Terminator Trailers: Every Official Film Trailer in Order

The Terminator trailers span six films from 1984 to 2019, and each campaign had to explain a time travel premise to viewers who may not have seen the earlier films.

The Terminator (1984), directed by James Cameron, sold a low budget chase: a cyborg assassin sent from 2029 to kill Sarah Connor. It opened in the US on October 26, 1984. The assassin arrives naked in Los Angeles, and its target is a waitress named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). A soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back from the same future to protect her, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is billed first as the Terminator.

The premise gave the marketing a simple engine. The machine works through women with her name in the phone book while Reese tries to reach the real Sarah first, so the pitch was a manhunt rather than a war story. Orion's modest film cost $6.4 million and earned $78 million worldwide, which made it a hit by ratio. In my opinion, that economy is why the first film's sales pitch is the leanest in the series: one hunter, one target, one protector.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), directed by James Cameron, sold a sequel built around a second machine: the liquid metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick), sent by Skynet to kill the young John Connor (Edward Furlong). The resistance sends back a reprogrammed older model Terminator to protect him, so the trailer had to introduce a new threat alongside a returning face. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, now locked in a psychiatric hospital for trying to stop the nuclear war she knows is coming.

The reversal is the selling point: the machine that was the villain in 1984 is now the guardian, and the shopping mall chase where the T-1000 tracks John down gave the campaign its set piece. The film also carried a rock tie-in, "You Could Be Mine" by Guns N' Roses. With a $102 million budget and $519 million worldwide, the gap between cost and return is the widest of any sequel in the series after the original.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) was the first Terminator film not directed by James Cameron; Jonathan Mostow directed it. Schwarzenegger returned, Nick Stahl played John Connor, and the T-X (Kristanna Loken) was the more advanced killer machine Skynet sent back to 2003. Its targets were the future leaders of the human resistance, starting with Kate Brewster (Claire Danes).

The casting itself had a story. According to TV Guide, Danes replaced the original actor three weeks into filming, and she told CBS News the earlier actor was a bit too young for the part. Marco Beltrami took over scoring duties from Brad Fiedel, who had composed the first two films. The $200 million budget was far above the $102 million spent on Terminator 2, and the film grossed $433 million worldwide, so the campaign sold scale and a new villain rather than the sequel's emotional hook. That is a judgment call, but the money supports it.

Terminator Salvation (2009), directed by McG, sold a war set story in 2018 with Christian Bale as John Connor. Sam Worthington plays Marcus Wright, a death row inmate who donated his body to research and wakes in the ruined world with no memory of the years in between. Helena Bonham Carter plays Dr. Serena Kogan, and Anton Yelchin plays a young Kyle Reese.

The film opened in the US on May 21, 2009. It carried a PG-13 rating, where the first three films were rated R, and the premiere took place at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Danny Elfman composed the score and Alice in Chains' "Rooster" is among the film's songs. Schwarzenegger is not among the billed cast, which makes this the one trailer in the series without the original star. On a $200 million budget the film earned $371 million worldwide.

Terminator Genisys (2015), directed by Alan Taylor, sold a rewritten 1984 in which Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) meets a Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) who is already a fighter. She was raised since childhood by a reprogrammed Terminator she calls Pops, played by Schwarzenegger, so the campaign had to explain that the past had changed. Jason Clarke plays John Connor, J.K. Simmons plays O'Brien and Matt Smith is credited as Alex / Skynet.

Paramount set the July 1, 2015 date, and the title Genisys was announced on August 6, 2014. Lorne Balfe composed the score. Of the six films, this one leaned hardest on audience memory of the first film, since its hook only works if the viewer knows what 1984 originally looked like. The numbers split sharply by market: about $90 million domestic against $351 million international, for $441 million worldwide on a $155 million budget.

The Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) campaign sold the reunion of Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who shared the screen for the first time in 28 years, according to Fox News. The film, directed by Tim Miller, was released in the US on November 1, 2019. Hamilton is billed first as Sarah Connor, with Schwarzenegger as the T-800, Mackenzie Davis as Grace, Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos and Gabriel Luna as the Rev-9.

The story opens in 1998 Guatemala, then moves to Mexico City, where Dani is targeted by the Rev-9 and protected by the augmented soldier Grace. Fox News reported that the Mexico scenes were filmed in Spain, in Madrid neighborhoods. Tom Holkenborg composed the score. Worldwide the film earned $261 million on a $185 million budget, the lowest gross of the six, and about $62 million of it came from the US.

There is no trailer for the next Terminator film, because the project has no studio, director, cast, title or release date. James Cameron said in December 2025 that he is working on a new Terminator film without Schwarzenegger, and gave no timeline, according to The A.V. Club. Until a studio announces it, the six films from 1984 to 2019 are the only ones with official trailers. For the order of the films themselves, see the Terminator movies in order, and for the project's status see the new Terminator movie.