The Terminator franchise is one of the most iconic in the minds of film fans all over the world. From the conception of the series back in 1984 with James Cameron's original film, the brand has only grown exponentially over the decades, having expanded into five sequels. Having some of the most recognizable movies of all time, it's fast-paced action and cutting-edge special effects set it apart from the rest, and was responsible for launching lead actor Arnold Schwarzenegger into A-list status. The Terminator has the rare distinction of being the only character to be on AFI's Best Hero and Best Villain lists separately.

Update November 9, 2023: This list has been updated from a future where robots have not taken over, but more context has been added to each entry in the Terminator franchise and where each film can be streamed.

As is commonplace within science-fiction works, The Terminator's timeline can get a little complex. With elements of time travel movies and multiple timelines threaded by giant armies of android clones, it's easy for one casual viewer to be lost on when each of the six films should be taking place. As the franchise went on, none of the sequels could live up to the heights of the first two films.

In many ways, the Terminator series is a franchise made up of false starts, with the final three making a trilogy of would-be franchise starters which have made the franchise's continuity all the more confusing. Rest assured, because laid before you is a chronological list of each entry in the hit series in order of their place in the story, some quick run-downs, and their release dates.

The Terminator Movies in Chronological Order

The Terminator film series has many branching timelines. Both Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are required viewing for each. Timeline 1 has only Terminator: Dark Fate in continuity with the previous two films and makes a trilogy. Timeline 2 features both Terminator: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation. The third timeline is Terminator: Genyisis, which reboots the entire franchise and both keeps and erases the events of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

For the sake of simplicity, this order will start from the original two films and then branch off into each timeline. The Terminator franchise also has a TV series called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is not included in this list. If one does want to watch it, it is best viewed Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

• The Terminator
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• Terminator: Dark Fate
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
• Terminator: Salvation
• Terminator: Genisys

Or if you'd prefer, see them listed by order of release date.

The Terminator (1984)

Many are wondering why the two films that feature big prominent future settings are not the kickoff and there is a reason: in the cyclical nature of the franchise those are both the beginning and the end. For a moment, let's put aside all this 'timeline' jargon and get back to basics and begin with what not only kicked off the franchise but also where the main narrative beats of the series are introduced.

James Cameron's original 1984 movie The Terminator begins with Schwarzenegger's killer cyborg making his first appearance, having been sent from the year 2029 in order to kill Sarah Connor. Sarah is destined to give birth to a son, John Connor, who will go on to be the leader of the Human Resistance against the evil fictional corporation Skynet. Also traveling back in time is Kyle Reese, hoping to defend Connor from the Terminator, who relentlessly pursues her.

The Terminator also features the first time Linda Hamilton portrays Sarah Connor, a timid and normal college girl at the beginning of the film, just to have her life uprooted by having unknowingly played a part in a future cybernetic nuclear holocaust. Connor's distress at the situation is consoled by Reese when they both finally get a quiet moment to rest after temporarily escaping from the Terminator. The two find comfort in each other's company during this time, so much so that they end up conceiving John Connor, meaning Reese is the father of his best friend and fellow resistance fighter from the future. After more daring action sequences and violence, Connor and Reese manage to destroy the Terminator by blowing it up with a pipe bomb and crushing it with a hydraulic press.

Kyle Reese ends up killed by the pipe bomb's explosion, leaving Sarah Connor off to start a new life. The film ends with Connor driving off through Mexico, now pregnant with John. The film is considered a masterpiece of the action and sci-fi genre and is one of a small group of movies with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Often considered one of the best sequels of all time, Terminator 2: Judgment Day takes place chronologically right after its predecessor. In another attempt to take down the eventual Human Resistance leader, Skynet sends back their new T-1000 model Terminator to the year 1995 in order to kill John Connor as a young boy. In response to this latest attempt, the resistance sends back their own reprogrammed Terminator model T-800, the very same type seen in the original film, to protect John and his mother. Schwarzenegger gets to play the good guy here in T2 and gives some of his best moments in the franchise.

