All 34 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies ranked from worst to best
32. Iron Mask
Two screen titans collided when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan crossed paths in Iron Mask. It was a moment years in the making that honestly it felt like might never happen. Unfortunately, a lot of people still don’t know that it actually did happen because the 2019 fantasy adventure film didn’t get that wide a release in the US. It also wasn’t very well-received.
This movie’s original title is Viy 2: Journey to China as it’s a sequel to 2014 movie Viy and it’s honestly an ambitious outing, featuring a star-studded cast that also includes Jason Flemyng, Charles Dance, and Rutger Hauer. It doesn’t come together quite as well as the original movie, however, and it struggles whenever Schwarzenegger and Chan aren’t on-screen, which is unfortunate given that they were the new cast additions in this particular sequel.
The two do get a chance to camp it up, however, and their fight scene is one of the best in the film.
31. Collateral Damage
Arnold Schwarzenegger may have ventured into more serious roles within the last decade, but 2002’s Collateral Damage suggested that he might have been thinking of doing that earlier than he did. The reason that it wasn’t quite as successful as, say 2016’s Maggie, is that it evolved into another Schwarzenegger action thriller the longer that it went on.
He stars as a Los Angeles firefighter, who loses his wife and son in a bomb explosion detonated by a commando. From there, he takes it upon himself to track down the man responsible for killing them and exact revenge. However, he soon realizes that it’s all part of a bigger plan.
The movie offers up more than its 19% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest, particularly an early glimpse of Schwarzenegger’s more nuanced later career performances, but its action thriller formula often holds it back.
30. Stay Hungry
I will admit that I wasn’t aware of Stay Hungry until relatively recently, but even though its name doesn’t hold the same cinematic weight as, say The Terminator, it’s almost as significant to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career, as the young up-and-comer actually won a Golden Globe Award for his performance in it.
The award was for Best Acting Debut, which is unusual given he already debuted six years earlier in Hercules in New York, but it was a well-earned accomplishment for the star, who played an Austrian bodybuilder named Joe Santo. It’s not a leading role, as Jeff Bridges plays the protagonist, who buys a gym as part of a real-estate deal, and befriends Santo, becoming inspired by his lifestyle.