Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Action Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Summary

• Arnold Schwarzenegger made a huge impact in action films from the 80s and 90s, becoming an international star.
• Schwarzenegger diversified his roles, appearing in action films, genre oddities, and family comedies.
• Despite his peak and slight decline, Schwarzenegger has remained active in Hollywood, showcasing no signs of slowing down.

For an entire generation of film fans, Arnold Schwarzenegger movies provided some of the most iconic action flicks of the 1980s and 90s. He’s played heroes and villains, ruthless robots, and kindergarten cops. With bulging muscles, a singularly bizarre presence, and a lot of heart, Schwarzenegger parlayed a bodybuilding career into one of Hollywood’s most profitable and prolific film careers. Arnold’s breakthrough came with 1982’s Conan the Barbarian, a box-office hit that captured the attention of James Cameron, who then cast him as the titular role in the action game-changer The Terminator.

That movie made Schwarzenegger an international star. Schwarzenegger has always had more playful energy than other action stars. While releasing straightforward action films, he also found time for genre oddities like Total Recall or family comedies like Kindergarten Cop. The latter proved potent, setting up Schwarzenegger as a family-friendly action hero and teeing up the incredible success of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the highest-grossing film in history at the time. After that peak, Schwarzenegger’s star faded mildly, but he eventually returned to Hollywood in full force, and he shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

28 Red Sonja (1985)

Lord Kalidor

To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, “It’s the worst film I’ve ever made. When my kids get out of line, they’re sent to their rooms and forced to watch Red Sonja 10 times. I never had too much trouble with them.” (via Far Out). Red Sonja is a clunky spinoff of the star’s superior Conan the Barbarian films. Critics bashed the movie as “badly miscast” and “poorly directed,” with “clunky storytelling” that replaces the sword and sorcery of its predecessors with downright silliness.

Schwarzenegger is top-billed despite only appearing briefly, but not even his Herculean presence could rescue this calamity. The movie placed the star on the poster even though his time in the film was minuscule. Instead, the story focuses on Sonja, played by newcomer Brigitte Nielsen, someone chosen based solely on her look at the time.

27 Batman And Robin (1997)

Mr. Freeze

Joel Schumacher’s villain-heavy Batman flick doubles down on the neon-drenched cartoony excess of Batman Forever. However, despite Uma Thurman’s campy turn as Poison Ivy, this movie failed to impress critics and audiences, ending the Batman franchise in its tracks. In the making-of feature on the Blu-ray edition, Chris O’Donnell (Robin) said it felt like they were making a feature-length toy commercial, and George Clooney still apologizes for the movie to fans all these years later.

The only element that crosses into “so bad it’s good” territory is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s performance as Mr. Freeze, still the only character in cinematic history entirely defined by ice puns. With lines like “Let’s kick some ice” and “Everybody just chill,” it is easy to remember this movie despite its status as a box office bomb. However, Schwarzenegger’s role as Mr. Freeze betrays the character’s pathos and origin, and it never really works in a movie that ranks as one of the worst in Batman franchise history.

26 The 6th Day (2000)

Adam Gibson / Adam Gibson Clone

In an attempt to recreate the magic of Total Recall, this sci-fi actioner about a family man illegally cloned in a shady technological conspiracy features Arnold playing himself and the clone. Adam Gibson is a charter pilot hired by a billionaire but asked to undergo a routine drug test. However, this was not a routine drug test, and the billionaire’s company used his blood to clone him. It was a scheme to kill the billionaire (and the pilot) and then replace them both with clones to cover it up.

The problem is that Adam unknowingly sent a friend to fly the billionaire into the trap, so now he and his clone are both alive, and it is a race in time to clear his name and save his family. Arnold picked up three Razzie nominations (Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Onscreen Couple – with himself), which sums up the overall critical opinion of this genre release. The movie was a box office bomb, and it sits at 40% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.

25 The Expendables 3 (2014)

Trent “Trench” Mauser

The Expendables 3 offers more of the same action and excitement from the first two movies, and it adds even more action stars to fill out the running time. The main stars are back, with Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and more. This time, even more throwback actors join the fun, including Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, and Wesley Snipes, along with new faces like Ronda Rousey, Kellen Lutz, and Glen Powell.

