History Heartwarming / Terminator

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop. It would never leave him. It would never hurt him, never shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always be there. And it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers who came and went over the years, this thing, this machine was the only one that measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."'']]

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_436.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_436.jpg Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay]]]]

Works in this franchise with their own pages:

* One scene stands out in T2: "Hey wait, you swore!" "Trust me."
** [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove "I know now why you cry... but it is something I can never do."]]
** Sarah offering her hand in friendship to The Terminator as a fellow warrior, which he graciously shakes.
** [[ICannotSelfTerminate And the thumbs-up.]]
** Sarah's last piece of narration: "The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope, [[PatrickStewartSpeech because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too."]]
** Sarah's realisation that the T-800 is actually the best possible father John could have.
* Reese's whole "I [[spoiler: traveled across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have]]" and pretty much that whole ensuing scene.
** Before that, he has a literal PetTheDog MeaningfulBackgroundEvent moment while Sarah is getting them a hotel room.
* Not to mention the photo John gave Reese of Sarah when she [[spoiler: was pregnant]]. Reese states that he always wondered who she's thinking about to make her so sad in it. It's revealed at the end of the film that [[spoiler: she was thinking of telling John about his father, Kyle himself.]]
* "[[ArcWords Come with me if you want to live!]]"
* Don't throw this troper to the hounds for mentioning Terminator 3, but I felt John and Kate's conversation immediately after the cemetery shootout was rather touching, in retrospect. John tries to comfort Kate by saying that some things simply can't be changed, which hits John every bit as hard as the fiancee's death hits Kate (by virtue of, you know, the entire day's events proving beyond a doubt that all the crap he went through in T2 was for nothing). John feels completely helpless, but that he still tries to comfort her despite all of his own hope being lost helps to explain why they're eventually husband and wife.
* In the Cemetery scene as a nod to the second movie, John makes a remark on how the Terminator was the closest thing to a father he had.
* Combined with one of the biggest TearJerker moments ever, John's breakdown when he realizes that the T-800 has to destroy himself to prevent the creation of Skynet. The kid has been through hell the entire movie, and its ''here'' that he completely loses it at the thought of losing not just his bodyguard, not just his friend, but the closest thing he has ever had to a father.
-->"I order you not to go. I order you not to go! [[TearJerker IorderyounottogoIorderyounottogo!]]"
* The end of the "Salvation" movie, when [[spoiler:Marcus]] offer to sacrifice himself so the doctors can preform a transplant on John.
* When John tells the Terminator to reveal himself to the Dysons, he takes their son Danny away to see his room and spare him more trauma. It's especially sweet when you consider that John didn't have much of a childhood himself and would rather not have an innocent child caught up in this any further.
* The scene with Marcus and Blair when they're on their way to the Resistance base, and snuggle up by the fire (well, Blair does. Marcus just lets her).
* The scene where John laments to The Terminator about his life up to meeting him. It's pretty heartwarming that he can confide to a machine who at the time didn't understand human emotion, but was willing enough to listen.
* The entire rescue scene in Salvation, here we have Kyle and Star who just escaped while John is also looking for him. They find each other just in time before the T-800 closes in on them. John focuses more on getting Reese and Star out of the factory and when Kyle asks who he is, to which he answers before the elevator leaves. The look on Reese's face pretty much says he's thinking "[[HeyItsThatGuy That's the guy on the radio.]] [[TheLeader He sounds like a natural leader.]] [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority And he just managed to get through all these evil machines to rescue me.]] [[HolyShitQuotient Holy Shit.]]" It also doubles as a moment of awesome.
--> '''Reese:''' WhoAreYou?
--> '''John:''' JOHN CONNOR!!!

* The entire rescue scene in Salvation, here we have Kyle and Star who just escaped while John is also looking for him. They find each other just in time before the T-800 closes in on them. John focuses more on getting Reese and Star out of the factory and when Kyle asks who he is, to which he answers before the elevator leaves. The look on Reese's face pretty much says he's thinking "[[HeyItsThatGuy That's the guy on the radio.]] [[TheLeader He sounds like]] [[TheMessiah a natural leader.]] [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority And he just managed to get through all these evil machines to rescue me.]] [[HolyShitQuotient Holy Shit.]]" It also doubles as a moment of awesome.

* The entire rescue scene in Salvation, here we have Kyle and Star who just escaped while John is also looking for him. They find each other just in time before the T-800 closes in on them. John focuses more on getting Reese and Star out of the factory and when Kyle asks who he is, to which he answers before the elevator leaves. The look on Reese's face pretty much says he's thinking "[[HeyItsThatGuy That's the guy on the radio.]] [[TheLeader He sounds like]] [[TheMessiah a natural leader.]] [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority And he just managed to get through all these evil machines to rescue me.]] [[HolyShitQuotient Holy Shit.]]"

* The scene where John laments to The Terminator about his life up to meeting him. It's pretty heartwarming that he can confide to a machine who at the time didn't understand human emotion, but was willing enough to listen.

* The scene with Marcus and Blair when they're on their way to the Resistance base, and snuggle up by the fire (well, Blair does. Marcus just lets her).

* When John tells the Terminator to reveal himself to the Dysons, he takes their son Danny away to see his room and spare him more trauma. It's especially sweet when you consider that John didn't have much of a childhood himself and would rather not have an innocent child caught up in this any further.

** [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove "I now know why you cry... but it is something I can never do."]]

* The end of the "Salvation" movie, when [[spoiler:Marcus]] offer to sacrifice himself so the doctors can preform a transplant on John.

-->"I order you not to go. I order you not to go! [[TearJerker IorderyounottogoIorderyounottogo!]]"

* In the Cemetery scene as a nod to the second movie, John makes a remark on how the Terminator was the closest thing to a father he had.

** Don't forget the buildup to that line. It sets it up to really be a HEARTWARMING MOMENT.

* Reese's whole "I [[spoiler: traveled across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have."]] and pretty much that whole ensuing scene.
** Don't forget the buildup to that line. It sets it up to really be a CROWNING moment of heartwarming.

* In the Cemetary scene as a nod to the second movie, John makes a remark on how the Terminator was the closest thing to a father he had.

* Don't throw this troper to the hounds for mentioning Terminator 3, but I felt John and Kate's conversation immediately after the cemetery shootout was rather touching, in retrospect. John tries to comfort Kate by saying that some things simply can't be changed, which hits John every bit as hard as the fiancee's death hits Kate (by virtue of, you know, the entire day's events proving beyond a doubt that all the crap he went through in T2 was for nothing). John feels completely helpless, but that he still tries to comfort her despite all of his own hope being lost helps to explain why they're eventually husband and wife.