Arnold Schwarzenegger owned the 80’s Action Film genre. Stallone had his Rocky and Rambo films and Chuck Norris held court in the low budget Cannon Studios action film markets, but it was Schwarzenegger who reigned as king above all. Good or bad, Arnold’s films were always box-office gold and he proved himself to be adept at both action and comedy.

Related: Crush Your Enemies: Conan The Barbarian’s 10 Most OP Feats Of Strength
Everyone loves The Terminator but the two films where critics and fans agree that Schwarzenegger was best used have always been 1982’s Conan the Barbarian and 1987’s Predator. Here are 5 reasons why Conan was his best and 5 why it was Predator.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

Conan The Barbarian: Arnold Fully Inhabited The Aura Of A Hyborian Age Warrior

There have always been films about warriors with swords who live and die for battle. No other actor has fully embodied the warrior/barbarian persona on film better than Schwarzenegger.
Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger: 10 Hilariously Badass Things That Can Only Happen In His Movies
From his muscles to his posture to his stone face and deep battle-roars, Arnold was the best representation of a barbarian. Director John Milius worked with the actor on his stance, the way to hold his sword, and his diction. Milius didn’t want anything phony in his portrayal of author Robert E. Howard’s creation.

Predator: Arnold Proved He Could Work Well In A Team Atmosphere

Because of his amazing physique, Schwarzenegger’s films usually let him do the fights and action mostly alone. In a few films, he has a sidekick or two but was usually the sole butt-kicker. In Predator, Arnold was the leader of a more than capable team of mercenaries.
Schwarzenegger is a big guy and his team had to reflect his tough persona. Filmmaker John McTiernan surrounded the actor with the likes of Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Bill Duke, and Carl Weathers. It was nice to see Arnold fighting alongside actors that could match up and hold their own with the superstar.

Conan The Barbarian: Arnold’s Sword Skills Rank Among The Best

Out of the many “warrior and sword” films throughout film history, Conan the Barbarian is considered the best of the bunch for many reasons. One of the keys to the film’s well-regarded stature is Schwarzenegger’s authentic sword skills.
Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes
Conan’s sword is a big, steel, weapon of death. Arnold worked with skilled trainers and director John Milius himself to master the style and skill needed to accurately portray the combat scenes. The training worked, as the film has been praised for its brutally realistic sword battles.

Predator: Arnold Proved Himself In The Science Fiction Genre

By 1987 the world knew Arnold Schwarzenegger could do all kinds of action. With films such as Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, and Commando, Arnold became a one-man action superstar.
Sci-Fi was a genre that Schwarzenegger had yet to try. Jim and John Thomas’ screenplay for Predator was a perfect blend of Sci-Fi and Action and proved to be the perfect jumping-off point for the actor to try his hand at a new genre. The film was a tremendous success and showed fans and critics that Arnold could handle switching genres with ease.

Conan The Barbarian: The Film Holds The Best Action Scenes Of Schwarzenegger’s Career

If it is one thing that Arnold’s fans love its big, explosive action. His 80s films certainly gave audiences what they wanted with guns ablaze and explosions aplenty.
Related: They Won’t Be Back: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 10 Best Movie Kills
The action in Conan the Barbarian is all hand to hand and sword to sword. No Special FX were necessary as the actors clashed steel and muscle, assuring the battle scenes took their place as some of the finest ever put to film.

Predator: The Screenplay

Jim and John Thomas wanted their screenplay for 1987’s Predator to be a blend of “Creature Feature” and “Balls-to-the-Wall” action. While the genre pieces were all in place, the writers managed to make their story seem fresh.
One masterstroke was giving their characters real personalities. They were all a bit more than the standard Hollywood tough guys. These characters, coupled with the plot that flips genre expectations and expert filmmaking from John McTiernan, the screenplay gave birth to one of the most original and exciting films of Schwarzenegger’s career.

Conan The Barbarian: The Score

In the annals of Film Score history, there are many beloved scores that have endeared themselves to cinephiles. John Williams and Bernard Herrmann may be the most recognizable with the former’s work on the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas and Herrmann’s work for Hitchcock. But for fans of Milius and Schwarzenegger, Basil Poledouris’ score for Conan the Barbarian is a classic.
Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 10 Most Badass Characters, Ranked
The composer used thunderous drums and powerful horns and strings to give strength to the tale of warriors and the scenes of battle. Poledouris’ score is as big and bold as the film itself.

Predator: John McTiernan

McTiernan was one year away from directing his smash hit Die Hard and had only directed 1986’s underseen Horror head-scratcher, Nomads. No one could be sure if he could give Predator the direction it deserved.
The director made the action pop and the master scenes shock while never letting his characters get lost in the mayhem. It is a skillfully crafted film that solidified McTiernan’s career as one of the smartest and finest action filmmakers of the day.

Conan The Barbarian: John Milius

As a screenwriter, John Milius had proven his worth with his own screenplays and his “Script Doctor” work on many other films. It was Milius who wrote Quint’s monologue about the U.S.S. Indianapolis for Jaws. The writer also co-wrote Apocalypse Now and gave birth to the famous line from Eastwood’s Sudden Impact, ‘Go Ahead. Make my day.”
Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 10 Best One-Liners, Ranked
As a filmmaker, Milius helmed the critical darlings, Dillinger and The Wind and the Lion. His mastery of big and bold filmmaking heightened the “high adventure” of Conan the Barbarian. The director admired filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and infused this film with the Japanese filmmaker’s (and Milius’ own) warrior spirit.

Predator: The Monster

Stan Winston’s design for The Predator was groundbreaking and unique. Like Giger’s Aliens that came before, audiences hadn’t seen anything like it.
Kevin Peter Hall replaced an unhappy Jean-Claude Van Damme and made his way into film history. Hall’s 6″9 height made him tower over the main cast. Winston’s creature design, with its scaley bodysuit and mechanical mouth effects, became one of the most unique and popular movie monsters in film history.
Next: If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Predator