The Best Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies of the 80s and 90s

I remember when The Last Action Hero was released in 1993, it was not exactly loved by the critics back then. It has developed a real cult following over the years and it has always been a firm favorite of mine. Directed by John McTiernan, what makes The Last Action Hero so enjoyable is that it pokes fun at many of the tropes that the action movies of the 80s and 90s were known for. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the role of Jack Slater, who is a character in a series of action movies that young Danny is a massive fan of.

Danny is getting over the death of his father by living through these action movies and he spends a lot of time at his movie theatre. He is given a magic movie ticket and this makes him go into the movie world where he works with Jack Slater! That is crazy, but we also see Jack Slater come out of the movie world and into the real world! The Last Action Hero is one of those movies where you really have to leave your sense of disbelief at the door. If you can do that, you will have an absolute blast with this as it is so much fun.

I have a real soft spot for 1984’s Conan the Destroyer which was not directed by John Milius. Instead, we had Richard Fleischer at the helm here. This movie is still a fantasy, sword, and sorcery style of movie, but it tones down the brutality and the sexuality considerably over what Conan the Barbarian offered. For some people, this was a step down and when you compare the two side by side, the majority of people do feel that Conan the Barbarian is the better movie. However, Conan the Destroyer is a lot of fun and if you enjoy 80s fantasy, this offers that by the truckload. 

Once again, Conan is on a great adventure. He is tricked by an evil queen to track down this magical horn. What makes Conan the Destroyer so much fun for me is that Conan has a fantastic band of allies with him here. One of the most fun things about this movie is the supporting cast with the likes of Grace Jones and basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain. With some great sets and a lot of fun 80s action, Conan the Destroyer is still a fun movie to watch. To be fair, this had a really hard act to follow and the lighter tone is probably why some people felt disappointed.

When you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 80s, Commando always comes to mind. From Arnie carrying those huge logs to him killing about a million people by the time the credits roll, you could not have a discussion about the best Arnie movies of the 80s and 90s without Commando being in the mix. Commando was released in 1985 and directed by Mark L Lester. In this movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a retired military hero called John Matrix. John lives a quiet life with his daughter (played by a young Alyssa Milano) and he could not be any happier.

However, former men that he served with are being killed one by one, and soon his daughter is kidnapped by a crazy dictator. Well, he messed with the wrong guy – if there was one man’s daughter that you did not want to kidnap in the 80s, it was John Matrix! Matrix wages war on this dictator in order to get his daughter back and take all the baddies down in the process. Commando is the perfect movie to watch if you are in the mood for some over-the-top and wild 80s-style action!

Released in 1994, True Lies once again sees Arnold Schwarzenegger team up with director James Cameron. In this epic action movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the role of a regular family man, called Harry Tasker. Harry lives with his wife and daughter, played by Jamie Lee Curtis and future Vampire Slayer Eliza Dushku, and they see him as a regular guy. However, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger we are talking about, and he is about as far from a regular guy as you can get. 

You see, Harry is one of the greatest super spies in the world and he is thrust into an epic race against time to save the world. A huge part of the fun here is that Harry thinks his wife is about to have an affair so his home life is not exactly great. We have this amazing spy who has saved the world multiple times, but he is struggling to keep it together at home. It is his spy life and home life crashing together that makes True Lies so much fun. This is a movie that you can just tell cost a lot of money to make as it has some incredible action set pieces. While it has a lot of action, True Lies also has some super funny moments as well.

As a kid, I actually saw Conan the Destroyer before I saw Conan the Barbarian, which was released a few years earlier in 1982. I could never figure out why my dad would not let me watch it. Well, after watching it in my teenage years and seeing the big “orgy style “Rated R” scene…. I get why. Conan the Barbarian is 80s Arnold to the max. He is super ripped, wearing hardly any clothes and he has a baller sword. This is 80s fantasy at its best and in watching it again recently, I was blown away by how well, Conan the Barbarian holds up. You could make the argument that this is one of the best fantasy movies of all time!