This Expendables film was the last run for Jet Li, Terry Crews, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, though. Schwarzenegger plays Trench Mauser, Barney Ross’s (Stallone) on again, off again friend. However, he received a Razzie nomination for his performance in this threequel (losing to Kelsey Grammer, also from this movie). A big problem here is that Schwarzenegger is only there to show his face and show up to help when the team needs assistance, only to disappear again.

24 Collateral Damage (2002)

Gordon “Gordy” Brewer

Collateral Damage was an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie that had possibly the worst timing of any movie in his career. The actor plays Gordy Brewer, an LAFD firefighter whose wife and son die in a terrorist bombing attack in Los Angeles. Frustrated by the belief the U.S. government is not doing anything, Brewer heads to Mompós to personally find and take down the terrorist (Cliff Curtis) but is soon kidnapped by guerrillas and held for ransom. He then has to team up with a reprimanded CIA operative (Elias Koteas).

The problem here is that the movie was set for an October 2001 release, and after a real terrorist attack took place on September 11, 2001, the studio delayed its release for a year. It didn’t matter as the film ended up as a box office disappointment and finished with a 19% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes, with complaints going to its formulaic and unexceptional action sequences.

23 The Expendables (2010)

Trent “Trench” Mauser

Filmed during Schwarzenegger’s second term as California’s governor, the first entry in the Expendables franchise only features the star for one brief scene. Yet, despite being little more than a cameo, it’s one of the film’s absolute highlights. Uniting 80s action titans Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the first time, this church-set one-liner fest is one of the only moments in the franchise that cashes in on the franchise’s “tough guy Avengers” aspirations.

According to Schwarzenegger, he did the role as a favor to Stallone, and they shot it in just a few hours on a weekend afternoon. Seeing the stars of Terminator, Die Hard, and Rocky delivering quippy one-liners and insults was a treat for anyone who grew up watching their movies, and that is mostly who these explosive team-up action flicks were made for in the first place.

22 Conan the Destroyer (1984)

Conan

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second Conan film eschews the straight-faced gravitas of its predecessor for pure camp. The results are mixed, though the whole enterprise admittedly comes off more entertaining than not. Grace Jones, a year before her iconic turn as May Day in A View to a Kill, is a lot of fun as the warrior Zula, and while Schwarzenegger’s relationship with comedy would ebb and flow in the coming years, his drunk scenes here wonderfully endearing.

The movie sees Conan agree to a quest for Queen Taramis of Shadizar, who promises she can resurrect his lost love, Valeria, if he agrees. The quest is to escort Princess Jehnna to restore the jeweled horn of the dreaming god Dagoth. Critics seemed to love the movie, praising its entertaining structure and pointing out that it is almost a live-action comic book. However, there were also complaints about Schwarzenegger’s comedic performance, as he wasn’t used to comedy bits at this point in his career.

21 End Of Days (1999)

Jericho Cane

Y2K anxiety was obviously rampant in 1999, and this supernatural thriller attempted to cash in on the craze. Schwarzenegger plays an ex-cop named Jericho Cane, who finds a new purpose in protecting a woman chosen to conceive the Antichrist with Satan himself. This period of the faded action king’s career (the late ’90s into the early aughts) was an up-and-down ride populated by hits and misses.

Despite some interesting ideas, this falls in the latter category. The movie was a box office success but didn’t make as much as many industry experts had hoped. That is likely due to its dismal reviews, which sit at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. While Schwarzenegger wasn’t in top form in this film, Gabriel Byrne gets credit for playing a fun and very different version of Satan, the main villain.

20 The Expendables 2 (2012)

Trent “Trench” Mauser

It’s not every day that the governor of California leaves office and gets right back to starring in big-budget action movies. Nevertheless, that’s what Schwarzenegger did in The Expendables 2. This sequel is undoubtedly the best Expendables film, mostly due to some sure-footed direction by Con Air director Simon West. A climactic Scott Adkins and Jason Statham brawl may disappoint, but Arnold does genuinely seem to be having a great time.

Schwarzenegger is back as Trench, and while his first movie appearance was a cameo with mostly just dialogue, this time, he jumps into the action and gets in some food old-fashioned action flick fight scenes. As with the first movie, this is also a Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Sylvester Stallone team-up, as Trench arrives with Willis’s Church to help in the final climactic battle.

