10 Groundbreaking Movie Special Effects (That Aged TERRIBLY)

With the Terminator's exemplary visuals, gritty action, and beautiful score, no one can contest this film is sci-fi at its best. Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance may be iconic but that shouldn't take away from the blood, sweat, and tears that Stan Winston put into the special effects. Despite having little money and even less time, Winston's creations in the movie turned out flawlessly.

Well, most of them. After the Terminator sustains heavy damage, he performs surgery on his face, exposing his metallic interior and laser eye. The puppet of Arnie's face took six months to construct and yet, it looks slightly more convincing than a melted mannequin by today's standards.

But that's not all. Director, James Cameron, worried that using stop-motion for the T-800 would be unconvincing. Sadly, he was spot on. When the endoskeleton is a puppet, it looks brilliant. But when it switches to the janky stop-motion model, you can tell the Terminator isn't really there.

Even though these visuals looked astounding in the 1980s, the superior special effects in Terminator 2 utterly put them to shame. Although people debate which movie is superior, there is no question the sequel is superior when it comes to visuals.