Not only does this have all kinds of epic swords and sorcery action going on. I feel that Conan the Barbarian has a far better story than people give it credit for. Conan is a hulking hero for sure, but he is a character that does have more depth than you would expect. Enslaved as a boy, Conan grows up and vows revenge! He heads out on a quest looking for those who killed his family. While this is the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies of the 80s and 90s list, you cannot talk about Conan the Barbarian without also talking about James Earl Jones as the necromancer, Thulsa Doom!

Many people think of Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action star and he 100 percent was, but movies such as The Running Man (which is still an action movie) show that he is also great in the sci-fi genre. The Running Man was released in 1987 and was directed by Paul Michael Glaser. A neat bit of well-known trivia is that the movie is based on a book that was written by Stephen King, writing as his pseudonym Richard Bachman. 

The Running Man sees Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards being thrown into a sadistic game show where people are hunted for sport by these big, tough, sadistic people known as Stalkers. This movie has some very memorable action scenes, but it also has a fun sense of humor with some of the most quotable lines of any Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. He even does one of his best iconic “I’ll be back” moments in this movie. Also, The Running Man has a great little role with WWE Hall of Famer, Jesse “The Body Ventura” so it gets a thumbs up for that too!

And we can’t forget: Richard Dawson’s over-the-top version of himself as Killian.

It is crazy to think that as I write this, The Terminator is now 40 years old! This has an incredible 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and while I do prefer the sequel, I would never argue with anyone who prefers James Cameron’s 1984 original. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the T-800 and he is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, who will give birth to John Conner, the leader of the resistance and the man who will help mankind defeat the machines. 

The Resistance sends back a soldier, Kyle Reese, to protect Sarah from the Terminator. This is 80s action at its very best and while it is an action and sci-fi movie, the original Terminator has a bit of slasher/horror to it as well in the way that The Terminator mercilessly stalks Sarah Connor. With some clever use of practical effects, The Terminator is an absolute classic that, unless Skynet does somehow take over and kill us all, will always be a fun watch!

“Get your ass to Mars!”

Total Recall was released in 1990 and directed by the incredible Paul Verhoeven. This sci-fi action movie is a whole lot of fun and features Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid. He has always dreamed of going to Mars and goes in for a virtual vacation, only for it to open up a bunch of repressed memories that reveal he is not who he thought he was! 

This sends Quaid to Mars where he finds out that he was part of a huge conspiracy. This is fantastic stuff and while Total Recall has some amazing action and incredible special effects that hold up, this is a movie that also has a great sci-fi story with interesting characters and some awesome twists and turns. It also leaves you wanting to know more about Mars! This is always a fun time, just stay away from the god awful Colin Farrell remake, reimagining, or whatever that thing was!

What makes 1987’s Predator such a great movie is that it mixes together so many genres. Yes, this is a macho 80s action flick! However, John McTiernan also mixes in a ton of sci-fi and even a little bit of horror, too. It is a story about a group of soldiers of fortune led by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch. Dutch and his men are sent into a jungle under false pretenses. 

Rather than dealing with soldiers and rebels, they find themselves in a fight for survival against one of the most iconic movie characters of all time, the Predator! This is such a fun movie that never ages! It helps that Arnold is surrounded by some real macho dudes such as Carl Weather’s Dylan, who may or may not have been pushing one too many pencils. With incredible practical effects, Predator is an absolute all time classic of the 80s! Thankfully, the Predator franchise is still going strong to this day with the recent Prey movie being fantastic!

Not only do I consider Terminator 2: Judgement Day to be the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of the 80s and 90s, but this is the greatest sequel of all time and my personal favorite movie of all time! Released in 1991, James Cameron this time around made Arnold the hero. He again plays the T-800 Terminator, but this time he was sent from the future to protect wild child John Connor so that he could grow up to lead the resistance! 

However, Robert Patrick and the ice running through his veins had other ideas. The T-1000 was made of a liquid metal and featured state of the art special effects that still hold up to this day. This is a movie that has it all! It has action, it has charm and it is badass in every regard. It is a real shame that the Terminator franchise has more lows than highs, but this high more than makes up for some of the other stuff that has been released in more recent years!