There Are Five Ways to Watch the Terminator Franchise in Order (And They’re All Very Different)

Most movie franchises have a pretty straightforward trajectory in how they are watched. Pick up the first movie and then move forward. Recent films like Denis Villeneuve’s Dune can only be watched in that way; the first leads to the second, with the upcoming third set to follow after. Other franchises make things a little more complicated, especially as prequels get made, which then get their own sequels (like the X-Men franchise), or when modern entries are made in classic franchises that jump through the timeline and offer new points of entry (like Dan Trachtenberg’s new Predator films).

Some films, however, make things entirely too complicated, like The Terminator series. Across six movies and a TV series, the timeline of this once flagship science fiction franchise has become convoluted. Not unlike the Halloween movies, which have varied reboots and sequels that either strictly adhere to the canon of some movies while actively ignoring others, the Terminator films are nearly indecipherable as an entire body of work, in part because new attempts at bringing the series back have been largely met with contempt by the audience. As a result, the series can be watched in a few different ways, all of which can be found below.

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5) The James Cameron Movies

For the longest time, the only way to watch the Terminator films as a franchise was with the two movies that were directed by James Cameron, and frankly, that’s probably where it should have stopped. Cameron’s two movies are perfect companion pieces to each other. The terrifying, slasher-movie-like structure of The Terminator and its distinct, gritty style are iconic, introducing the concept of the time-traveling killing machine and Sarah Connor’s unborn son as the savior of humanity.

Alongside it, Terminator 2: Judgment Day arrives as the perfect kind of sequel, one that flips the script set by the first movie on its head. Furthermore, T2 also offers a pure response to the outcome of the original in ways that few other movies truly explore, putting its character in distinct places that are born from what happened in the first. Plus, T2’s ending is final and iconic, putting the story to bed.

4) The First Four Movies

No good thing can remain perfect in the world of blockbuster filmmaking, though, so naturally, the Terminator series couldn’t remain dormant even after a conclusion that ended the story. That said, this is the second way to watch the Terminator franchise: starting with The Terminator, then moving on to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, followed by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and finally Terminator Salvation.

Though there’s something to be said about the quality of the latter two movies in the series in comparison to the first two, this is a noteworthy way to watch the franchise, as it does have a strong throughline across its narrative. Not only is that visible across John Connor’s own arc, but in the introduction of Kate Brewster, his wife, in the third film, who then becomes a key part of the fourth movie. Salvation, like so many other Terminator reboots, was designed as the start of a new trilogy, but failed to get off the ground. As a result, the film ends without much further resolution beyond the loop of Kyle Reese going into the past.

3) The Original Films and the TV Series

If the third and fourth movies in the Terminator series aren’t to your taste, or you’re upset that Sarah Connor herself is written out, this is the way to watch the series. Start with The Terminator and go to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, naturally, and then dive into the sequel TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Clocking in at 31 episodes total, the spinoff series picks up after the events of Judgment Day with John and Sarah on the run after the fallout of the film (a thread that, somehow, no other sequel has addressed). There are some conveniences for the sake of the story being on television, including questionable technology that feels like a narrative crutch, but it’s a unique path to take for fans of these iconic film characters. Once again, though, the ending isn’t exactly that satisfying, as the series was cancelled after Season 2, leaving plot threads open and with few answers to be found.

2) The Alternate Future

In the 2010s, yet another attempt to revive the Terminator franchise gave us a film that scrapped some of the other sequels and kick-started its own continuity, that result was the blight on cinema that is Terminator: Genisys. The reason it’s worth rewatching The Terminator and then jumping to Terminator: Genisys isn’t just to have a clear benchmark for how awful the 2015 film is, but because the movie itself is a remix/reimagining of the entire franchise concept.

Starting in nearly the same way, with Kyle Reese sent back in time on his mission to save Sarah Connor, Genisys immediately flips the script and reveals a version of Sarah that has been raised by a Terminator and is already battle hardened by the time Reese arrives. There is something to be said about watching every other movie in the Terminator franchise before Genisys, since the film largely deals with remixing ideas and details from across the series, but for the sheer experiment of a larger continuity, this is the path that makes the most since from a timeline perspective.

1) The Dark Fate Timeline

The most recent way to engage with the Terminator franchise is the one that acts as an extension of the first way to watch the series; that’s right, start with The Terminator, go to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and then jump into 2019’s sequel, Terminator: Dark Fate. As is franchise tradition at this point, the latest sequel ignores the other movies and acts as a direct follow-up to the 1991 film. That decision may be controversial, not because of the films it leaves by the wayside, but the way that it decides to conclude John Connor’s story via CGI deepfakes. That said, fans did seem to genuinely enjoy Dark Fate, which not only delivered a grizzled Sarah Connor with Linda Hamilton’s franchise return, but put a new spin on the machine war with Mackenzie Davis’ Grace.

If there’s a best way to watch the franchise that isn’t just the first two Cameron movies, this is probably the way to go, and it’s worth noting that Cameron was involved in this sequel, unlike others, co-writing the story and producing the film. It’s worth adding that Cameron has been tapped to work on a seventh Terminator movie, which will no doubt give us yet another way to watch the franchise when it arrives.