Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Ranked Worst To Best

10. Conan The Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian Arnold Schwarzenegger
Universal Pictures

The Terminator may have cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger as an acting phenomenon, but it was John Millius' Conan the Barbarian that showed the world for the first time just how unique a screen presence he was.

The first of several Schwarzenegger-starring adaptations of Robert E. Howard's high fantasy Conan stories, Millius' film is fierce and brilliantly realised, relaying the story of Conan's rise to legend and his quest to avenge the death of his family at the hands of Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones).

Along the way he meets three notable allies: Subotai (Gerry Lopez), a thief and an archer; Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), a fellow warrior who becomes Conan's lover; and Akiro the Wizard (Mako), a mystic who also delivers the film's immortal ending narration.

While far from perfect, Schwarzenegger's first leading role remains one of his most iconic, transfixed in a visually rich and suitably violent translation of Howard's comics. Fingers crossed that, as per the actor's own wishes, an Old Man Conan film may materialise in the coming years.

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.