Arnold Schwarzenegger has weighed in on a debate that never really dies: which Terminator entry is the franchise’s weakest. And his answer is blunt.
During a recent talk-show appearance tied to promoting his current work, Schwarzenegger was asked to name the worst Terminator film.
He singled out 2009’s Terminator Salvation, arguing that a Terminator movie without him at the center doesn’t add up. “How do you do a Terminator movie without me being in the Terminator movie? It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Why did he single out Terminator Salvation
Schwarzenegger’s reasoning wasn’t a detailed breakdown of storytelling or filmmaking. It was about the identity of the franchise.
He pointed out that Salvation was made during the period when he was serving as governor of California, which limited his ability to participate in the series the way he had before. In his view, removing the performer most closely associated with the Terminator brand weakens what audiences recognize the franchise to be.
He also delivered the comment with a sense of humor, joking that he should have passed a law to stop people from making terrible movies.
What Terminator Salvation was trying to do differently
Terminator Salvation took a different approach than many earlier entries. Instead of focusing on time-travel suspense and the familiar chase structure, it leaned into a large-scale future-war setting. The film centers on the human resistance against Skynet and features John Connor as a key figure in that conflict, with Christian Bale leading the cast.
Because the story spends so much time in the future, the movie naturally shifts away from the classic “Terminator arrives, chaos follows” formula that defined the early films.
The bigger picture: why the franchise keeps splitting opinions
Schwarzenegger’s comment also reflects a broader truth about Terminator: the series is one of the clearest examples of a franchise where the first two films are widely treated as the gold standard, and almost everything afterwards becomes an argument about what the series should be.
Later instalments have repeatedly tried to reset timelines, introduce new angles, or modernize the premise. Some of them brought Schwarzenegger back, while others attempted to stand on their own. Salvation is the most prominent case where the franchise tried to push forward without him in a traditional starring capacity—and that’s exactly what he’s calling out.
What Schwarzenegger’s answer really signals
This isn’t just a “rank the movies” comment. Schwarzenegger is basically saying that Terminator is not only a concept, but it’s also a character brand—and that brand is tightly bound to his presence.
Whether you agree or not, it’s a clear view from the person most associated with the series: if you remove the face of the franchise, you risk making something that doesn’t feel like Terminator anymore.
