Arnold Schwarzenegger: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

2. Terminator - Terminator 1 & 2 (1984)

In terms of sheer pop-culture factor, the Terminator series would probably take the number one spot. I€™m not going to patronise you by going into the plot; you know it by heart, and if you don€™t you need to sort out your movie collection. Terminator 1 & 2 prove that to have a range, you don€™t necessarily have to have a range. Arnie plays the same character, in almost the exact same way in both of the first Terminator movies. The only difference: in one he€™s a bad robot and in the other he€™s a good robot. Yet it€™s surprising just how subtly different these two characters actually are. The Terminator is a low-budget, gritty, nightmarish chase movie, and the second is more of the same, with added Hollywood factor €“ but it€™s amazing how different they both feel with just that slight tweak to Schwarzenegger character. Fair enough, you can probably thank director James Cameron for that, but still you can€™t deny that the first two Terminator movies represent two of Arnie€™s greatest roles to date.