Every Terminator Film, Ranked
Terminator 2: Judgment Day recently turned 35, but where does it rank in a franchise that has now spawned five more movies leading all the way to Terminator 6 (AKA Dark Fate)?
According to the Terminator, on August 29th, 1997 a computer programme known as Skynet launched a nuclear attack on mankind. The survivors lived to face a new nightmare, a war against the machines. Over six films, that timeline has been repeatedly reset and the quality of the movies verges from stone-cold classic to utter embarrassment.
But, where does each film in the franchise rank against the others? We've survived Judgment Day, and figured now would be a good time to compile our rankings of the Terminator series.
The problems with the Terminator franchise began with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The first offence it committed was that it brought the series down to a 12A certificate and, in doing so, lost its more violent moments. It also led to Arnie’s T-800 becoming a parody of itself; the whole Elton John glasses “talk to the hand” moment was horribly embarrassing for all involved.
Worst of all, during its opening monologue, John Connor states that he was 13 during the events of Terminator 2. The Terminator is set in 1984 and John was born in 1985. Judgment Day is set in the year 1997, so if John was 13 during his encounter with the T-1000, it would have happened in 1998, a year after the end of the world. Messy!
Releasing amidst the height of the reboot era, Terminator Genisys sought to undo some of the mistakes of the previous sequels and reset aspects of the timeline. Unfortunately, very little about the film worked. A lot of the casting was tied to who was popular at the time, rather than who was right for the role and so Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke was cast as Sarah Connor, and Doctor Who’s Matt Smith became the antagonist.
While objectively fine, there is an overwhelming sense that it is badly written fan-fiction with convention level cosplay. Of the new additions, Jai Courtney is a surprisingly good Kyle Reese, even if his protein heavy body doesn’t scream someone that grew up starving and hiding from HKs. This film’s biggest point of irritation however, is its decision to spell genesis as Genisys, which looks extremely tacky.
With the series having failed at the reboot approach, Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller went in the requel direction. This saw a grizzled and now childless (don’t get me started) Sarah Connor step in to help the latest mother of the future. Arnie was back once again, this time as Carl, a T-800 who, after his previous mission was complete, decided to hang out on Earth and have a family.
The two join forces alongside an augmented human sent from the future to save the new target from Skynet’s latest creation, the Rev-9, which is essentially a hybrid of the T-800 and T-1000. As an action film, Dark Fate is actually pretty good, but as a Terminator film, it falls flat.
The third Terminator film should have always been set during the future war. It should have chronicled the defeat of Skynet and ended with John Connor sending his father, Kyle Reese, back through time to save Sarah. It would complete the loop upon which the series was built, while also providing the opportunity to dive deeper into the world seen in the first two films. Incidentally a sequence like this was planned for T2, but James Cameron had to cut it for budget reasons. Terminator Salvation did decide to jump into the future war, casting Christian Bale as adult John Connor, but rather than follow the path already laid out, director McG decided to have a little play around, which led to a very confusing film.
Terminator Salvation’s saving grace is the performance of Anton Yelchin as a younger version of Kyle Reese. The actor clearly studied the performance of Michael Biehn and nailed both his voice and mannerisms.
Trying to pick between Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the original film is a near impossible task. James Cameron bringing the T-800 back as the good guy and protector for John Connor was a stroke of genius, and a move that has been copied time and time again (I see you M3GAN 2.0). The introduction of the T-1000 gave the audience a villain to fear, and the effects work on the liquid metal still hold up.
A perfect summer action movie, T2 continued the story from the first film in a way that made complete sense. Edward Furlong gives a great, non-irritating, child performance as the young John Connor, imbuing him with that wise-beyond-his-years quality that makes the audience believe he’ll grow up to be a great military leader as prophesied. T2 is also stuffed full of action set-pieces, but never forgets its emotional heft — I defy anyone to not cry during the finale — and the progression of Sarah Connor’s arc is beautiful.
Whilst T2 could have easily snagged the top spot, it only feels right to keep The Terminator on top. Had I contemplated this list as a teenager, T2 would definitely have won out, but as one grows and matures, a deeper love and respect is given to The Terminator. Made for what was next to nothing in 1984, The Terminator delivered a pulse-pounding low-fi sci-fi chase movie that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name.
For many, it is the tech noir aspects of The Terminator that appeal, but personally it is the romance between Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor that elevates it. The reveal that she is pregnant and that Kyle himself is the father that John never really spoke about, who died before the war, opens up a stunningly beautiful paradox. The Terminator also just edges out T2 for being the film that introduced Brad Fiedel’s iconic theme.
