10 Best CGI Movie Characters Ever

5. The T-1000 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Lord of the Rings Gollum
TriStar

It is absolutely crazy to think that Terminator 2 is a movie that’s 28 years old. Even now, though, the film is viewed as one of the greatest sequels in history, and Robert Patrick’s T-1000 is regarded as a sheer masterpiece of SFX wizardry.

The use of CGI in T2 was completely revolutionary, and the shape-shifting liquid fluidity of Patrick’s T-1000 had audiences losing their minds at what they were seeing. This was one of the movies – like The Thing, like Tron, like Total Recall – where it was genuinely hard for audiences to fully fathom what they were seeing.

As for the T-1000 itself, it also helped that the character was an unrelenting, sinister killing machine that was simply functional for the solo purpose of taking out Sarah Connor and her son John. Patrick was at his menacing best, and it’s fair to say that he completely stole the film each and every time he'd turn up with evil intentions. And that’s quite the statement when you consider that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the hottest movie star on the planet back then.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.