Schwarzenegger Just Called Out the Worst Terminator Movie
Arnold Schwarzenegger has finally weighed in on one of the biggest debates in sci-fi action history: which Terminator movie is the absolute bottom of the barrel. And he didn't sugarcoat it.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, while promoting season 2 of his Netflix series FUBAR, Arnold was asked which Terminator film he thinks is the worst. He didn't even blink:
"I would say the worst was probably the number four. Because that was done during the time I was governor, and I was not in it. How do you make a Terminator movie without me being in the Terminator movie? It doesn't make any sense. It's impossible."
For those keeping score, "number four" is Terminator Salvation — the 2009 installment starring Christian Bale. And while Arnold's reasoning was half-joking, it does line up with the film's rocky reputation.
Salvation had a $200 million budget, multiple screenwriters, and a plan to reboot the franchise under a new studio, The Halcyon Company. The result? A lukewarm critical response (33% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a box office gross of $371 million — not enough to keep Halcyon from going bankrupt shortly after.
The film is also best remembered for something that had nothing to do with Skynet: Christian Bale's infamous on-set meltdown, which leaked online and instantly overshadowed the movie itself.
Even Roger Ebert wasn't impressed, writing: "It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it."
Still, some fans argue that Salvation isn't the worst offender in the franchise. That title arguably belongs to Terminator Genisys — the lowest-rated entry on Rotten Tomatoes, with a brutal 26% critics' score. But Genisys had one thing Salvation didn't: Arnold.
And in his book, that's what really matters.