All 34 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies ranked from worst to best

17. Eraser

Eraser is the ’90s answer to an ’80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. It feels bigger, it feels badder, and it feels more serious than its counterparts from the decade prior, but it’s still an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie through and through. And that’s why it works.

Released in 1996, it focuses on US Marshall John “Eraser” Kruger, who is tasked with looking after and protecting a woman named Lee Cullen (played by the one and only Vanessa Williams) set to testify in an illegal arms deal. The pair’s chemistry is strong right from the off, and the dynamic between Schwarzenegger and Williams sells the movie well.

It also benefits from that aforementioned more serious tone, because serious movies in the ’90s always knew how to have a healthy balance of realism and humor. That’s also what makes Eraser a Schwarzenegger movie, because it just wouldn’t have worked with anyone else in that role. From the ambitious plot to the witty dialogue, it was perfect for him – and he was perfect for it.

“You’ve been erased,” he tells the villain in an appropriately outlandish final scene. And with that, the movie succeeded in what it set out to do.

See what I mean? He was perfect for it.