The 5 Most Powerful Terminators, Officially Ranked

With the current rate of evolution of artificial intelligence, it's hard not to think about that somewhere down the line, a Skynet-like system may become self-aware and start sending Terminators through time to cause trouble, disrupt timelines, and kill people before they even realize how important they are. In fact, in the rankings of fictional AI villains, even a real AI picked Skynet as one of the best of the bunch.

But as the six "Terminator" films have clearly shown, getting the job done is tricky if you don't have the right tools. No matter how advanced Skynet might be, all it takes is a large amount of weight, extreme temperatures, or a good, old-fashioned magnet to slow them down or take them out completely. So with all that in mind, which one is the most powerful Terminator to date? Well, a lot of details need to be taken into consideration.

Here, we present a list of the toughest, most terrifying, and undeniably powerful Terminators to ever slowly stroll into James Cameron's world with glowing red eyes and (most likely) a pair of sunglasses. While there are some entries that fans might prefer to see rank higher on the list, the cold nature, murderous capability, and advanced skills that each machine possesses were all taken into consideration when determining our order. The future might not be set, but these assassins out of time certainly are, beginning with the most beloved but just slightly outdated model that we're always happy to see come back.

Some might say you can't beat the original, and considering it's been featured in four of the Terminator franchise's films, it's hard to argue otherwise. The T-800 stole a leather jacket, a pair of boots, and a motorcycle and rode into cinematic history as one of the most fearsome killers to ever appear on the silver screen. Composed of living tissue over a metal endoskeleton, Arnold Schwarzenegger's original hardwired hitman packed enhanced strength, durability, and a neural net processor that made it a learning computer. It's just a shame that in the movies that followed, other models from further down the production line became even bigger and badder threats in the future — or the past, depending on which point in the timeline you're looking at.

With the ability to blend in with the masses and apply unrelenting focus in terminating their target, the T-800 is a machine you definitely don't want to mess with. The issue, unfortunately, is that the bloodthirsty bucket of bolts is a dead giveaway as an assassinating android once it's been injured. When this thing takes a hit or ten and the skin peels away, the jig is up. More importantly, its gears and gizmos are even more exposed, making it slightly (but not entirely) easier to take down. Yes, the T-800 might be old, but it's not obsolete; however, there's just no denying that the upgraded models are far more deadly.

Hiding in plain sight is one thing, but being able to imitate the appearance of anything it touches makes the T-1000 an undeniable step up from the previous model. Putting Robert Patrick's terrifying portrayal of a policeman that could turn into a puddle aside, the features that this lethal killing machine displays was the stuff of nightmares from the moment it arrived in 1991. Not only could it imitate other people down to their voice (admittedly, a feature it shared with the T-800), but having the ability to pose as floor tiling before stabbing you in the face with its own shape-shifting limb made it far more effective than the previous model Skynet shipped back to the past.

Its only setback, of course, is how it reacts to extreme changes in temperature. As revealed in the ending of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," if it gets too hot or too cold, the T-1000 struggles to operate, even as the T-800 it faced off with is able to chug along despite losing a limb and half of its face. From there, Patrick's silver streak of horror struggled to recalibrate itself back to its status as a morphing slash machine. But even with this weakness, there's no doubt that the T-1000 is still perhaps the coolest killer in the franchise, but our next future assassin surpassed it by having the best of both worlds.

Say what you will about "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" (which somehow managed to feature some of the best and worst things in the "Terminator" franchise), but there's no denying that while the threequel might not be the strongest installment, its big bad certainly packed a punch so powerful that even the T-800 struggled to survive.

Kristanna Loken was the first and only female Terminator to appear on the big screen, and she took on Schwarzenegger's model by merging the best of the previous two baddies to make one advanced cyborg. Made up of an endoskeleton like the T-800, the T-X was also wrapped in the liquid metal that the T-1000 was composed of. But while the T-1000 couldn't form moving parts, the T-X had built-in weapons that varied from flamethrowers to plasma cannons that it could activate to complete its mission.

There was also one more upgrade that any older model wouldn't stand a chance against in the form of its nanotechnological transjector. This little feature allowed the T-X to hack other machines, including the T-800 that was sent back in time to project John Connor in director Jonathan Mostow's threequel. Just like previous Terminators, though, the T-X struggles when it comes to a good, old-fashioned crushing or being shot to pieces if enough firepower was involved. There's also the added setback of being unable to handle a highly powerful electromagnet, but that's something that all Terminators — even future models — have difficulty with.

Just like the TX, the Rev-9 pinches some of the best bits of all the previous models to create an even more efficient and unstoppable killing machine. Sporting an endoskeleton like the safe and sturdy T-800 that's wrapped up in a liquid metal like the T-1000 and the T-X, the extra perk that this lethal killbot sports is that it can actually separate the two technologies, turning itself into a pair of robotic killers. On a number of occasions, the endoskeleton and its coating split from each other and act independently in an effort to achieve their mission. This quite literally makes it twice as difficult to take down, allowing Legion (the equivalent of Skynet in the "Dark Fate" timeline) to send two killers to the past for the price of one.

Even with all these bells and whistles, though, there's one more feature that puts this model ahead of its predecessors for a very unique reason — it displays a shred of humanity, albeit a dark one. There are numerous points in "Terminator: Dark Fate" where the Rev-9 has an attitude and even displays a sense of humor in its hunt for Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). It's this extra detail that almost puts the Rev-9 at the top of this list, because a Terminator that can display human emotion is something the world absolutely doesn't need.

Since the beginning, the primary concept of the Terminator has been that it's a machine designed to infiltrate mankind in order to achieve its mission. With the T-3000, it did so on a cellular level. Introduced in "Terminator Genisys," the T-3000 took over John Connor (Jason Clarke) via machine-phase matter, sending him back into the past, making him even harder to detect, and, additionally, becoming an even scarier force to go up against due to its nanotechnology. In addition to having the usual capabilities of a Terminator in terms of strength and speed, the T-3000 was even more durable than previous models. With that said, though, the old-fashioned methods of taking down a Terminator proved to be just as effective as they've always been.

Just like previous Terminators, magnets hinder this highly advanced killer and have him losing portions of himself when caught in their magnetic field, impeding his goal. That became even more of an issue when the T-800 model took it on while wearing magnetic gauntlets, doing some serious damage in the process. Nevertheless, the idea of a Terminator that can infiltrate and take over human bodies makes this model a killer worth avoiding at all costs. It's just a shame that the film he was in wasn't as well conceived as the T-3000's tech.