For decades, Austrian actor (and former Mr. Olympia) Arnold Schwarzenegger has thrilled audiences with his imposing physique and explosive screen presence. Though he made his big screen debut in the 1970 curio “Hercules in New York” (credited there as “Arnold Strong”), Schwarzenegger became an international celebrity with the 1977 bodybuilding docudrama “Pumping Iron.” Schwarzenegger later became a legendary action movie star with hits like “Conan the Barbarian,” “Predator,” and “True Lies.” But only one Arnold Schwarzenegger film has ever scored an illustrious 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes: the 1984 cyberpunk masterpiece “The Terminator.”

One of director James Cameron’s earliest and best films, “The Terminator” follows a cyborg assassin (Schwarzenegger) as it travels back in time from a dystopian future to the Los Angeles of 1984. Skynet, a malicious artificial intelligence, has given the Terminator one mission: kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). A seemingly ordinary waitress, Sarah is the future mother of John Connor, a revolutionary leader who is all that stands between Skynet and humanity’s annihilation. Luckily for Sarah, John has sent a human mercenary, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), back in time as well to protect her.

An intense, nerve-shredding, and time-bending thrill ride, “The Terminator” is now considered one of the best science fiction movies of all time. In addition to dramatically raising Cameron’s profile as a director and giving Schwarzenegger what is possibly his most iconic role, “The Terminator” has inspired sequels, a television show, comic books, video games, and even a Netflix anime series.

“The Terminator” is one of the most popular sci-fi movies of the past 40 years — the hardboiled sci-fi subgenre “tech noir” even takes its name from the nightclub where the Terminator attacks Sarah, to give just one example of the film’s reigning influence. With Rotten Tomatoes listing 74 contemporary and retrospective reviews, it is one of a handful of sci-fi films with a perfect score.

A myriad of factors have helped “The Terminator” stand the test of time. Hank Gallo of the New York Daily News found the movie “wildly imaginative,” and praised the script Cameron co-wrote with producer Gale Anne Hurd. Stan Winston’s eye-popping special effects, which included stop-motion animation and miniatures for the Terminator’s exoskeleton, were called “wonderfully Harryhausen-esque” by FlavorWire’s Jason Bailey. Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post found the film witty and fun, labeling it a “shoot-’em-up sci-fi fantasia” that “brings film violence into the realm of the surreal.”

Critics singled out Schwarzenegger’s performance as the remorseless killing machine, with Time magazine’s Richard Corliss praising the actor’s physicality as well as his now-iconic screen look, describing it as “the Incredible Hulk gone punk.” Kirk Ellis of The Hollywood Reporter was succinct: “No doubt about it: Arnold Schwarzenegger was born to play ‘The Terminator.'”

“The Terminator” launched a franchise as unstoppable as the titular killer cyborg, with the “Terminator: Zero” anime series released in 2024 for the film’s 40^th anniversary. But multiple sequels and attempted reboots have burdened the “Terminator” universe with complicated alternate timelines, and only one sequel has come close to the original’s perfect Rotten Tomatoes score: “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

Exploding into theaters in 1991, “Terminator 2” holds a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes and is, perhaps not coincidentally, the only “Terminator” continuation directed by Cameron. In “Terminator 2,” Schwarzenegger plays a re-programmed cyborg sent back in time to protect the adolescent John Connor (Edward Furlong) and his now outlaw mother Sarah (a buff, never better Hamilton). Featuring landmark special effects and senses-shattering action sequences, “Terminator 2” is arguably Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best movie and one of the few sequels that may surpass the original.

“Which movie is better?” is ultimately a matter of the viewer’s personal preference. However, the low-budget, guerrilla grittiness of “The Terminator” has an intensity and immediacy missing from the rest of the franchise. It also boasts an element completely absent from the sequel: a love story. The destined (but doomed) romance between Sarah and Reese instills real human emotion into an otherwise ultraviolent movie about Schwarzenegger’s gun-toting robot from the future. It provides the beating heart underneath the film’s steely exoskeleton, and is part of what makes “The Terminator” a virtually perfect film.