The 14 Greatest James Cameron Scenes, Ranked

James Cameron is, without a doubt, one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. From his humble beginnings as the director of 1981's "Piranha II: The Spawning" to becoming the king of the global box office with 2009's "Avatar," he's proven time and again that he's got what it takes to get audiences into movie theaters. One of his greatest qualities is innovation, with almost every single one of his films pushing the boundaries of filmmaking techniques to bring us striking new ideas, plots, and characters. It's nearly impossible to fully quantify how much he's influenced modern cinema, and with several more "Avatar" sequels scheduled to be released over the next few years, it's a sure bet that he's not done expanding the limits of what can be depicted on the big screen.

There are a plethora of classic scenes featured across his films ... heck, we're tempted to dedicate this entire list to scenes from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" alone. Whether it's in the farthest reaches of space or the deepest ocean trenches, far into the future or way back in the past, the man knows how to craft scenes that keep us on the edge of our seats eager to see what happens next. Without further ado, let's take a look at the 14 greatest James Cameron scenes.

After John Connor narrowly escapes the T-1000 at the shopping mall, he takes off on his dirt bike only to be chased by the liquid metal machine in a massive tow truck the android commandeered. John rides into an empty section of the LA River Basin, thinking himself safe, but that doesn't stop the T-1000 from driving off the street and crashing into the narrow canal without skipping a beat. Of course, the T-1000 isn't the only terminator in this chase, as the T-800 enters the fray on his Harley Davidson motorcycle and manages to get John out of harm's way, but only barely. The chase ends with an explosive finale and the first reveal of the T-1000 in its fully liquid metal form.

It's basically a universal principle that James Cameron is a virtuoso when it comes to directing action scenes. After proving himself on 1984's "The Terminator," Cameron upped the ante in 1986's "Aliens." By the time he started shooting "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," Cameron was an established master of disaster, car chases, shootouts, and explosions like a composer writing a symphony. There's not a single wasted frame in this thrilling chase scene that's made all the better by Brad Fiedel's pulse-pounding electronic score.

When Sarah Connor discovers that someone has been killing other women in the area with the same name, she hides out at a local nightclub called Tech Noir. She gets a hold of the police to ask for help, and they tell her to stay there until a squad car arrives to pick her up. However, before the police arrive at the club the T-800 shows up and is about to kill Sarah Connor until she's saved by Kyle Reese, the man who was sent back in time to ensure her safety. The T-800 does what it does best and starts firing at both Sarah and Kyle, killing anyone who gets in its way, but the two are just barely able to escape.

Naming the nightclub Tech Noir was a brilliant touch by James Cameron; what better term is there for his bleak, gritty vision of technology? The real power of this scene is Cameron's powerful direction, as in his ability to gradually build suspense when Sarah Connor suspects that Kyle Reese is the one trying to kill her while the audience knows all the time that it's the T-800. We'd seen the T-800 kill innocent people before this scene, and seeing him casually gun down the guests at the nightclub just to get to Sarah is a brutal cinematic experience.

Upon landing on LV-426, a group of Marines journey beneath the atmosphere processing station where they believe the surviving colonists are hiding. Ripley and the Marines' rookie commanding officer Gorman watch their descent from their body cams in their armored personnel carrier. However, when the Marines discover that the colonists have been used as incubators for the xenomorphs, this awakens a pack of the aliens who quickly begin attacking them. Several of the Marines are picked off one by one and communications are cut off, turning Gorman into a stuttering and indecisive mess. This prompts Ripley to take control of the situation and commandeer the armored personnel carrier to rescue the surviving soldiers.

James Cameron masterfully builds the suspense in this scene as the cocky Marines slowly make their way to the colonists. The suspense is increased exponentially by having Ripley and Gorman watch the carnage from a distance, with only shoddy audio and video to keep them updated on the Marines' status. While "Aliens" largely veers away from the horror style established in its predecessor, this scene still manages to be incredibly scary. It's also a terrific turning point in the film as it proves the Marines' ineffectiveness against an enemy they know nothing about, and perfectly establishes Ripley as the real hero of the film.

