They were once bitter rivals, but which Arnold Schwarzenegger movies does Sylvester Stallone like best? For a time in the ’80s and ’90s, Stallone and Schwarzenegger were two of the biggest movie stars in the world. Many of their biggest hits shared the same basic formula too, where the stars – famed for their muscular physiques – played nigh-indestructible heroes with a penchant for one-liners who racked up large bodycounts.
Stallone had the Rambo movies and Cobra, while Arnie had the likes of The Terminator, Commando and Predator. The two have openly admitted they were rivals during their heydays, and at the height of their feud, Arnie tricked Stallone into signing on for Stop! Or My Mom With Shoot, knowing it would be a bomb. As audience tastes changed, the box-office grosses of Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s offerings started to dwindle.
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This did have the surprise effect of making the two men friends in real life, and they later worked together on the Expendables series and 2013’s Escape Plan. Both Stallone and Schwarzenegger have some great films to their names, and they’ve both professed admiration for each other’s work.
Stallone’s Favorite Arnie Movies Explained
During a May 2022 Q&A with PlanetSLY, Stallone revealed his two favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, neither of which are huge surprises.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day was James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to his breakthrough hit. The original Terminator also made Schwarzenegger a movie star, but the sequel made the bold move of turning his title character from a villain to a hero. The result was a landmark sci-fi action movie, filled with amazing setpieces and special effects. Aside from that, Terminator 2 – which created a plot hole the other sequels ignore – also featured great performances and genuine emotion. While Stallone didn’t dig into the reasons he loved Terminator 2, he likely recognizes – as many others do now – that the film and its success represent Arnold at the absolute peak of his stardom.
True Lies (1994)
A remake of a French spy comedy that reunited Arnold Schwarzenegger with Cameron, True Lies was one of the star’s final major solo hits. The movie cast him as a superspy who is also a family man, but his attempts to keep his two worlds separate come crashing down. While The Terminator movies and Aliens are often ranked higher by fans of Cameron’s filmography, True Lies is still a very entertaining (if dated) action-comedy. Sylvester Stallone loves it not only because of the action, but because it gave Arnie a showcase for his many talents. The actor states” True Lies was very, very good because he combined everything in that. The wit, the romantic aspect, the charm and then great action with a great director, so. that would do it.”
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