When I read my Variety colleague Owen Gleiberman’s review of “Terminator: Dark Fate,” in which he astutely described 1984’s “The Terminator,” the film that spawned the franchise, as “a ruthlessly efficient post-apocalyptic B-movie” that represented “low-down genre-thriller classicism,” I could only smile and nod in agreement. Truth to tell, back in the day, the Orion Pictures release was a major surprise primarily because not much was expected of James Cameron’s original killer-cyborg melodrama — the director’s first step toward semi-respectability after grabbing attention with “Piranha II: The Spawning” (1981).
Indeed, the movie was on my radar only because, several months before it opened, I fortuitously was in the right place at the right time while it was filming on location in a dodgy section of downtown L.A. How dodgy? Consider: I was in town to cover the Oscars, among other attractions, for the long-gone Houston Post when I was contacted by an industrious unit publicist. Would I be interested, he asked, in coming on the set to watch the star of “Conan the Barbarian” shooting a new science-fiction movie? “Sure,” I replied, “I’ll drive down there tonight.”
Long pause at the end of the line.
“Uh, Joe,” the publicist finally said, “maybe it would be better if I drive you there myself.”
Once we arrived at the site, I could understand why the publicist was averse to my flying solo. Once we were inside the nondescript building, however, I had a marvelous time talking with an extremely animated Arnold Schwarzenegger — who was unabashedly excited about the prospect of joining Joan Collins to announce Academy Awards for technical achievement at the Oscarcast a few days later — and an intense but eager (and, considering the pressure he must have been under, amazingly gracious) James Cameron.
More important, though, I was absolutely gobsmacked while witnessing the filming of the violent Tech Noir Bar sequence. I had expected little more than a long evening of low-budget movie fakery. The next morning, however, after I awoke from a vivid nightmare of Arnold the Terminator spraying bullets in my general direction, I was forced to concede that maybe, just maybe, I had stumbled into something that might amount to something big.
As a result, for over three decades, I have taken a special interest in the “Terminator” franchise. So when I was asked to rank the six (so far) films in the series, I jumped at the chance at looking back — and gazing forward.
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6. “Terminator Genisys”
Image Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount/Skydance Productions The second of two failed attempts to reboot the franchise, “Genisys” brought Arnold Schwarzenegger back as both an aged and domesticated Terminator nicknamed Pops and (briefly) a younger, meaner version of the T-800 series dreadnaught. Unfortunately, the novelty value of this double-dipping was not enough to sustain interest throughout the knotty narrative tangle of alternative timelines, recast and recycled supporting characters, and reimagined destinies. Director Alan Taylor’s action-filled but oddly uninvolving contribution to the “Terminator” mythos was intended to launch two follow-up installments. It didn’t.
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5. “Terminator Salvation”
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock The first of two failed attempts to reboot the franchise gave us Christian Bale as a grown-up John Connor, a soldier in the human resistance movement pitted against the robotic forces of Skynet in a post-apocalyptic 2018. (It also gave us, indirectly, leaked footage of Bale’s infamous on-set temper tantrum, which in many ways was more entertaining than “Salvation” itself.) Directed by McG —who arguably fared better with an earlier reboot, 2000’s “Charlie’s Angels” — this busy but empty and largely muddled retread prompted a priceless dismissal from the late Roger Ebert: “It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it.”
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4. “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”
Image Credit: Snap Stills/Shutterstock James Cameron passed the director’s baton over to Jonathan Mostow (“Breakdown,” “U-571”) for this third installment, a better-than-expected action-adventure that picked up the saga 10 years after the events of “Terminator 2,” and focused on the adult John Connor (Nick Stahl) as he contemplated his possible future role as savior of humanity while dodging repeated attacks by a new brand of Terminator, the sexy T-X model played by Kristanna Loken. Fortunately for Connor, another reprogrammed T-800 cyborg (played by Schwarzenegger not long before he assumed the role of California governor) was on hand to protect our hero. A good thing, too, because Connor couldn’t count on his formidable mom for help: By this point, Sarah Connor was very seriously dead — a major miscalculation on the part of the filmmakers that “Terminator: Dark Fate” wisely rectifies.
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3. “Terminator: Dark Fate”
Image Credit: Kerry Brown The advertising tagline — “Welcome to the Day After Judgment Day” — is more than just a clever come-on. Rather, it’s a signal to the audience that we should all pretend all the other sequels that followed “Terminator 2” never really happened, and accept this reboot as the real “T3.” All of which proves very easy to do because “Dark Fate” — directed by Tim Miller (“Deadpool”) and co-produced by James Cameron — actually is the most exciting and satisfying “Terminator” movie in more than two decades. Longtime franchise fans will be especially pleased to savor the inspired reconstitution of Schwarzenegger’s T-800 cyborg as a graybeard family man who keeps a well-stocked stash of heavy artillery in his secluded Texas home, and the welcome return of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor as a ferocious, foul-mouthed senior citizen who terminates Terminators and claims all of the movie’s best lines.
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2. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
Image Credit: StudioCanal/Shutterstock Making good on his memorable “I’ll be back!” pronouncement in the previous film, Schwarzenegger returned in the bigger, louder and more elaborate first sequel (directed and co-written by fellow returnee James Cameron) as another well-nigh indestructible T-800 series Terminator. The big twist: This Terminator is a kinder, gentler cyborg, radically reprogrammed by the human rebels battling machine tyranny in 2029 and sent to 1991 Los Angeles to protect John Connor (Edward Furlong), the surly youngster who’ll grow up to be leader of the resistance movement. Unfortunately, another Terminator — a new and improved T-1000 model played by Robert Patrick — also has been sent back in time to destroy both John Furlong and his heroic mother (Linda Hamilton, buffer and more badass than she appeared in the original “Terminator”). “T2” may now seem borderline quaint to many jaded first-time viewers — but in its time, this summer blockbuster boasted special effects and action set pieces that impressed audiences as state-of-the-art amazing.
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1. “The Terminator”
Image Credit: Snap/Shutterstock Think of it as a textbook example of a sleeper smash hit that scored a resounding pop-culture impact that no sequel, however spectacular, could ever hope to match. Yes, James Cameron’s classic really was widely viewed at the time of its release as nothing more (but certainly nothing less) than a rousingly exciting B-movie action opus. Indeed, it was enthusiastically celebrated as such while audiences were enthralled by the blunt-force simplicity of the plot: A killer cyborg blasts to the past to terminate a woman whose future offspring will lead the resistance against machine tyranny; a resourceful human soldier takes the same time-tripping journey to protect the woman and stop the cyborg. (In the sequels, of course, things get progressively more complicated. Schwarzenegger neatly balanced unyielding single-mindedness and straight-faced self-parody throughout his first crack at what would become his signature role. Meanwhile, co-stars Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn evinced an unfailingly compelling mix of panicky desperation and steely resolve as their characters frantically improvised evasive measures.