19 Terminator Genisys (2015)

T-800

Terminator Genisys has an absolute bizarreness and everything-goes-wrong tone, making it an interesting experiment for the franchise. Schwarzenegger’s return after 12 years sets up the plot that rewrites the first two films’ events and morphs the franchise into a time travel story about Sarah Connor time-hopping with an aged T-800 she’s dubbed Pops. The entire purpose is to show how all the time travel used in the franchise has created a mess of alternate timelines.

The movie had some interesting choices, from Jason Clarke portraying an evil John Connor to Emilia Clarke showing up as a young Shara Connor. Jai Courtney never really worked as the new Kyle Reese, although J.K. Simmons was great as the one regular guy, an alcoholic police detective trying to figure out what was going on. The movie’s best parts are refilming classic scenes with a twist and having Schwarzenegger back to do it makes it much more fun.

18 Raw Deal (1986)

Sheriff Mark Kaminski

In 1986, Schwarzenegger and Stallone each released star vehicles that were low on brains but heavy on violence. Critics railed against both, but despite the more iconic status of Stallone’s Cobra, it’s arguable Raw Deal is the better offering. Critics even compared the two in their reviews, with most preferring this film thanks to its addition of humorous moments to the bloody carnage. Schwarzenegger’s avuncular, playful presence just helps the crass, excessive blood sport of this type of B-movie go down smoother.

That’s not even mentioning the scene where the movie star screams at his drunken wife after she throws a cake at his head, “You should not drink and bake!” Even critic legend Pauline Kael appreciated what it was trying to do, writing, “reprehensible and enjoyable, the kind of movie that makes you feel brain dead after two minutes—after which point you’re ready to laugh at its mixture of trashiness, violence, and startlingly silly crude humor.”

17 Eraser (1996)

U.S. Marshal John “Eraser” Kruger

The box-office disappointment of Last Action Hero in 1993 hurt Schwarzenegger’s reign as an action movie superstar, leading him to begin a career reevaluation that would transform into his time as the Governator. Before he transitioned into the everyman father at the center of holiday cult classic Jingle All the Way, however, he tried one more back-to-basics action flick to regain his Box Office King status, and the results were Eraser.

He plays John Kruger, a U.S. Marshal who helps people in Witness Protection. His main job is “erasing” high-profile witnesses, faking their deaths, and giving them new identities. When one of his latest charges is targeted by a high-ranking member of the U.S. government, John is framed as a mole and has to fight his way to the top to clear his name. The movie was a box office success, but the reviews were low. Critics praised the action scenes but felt the story was very dated, even at the time of its release.

16 Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003)

T-800

This decade-late follow-up to the dynamic-switching Terminator 2 has undergone a bit of a critical reevaluation in recent years, but its greatest sin is still its incredible ordinariness. Coming on the heels of two of the greatest action films of all time, the third entry loses James Cameron as director and chooses to more or less remake the second film with a jokier tone and a bleaker ending. Schwarzenegger is fun enough, even if he would soon drop his movie stardom in favor of politics, but the film’s only real innovation is Kristanna Loken as the first female Terminator.

Thanks to the franchise name, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was still a box office success, making $433.4 million worldwide. However, it remained disappointing compared to what came before. It ensured that the franchise would endure another long break before returning with a slight reboot in 2003’s Terminator Salvation, the first movie without Schwarzenegger in the role of a Terminator.

15 Escape Plan (2013)

Emil Rottmayer

Fans had wanted a Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger team-up movie for decades, and in the afterglow of The Expendables, it became an inevitability. Escape Plan has its undeniable pleasures. A barebones pulp machine featuring Stallone as a prison designer who has to bust out of jail with the help of Schwarzenegger’s inmate, the film inspires easy charm while also making viewers long for the type of script that would rise to the level of these titans of the genre.

The supporting cast is amazing, with Jim Caviezel, 50 Cent, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Amy Ryan, and that helps out when the main stars are mostly old-school action heroes. Thanks to a lower budget, the movie was a box office success, and its 50% Rotten Tomatoes rating is better than many of Schwarzenegger’s action flicks over his later career.

14 Red Heat (1987)

Ivan Danko

Odd couples don’t come much stranger than Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi, but that’s just the pairing Hollywood cooked up for this 1987 action-comedy. Directed by ’70s master Walter Hill (The Warriors), this film was a chance for Schwarzenegger to expand his range and for Belushi to fill the immense shoes of his brother. Both do just fine, and the buddy cop shenanigans proved Arnold a solid candidate for future comedies, even if this one never really rose to anything beyond solid.

