Arnold Schwarzenegger is most well-known for his role in the 1984 hit film, The Terminator, where he also had his most memorable and repeatedly referenced line, “I’ll be back.” But before he was The Terminator, he was a professional bodybuilder and, more than that, has gone on to be seen as an important figure in bodybuilding even to this day with an event, Arnold Sports Festival, dedicated to him. But his resume doesn’t stop there: Schwarzenegger also served in office as Governor of California from 2003 to 2007, and eventually was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.
Schwarzenegger was born in Austria to a former Nazi father and, from what he’s said in an interview with Fortune, had the type of childhood that would now be considered child abuse. He came from rather humble beginnings, and by the age of 14, was getting into sports like soccer until he chose to focus his attention on bodybuilding. He would officially start competing at age 17, which would later take him to the United States in the late-60s, a dream of his since he was a child.
A couple of years later, despite his poor English at the time, he’d make his way into film with his first role in Hercules in New York, but his breakthrough film wouldn’t be until Conan the Barbarian in 1982, more than a decade later. The actor made a name for himself as an action hero, especially after his role in The Terminator, but eventually moved towards comedies to reflect his sense of humor. Schwarzenegger dominated action and comedy films throughout the 80s and 90s, which is why we made a ranked list of the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies from the 90s, box office numbers and critical reviews aside.
5 Junior
Universal Pictures
Schwarzenegger, when playing in comedies, usually found himself in films that were outlandish and just zany enough to work. And no other movie of his fits that the way Junior does. He plays Dr. Alex Hesse, a university scientist teamed up with Dr. Larry Arbogast, played by Danny DeVito, who he starred alongside in another comedy in the 80s, Twins. The two develop a drug, Expectane, which would help to reduce the risk of miscarriage. But once they lose FDA approval and university funding, they decide to secretly implant a fertilized egg in Hesse’s stomach so that he can take Expectane to prove that it’s safe for human use. Very outlandish. But despite its weird concept, it still had a likable charm, mostly from Schwarzenegger, to still be considered one of his best non-action films because of the way it shows a side of him that action films never bring out: his soft side.
As big as he is physically, it’s nice to see Schwarzenegger play gentle and loving characters. Somehow the film also never becomes, even in today’s standards, offensive. It would’ve been easy to have him be “a man pretending to be a woman” or put him in drag for the comedic effect, as queer people are usually treated as jokes, but the movie never goes in that direction, minus one scene where he dresses as a woman when he’s hiding. If anything, Junior feels more supportive to the queer community by arguing what it means to be a functional family, which, in the end, comes down to loving your kids no matter who you or your partner are.
4 Last Action Hero
Columbia Pictures
Last Action Hero was ahead of its time as a satirical and meta action movie about action movies. It stars a young boy, Danny, who uses a magic ticket to enter the world of his favorite action hero, Jack Slater, and as he adventures with his hero, points out all the odd things about action movies. Schwarzenegger plays Jack Slater in the movie to us and in the movie to Danny, so at some point we even see Schwarzenegger playing himself, talking to Jack Slater also played by himself. But even as amazing as the film sounds, it did very poorly, commercially and critically, though it could be blamed on the fact that the world wasn’t ready for it yet. UpRoxx said it best: “Looking back, I don’t blame anyone at the time for not liking this movie. It was sold as another Schwarzenegger thrill ride of an action movie. Then people showed up and were basically told to their face, ‘what you like is stupid’.”
Three years after the release of the film, another, more popular, meta film would release that would change its own genre: Scream. So, the people just weren’t ready for a film like Last Action Hero, but watching it now, you’ll notice how it points out the odd things about action movies (similar to how Scream pokes fun at horror movie tropes) and humanizes heroes.
3 Kindergarten Cop
Kindergarten Cop was directed by Ivan Reitman, the same man that Schwarzenegger worked with on Junior and Twins, who seemed to like to put the larger-than-life actor next to small things that would make him seem even bigger. He did this with Twins when he cast Schwarzenegger alongside Danny DeVito and again with Junior with the same casting plus a small baby. And obviously, there’s no explanation required for Kindergarten Cop. Schwarzenegger plays John Kimble, a hard shell detective working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to try and catch a drug dealer, but, while doing so, realizes his passion for teaching.
The perfect mix of his career at the time — a hard-action hero with a soft funny side that you would’ve never expected to be there — which is one of the reasons Schwarzenegger took the role in the first place, wanting to shed off his action-moving typecasting. Once onboard, he requested a few adjustments, one of which was his idea of touching on broken homes and family abuse that many kids face. This not only made the film more touching, but allowed it to do something many comedies like it at the time wouldn’t have dared touch on to try to keep the lighthearted laughs.
2 Total Recall
TriStar Pictures
Cinema Blend writer, Rich Knight, argued in his article that Total Recall is Schwarzenegger’s best film ever. In said article, he lists out the reasons: it has Schwarzenegger’s best acting, the best villain, interesting settings, complexity, and is a fun sci-fi film that’s more sci-fi than he’s ever been in. Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a construction worker, who receives an implanted memory of an adventure on Mars, but agents try to prevent him from unlocking more memories of his past as a Martian secret agent tasked with stopping the Martian tyrant, Vilos Cohaagen.
The film is based on a short film, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, by Philip K. Dick, whom you might know best for his work Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which would later become Blade Runner. And while it would be odd to compare the two, with Total Recall being more dumb fun, some argue that it’s the better adaptation of Dick’s work because of the way it portrays the future as ugly and grimy, but with its inability to take itself seriously, it’ll likely always be seen as lesser compared to Blade Runner.
1 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Terminator is Schwarzenegger’s most well-known and loved movie in his filmography, which, upon release, gained mixed reviews, with some saying it was the most chilling thriller since Alien, and others saying it had an appeal rooted in fascism. But regardless of critics, it (like most of Schwarzenegger’s work) became an iconic and adored film of the 80s that would spark a wildly successful franchise spanning more than four decades. So, naturally, when Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released on July 3, 1991, it easily pulled people into theater seats. It became the highest-grossing film of 1991 and the third-highest-grossing film of all time.
Outside the dollar signs, it was critically acclaimed mostly for its special effects and makeup, even winning Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects at the 64th annual Academy Awards along with Best Sound and Best Sound Effects editing. The film is known as the best film in the Terminator franchise. But it should be noted that while Terminator 2 is probably one of Schwarzenegger’s best works critically, not just from the 90s, it still lacked the heart that his comedy films, which failed critically, had. The kind that made fans cherish them in their hearts, whereas Terminator2 feels soulless, almost robotic. This can be a good reminder that a “bad movie” can go much further than a “good movie” by just being charming and enjoyable.
