The Mighty Military Movies of Director James Cameron

As Avatar shatters Hollywood box office records, it should come as no surprise to movie fans and critics alike, that James Cameron's newest and record breaking film chronicles the adventures of military forces. The Canadian director almost always puts the military in his films in some way. With Avatar, the military - and corporate interests - play central to the film's storyline.

Cameron's a real renaissance man who's eclectic interests have led him from deep sea diving the actual Titanic wreck, to helping FX wizard Stan Winston design the facial features of the dreaded Predator - another sci-fi movie his friend and megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger helped turn into a classic Hollywood franchise. In many of James Cameron's biggest movies, military forces play a central role.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Working on only the script here as a screenwriter, Cameron once again deals with the military in a story. This time it's the sequel to Sylvester Stallone's First Blood.

John Rambo (Stallone) must go on a secret mission to Vietnam to prove that military POW's are still prisoners. Stallone took Cameron's screenplay, and rewrote it. Cameron's original title was First Blood II: The Mission.

Aliens (1986)

It was an action packed sequel to Ridley Scott's landmark 1979 nightmare in space Alien, but with Cameron at the helm, the subtle, atmospheric science fiction horror movie, turned into a space marine grudge match between beefy soldiers and bugs.

Badly damaged spaceship Nostromo is found and salvaged - with one passenger alive - the resourceful Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who's also a lead in Cameron's Avatar. Ripley wants to just get on with her life - what's left of it after being in a space hypersleep slumber for decades - but the company who owns Nostromo has other plans. They want her to go back to the planet where the little critter called a 'face hugger' was picked up and started all the nasty trouble by gestating into a humongous, acid spitting death bug. To provide security, space marines go along for the ride, and when they're needed they proceed to promptly kick bug butt.

The space marines here are brave, and even noble in their valiant fight - if woefully outnumbered - against hoards of screaming acid spitting aliens. Bill Paxton, a veteran of many of Cameron's flicks, plays the clownish and whiny Hudson, and Michael Biehn excels as the marine leader Corporal Hicks, who is forced to take command after Sgt. Apone is captured.

Terminator (1984)

Arnold Schwarzenegger was the android killing machine in this first installment, but Michael Biehn played Sgt. Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future come back to the past to save Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and the rest of us.

Earth's human resistance military force would be seen later seen in more detail in the 2009 sequel Terminator: Salvation, and the role of Reese played by Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), would become the father of John Connor played by Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. If these familiar ties are at all confusing to you, it's because time travel is involved. So in essence, you really could go back in time and be your own father - or something strangely twisted like that. In any case, the military force seen here represented by Kyle Reese shows us just how demoralized the human race has become, but they're not giving up, and are just as determined to terminate the Terminator.

The Abyss (1989)

Cameron trades the wonders of deep outer space, for the glory of deep sea space, in a sci-fi tale about aliens right here on Earth - hiding out in our oceans.

Starring Ed Harris (Apollo 13), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and again Michael Biehn, the movie showcases amazing special FX - including fantastic diving suits created for the film - and a thick oxygenated liquid which could replace oxygen gas for scuba equipment. The story has an American submarine sinking, so the US Navy sends a SEAL team (led by Biehn) to join forces with a civilian oil platform. As the predatory Lt. Coffey, Biehn isn't the noble soldier he played in Terminator. The movie boasts fantastic underwater action scenes, along with some of the most breathtaking futuristic looking aliens ever seen on film.

True Lies (1994)

Arnold 'Governator' Schwarzenegger delivers yet again. This time as a James Bond like action hero. His wife played by Jamie Lee Curtis is confused, and Bill Paxton joins the fun, in Cameron's action comedy about a military super spy who's carefully concealed double identities collide and cause trouble for all.

This is a remake of the French film, La Totale! Cameron directs Schwarzenegger in one of his funniest , though still action laden roles. Jamie Lee Curtis goes from clueless suburban wife to a confident new super spy type all her own. Look for a young Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) playing Arnold's daughter.

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