9 Movie Franchise Staples That Actually Came From Sequels

8. The T-800 Being A Hero - Terminator 2

Arnie Terminator
TriStar

Before he was best known for molten-metal thumbs ups and dated 90s catchphrases, Arnold Schwarzenegger's virtually unstoppable T-800 haunted people's nightmares as the villain of the original Terminator.

Of course, his role was flipped brilliantly in the sequel, which was entirely centred around the T-800 becoming a protector rather than predator and learning how to be human. In part this came from Arnie refusing to play bad guys after a bit of an image change, but regardless of the motivations, the demand resulted in one of the greatest face turns of all time.

And since then the series has essentially stuck to this characterisation, featuring Arnie as Humanity's robotic saviour, with only the dreadful Terminator Salvation bringing back the menacing original incarnation of the T-800 that's since faded into memory.

Advertisement
Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.