Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Ranked Worst To Best

12. The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2 Arnold Schwarzenegger Sylvester Stallone
Lionsgate

While Schwarzenegger did appear in the first Expendables film in 2010, it was only in a cameo and thus not eligible for ranking. For what it's worth, the first Expendables is a perfectly acceptable piece of action cinema - it just failed to accomplish its main mission (that being to assemble an all-star cast of action legends in one film).

Thankfully, the sequel delivered a much more competent and rousing adventure, not only upping the size of the cast to accommodate genre legends like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, but actually utilising them in fun and at times exciting ways. Schwarzenegger - then fresh off leaving the California Governorship in 2011 - also had his role as rival mercenary Trench upgraded, getting to flex his action chops properly for the first time in almost a decade.

The novelty of seeing Arnold trade barbs and bullets with old-time rival Sylvester Stallone and fellow genre legend Bruce Willis doesn't get old, and while his role is marginal compared to Sly's, it's substantial enough to leave an impact. The Expendables films might not be on the level of what these guys accomplished decades ago, but the second entry certainly had its moments.

Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.