10 Most Influential Sci-Fi Films Of All Time
2. The Terminator (1984)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
James Cameron's Avatar might well make this list in years to come, but right now the director's most influential film is without doubt The Terminator. Countless filmmakers have taken inspiration from Cameron's darkly hued sci-fi and its titular machine, with themes of AI rebellion and the dangers of an over-reliance on technology now common in the genre.
The film was distributed by Orion Pictures and served as a reminder that successful sci-fi films could be made outside of Hollywood's studio system, and many independent filmmakers sought to imitate The Terminator both stylistically and in its message - Hardware (1990), for example, depicts the rampage of a rogue self-repairing robot in a post-apocalyptic slum.
A better-known Terminator rip-off is Roland Emmerich's Universal Soldier, a sci-fi action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as soldiers who are killed in Vietnam and then reanimated in a secret army project. The film was described by numerous critics as a Terminator 2 clone and, despite performing well at the box office, was panned by reviewers.
Despite the damage done by some substandard entries in this five-film franchise, Cameron's original Terminator movie remains seminal sci-fi and is still the blueprint for the post-apocalyptic machine ruled world.