Terminator Movies: Every Film in the Franchise

The Terminator franchise is a science fiction series about a war between humanity and the machine network Skynet, which sends killer cyborgs back in time to change the outcome. It began with The Terminator (1984), directed by James Cameron, in which a cyborg assassin arrives naked in Los Angeles from the year 2029. Its target is a waitress named Sarah Connor, whose unborn son will one day lead the human resistance. A soldier named Kyle Reese is sent back from the same future to protect her. That chase set the pattern the later films keep reworking: a machine that cannot be reasoned with, a human protector and a target who matters to the future.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), also directed by Cameron, turned the idea around. Skynet sends a shape shifting liquid metal killer, the T-1000, to murder John Connor while he is still a boy, and the resistance answers by sending back a reprogrammed older model Terminator to guard him. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the protector, Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah, Edward Furlong plays John and Robert Patrick plays the T-1000. Sarah begins the film locked in a psychiatric hospital for trying to stop a nuclear war that John thinks she imagined. Brad Fiedel scored both Cameron films.

The series then passed through several directors. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), directed by Jonathan Mostow, brought Nick Stahl in as John Connor, Claire Danes as Kate Brewster and Kristanna Loken as the T-X, a more advanced killer machine. Terminator Salvation (2009), directed by McG, jumped ahead to 2018 with Christian Bale as John Connor and Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, a death row inmate who wakes in the ruined world with no memory of the years between. It was the first film in the series rated PG-13, and Danny Elfman wrote the score.

Terminator Genisys (2015), directed by Alan Taylor, sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 and finds the past already changed: Sarah (Emilia Clarke) is a hardened fighter who was raised by a reprogrammed Terminator she calls Pops. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), directed by Tim Miller, reunited Hamilton and Schwarzenegger, who had not shared the screen in 28 years, according to Fox News. It adds Mackenzie Davis as the augmented soldier Grace, Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos and Gabriel Luna as the Rev-9. Much of the Mexico City material was filmed in Spain.

The money tells its own story. The Terminator cost $6.4 million and took in more than $78 million worldwide. Terminator 2: Judgment Day cost $102 million and earned $518.9 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, the highest total in the series. The later films carried budgets between $155 million and $200 million. Across all six, worldwide grosses add up to more than $2.1 billion.

Placed side by side, the six films show how each one spends its money and its story. The Terminator is a low budget chase built on a simple, cruel device: the cyborg works through the women named Sarah Connor in the Los Angeles phone book while Reese tries to reach the real one first. Cameron shot much of it at night in Los Angeles, and the machine's flat delivery of "I will be back" came from a film made for $6.4 million. Stan Winston built the endoskeleton work, and Fiedel's synthesizer score gave the picture a mechanical pulse that no later film in the series has matched. In my opinion, that economy is why the first film still plays as a thriller rather than a spectacle.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the same story with the roles swapped and the budget raised to $102 million. Its best sequence is the shopping mall chase, where the T-1000 closes on John and the protector arrives just in time, and its effects were built by ILM working alongside Stan Winston. The soundtrack carries Guns N' Roses with "You Could Be Mine". Sarah's psychiatric hospital opening is also what makes the film more than a sequel, because the heroine is first shown as someone nobody believes. Every later film has tried to recover that mix of effects and character, and none has matched its box office.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines has the series' most disrupted casting. TV Guide reported that Danes replaced the original actress three weeks into filming, and CBS News reported that the first choice was a bit too young for the part. With a $200 million budget, the film earned $433.4 million worldwide, so it sits between Terminator 2 and the three later films. Marco Beltrami replaced Fiedel as composer, which is one reason it feels like a different series. Terminator Salvation then left the chase format behind. It opens on Marcus Wright's death row decision in 2003 and spends its middle on the 2018 war, and the PG-13 rating separates it from the R rated Cameron and Mostow films. Its $371.4 million worldwide gross on a $200 million budget was a step down from Terminator 3.

Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate both try to rewrite what came before. Genisys began filming on April 21, 2014 in New Orleans, finished with San Francisco and Redwood City location work, and drew $350.8 million of its $440.6 million worldwide gross from international markets against $89.8 million in the US, according to Box Office Mojo. Dark Fate takes the sharpest turn in the series: in 1998 Guatemala an older T-800 kills John Connor, the child that Terminator 2 spent its whole running time saving. Tim Miller's film also stands out for its filming in Spain, with Madrid neighborhoods and taxis standing in for Mexico City, as Fox News reported. At $261.1 million worldwide on a $185 million budget, it was the lowest grossing film in the series. Which of these approaches works best is a matter of taste, but the pattern is plain: the two Cameron films gave the story its shape, and the four that followed have each tried to change it.

No single service streams all six Terminator movies; in the US, Paramount Plus carries the most, with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate. These listings were checked on November 3, 2026 through JustWatch data on TMDB, and streaming rights change often, so confirm on the service before you subscribe.

In the US, The Terminator streams on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Philo and YouTube TV, among others. Terminator 2: Judgment Day streams on Prime Video, Paramount Plus and YouTube TV, and Terminator: Dark Fate is on Paramount Plus and fuboTV. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines has YouTube TV as its only subscription option, and Terminator Salvation is rent or buy only.

In the UK, The Terminator is on Prime Video and ITVX Premium, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is on Paramount Plus, Sky Go and Now TV Cinema, Salvation is on Prime Video, Genisys is on Paramount Plus and Dark Fate is on Disney Plus. Terminator 3 is rent or buy only. In Australia, The Terminator is on Prime Video, Terminator 2 is on BINGE and Stan, Terminator 3 and Genisys are on Stan, and Dark Fate is on Disney Plus and Stan. Salvation is rent or buy only. The where to watch Terminator page lists every film by country.