“I’ll be back” is one of the most iconic lines in film history, and it’s all thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team who brought it to life in 1984, much like they did with the Terminator franchise. The franchise has since expanded to six films, a TV series, web shows, video games, comics, and more.
While the future of the Terminator film series is uncertain, it’s never a bad time to watch or re-watch these legendary films. science fiction movies which show humanity rising up against Skynet to prevent their destruction. However, there is a lot of time travel and timeline resetting in the films, so it is arduous to know how to watch them in the right order.
There are a few different ways to watch them, but you can’t watch them in full chronological order, as their time-traveling nature makes it too confusing. That said, we’ve listed the best way to watch the films in as close to chronological order as possible below. We’ve also listed a few other ways to watch them below, including in release order.
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How many Terminator movies are there?
There are a total of 6 Terminator films in the series, as well as the television series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There are currently no plans for another fresh Terminator film. However, if you want to own the entire collection, you can take advantage of the 6-Movie Terminator Collection sale that is happening for Prime Day.
Terminator Movies in Chronological Order (Sort of)
Terminator (1984)
Terminator is the first film in the legendary series and introduced the world to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic cybernetic android disguised as a human, known as the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, T-800, or simply the Terminator. Schwarzenegger’s character was sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 on a mission to kill a woman named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in Los Angeles. Luckily for Sarah, a human soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) was also sent back in time to stop the Terminator from fulfilling his mission.
It turns out that the Terminator and Reese are from a future where an artificially smart defense network known as Skynet has become self-aware and started a global nuclear war to end the human race. Sarah’s son, John, would be a key figure in the resistance against Skynet, so the network sends the Terminator back in time to prevent his birth by killing his mother. It is one of the most iconic time travel movies of all time.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
While Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese may have stopped Skynet’s time-travel plan in the first film, that annoying, self-aware network had no intention of stopping its efforts to preserve a future in which it would be the victor by ensuring that humans no longer existed.
This time, Skynet sends the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), an advanced Terminator made of nearly indestructible liquid metal, back to 1995 to kill John Connor (Edward Furlong) when he was a child. As with Sarah, John gets lucky when the Resistance sends a reprogrammed version of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 to stop the T-1000 from killing him.
As for Sarah, she is imprisoned in Pescadero State Hospital for her brutal attempts to stop Judgment Day. On that day – August 29, 1997 – Skynet will become sentient and begin its mission to launch a nuclear attack and end the human race for her part in trying to shut it down. It could be said to be the best James Cameron film ever made.
Read our Terminator 2: Judgment Day Review
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the part of the list where the timeline gets a little fuzzy. While Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a sequel to Terminator 2, so is Terminator: Dark Fate. This means you can skip ahead to see the divergent timeline, or continue here to see the story as it was originally told. As a reminder, we’ll have a timeline breakdown for you at the bottom of the page!
Terminator 3 is set primarily in 2004 and takes place in a world where Judgment Day in 1997 never happened due to the events of the last film. John Connor (Nick Stahl) has been living mostly as a nomad after the death of his mother to hide from the omnipresent threat of Skynet. As it turns out, Skynet once again sends an advanced Terminator (Kristanna Loken) from 2032 to kill John, his wife Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), and his Resistance allies. This time, it’s the T-X, a shape-shifting Terminator that’s made of virtually indestructible liquid metal. The Resistance follows suit, sending in another reprogrammed T-800 of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s to protect John and his friends.
Read our Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines review.
Terminator Salvation (2009)
In Terminator 3: The End , John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak is not Skynet’s core, but a fallout shelter, and these events lead to Judgment Day and a nuclear attack that kills billions of people around the world. Terminator Salvation , which is the only film not to star Arnold Schwarzenegger, begins several years after the events of the third film in 2018 and begins with John Connor (Christian Bale) leading an attack on a Skynet base.
However, before Connor’s attack, we go back to 2003 to meet death row inmate Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington). Cyberdyne Systems convinced him to donate his body to science, but he didn’t realize that upon his death, he would become the first human-Terminator hybrid.
In 2018, Wright emerges from the destroyed Skynet base after John and his crew destroy it, and his path will eventually cross with John and Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). Yes, the same Kyle Reese who would one day travel back in time to save Sarah Connor in the first film and become a father to John.
Read our Terminator Salvation review.
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
As we’ve already mentioned, Terminator: Dark Fate ignores everything that happened after Terminator 2 and takes place in a timeline where Sarah Connor succeeded in stopping Skynet. Unfortunately, a T-800 from the future that never happened returned to kill John Connor in 1998.
Dark Fate then moves to the year 2020, where humanity is threatened not so much by Skynet, but by another AI called Legion. This AI sends a fresh, advanced Terminator known as the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) from 2042 to 2020 to kill Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). Luckily for Dani, the Resistance still does its thing and sends an enhanced human named Grace (Mackenzie Davis) to protect her.
We won’t reveal the details, but know that this is the first time in 23 years that Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) will appear on the same screen.
Read our Terminator: Dark Fate review.
Terminator: Genisys (2015)
Just as Dark Fate erased everything after Terminator 2, Terminator Genisys is a fresh start that changes the entire timeline of the series. Genisys begins in 2029, with the Resistance preparing to send Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to save Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from a T-800. Things go wrong, and he ends up in an alternate timeline where Sarah Connor and a reprogrammed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) known as “Pops” are working together. It turns out that an unknown party sent that T-800 back to 1973 to protect Sarah when she was nine after her parents were killed by one of Skynet’s T-1000s (Lee Byung-hun).
This time-travel adventure sends our heroes to San Francisco in 2017, where Skynet, now called Genisys, is poised to make its grand debut. As you can imagine, this isn’t a great thing, and Kyle, Sarah, and Pops must stop fresh and familiar foes if they want to save humanity from annihilation.
Read our Terminator Genisys Review.
Terminator Movies in Release Order
- Terminator (1984)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
- Terminator Salvation (2009)
- Terminator: Genisys (2015)
- Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Original Terminator Film Continuity
- Terminator (1984)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
- Terminator Salvation (2009)
Terminator Movies Dark Fate Timeline
- Terminator (1984)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
What’s next for Terminator?
While James Cameron has hinted at another Terminator reboot in 2022, Linda Hamilton recently exclaimed that she’s “done” with the role of Sarah Connor. Without more Terminator updates from Cameron (who’s busy with all things Avatar ), we likely won’t see another major motion picture anytime soon.
Still, the rise of AI has made the Terminator movies even more relevant, and the Terminator-verse is expanding beyond the gigantic screen. Terminator Zero, an animated series, will take the franchise back to the ’90s when it releases on Netflix later this month. Meanwhile, Terminator: Survivors, an open-world survival game set after Judgment Day, will launch on Early Access this October.
Adam Bankhurst is an IGN writer. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and next Cramp.
