Once you’ve seen a handful of movies directed byJames Cameron(something that’s very likely you’ve already done,given how much money his movies have made), it’s possible to start recognizing some motifs or just things that likely appeal to Cameron. He tends to make action and/or sci-fi movies, he likes robots/mech suits, features strong female characters in lead or supporting roles, he’ll usually work romance into his stuff, he’s always pushing special effects forward, and, most significantly of all, the guy really, really, really likes water.
That becomes apparent from his filmography alone, but then when you take into accounthow much James Cameron’s done underwater,it becomes even clearer than the man’s fascinated with deep and potentially unexplored bodies of water. It’s rare to find a James Cameron movie without at least one prominent scene featuring a large body of water, and some are defined by being absolutely water-heavy. What follows is an attempt to rank his films not by quality, as one might expect, but simply by how wet they are (or how much water is shown/plays a role in the film’s events).
9’The Terminator' (1984)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton
The Terminatorwasn’t James Cameron’s first feature-length movie, but it was his first great one, and an important one in establishing his creativity and capacity to make something surprisingly epic on a fairly low budget.The Terminatorisn’t about a futuristic humanity-threatening war so much as it is about preventing said war from being won by machines, whichinvolves two individuals – a killing machineand a human soldier – being sent back in time.
The cyborg wants to ensure the machine war does happen and humanity’s defeated, while the soldier wants to prevent such a thing, protecting the woman who’s destined to give birth to John Connor, the man who has a chance at leading humanity to victory. It’s all great, still holding up today as a slick action/thriller with a decent amount of horror (plus some romance),but it’s light on water, with some rained-on streets seen early onand not much else when it comes to wetness.
The Terminator
A relentless cyborg assassin is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead the human resistance against machines. Protected by a soldier also sent from the future, Sarah must navigate a deadly game of cat and mouse to ensure her survival and humanity’s future.
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8’Terminator 2: Judgment Day' (1991)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong
As a sequel,Terminator 2: Judgment Dayis about as good as it gets. Things escalate perfectly from the first movie, taking place at a time when John Connor’s a young boy, and still very much vulnerable to assassins from the future. Indeed, another upgraded cyborg gets sent back to kill him, and, at the same time, so too does a reprogrammed “heroic” cyborg come back, only it’s not as powerful as the newer enemy model.
LettingArnold Schwarzeneggerplay the heroic Terminator this time around was a good call, as was the character development forSarah Connor, who’s a real badass here. But there’s also an argument to be made thatTerminator 2is even drier than the first movie, because it just feels a little hotter and more fiery, and some of it even takes place in the desert. So why rank it higher in terms of wetness? The new evil cyborg, the T-1000,has some unique powers that enable it to become completely liquid, and when the T-1000 does this, it looks a little bit like water. It’s real slim pickings out here, when it comes to finding lots of water in the first twoTerminatormovies!
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
7’True Lies' (1994)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold
It seems like Arnold Schwarzenegger might be a bit of an unlucky charm for those who want their James Cameron movies as watery as possible, because Cameron and Schwarzenegger’s third collaboration,True Lies, is also pretty light on water by James Cameron’s standards. However,it does mark the point in this ranking where there are at least a couple of prominent watery scenes, which counts for something.
Pairing Schwarzenegger withJamie Lee Curtis,True Liesis about a secret agent dealing with troubles in his marriage while also having to battle terrorists who might be planning to attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons. Cameron saves most of the noteworthy water stuff for the final act, with an impressive sequence of a bridge being destroyed over a body of water, not to mention a nuclear bomb exploding on a small island surrounded by water. It’s not much by Cameron standards, but it’s something, withTrue Lieseasily being the wettest of the Cameron + Schwarzenegger collaborations.
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6’Avatar' (2009)
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver
As made obvious by the title, James Cameron saved a lot of the water-related stuff inAvatarfor its 2022 sequel, with the wetter parts of the moon known as Pandora less pronounced in this first movie. Instead,2009’sAvataris defined by lush green colors, more than blue, with plenty of trees, cliffs, and jungle-type areas explored throughout the film.