The movie is often forgotten thanks to similar films of the era, with Lethal Weapon at the top of the genre. The story sees Schwarzenegger as Soviet police officer Ivan Danko teaming up with Chicago cop Art Ridzik (Belushi), as the contrasting buddy cop pairing works to perfection. Critics gave the film an above-average 69% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the same year, Arnold tried pure comedy in Twins; however, he delivered the straight man here in a movie that struggled to match his comedy release.

13 Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

T-800 / Carl

After a long absence from the franchise, Linda Hamilton returned as Sarah Connor. It’s still nowhere near the high bar set by the first two entries, but it’s solid nonetheless and certainly the best Terminator movie of the last decade. Mackenzie Davis is an engaging presence, and Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9 is the closest the series has come to constructing a villain as bone-chillingly terrifying as the T-1000.

The formula is decidedly a riff on The Force Awakens, with Hamilton and Schwarzenegger acting as mentors for a new generation of heroes and villains, but the scenes of Arnold as an aged T-800 living a peaceful life as Carl are oddly moving. The movie was supposed to start a new generation for the franchise, but it was the last film to date and Schwarzenegger might finally be finished with the franchise that made him a megastar.

12 Sabotage (2014)

John “Breacher” Wharton

The pairing of director David Ayer and Schwarzenegger still seems like a good idea. Ayer is a director skilled at exploiting tough-guy swagger, and Schwarzenegger is one of the most legendary tough guys around. He plays John “Breacher” Wharton, a gruff and grizzled soldier dealing with his DEA team members getting killed over stolen cartel money. The movie is very different from other Arnold action movies, as it is almost more of a mystery, with some big twists at the end.

Schwarzenegger’s performance here is one of his most mournful, with a gunslinger finale that ranks as one of the movie star’s best scenes. Critics were not as appreciative, giving it a 21% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it was one of the lowest-grossing Schwarzenegger action films of his career. In a positive review, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that it was “more like a modern-day, Georgia version of a spaghetti Western.”

11 Last Action Hero (1993)

Jack Slater

Last Action Hero was unfortunately released alongside Jurassic Park, 1993’s highest-grossing film. Thanks to that, some bad reviews and a misunderstanding of what the movie was trying to say, most people quickly forgot about it. However, Last Action Hero is worth a second look. Directed by John McTiernan and written by Shane Black, it follows a young boy who gets sucked into the world of action movie character Jack Slater.

The tone is that of a satire of action movie tropes, and a lot of it is fun. Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger’s casting helped fans dismiss the movie. While seeing such a self-critiquing performance from the star is fun, he’s always brought a winky cheekiness to his action films anyway. Putting him as a fictional character in a world where the real Arnold Schwarzenneger doesn’t exist made for lots of fun jokes (Sylvester Stallone starring in Terminator). The movie was a bomb and received poor reviews, but it has become a huge cult classic.

10 The Last Stand (2013)

Sheriff Ray Owens

After a decade off the screen (and some minor ribbing at how much he hated Terminator Salvation), Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in this underrated return to form, one of the best of his films post-governing. Directed by Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon, this is a full-blooded back-to-basics actioner about a small-town sheriff leading a group of misfits in battle with a drug lord.

Arnold slips back into his movie star role like he never left at all, and the result is a film that is as explosively engaging as it is downright fun. The plot sees Arnold as Sheriff Ray Owens, a man who lives in a border town in Arizona who left the LAPD after a terrible accident. However, when a drug lord escapes from the FBI and ends up in Owens’ town, he gathers together anyone he can to defend their home. The movie received positive reviews, with praise going to the action and fun factor.

9 Kindergarten Cop (1990)

Detective John Kimble

Kindergarten Cop is maybe the most important film in Schwarzenegger’s entire career, if only for the simple reason that it gave him a vehicle that played to his strengths as both an action star and a comedic presence, simultaneously endearing audiences to him as a family movie tent pole. Without this film cementing that image, it’s possible Terminator 2 would never have been the box office success it was.

Even watching it now, it’s hard to resist Schwarzenegger’s chemistry with the adorable and annoying cast of children he’s surrounded by here. For all his movie star bravado, Arnold has always been a big kid at heart, and Kindergarten Cop leans into that with magnificent results. This film also helped give the actor a new direction in his career, mixing the comedy timing of Twins with the action-based stories fans really wanted to see him in.