The Most Perfect Thumbs Up In The History of Film

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I don’t know how many thumbs up’s have been in movies over the years because I didn’t bother to count. That will not stop me from saying that the T-800 twisting his thumb skyward at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day is without peer. There is no second place* for Most Perfect Thumbs Up in the History of Film. But if you stand back and look at all the things that had to go right for this moment to land, it’s honestly kind of a miracle that it worked. So here’s almost 10 minutes of video essay analyzing exactly why and how James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger seared this image into our collective pop culture brain

With Avatar 2, aka The Way of Water, hitting big screens everywhere, it’s important to remember that James Cameron has a knack for sequels. Aliens turned a Ridley Scott masterpiece into a different sort of action sci fi thriller masterpiece all together and of course T2 took one of the coldest villains of all time and turned him into the hero. And that’s really where Cameron’s brilliance shows up. He can shoot on all the IMAX and invent all the cameras and underwater motion capture technology he wants, but his movies are memorable because of moments like the T-800 thumbs up.

*If pressed I’d have to say it’s Sean Connery in The Rock giving a silent and otherwise non-communicative thumbs up by which Nicolas Cage is hilariously baffled.

This love letter to several seconds of screen time was written and edited by Clint Gage.

For more sorta-almost-kinda related content about movies from the 90s, be sure to subscribe to CineFix and IGN Movies & TV. But I left a bunch of links here for you anyway.

Gremlins, Zombies and the Top 12 Christmas Horror Movies of All Time - https://youtu.be/1jbkjsyhmMg

Jaws, Indiana Jones and Matilda, The Top 10 Movie Heroes of All Time - https://youtu.be/5410mGyueO4

Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, More James Cameron and The Top 10 Practical FX of All Time - https://youtu.be/Eo5zeYY1q1o

Top 10 Action Movies of All Time part 1 - https://youtu.be/EWa7a2fFid0

And Part 2… The Sequel!! - https://youtu.be/R31sQKJjR_k