Sarah Connor has since been committed to a mental hospital for her violent efforts to warn people of the oncoming nuclear holocaust caused by Skynet, known as Judgment Day. Having previously lost custody of John, Sarah is shocked when both John and the T-800 arrive to save her from the hospital, while narrowly avoiding the constant attacks by the T-1000. With the trio together, Sarah struggles with her distrust of the friendly T-800 who is sworn to protect her son, given his resemblance to the cyborg that once attempted to kill her, as well as being responsible for the death of Kyle Reese. Through viewing the cyborg getting along and bonding with John, she eventually eases up and creates a plan to work alongside it to take down Cyberdyne, thus preventing Judgment Day from occurring.

After managing to blow up Cyberdyne's lab, halting the creation of the very AI that would become sentient and destroy the world, the Connors and their T-800 have a final showdown with the pursuing T-1000 within a steel mill. Blowing up the T-1000 with a grenade launcher and sending it into molten steel, the T-800 says its goodbyes to John and Sarah, knowing it must destroy itself as well in order to prevent its CPU from being used for evil. The mother and son survive the ordeal, having successfully prevented the events of Judgment Day.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day remains the highest-grossing film in the franchise's history, and every sequel has tried to live up to it. While conventionally, Hollywood wisdom would suggest making a third film and turning the series into a trilogy, James Cameron intended T2 to be the final film, ending on an ambiguously hopeful note. However, the movie was too big of a hit to go untapped, and it is from this point that various timelines branch out in the Terminator film series.

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Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

This is where things get tricky. The most recent entry in the franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate serves as James Cameron's return to the series as a lead writer and producer, having left after Terminator 2. Ignoring all the films released beyond 1991's T2, Dark Fate is a direct sequel to the first two entries. In doing this, yet another timeline is created where the events of Dark Fate and Terminator 3 don't seem to be able to occur in the same universe, so placing one before the other is pretty interchangeable.

After the upsetting opening scene that kills off John Connor at the hands of a T-800 in 1998, Sarah Connor is left alone for years, though is receiving encrypted messages containing locations of newly arriving Terminators. Using the information given, Connor has been destroying the cyborgs regularly up until she encounters an advanced model, the Rev-9, set on killing an assembly plant worker Dani Ramos. Teaming up to protect Ramos, Connor also encounters a cybernetically enhanced soldier named Grace, coming from the year 2042. The three escape the Rev-9 and aim to take down the newest apocalyptic threat to humanity, an AI called Legion, created in the now-defunct Skynet's place, implying that, while the Connors did change the future, humanity is destined to destroy itself nonetheless.

Encountering the very same T-800 that killed John years before, the three discover it's been living aimlessly, having learned from humans and creating its own family. Sarah once again begrudgingly works alongside the Terminator in order to stop the Rev-9 and save humanity. Succeeding in halting Legion's growth and destroying the Rev-9, the team loses the T-800 and Grace in the process, leaving Sarah and Dani to travel off together.

Terminator: Dark Fate was a return to form for the franchise, receiving the best reviews the film series had gotten since T2 back in 1991; however, three failed Terminator movies burned people out on the franchise and the movie was a bomb at the box office. Yet, just like Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, there is something fitting with the movie ending with them traveling down a road to an uncertain future, leaving it up to the audience what lies in store.

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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Being the official numerical sequel to the massively successful Terminator 2, and the first time the series went without creator James Cameron, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines takes place several years after the destruction of Cyberdyne's lab. This allows it to serve as a potential alternate timeline to Terminator: Dark Fate, showing a future for John Connor after he has beaten his destiny. In the future, Skynet unsuccessfully attempts to locate John Connor. Out of desperation, they send back a new model of Terminator, the T-X (played by Kristanna Loken) to terminate John's allies instead.

Eventually finding John and his future wife, Katherine Brewster, the T-X begins chasing the two down only to be stopped by another re-purposed T-800, sent back to defend Connor and his allies. After learning that Sarah and John's efforts to halt Judgment Day in the previous film only delayed the disaster rather than fully preventing it, Connor sets out to put an end to the threat.

