Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Given it was the first collaboration between Cameron and Schwarzenegger, it's remarkable just how fully formed and authoritative 1984's The Terminator actually is.

Fresh off the heels of helming Piranha II: The Spawning, The Terminator signalled the arrival of Cameron as a force in science-fiction, with the director following his tech-noir thriller with seminal genre efforts Aliens, The Abyss, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It also intimated the unique screen presence and versatility of Schwarzenegger in a flash, with the actor making an effortless transition from mythic fantasy hero in Conan to what was in essence a robotic slasher villain. The Austrian had initially been optioned for the part of Kyle Reese - the kind of role that would become his bread and butter in later years - with Lance Henrisken the first choice as the T-800. However, fate intervened, and after a meeting between the pair, Cameron decided that Schwarzenegger should be the Terminator instead.

It remains one of the most consequential casting decisions of all time. The Terminator made Arnie a phenomenon, his inimitable physicality - which Cameron instantly tapped into - now married with a then unseen range. Suddenly, he was no longer just a novelty. These qualities may have also been conveyed by Millius in Conan the Barbarian, but The Terminator enshrined the modern myth of Arnold - from which flowed his action legacy.

Of course, off-screen narratives alone aren't what makes The Terminator one of the greatest Schwarzenegger films. It's a remarkable piece of cinema, as technically proficient as it is tense, romantic, and apocalyptically harrowing. Not just one of the best films of Arnold's career, but - like the following entries - one of the greatest full-stop.