Every Terminator Movie, Ranked
We Terminator fans haven't had an easy time. I first saw "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" when I was about 10 and my dad let me stay up to watch it. Did I pretend not to be absolutely terrified by the image of the exoskeleton peeking through Arnie's torn facial flesh? Maybe. But ever since being gently traumatized by "T2," I have been in love with the franchise.
Depending on who you ask, everything after "T2" has formed a nebulous cloud of mediocrity, where flashes of scenes you may or may not remember sometimes rise to the surface only to recede into the miasma once again, leaving you questioning whether they ever existed. Did Arnie really wear star-shaped shades in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines?" Did they really make The Terminator into a suburban Texas dad who ran a curtain business in "Terminator: Dark Fate?" Much like Sarah Connor in "Judgment Day," we're left haunted by these nightmares that we're not even sure are real. But still, there are those that love the wild swings "The Terminator" sequels take, no matter how absurd.
So, here we are, amid the twisted ruins of the franchise we loved once, trying to salvage what we can and asking ourselves what happened. Surely there's something redeeming about the legacy sequels. Were they really all that bad? Well, below you will find the 100 percent correct (for legal purposes, this is a joke) ranking of the "Terminator" movies, wherein all these questions and more will be answered.
6. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
This one deserves the lowest spot on the list simply because it promised so much and delivered so little. "Terminator: Dark Fate" was supposed to be the movie that saved the Terminator franchise. Ahead of its 2019 release, we were wowed by reports of James Cameron, creator of the franchise and director of the first two movies, returning as producer. We were elated at the promise of Linda Hamilton coming back to remind us all what a straight-up badass Sarah Connor was. On top of that, "Dark Fate" did what every Terminator fan had done for years and ignored the events of every sequel after "T2." This promised to be what Terminator fans had been waiting for — the resurgence of their beloved franchise.
Unfortunately, what we got was an inescapably disappointing and frankly bizarre Terminator movie. What makes "Dark Fate" so egregious and deserving of the bottom spot, however, is that it had the gall to present itself as the "real" sequel to "T2." Had it been merely another lackluster Terminator installment perhaps it might be deserving of a higher spot. But a film that opens with a sequence that pretty much makes the events of "T2" entirely pointless, before delivering the most bland blockbuster action you could imagine, while simultaneously shoehorning in beloved characters from Terminator films past and somehow making them entirely forgettable deserves this ranking. Though for the record, the film does has its defenders.
What's more, this was Arnie's swan song! Schwarzenegger is apparently done with the Terminator franchise, having bid the saga adieu now that his transformation from iconic action hero to "Carl," the Texan curtain fitter, is complete. Let's hope whatever Cameron's cooking up with his AI-focused Terminator sequel follows through on the promise that "Dark Fate" failed to keep.
5. Terminator: Genisys (2015)
Were it not for the truly historic let-down that was "Dark Fate," 2015's "Terminator: Genisys" would, without a doubt, be languishing in the bottom spot. "Terminator: Genisys" is not a sequel or a prequel. It's essentially a reboot ... that also isn't a reboot because it acknowledges the events of the first two movies by alluding to a Terminator multiverse. You might already be starting to see why this one isn't at the top of the list.
Things only get more confusing from there. This is the movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator became "pops," a reprogrammed T-800 who is the guardian and mentor to Emilia Clarke's Sarah Connor. That wouldn't be so bad if the rest of the film wasn't so convoluted and weighed down by a clear desire to pay tribute to the original movies while simultaneously striking them from the record. As with 2009's "Terminator: Salvation" we once again got a CGI young Arnie and an impressively rendered recreation of the opening scene from the original 1984 "Terminator." Why? Because those movies were awesome, but also forget those movies, this is the future of the Terminator franchise, I guess?
Behold, Schwarzenegger himself struggling to explain the whole thing:
"You see the same scene as the 1984 scene, except the scene will unfold in a different way, except now because of the visual effects you can do and because of the technology that's available, you can tell that story even better."
Rightio then, Arnie.
If you've seen this film and can remember any of it, good on ya. For the rest of us, flashes of old "Pops" and some sort of tortured plot twist involving Jason Clarke's John Connor are all that remain from this truly misguided effort.
4. Terminator: Salvation (2009)
Critics weren't too kind to this one, and Christian Bale's on-set meltdown will forever make it an infamous entry in the canon. But at least "Terminator: Salvation" wasn't a straight-up nostalgia play and didn't try too much in the way of timeline rewriting. "Salvation" remains the only Terminator film to be set entirely in the post-apocalyptic future and focuses mainly on John Connor (Bale) in full rebel commander mode.
