10 Sci-Fi Movies That Had No Right To Be This Good

It appears thoroughly inconceivable that a film featuring a bodybuilder turned actor would go down in history as one of the greatest sci-fi outings of all time, but that is exactly happened with 1984's The Terminator.

There were initially low expectations for the movie when it debuted. The Terminator had generated little to no fanfare in the build-up to its release, and the director - a certain young gentleman named James Cameron - was a relative unknown at the time. While audiences were familiar with Arnold Schwarzenegger, said familiarity was as a result of his Mr. Olympia fame. The idea of Arnie as a fully-fledged action star was a laughably alien concept.

That was before The Terminator arrived and blew the world's collective mind. The film soared to the top of the US box-office for two uninterrupted weeks, grossing its original budget 13 times over. Schwarzenegger's terrifying mechanical destroyer coupled with inspired, gritty performances from Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn make for utterly compelling viewing across an adrenaline-soaked 107 minutes. The Terminator is one of those movies that you're unable to take their eyes off for even a single second.

With no credible lead or established director to speak of, this venture had no right to be mildly good, let alone the iconic classic it ultimately proved to be.