7. The Terminator - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
TriStar Pictures
The Line: "I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do...Goodbye."
How He Dies: With the CPU and arm of the original Terminator thrown into the molten steel at the end of T2, Judgment Day has been averted, right? Not quite: the new benevolent Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) asserts that one more chip must be destroyed, its own, and much to John Connor's (Edward Furlong) distress, requests that Sarah (Linda Hamilton) lower him into the molten steel. As John protests this, the T-800 replies with the above simple retort, before disappearing below the fiery mass, giving an optimistic thumbs up as he does. It's a brilliant send-off for one of cinema's best-loved characters, and though it's incredibly bitter-sweet for both the audience and John, it's really the only logical way the narrative could have resolved itself. Does it make any sense that the T-800 has "detailed files" on human anatomy, yet there's nothing about human emotion and the fact that people cry? Not really, but seeing the machine progressively learn the value of human life over the course of the film makes it easy to forgive.