1. Jack Slater - Last Action Hero (1993)
Shane Black isn't happy unless he's deconstructing film conventions as he makes them, and way back in 1993, before the action movie genre was even officially "dead," he was part of the writing team behind the criminally underrated Last Action Hero, which remains a smart pastiche of the genre, as well as a great period actioner on its own terms. The film might be hated by a good deal of critics, but it is the culmination of Arnie's career up to that point, and despite its openly comedic construct, and the nature of his character, it is also arguably Schwarzenegger's broadest role. He plays the Jack Slater caricature brilliantly, drawing obviously from his own career, but it is the growth of the character, up to his realisation that he is just a character in a movie that really marks the appeal of the performance. It's unashamedly corny, and some might say unforgivably cheesy, but Last Action Hero is a more enjoyable film that a good deal of Arnie's films that are more critically acclaimed, which is nothing short of a travesty.