Arriving too late to stop the initial activation of Skynet, John and his future wife make their way to what they're told is Skynet's system core in order to stop it. Once the duo arrives they realize that instead of the core, they were sent to a bunker and are forced to take shelter as the nuclear holocaust begins, destroying nearly all of humanity. John reluctantly takes on his role as the resistance leader, kicking off the war between man and Skynet. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was a box office hit, though it performed less well with critics than its predecessors. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine effectively ends one trilogy and leads the door open for a new franchise, and it continued in the form of just one movie: Terminator: Salvation.

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Terminator: Salvation (2009)

Finally showing off the future war built up in all prior movies, Terminator Salvation follows John Connor and Kyle Reese's fight against Skynet and serves as a direct sequel to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines as it sees the only other entry in the franchise to feature John Connor's wife Katherine Brewster. Through infiltrating a Skynet base, John learns of their intention to create a new type of Terminator model, the T-800, which he personally recognizes yet Skynet appears to be early on its creation. After escaping from the base, the resistance intercepts a protocol showing that Skynet has a hit list out on many of their members, and at the very top sits Kyle Reese. Connor assumes that this must be because Skynet has learned Reese is destined to go back in time and become John's father, and thus wish to prevent it.

Markus Wright, once a death row inmate who signed away his body for research, meets John after Reese is kidnapped by Skynet. The resistance uncovers that Wright is actually a cyborg after he sustains injuries from a land mine, prompting Connor to call for his immediate execution, thinking he's a spy. Wright makes a deal with Connor that, in exchange for his life, he assists in rescuing Kyle Reese.

After a successful rescue mission and dismantling Skynet's massive weapon stockpile, the resistance makes their escape from the facility, though with John Connor on the edge of death from a stab to the chest by a T-800. After his injuries are deemed terminal, Markus offers to transplant his heart into Connor, saving John's life and allowing the resistance leader to continue to fight another day. Terminator: Salvation was meant to relaunch the Terminator franchise with a trilogy set in the future, leading the series full circle to the events of the first film. The movie underperformed, and the next Terminator movie would take the full circle idea and rework it in a way to reboot the franchise.

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Terminator: Genisys (2015)

Technically taking place at the earliest point in the story, Terminator: Genisys is a tricky one because the movie begins with the very same mission that kicks off the franchise of John Connor sending Kyle Reese back to protect his mother. That would, in many ways, make it a straightforward beginning of the series, however just as Kyle is sent back the timeline is altered by an attack by Skynet. Kyle is transported to 1984 like in the original, but now Sarah Connor is being protected by a T-800 model who was sent back earlier to protect her, effectively rewriting the Terminator movie timeline.

Terminator: Genisys begins before the events of the first Terminator film in 1984, with a young Sarah Connor (played by Emilia Clarke). Schwarzenegger's T-800 model Terminator had been sent back in time by an unknown party prior to the events of the movie, way back in 1973, to protect Connor from a model T-1000 that had slain her parents. With this alternate timeline in place, this means the beginning events of Terminator: Genisys take place after John and Kyle have met in Terminator: Salvation (though their meeting is retconned) and the franchise has come full circle to the first Terminator film, only to pivot to an alternate timeline.

The series has explored John Connor through various lenses. As a mythic figure, as a young child thrust into leadership, a burnout, a soldier trying to find his place in the world, and even one version where meets a tragic end. Yet Terminator: Genysis not only imagines a world where he loses, but becomes the very evil he was born to destroy. This symbolically makes for it breaking the timeline and coming to the end a fitting point and now the battle is uncertain with no clear leader.

Though a mid-credits scene was included in the film teasing a follow-up to the events of Terminator: Genisys, however the film's poor critical and box office reactions meant those plans were scrapped in favor of Terminator: Dark Fate, which disregarded all the sequels after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Since the commercial failure of Dark Fate, though, the Terminator franchise happened to die out.

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The Terminator Movies by Release Date