The Best Sarah Connor Scenes In The Terminator Franchise, Ranked

The Terminator movie franchise launched in 1984 with James Cameron’s The Terminator, which still stands as an innovative blend of time-travel, science-fiction, and horror almost 40 years after its initial release. Arnold Schwarzenegger shines as the franchise’s robotic villain, but the main character is actually Sarah Connor, the hapless young waitress who learns to become a true fighter and save humanity against all odds.

In the first two Terminator movies, Sarah Connor serves as the central character of the entire plot. The mother of John Connor enjoys a rich, dynamic character arc in these two feature films, and she amazes moviegoers with her courage, inventiveness, cool dialogue, and sympathetic vulnerabilities. Many of the franchise’s best scenes put her front and center and show what humanity is capable of when fighting evil machines.

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Sarah Connor Flees The T-800 In Tech Noir

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In the 1984 classic, The Terminator,, Sarah and the murderous T-800 finally came face-to-face in a dance club called Tech Noir, where Sarah had taken shelter to stop Kyle Reese from following her around. In that scene, the Terminator and Kyle both shone as cool action heroes, while Sarah ducked for cover.

Sarah wasn’t much of a fighter at the time, but the scene was well-done and made her a vulnerable target, cranking up the tension. That scene made it horribly clear to Sarah that something brutal and terrible was going on, far more than a typical stalker scenario. Then, Sarah snapped herself out of it and smartly followed Kyle when he urged her to flee.

Sarah Connor Makes Her Final Escape Attempt In Pescadero

Sarah Connor Attempts to Escape Pescadero Hospital in Terminator 2

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In 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor was a tough and smart fighter from the very start, hence Dr. Silberman’s wariness about moving her to the minimum security part of the Pescadero state hospital. One night, Sarah hatched a clever plan to escape, and it nearly worked.

Sarah did it all, from lockpicking to hostage-taking and beating up the guards to flee the hospital, which made for a tense and exciting sequence. Sarah was indeed a resourceful fighter, but she needed the T-800 to help her and John escape the wrath of the T-1000.

Sarah Connor Accepts Kyle’s Story In the Car

Sarah Connor Looks Up at Kyle Reese in the Car in The Terminator

The next major scene in The Terminator still depicts Sarah as a passive person who needed help, as she isn’t exactly a hero yet. However, actor Linda Hamilton does a terrific job mixing Sarah’s terror, confusion, alarm, and surprising strength in the face of mortal danger.

Sarah doubts Kyle at first when he talked about time travel, villainous artificial intelligence, and nuclear annihilation. Then Sarah lets the truth sink in and accepts Kyle’s exposition as fact, which is her first real step toward becoming the mother of the resistance and a true fighter. It also helps her and Kyle become friends.

Sarah Connor Attacks The T-1000 With Her Shotgun

the T-1000 in a foundry

Near the end of Terminator 2, Sarah is all alone against the terrifying T-1000, and she only has a pump-action shotgun left to fight with. Then, the T-1000 tries to trick John in a Sarah disguise, only for the real Sarah to open fire and drive it back.

Sarah nearly claims victory when the kinetic force of her repeated shotgun blasts almost knocks the T-1000 off the railing and into a vat of molten steel. Alas, Sarah is one round short, and the T-1000 almost recovers until the battered T-800 returns to finish the job.

Sarah Connor Falls In Love With Kyle Reese

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Just before the final battle in 1984’s The Terminator, Sarah and Kyle are lying low in a cozy motel room, where Kyle describes more of his experiences in the future war against Skynet. Sarah falls for Kyle in that moment, wishing to comfort and support a heavily scarred man who had never known beauty or love in his world.

What follows isn’t just a token lovemaking scene for a horror or action movie. A weary soldier like Kyle was overdue to feel a woman’s love, and their intimate night is what led to John Connor’s conception, which absolutely needed to happen. Sarah heals one life and starts another that night.

Sarah Connor Supports Kyle During the Factory Fight

Kyle Reese Watches the T-800 Rise Again in The Terminator

The T-800’s metal robot body is fully exposed and badly damaged during the final fight in The Terminator, but Kyle and Sarah are hard-pressed to finish it off. All they can do is run as the T-800 shambled after them, only for the injured Kyle Reese to collapse during a critical moment.

In this moment, Kyle is the vulnerable one, forcing Sarah Connor to take his place as the strongest soldier. She ends her victimhood in a single scene and demands that Kyle get up to keep fighting at all costs. At that moment, Sarah the warrior is born — an image she maintains well into Terminator 2.

Sarah Connor Decides Against Smashing The T-800’s Chip

Terminator, Sarah, and John Connor in the hospital in Terminator 2 Judgment Day

Not long after the Pescadero state hospital battle, Sarah and John open up the friendly T-800’s head to tinker with its chip, at which point Sarah sees an opportunity to strike. While John is looking away, Sarah seizes a hammer and tries to smash the chip, only for John to stop her.

Sarah is in the wrong in this scene, but Terminator fans can still understand how she, traumatized from the first T-800’s attacks, wants to destroy every Terminator she can. Her vulnerability makes the scene far more compelling, and in the end, Sarah learned to accept the new T-800 as a genuine friend.

Sarah Connor Has A Nightmare About Judgment Day

Sarah Connor’s Nightmare in Terminator 2

At one point in Terminator 2, Sarah finally lets her guard down as she, John, and the friendly T-800 set up camp on a friend’s property. When the evening comes, Sarah dozes off at a park table, only to have a horrific nightmare about Judgment Day, which is apparently scheduled to happen on August 29th, 1997. Sarah watches as a playground of kids and their parents are blown into ashes.

Sarah jolts awake from this nightmare and is suddenly determined more than ever to stop Skynet at all costs. It is simultaneously cool and terrifying to watch that nightmare unfold, reminding Terminator fans of what a grim burden it is to know about humanity’s doom at Skynet’s hands.

Sarah Connor Crushes The T-800 In A Hydraulic Press

The T-800’s Arm Reaches for Sarah Connor in The Terminator

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Kyle Reese loses his life fighting the T-800 in 1984’s The Terminator, and worst of all, the “it’s not dead yet” horror trope ensures that the T-800 is still operational. Its legless body chased Sarah across the factory, forcing Sarah to crawl through a hydraulic press to get away.

Finally, Sarah is truly cornered, and the T-800 grab her throat to finish the job. That is when Sarah landed her first and only blow against the T-800, activating the hydraulic press to crush the T-800 into scrap metal once and for all. However, Cyberdyne Systems is still able to recover enough from the T-800 to begin making Skynet anyway.

Sarah Almost Assassinates Miles Dyson

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Following the nightmarish events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Sarah grabs some weapons, hops into her stolen station wagon, and drives off to find Miles Dyson, the computer engineer responsible for creating Skynet. In a tense and dramatic sequence, Sarah gets into position outside Miles’ home at night and prepares to strike.

It was a moment of tragic irony, Sarah Connor herself almost becomes a Terminator to get her way. She is desperate to prevent a nuclear apocalypse, but when she has Miles at gunpoint and looks him in the eyes, she knows she can’t kill him. Sarah is a human being with real emotions — not a machine — and she was suddenly overwhelmed by the reality of what she almost did.

The Terminator (1984)

A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity’s future salvation.

Director James Cameron Cast Paul Winfield, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Arnold Schwarzenegger Rating R Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action