All of James Cameron’s films, ranked

True Lies is a witty, romantic action-comedy that is a guilty pleasure of mine. The film follows a badass, anti-terrorist secret agent who must intercept nuclear weapons being smuggled onto American soil, which is a big distraction when he’s also trying to revive his marriage. The central performances from Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger are zany and fun. Schwarzenegger is his normal self and gets more than his fair share of great action movie one-liners. Curtis does an awesome job as his shy and overlooked wife who is seeking adventure, not knowing how imminent and immediate it truly is. Then there’s Bill Paxton. Taking up a whole 10 minutes of screen time, Paxton easily steals the show as the funniest comedy role in Cameron’s entire filmography. As the sleazy car salesman looking to meddle in the couple’s marriage, his confrontation with Schwarzenegger is hysterical, but in a way only Paxton could pull off.

As a surprise to audiences everywhere, Cameron’s next production after Piranha II is easily one of his best and launched one of the best sci-fi movie franchises ever created. In his first film featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, we follow a human soldier (Michael Biehn) sent back to 1984 from 2029 who attempts to protect a young Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) who will give birth to the key to human salvation. When a near-invincible cyborg is sent back simultaneously to kill her, things start to get messy. Chillingly emotionless and terrifyingly ruthless, Schwarzenegger’s killer cyborg portrayal is absolutely unforgettable. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in this role would have made the movie as successful as it is, especially if you try to picture Sylvester Stallone or Mel Gibson, both of whom were offered the role before Schwarzenegger. Knowing Cameron and his talent — or luck — for casting just the right actors, it’s clear that Schwarzenegger was the right choice here. This is evident in The Terminator, where he takes some relatively unknown actors and creates a universe that is widely referenced to this day, whether or not you’ve actually seen the film you’re referencing.

Following Ridley Scott’s profoundly chilling sci-fi horror movie Alien comes Aliens, the much more in-your-face action-packed sequel that fully capitalized on the concepts in the original film. When Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wakes up from hypersleep more than 50 years after her traumatizing survival in the first movie, she finds that humans have discovered their existence and wants to research them with her help. Ripley, having seen the horrible things just one of those creatures can do, suggests bombing the hell out of the species to be rid of them. If you’ve seen the first movie, you know just how right she is. Back again to deliver some awesome performances are some James Cameron familiars: Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton. They play two soldiers tasked with eliminating any threat posed by the xenomorphs. Biehn is awesome as ever, reviving his Galahad-like glory from The Terminator, and even bringing his trusty shotgun along for the ride. Though this is a fairly scary sci-fi action thriller, Paxton is still hilarious in his performance as the gung-ho and extra-vocal private who quickly turns tail after facing the terrifying aliens. “Game over, man. Game over!”