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.

29 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.

The movie placed the star on the poster even though his time in the film was minuscule

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.

28 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 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.

27 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 ing 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.

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26 The Expendables 3 (2014)

Trent "Trench" Ma

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 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 Ma, 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.

25 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.

24 The Expendables (2010)

Trent "Trench" Ma

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.

23 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 ittedly 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.

22 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.

21 The Expendables 2 (2012)

Trent "Trench" Ma

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.

20 Terminator Genisys (2015)

T-800

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.