Every Terminator Movie & Show Ranked Worst To Best

2. The Terminator

More than any of the other Terminator films, the first blurs the lines between sci-fi and horror on the back of a stunning performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger that took advantage of his limitations as an actor but amplified every reason he was hired.

It cost very little compared to its sequels and it's such a triumph of film-making even without that caveat that it rightly launched James Cameron as a cinematic genius. For good reason, it's considered one of the most influential movies of its time and of the genre.

The Terminator himself might well have been completely re-imagined in future years, but this was an incredible, almost unfathomable launch point that immediately cemented him as one of the true movie icons. And that's without mentioning great performances by Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn that offered emotional balance and grounding to the story.

it might have been around for a long time, but it's so great that it's barely even aged in conventional terms.