The Sci-Fi 25: The Genre's Best Since 1982

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13. THE TERMINATOR/ TERMINATOR 2 (1984 /1991)
Directed by James Cameron

Oh, if only all sci-fi action movies could be as kick-ass as the first two Terminators. There's something so hardcore about the original, the merciless chase picture that expertly cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as the scariest killing machine ever seen. Terminator 2, meanwhile, is warmer and more accessible — if just as bloody. At first it seemed wrong that Arnold was now playing the hero, until you settled in and realized that this time Cameron was out to deliver a richer and more layered experience, while still blowing you to the back of the theater with awesome action set pieces.

POP CULTURE LEGACY By spending a then-record $90 million-plus to make T2, Cameron and his liquid-metal T-1000 revolutionized the use of CG technology.

THE BEST BIT So many killer sequences to choose from! For the way it presages the coming effects revolution, we're tempted to highlight the scene in the original when the Terminator tends to his wounds in front of the bathroom mirror. The true winner, though, is the first big chase in T2, featuring a semi tractor-trailer careening off an overpass into a river basin below. You can't beat that. —Gregory Kirschling