While on the run from the T-1000, Sarah Connor has a dream about the apocalyptic future whose specter has been haunting her since her run-in with the first T-800 years earlier, and it is a devastating vision. In it, a present-day Sarah is at an idyllic playground where children are playing and chasing one another without a care in the world ... until a bomb blows up the city skyline. Buildings crumble, cars flip over, and the entire landscape is obliterated as the children and their families are reduced to ash, including a young Sarah and John Connor. Meanwhile, present-day Sarah is powerless to help them as she too is trapped in the blast. All she can do is burn.

It's a relatively short scene, but that doesn't detract from its power. When Sarah Connor is shocked awake, she's brutally reminded of what's at stake if her son is killed and Skynet goes online. Most sci-fi movies take place either before or after the apocalyptic event, generally keeping it offscreen. However, James Cameron has always been one to push the boundaries of what can be achieved cinematically and opted to give audiences an unflinching depiction of a world-destroying event as it's happening that still holds up more than three decades later.

As the crew of the Deep Core drilling platform waits for a storm to subside so they can radio for help, they have another interaction with the otherworldly presence they'd encountered earlier in the form of a strange underwater light moving around as if it had a mind of its own. This time the alien presence manifests itself not as a sentient ball of light, but as an animate cylinder of seawater. Approaching the crew with gentle curiosity, it imitates the facial expressions of Dr. Lindsey Brigman and Virgil "Bud" Brigman, seeming just as interested in them as they are in it.

Much has been ballyhooed about the groundbreaking computer-generated effects in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and for good reason. However, that liquid metal T-1000 would not exist in cinema history were it not for the innovative effects used to bring the pseudopod to life in James Cameron's "The Abyss" two years earlier. The pseudopod is a stunning creature design that holds up remarkably well today, and it's clear how the technology required to manipulate water into a living being paved the way for the T-1000. It's not just the technical aspects of this scene that make it so great, though. It's a truly awe-inspiring moment that signals the film's transition from a suspense thriller into a sense of Spielbergian wonder. It's an amazing movie that Cameron almost died to make.

After Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese have been apprehended by the police and taken to the local station, the T-800 arrives asking to see Sarah. When he's denied, he promises to return, only to make good on his promise by crashing a stolen car right into the front office of the police station. The T-800 gets out of the car and, armed to the teeth starts blasting his way through countless police officers to get to Sarah. He gets shot multiple times, but because of his cybernetic nature he barely even notices the bullets ripping into him. He's the terminator, after all, and it'll take more than silly 20th-century arms to bring him down.

While "The Terminator" is considered more of a sci-fi/action movie, this scene dips into the horror genre to terrific effect. The T-800 lives up to the movie's title as he relentlessly tracks down his prey, killing anyone who gets in his path (although the T-800 didn't rack up quite the body count in the sequel, much to Arnold Schwarzenegger's chagrin). In this way, he's more like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. It's a wonderfully thrilling scene that perfectly illustrates just how much of an unstoppable killing machine the T-800 is. And let's not forget that immortal line that precedes the carnage: "I'll be back."

In this climactic scene, the T-1000 has chased the T-800 and John and Sarah Connor to a steel mill but is damaged after being frozen with liquid nitrogen and blown to pieces. Of course, that's not enough to stop a futuristic killing machine made of liquid metal and can reform itself. The T-1000 manages to defeat the less advanced T-800 (which is no mean feat) and is about to accomplish its mission of killing John by disguising itself as his mother Sarah, but the real Sarah shows up with a shotgun and manages to slow the T-1000 enough for the T-800's backup power source to kick in and deliver the final killing blow in one of the greatest villain takedowns in film history.

This climactic showdown is James Cameron's genius running on all cylinders. It brilliantly combines pulse-pounding action scenes with state-of-the-art visual effects without ever losing its heart. Because Cameron made us care about the characters amidst all of the explosive sci-fi action, we root for them to get out of this scene alive. The steel mill battle is a truly heavy metal piece of cinema and is perfectly balanced out by the bittersweet goodbye between the Connors and the T-800.