James Cameron: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

6. The Terminator

Alright folks, we've eaten our veggies, now on to dessert.

The idea behind this film came to Cameron in a nightmare, featuring a robot that walked like a man stepping through fire towards him. Essentially being a slasher movie with a frightening explanation for the superhuman ability of its slasher villain, this film centers around a seemingly random teenage girl, Sarah Connor, on the run from an unstoppable robot disguised as a man, sent to kill her because she's destined to mother the man who would grow up to be the destruction of the robot's A.I. masters, Skynet.

A high concept horror/Sci-Fi film that showcases the talents of both Cameron and leading man Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a time before he was the biggest name in '80s Hollywood, The Terminator was a fun, legit frightening experience that inspired a whole generation of science fiction writers, a trait that Cameron's best films tend to have in common.