11 Heroic Acts In Movies That Changed Absolutely Nothing

2. The Terminator - Terminator 2

In one of the most enduring sequences of sci-fi movie history, the end of Terminator 2 sees the titular cyborg giving an uplifting thumbs up as he heads to his fiery doom in the same smelting pot that has just killed the superior T-1000.

Despite being the perfect bodyguard who could have saved Sarah Connor and her son further issues, the Terminator is resolute that he has to be destroyed to save his parts from falling into the hands of the wrong people (the Skynet inventors), which works out really well since Skynet is then never invented and the whole future timeline where the machines take over is completely averted and everyone lives in peace, casting only slightly suspicious looks at their toasters.

Except that doesn't happen at all does it? The Terminator's death fails to achieve the only reason it actually had, as Judgment Day is merely changed to another date later on the calendar and the world still falls to war between man and machine. So all that emotion, and the hugely symbolic thumbs up pose, and all it managed was to put off the inevitable for a little while, when a Terminator would have been remarkably helpful for the Connors around the house.