Awesome Music / Terminator

• The Terminator Theme, composed by Brad Fiedel.
  • Take your pick between the T2 version (or the amazing recreation by Genisys), the fully orchestrated version from the T3 soundtrack, or the original 80s electronic version.
  • The main theme of Terminator: Dark Fate — Junkie XL's take on the traditional Terminator theme — is a composite of the first two films' iterations of the theme^note as with T2 and onward, its main drum beat has five notes (while the first film had six), but also now includes the two extra notes from the first film and incorporates guitar acoustics, giving an undeniable Mexican/western vibe while also sounding more tragic than any other version; reflecting off of the film's End of an Age status: with the deaths of John Connor, Skynet, and its Terminators.
  • And T2 uses two of the most badass songs ever - one even names a trope.
  • T2 also has one of the most painful uses of the main theme when T-800 is being lowered into the molten metal.
  • The revamped Terminator theme used in Terminator Salvation. Dundun dun dundun. Dundun dun dundun. Dundun dun DUNDUN. DUNDUN DUN DUNDUN! KLANG KLANG!!! KLANG!!! KLA-KLANG!!! (done with a frying pan in the first movie).
  • Used to awesome effect in Salvation. That signature theme is entirely absent until the T-800 shows up, and the theme kicks on just as Arnie's face appears on screen.
  • Another thing, the 1984 Terminator theme was originally quiet, then suddenly HITS you with the KLANG! towards the end.
  • The Sega CD game is about the only one to have the proper theme, but the in game music is full of hair metal that wouldn't be out of place at a night club. Arguably the best part of the game.
  • The Terminator theme was perfectly synched with Skynet's.
• Dillon Dixon's amazing credit roll theme, "Open To Me" is a wonderful guitar tune that was played at the end of T3.
• "Radio" from T3 will put a lump in your throat.
• The Terminator Salvation trailers gave us a pure post-apocalyptic banger in the form of Nine Inch Nails' "The Day The Whole World Went Away".
• Terminator: Dark Fate:
  • The trailer's use of a cover of Björk's "Hunter". It would have been easy to just play on the audience's sense of nostalgia by re-using the original Terminator theme, but this helps make the film seem more like its own thing, especially since Arnold Schwarzenegger appears in only one shot. It's also dark, somber, and haunting, giving the trailer an air of mystery.
  • The second trailer one-ups this by including a mashup of the classic Terminator theme and "In the House — In a Heartbeat".
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
  • "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash, from "What He Beheld" (1x09), which you might be familiar with.
  • Without Shirley Manson's "Samson and Delilah" the first scene of the second season would just be one Moment of Awesome among others. With it? Fans saw this and screamed, "THIS is Terminator".
• The soundtrack playing at Tech Noir in the first film has "Burnin' In The Third Degree" and "Photoplay" by Tahnee Cain and The Tryanglz. The former song in particular builds up the tension as the T-800 gets close to Sarah.

---