If you’re a longtime fan or totally new to the franchise, The Terminator has long since grown beyond its robotic roots and become one of the most iconic movie franchises of all time. Here are the best Terminator movies, ranked.
What are the best Terminator movies as of 2025?
The last Terminator movie was Dark Fate, released in 2019. And despite the franchise’s maybe most well-known line from the original, “I’ll be back,” we really don’t know whether the franchise will be making another movie anytime soon. That could be partly because of its box-office bomb, or we’ve moved on. Still, as far as movie franchises go, there’s always hope for the future. Just give it another decade (or less) and a different director.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
We’re putting the sequel ahead of the original. This is one of those sequels that could be considered better than the original, right up there with The Godfather: Part II and The Dark Knight Rises. T2 took everything from the original and cranked up the volume. We have bigger action, better effects, but still get some actual heart out of the movie. Plus, Sarah Connor’s (Linda Hamilton, the legend) transformation into a full-on warrior and the T-800’s turn from villain to hero gave this one plenty to root for. It also still looks incredible decades later.
Directed by James Cameron, Judgment Day takes us to 2029, when Earth has been torn apart by a war between Skynet and the human resistance. In a last-ditch move to secure victory, Skynet sends its biggest, baddest prototype Terminator back in time to kill resistance leader John Connor before he can grow up to lead the fight. Nip it in the bud, if you will. To protect John, the resistance sends its own reprogrammed T-800 back in time.
The Terminator (1984)
In the original Terminator, James Cameron introduces us to a downright terrifying vision of the future. The year is 2029, and an AI defense network called Skynet has wiped out most of humanity. What survivors remain are trying to fight back under the leadership of John Connor. To stop him before he’s even born, Skynet sends a cybernetic assassin known as the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back to 1984 Los Angeles to kill John’s mother, Sarah Connor.
Despite being one of the most well-known sci-fi movies of all time, not everyone knows its wild origin story. James Cameron came up with the idea after a fever dream while working on Piranha II: The Spawning. He sold the script to producer Gale Anne Hurd for just one dollar, on the condition that he’d get to direct it himself. Because the film’s budget was so tight, much of it was shot guerrilla-style, meaning the crew often filmed without permits, rolling up to locations, shooting fast, and packing out before anyone could stop them. The Terminator went on to gross over $78 million worldwide on a $6.4 million budget.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
By the time Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines rolled around, it had been over a decade since Judgment Day. The future, as it turns out, wasn’t as changeable as Sarah Connor hoped. Directed by Jonathan Mostow (taking over for James Cameron), T3 catches up with John Connor as an adult, who is living off the grid. But Skynet isn’t one for submission, and sends an upgraded assassin known as the T-X.
Once again, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as the T-800, reprogrammed to protect John and prevent Judgment Day. Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid a mind-boggling $29.25 million for the role, plus 20% of the film’s profits, and $1.5 million in what’s called “perks”. He did have his work cut out for him at least, and insisted on doing many of his own stunts despite being in his mid-50s during filming. The movie went on to earn over $433 million worldwide, proving the franchise still had some steam.
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Salvation is where things started to take a turn for the worse. Despite a stellar cast that included Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Anton Yelchin, the movie struggled to find its footing. Arnold Schwarzenegger was notably absent — he was busy being the Governor of California at the time — so the franchise’s biggest draw was missing right from the start.
Set in 2018, Salvation finally takes audiences into the post-apocalyptic world the earlier movies hinted at. John Connor (Bale) is now a soldier in the human resistance, fighting Skynet’s army of machines. A mysterious half-man, half-root Marcus Wright (Worthington) shows up, and the lines between human and machine start to blur. On paper, Salvation should’ve worked: the war-torn wastelands, a darker tone, a fantastic cast, and no time travel. But somewhere along the way, it lost that spark that made the originals iconic. If we had to chalk it up to something, we’d say this one leaned too heavily on CGI and mechanical explosions (how very 2009 of it) but forgot humanity. Almost ironic, wouldn’t you think?
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Arnold is back, and he’s got Emilia Clarke with him in this fifth installment, which did its best to reboot the franchise while ignoring all the previous sequels and the TV series. In this whacky timeline, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is a soldier from the post-apocalyptic 2029. He’s sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor, only to find out the timeline’s already been messed with — Sarah was raised by a reprogrammed Terminator she calls “Pops,” sent back to guard her as a kid.
The movie hops across timelines and throws in a modern-day version of Skynet via an app called “Genisys,” which at least feels like a nod to today’s tech obsession. Some of the time-jumping actually works, and seeing Arnold back onscreen gives that classic feel-good nostalgia. Still, a lot of the movie ends up feeling like a mess of overlapping timelines and endless explosions.
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Dark Fate tries to hit the reset button, ignoring everything after T2 and bringing back the originals. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor! Arnold Schwarzenegger is back! We also get Mackenzie Davis joining the team as Grace, an enhanced human sent from the future to protect Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), the new target.
Dark Fate’s setup is classic Terminator in prototype and runs the same gamut of humans versus unstoppable machines. The action is solid, the stunts are huge, and seeing Hamilton and Arnold back together is pure nostalgia gold. But despite all that, the movie cogs never quite clicked into place. And while this could be a personal opinion, the box office reflects that consensus. Maybe audiences had grown tired of reboots and timeline resets, or younger viewers didn’t have the same connection to the old-school characters. Still, it’s worth a watch to wrap up the full franchise marathon.
How we picked the best Terminator movies
We picked the first five as the best for obvious reasons. The longer you go with sequels, the worse they tend to get — and the Terminator franchise is no exception. But since there are only six films in total, and we were going to pick five anyway, we just decided to rank them all and give you the full list.
