All 6 Terminator movies ranked from worst to best

6. Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation‘s very existence is blasphemy for a franchise that spent so much time fighting to make sure a future where it was possible would never happen. No, I’m not talking about the movie itself, but rather the fact that we have a Terminator that focuses solely on the one thing the saga never wanted to happen: The future war.

Starring Christian Bale as John Connor, Salvation is also notable for being the only movie in the franchise not to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cyborg (though we do get a CGI nod to him). Why? Well, the world doesn’t need a killer cyborg to protect it, because the world is fighting against killer cyborgs and it’s up to humanity to stop them. Them, and a human/cyborg hybrid named Marcus.

It’s hard to look past the fact that this is a Terminator movie that shouldn’t exist. The war shouldn’t have happened. And that makes the better adventures feel like failed missions. However, if you can look past all that, it’s a pretty solid war movie that toys with some interesting ideas. It doesn’t exactly fulfil its potential or justify its existence, but it’s solid. And the late, great Anton Yelchin’s performance as the young Kyle Reese is easily one of its greatest attributes.

Something else that sets Salvation apart? The fact that it’s a direct sequel to Terminator 3. Yeah, we don’t get many of those.