it's not hard to see that it is.

1. Hasta La Vista

The Terminated: The T-1000 (Robert Patrick)

The Terminator: The T-800

The Termination: For all Terminator 2's astonishing, envelope-pushing special effects, this was the money shot. This was the effect that entered the zeitgeist, this was the moment that has been relentlessly parodied and homaged ever since, in movies as diverse as Hot Shots! Part Deux and, yes, Terminator Salvation. With the T-1000, that shifty, shape-changing uber-bastard, immersed in style-cramping liquid nitrogen, Arnie's bruised, battered and nearly obsolete T-800 sees his chance to not only blow his opponent to Kingdom Come, but to utter a nifty one-liner - "Hasta la vista, baby!" - first. Which means that he's learning. He's actually learning. As iconic for that line as it was for the astonishing effect where Patrick's T-1000 slowly freezes as it walks through the liquid nitrogen cloud, including the beautiful moment where it stares at its severed hand in uncomprehending horror. And ok, so what if it then reforms after this? This is, hands down, the most eye-catching and memorable death in the Terminator series.

GlobalArnold Staff