Arnold Schwarzenegger: His movie hits and misses

This was the movie that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's international film career. The Austria-born actor played a former slave faced with numerous challenges — which he masters, thanks to his considerable strength. The fantasy film was shot in Spain, and uses minimal dialogue relying instead on an expressive musical score.

"Arnie" had even less dialogue to learn for "Terminator." As a killing machine from the future, he speaks a mere 58 words during the whole film. Nevertheless, four of those words have gone down in movie folklore: "I'll be back." The low-budget production from James Cameron, who went on to direct "Titanic," soon gained cult status as a milestone of the action film genre.

More than just an action star, cast as Danny DeVito's twin brother, Schwarzenegger shifted genre gears in the comedy "Twins." The movie was a box office hit, and made the former competitive bodybuilder from Austria one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood by the end of the 1980s.

James Cameron's "T2" was the first Hollywood production to cost more than $100 million. It earned some five times that amount at the box office. This time around, Schwarzenegger's Terminator has been programmed to save humanity and his vocabulary expands tenfold, including another legendary line — "Hasta la vista, baby."

After successes with action films and comedies, it was only logical that Schwarzenegger would try his hand at an action-comedy. His third movie with James Cameron was "True Lies," in which he plays an agent trying to keep his job a secret from his wife, played by Jamie Lee Curtis. But the truth comes out, leading to a movie enjoyed by both critics and audiences.

For his role as villain Mr. Freeze, Schwarzenegger (seen here with Poison Ivy, played by Uma Thurman) was nominated for a Golden Raspberry. He did not win the dubious award for the worst acting performance, but in general, the film by Tim Burton was panned so mercilessly that Hollywood took a break from Batman films for a while.

After a series of flops, Schwarzenegger played his most famous role a third time. At no point did fans seems to mind that Terminator spoke with an Austrian accent. The actor himself says he only keeps the accent up because his fans consider it his trademark. After T3, he took a break from movies and turned to politics, getting elected as governor of California.

When the Terminator said he'd be back, he meant it. But the character has changed over time, and doesn't take himself so seriously anymore. Here, T-800, as played by Schwarzenegger, is allowed to have a few gray hairs, and is lovingly called Pops. But as cuddly as he may be, he's still able to save Sarah Connor and the rest of humanity from total destruction.

Will "Dark Fate" be the last time we see Schwarzenegger as Terminator? In this outing, two Terminators are sent back in time from a future in which machines have risen up against humans. There's a reunion with Linda Hamilton in her iconic role as Sarah Connor. But critical reception was mixed, and the film flopped at the box office.