16. T-100 Malfunctions & Dies - Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Its no secret that James Camerons sequel to his 1984 hit The Terminator was a monumental and groundbreaking achievement. It was a rare intelligent blockbuster, and was more than just an action movie with robots and explosions. It paved the way for movies to come in a myriad of ways: It was a sequel that surpassed the original (a James Cameron trademark), it featured a well-told human story, and most of all, it proved, even more-so than The Abyss, that CGI was a viable and accessible tool for storytelling. The mind-bending moment comes at the end of the film when the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), the movies menacing liquid metal villain, meets his demise in a vat of molten steel (Oh, the irony!). It begins thrashing about as it malfunctions, morphing uncontrollably into every human it has copied up to that point. Soon, it becomes nothing more than a face, which in turn vomits up another face, until finally its terrified mug evaporates in a satisfying and much deserved death.