(Photo by Orion / courtesy Everett Collection. THE TERMINATOR)

All Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies Ranked

The Terminator is celebrating its 40th anniversary!

Much like his breakthrough role Conan the Barbarian, Arnold Schwarzenegger transcended a childhood of neglect and poverty in 1950s Austria, pushing his body over over the top, to become one day the king of the Hyborian Age governor of California. Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding career, begun at age 14, was enough to take him abroad in competitions, and eventually into the viewfinder of Hollywood agents. On this list of Schwarzenegger’s best movies ranked by Tomatometer (alongside the worst), we’re including the 1976 Pumping Iron documentary that helped him land Conan the Barbarian – even though he’s not playing a character, Iron was vital in crafting Arnie’s on-screen image.

Also included, of course, are his star-making ’80s action films, ranging from sci-fi (The Terminator) to horror (Predator) to practically comedy (Commando). He started the ’90s with a bang with mega-violent mind-bender Total Recall, which was followed by the legendary Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The rest of the decade saw him mixing action with more overt comedies (Jingle All the Way, Junior, Kindergarten Cop) to varying success. Schwarzenegger’s side gig as governor kept him off-screen during most of the 2000s, but since then it’s drama (Aftermath, Maggie) that’s he mixed in with minor-comeback vehicles, like The Last Stand or Stallone team-up Escape Plan. And speaking of Stallone projects, we’ve included all three Expendables on this list; Schwarzenegger went uncredited in the first, but was upgraded to a side character in the next two. Considering the Expendables‘ proudly-worn mantle of throwback action, we felt it was right to have them. Otherwise, his cameos (like in The Rundown, in which he officially passed the action torch to Dwayne Johnson) and bit parts, however memorable (watch Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye!), were excluded. So, put that cookie down, NOW, as we rank all Arnold Schwarzenegger movies! —Alex Vo