But, again, does anyone remember anything that happened in this film? For a movie that switches things up so dramatically by focusing exclusively on the future war and John Connor, shouldn't it stand apart from all these other generic blockbuster sequels we've been given? The fact that it isn't more memorable just demonstrates that "Salvation" never quite lived up to what it could have been. That said, it at least deserves some points for trying something different and for not indulging in needlessly confusing time-travel storylines that upend or entirely negate the events of the first two films.
Still, even Bale regrets "Salvation," and there's plenty of reason for that. This was the genesis of the CGI young Arnie, who appeared in every film after "Salvation" and never to any great effect. The movie also seems confused about whether Bale's John Connor or Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright is the lead. Is "Salvation" terrible? Absolutely not. Is it forgettable? Absolutely. That in and of itself somehow makes it worse, if only because the Terminator franchise deserves so much better and this movie could have helped revive it at a crucial time rather than delivering a fairly generic actioner that set a precedent followed by every film since.
3. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" might have made $433 million at the global box office, but there's no way around the fact that this was the beginning of the franchise's slow decline. Arnold Schwarzenegger at least got a huge payday with "Terminator 3," thanks to his iron-clad contact. But even the return of the original Terminator couldn't help this effort rekindle the magic of James Cameron's first two movies.
That said, compared to what came after it, we had no choice but to put "Rise of the Machines" in third place. While "Salvation" tried to do something different with its future-set storyline, which definitely earns it some points, that attempt ultimately failed to make it any more memorable than any of the other sequels on this list. Among those sequels, however, "Terminator 3," feels the most like a legitimate Terminator movie.
A carmine leather-clad Kristanna Loken as the T-X was at least a memorable image and her Terminator came with an array of new powers that were different enough from Robert Patrick's T-1000 that she seemed slightly more than just a retread of the previous villain. Who even was the bad Terminator in "Genisys?"
Meanwhile, Nick Stahl wasn't the best John Connor and many of you who haven't revisited "T3" since its release may have forgotten that Claire Danes was even in this movie. But at least we got Arnie back in his classic leather jacket and shades attire, rather than some CGI abomination or an at-home Terminator dad. I could have done without the star-shaped shades gag, though.
2. The Terminator (1984)
"The Terminator" would easily claim the top spot if James Cameron hadn't outdone himself with the sequel. In the director's seminal 1984 effort, not only do you have an inventive and compelling story, but you also have one of the all-time great villains in the T-800. Arnold Schwarzenegger turned the Terminator into an action hero in "T2," but in the original movie, he's basically a super-charged Michael Myers-type.
Fans of the original will know it's basically a slasher with sci-fi elements mixed in, and Arnie's relentless cyborg, hell-bent on taking out Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, is one of the truly terrifying slasher killers. The special effects might look dated today, but there's something genuinely unsettling about the Terminator's dead-eyed visage pursuing Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) across Los Angeles. Once the full exoskeleton emerges from the fire during the film's climax, Cameron's nightmare — the one that inspired the film — is fully realized in a movie moment that remains singed in the minds of film fans around the world.
The premise of "The Terminator" is ambitious (especially considering Cameron had a $6.4 million budget to work with) but simple. A cyborg from the future is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the man who would later lead the human resistance in its war against the machines. Notice how, while the central storyline revolves around time travel, it doesn't get bogged down in time-travel logistics. It's just a killer robot hunting down its unwitting victim. That simple but ingenious premise resonated with audiences everywhere, making "The Terminator" a low-budget sci-fi that made millions ($78 million to be exact), helped launch Schwarzenegger and Cameron's career, and attained a cult status that helped propel the second movie, and the Terminator IP to stratospheric heights.
1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
James Cameron had a tough time writing Arnold Schwarzenegger into "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." How was he going to bring back Arnie's bad guy in a film that already featured a liquid metal baddie? By making him the good guy, of course. Once Cameron figured out that simple dynamic between Schwarzenegger's T-800 and Robert Patrick's T-1000, the rest just fell into place.
The director had already proved he could make sequels that stood up against their predecessors and even broke new ground, with 1986's "Aliens." But "Terminator 2" with its dramatically increased scale (and budget to match), engaging story, and groundbreaking CGI really cemented his talent for sequels that outdid the originals.
But what's so enduringly impressive about "T2" is that it simultaneously manages to be one of the best action movies ever made and a genuinely affecting film with a story that still feels worth telling in 2023. The overwhelming sense of doom that hangs over the whole thing is something wholly unique to "T2." From the very beginning, when an ominous opening chord accompanies shots of cars backed up on an L.A. freeway (check out this incredible deep dive on how these otherworldly sounds were created), the movie feels deeply unsettling in a way that a big-budget actioner never has. It's that element that has stuck with me ever since I first saw it and which remains just as visceral to me decades later.
In other words, we came for the killer robot action, but we stayed for the excellent performances, deeply affecting tone, and an engrossing storyline that somehow still feels pertinent today. That's something that no other director has ever managed to replicate with any of the sequels, and something even the original can't top.