Still,Avatarhas a little water;not so much huge oceans like Cameron usually likes to feature in his movies, but smaller bodies of water that seem like necessary parts of the moon’s complex ecosystem. Some larger amounts of water are shown in bursts here and there, but it’s generally restrained as a Cameron film in terms of wetness, more or less occupying the same kind of space as the sometimes-wetTrue Liesfrom 15 years earlier.
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5’Aliens' (1986)
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn
With his first movie following the success ofThe Terminator, James Cameron started sowing seeds that would later sprout into very watery plants, becauseAlienscontains some water. Not a great deal, admittedly, because much of the film takes place in claustrophobic interiors or barren outdoor wastelands, and though the film does feel cold at times, it’s not so much because of overwhelming quantities of water.
Still, one of the most memorable parts ofAliens(that doesn’texplicitly featureSigourney Weaver) does use water very effectively, with the image of a xenomorph emerging from the water behind Newt proving difficult to forget.Aliensis less horror-focused thanAlien,but given one of the scariest moments in the film uses a large amount of water to its advantage, the otherwise fairly dryAlienshas to be awarded some points for the purposes of this very silly ranking.
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4’Piranha II: The Spawning' (1982)
Starring: Tricia O’Neil, Steve Marachuk, Lance Henriksen
Making up for some other less-than-drenched early James Cameron movies likeThe Terminatorand Aliens,Piranha II: The Spawningwas the director’s first feature film, and one that – unsurprisingly, given the title – has a ton of water. It’s a movie that’ll never rank among the best of Cameron’s efforts, and you might even find it difficult to find too many fans… but hey, at least there’s a lot of water.
A sequel of sorts tothe moderately successfulRoger Corman-producedPiranha,Piranha II: The Spawningis once again all about fairly ho-hum characters having to fight for their lives against numerous murderous fish. Given fish are the main threats here, Cameron got to film a good number of underwater scenes, and one of the main characters is a scuba diving instructor,with all this adding up to makePiranha IIthe point within this ranking where things get super watery.
Rent on Apple TV
3’Avatar: The Way of Water' (2022)
Avatarmay have given viewers a taste of water on Pandora, but the 2022 sequel,Avatar: The Way of Water, entirely doubles down on that and shows the most watery parts of the entire moon. Water aside, it was also an impressive achievement in filmmaking, perhaps having some narrative shortcomings like the first film, but nevertheless being anoften spectacular and eerily immersive science fiction epic.
The humans who were defeated at the end ofAvatardo anEmpire and Strike BackinThe Way of Water, necessitating that Jake and his family move from where they’d been residing, to save themselves and their fellow Na’vi. They go to stay with an aquatic clan on Pandora, andthis allows plenty of scenes – some relaxing, and some intense/action-packed – to feature amazing-looking alien oceans, filled with awe-inspiring sights and distinctive underwater creatures.
Avatar: The Way of Water
2’Titanic' (1997)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane
James Cameron’s onlyBest Picture-winning movie to date was a romantic epicset on board the Titanic, simply calledTitanic. It’s right up there as not only one of his best and most widely-beloved films, but also one of his absolute wettest, given that most of the film takes place at sea, with even the framing device (introduced beforeKate WinsletandLeonardo DiCaprioshow up) involving a research vessel exploring the wreckage of the titular ship.
Then, whenTitanicpivots from beinga romance film to an intense disaster movie, things just get even wetter, becausethe vast ocean that had once been a pleasant background for passengers soon becomes the thing that could kill them, thanks to the ship sinking and the water temperature being brutally cold. Even then, it’s the sequences of sets being flooded that are probably the most memorable parts ofTitanicthat involve water; one has to wonder whether the actors actually had to try looking panicked, or simply were panicking.
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1’The Abyss' (1989)
Starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn
Movies simply can’t get much more watery thanThe Abyss, which surrounds its characters with water for pretty much the entire runtime, andhad a controversial productionthat saw actors genuinely fearing for their safety. Narratively, much of it involves exploring 25,000 feet underwater, with a crew of people making a series of alarming discoveries while on a mission to locate a sunken nuclear submarine.
The Abyssmight not be the best of James Cameron’s movieswhen judged purely by quality,but water is a constant presence – and often a threat, too – throughout, and it’s hard to imagine another group of movie characters surrounded by this much waterfor so much of their movie. It’s simply as wet as a movie can get, and therefore, it’s easy to selectThe Abyssas Cameron’s most watery to date.
