Erasermarked the end of the movie star phase of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career. The Terminator is the film that turned Schwarzenegger from a bodybuilder turned actor and into a fully-fledged movie icon. While he may not have had extraordinary range as a performer, he had charisma to burn. He was also good at spotting star vehicles for himself, with projects like Commando, The Running Man and especially Predator helping raise his profile. He also displayed his knack for comedy with hits like 1988’s Twins.
Terminator 2 marked the peak of Arnold’s movie star era, with the sequel being a landmark blockbuster that is revered to this day. Naturally, it would prove impossible to top, with his next movie Last Action Hero being a critical and box-office letdown that was roundly beaten by Jurassic Park. He later bounced back with action/comedy True Lies, which paired him with Jamie Lee Curtis and would mark his last time – to date at least – being directed by James Cameron.
At the peak of his career, studios were able to sell a Schwarzenegger movie based on his name alone. This was true of 1996’s Eraser, where he played a federal marshal named John Kruger who specializes in faking the deaths of his witnesses and “erasing” their pasts so they can lead new lives. In the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kruger runs into trouble when his latest witness – played by Vanessa Williams – becomes a target after uncovering the existence of an experimental rifle. Eraser is a fun but generic star vehicle for Arnold that features some creative setpieces, but it also marked his last major, non-franchise success.
Eraser was sold entirely on his star power, and it braved lukewarm reviews to become a comfortable success. However, in the years that followed his star vehicles like Jingle All The Way, End Of Days and The 6th Day all underperformed, and while Terminator 3 and even his infamous turn as Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin ended up performing well financially, they had the cushion of being established series. After Schwarzenegger took an extended break from acting to focus on his political career in the early 2000s, his return vehicles like The Last Stand and Sabotage also flopped.
Again, his recent box-office successes have been franchise roles, such as his guest appearances in The Expendables movies or Terminator Genisys. Arnold Schwarzenegger became a star during a very specific era, and while fans couldn’t have known it at the time, Eraser quietly marked the end of that period. Blockbusters became increasingly more focused on special effects in the late 1990s, such as Independence Day – which came out the same year as Eraser – and Arnie or Stallone’s reign as action heroes slowly petered out. Of course, Arnold made some stone-cold classics in his heyday, and he’s always a very welcome presence on a big screen. He is next set to reunite with Danny De Vito for Triplets, which will introduce Tracy Morgan as their long-lost third sibling. He won’t be appearing in the upcoming, STV sequel Eraser: Reborn, however, which will instead star Dominic Sherwood.
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