He eats Green Berets for breakfast. The Devil is a choir boy compared to him. He’s known as the Austrian Oak and, in The Last Action Hero, famous comedian Arnold Braunschweiger. He’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, known to fans around the world as multiple Mr. Olympia winner and a paragon of action cinema in the ’80s and ’90s. To some, he’s a genre unto himself.

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There’s a distinctive feel to “Ah-nold” movies that’s different from the films of other action stars like Stallone and Van Damme. There are tropes and archetypes that, even if they appear in other genre films, are different because they’re brought to life by Schwarzenegger’s unique physicality and instantly recognizable accent. Whether he’s duking it out with aliens, spouting iconic catchphrases, or yelling at everyone to “Get to the choppa!” there are certain things that can only happen in his movies.

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ONE-LINERS

While many action heroes of his ilk delivered one-liners in their films, especially in the ’80s, not many of his peers delivered them with the same compelling edge. His odd staccato delivery and thick accent made simple phrases suddenly more interesting, and therefore highly memorable.
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It’s why classic one-liners like, “Come with me if you want to live.” or, “Hasta la vista, baby!” from Terminator 2: Judgment Day come to mind decades later. Or hilarious banter like in The Running Man, when his nonchalant response to, “Drop dead!” is, “I don’t do requests.”

YELLING INSTRUCTIONS

Arnold is one thing if not succinct when it comes to issuing commands. Whether he’s playing Conan the Barbarian and yelling at his comrades to, “Get in the boat!” or, “Go down the tunnel!” or he’s telling his fellow soldiers to, “Get to the chopper!” in Predator, there’s no mistaking what he wants them to do.
Or maybe he’s a tired dad in Jingle All The Way, and after a long day and he walks in on his neighbor schmoozing his wife and he has to yell, “Put that cookie down!” Or maybe he has to tell a bunch of kindergarten kids, “It’s not a tumor!”

FIGHTING SCI-FI AND FANTASY CREATURES

The sci-fi and fantasy genres have been good to Schwarzenegger, and some of his most popular films have involved him taking on everything from killer robots to extraterrestrial creatures. In Predator he faced the ultimate warrior from another planet, in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3, and various other films in the Terminator franchise he’s fought all different versions of the robot assassins.
In End of Days he fought the Devil himself, and in Eraser he fought rampaging crocodiles. In Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer he fought giant mythical beasts, and in Total Recall he fought a combination of AI assassins, mutated Martians, and everything in between.

TELLING PEOPLE HE’LL “BE BACK”

Though he originally spoke the iconic phrase, “I’ll be back” in The Terminator in 1984, like Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) saying, “Engage!” in Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) saying, “Here’s Johnny!” in The Shining, Schwarzenegger became known for it.
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He said, “I’ll be back” in Commando the very next year, and it became a calling card for the action star in many of his other films. It appeared in Raw Deal in 1986, Running Man in 1987, Twins in 1988, Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop in 1990, and of course Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991.

PLAYING AN ALL-AMERICAN HERO

Despite his thick accent, Arnold almost always plays “All-American” heroes. In Jingle All the Way, Commando, and even Total Recall he was a dad, a firefighter, and an accountant respectively. He’s just your average joe, with huge muscles and biceps as big around as most other Joes’ legs. This makes him relatable and sympathetic to viewers.
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As an immigrant who came to the US speaking no English, Arnold represents the epitome of the American Dream. He became one of the nation’s biggest superstars, and by portraying an All-American hero, he also became a symbol of the nation’s diversity.

PUNS WITH A PUNCH

Whether it’s shooting his fake wife between the eyes in Total Recall, declaring, “Consider that a divorce!” or cutting Buzzsaw completely in half using his own chain saw and saying, “He had to split.” in The Running Man, Schwarzenegger’s puns come with the punches. The Running Man had several all-time classics, such as, “What a hothead!” when Arnold blows up Fireball with his flamethrower, and, “What a pain in the neck” when he strangles Sub-Zero with barbed wire.
Commando gave audiences, “Let off some steam” after he impales Bennett with a steam pipe, and Predator made pinning someone to a tree with a knife hilarious with, “Stick around.” And who could forget Mister Freeze’s “Chill out” as he uses his freeze ray gun in Batman Forever?

UNLIMITED HEALTH AND AMMO

According to Conan the Barbarian, nothing hurts him, “only pain.” Despite the fact that Arnold gets roughed up in the vast majority of his movies, he doesn’t seem to slow down. Whether it’s in Predator or True Lies, or The 6th Day, he’s going to keep brawling even when he’s been clawed by an alien warrior, shot at, or punched by an android that’s a replica of himself.
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It seems along with his stellar physique, he has an unlimited health meter. In Terminator, he fought Sarah Connor until the exoskeleton of his T-800 housing was almost completely destroyed! And even if his health meter ever dipped, just like in Commando, he always seems to have guns with unlimited ammunition.

ALWAYS WINNING NO MATTER THE ODDS

It doesn’t matter if the villain has more henchmen, armed with more guns and more firepower, Arnold always overpowers them. If he isn’t shooting or punching his way out, he’s putting together some sort of makeshift explosive device to take out several lackies at a time, like in Red Heat. 
Remember, he eats Green Berets for breakfast, so even if it’s in a one-on-one fight with henchmen on his way to the big boss, he never gets fatigued, doesn’t pay any attention to his wounds, and keeps the puns coming as fast as his punches. Sometimes, he just has to throw a lead pipe through a Russian thug so he can “let off some steam.”

WALKING AWAY FROM ALL EXPLOSIONS

It’s a typical action movie trope these days for heroes to saunter away from explosions, often in slow-motion, without so much as a hair disturbed on their head from the massive blowback or force of the blast. There are plenty of Arnold movies that featured this first, from Terminator, to Total Recall, to The Running Man.
Arnold is so famous for walking away from explosions he made a YouTube video blowing $#@* up, from leftover spaghetti to your neighbors’ car (he shows you how to do both). And if you’re the sort of person who’s procrastinated on cleaning your closet, he suggests blowing that up too. He concludes his videos walking away from 5 exploding barrels of nitroglycerin with the phrase, “If you haven’t walked away from it, you haven’t blown it up.”

GETS THE GIRL IN THE END

For the vast majority of Schwarzenegger films, there’s a leading lady paired up with him, and even if there may not be sparks initially, his rugged charm wins her over in the end. Even if he’s married, like in True Lies or Jingle All The Way, there are circumstances created to drive him apart from his spouse, only to have them reunite before the credits roll.
Even when a blossoming romance takes a slightly alternative route, like in Eraser or Junior, love is all but guaranteed unless the only other alternative happens; his love interest dies. In movies like Commando, Collateral Damage, Conan the Barbarian, Aftermath and Total Recall, the only reason he can’t live happily ever after with his spouse is because she’s dead and contributing to his edgy backstory.
NEXT: Ranking Sylvester Stallone’s 10 Toughest Characters By How Much Ass They Kick