James Cameron’s Typical Vibe
Signature vibe

Highest-ranked title
Highest-ranked title
James Cameron has 21 titles in the CriticCrunch catalog across a career spanning the 1980s through the 2020s. 6 sit in the Top 1% of all titles we track — including The Terminator.
Recurring themes

Hitchcock/Truffaut
2015
Documentary

Return to Jurassic Park
2011
Documentary

Kedi
2017
Documentary

Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
2016
Documentary

Sad Hill Unearthed
2018
Documentary · History

Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy
2004
Documentary

The Pixar Story
2007
Documentary

X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time
2015
Documentary

Avatar
2009 · Movie · Director · Writer
Top 1%Disney+ · Included

The Terminator
1984 · Movie · Director · Writer
Top 1%Max · Included

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991 · Movie · Director · Writer
Top 1%Paramount+ · Included

Avatar: The Way of Water
2022 · Movie · Director · Writer
Top 1%Disney+ · Included

Avatar: Fire and Ash
2025 · Movie · Director · Writer
Top 2%Disney+ · Included

Strange Days
1995 · Movie · Writer
Top 30%Disney+ · Included

In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecting an alien civilization.
Dir. James Cameron · With Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver

101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
Dir. James Cameron · With Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane

In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?
Dir. James Cameron · With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton

Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.
Dir. James Cameron · With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, learn the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Dir. James Cameron · With Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver

Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
Dir. James Cameron · With Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn

In the wake of the devastating war against the RDA and the loss of their eldest son, Jake Sully and Neytiri face a new threat on Pandora: the Ash People, a violent and power-hungry Na'vi tribe led by the ruthless Varang. Jake's family must fight for their survival and the future of Pandora in a conflict that pushes them to their emotional and physical limits.
Dir. James Cameron · With Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver

When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.
Dir. Robert Rodriguez · With Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly

A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.
Dir. James Cameron · With Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn

A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
Dir. James Cameron · With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold

John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.
Dir. George P. Cosmatos · With Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles Napier

In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.
Dir. Kathryn Bigelow · With Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis

Music is an integral part of most films, adding emotion and nuance while often remaining invisible to audiences. Matt Schrader shines a spotlight on the overlooked craft of film composing, gathering many of the art form’s most influential practitioners, from Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman to Quincy Jones and Randy Newman, to uncover their creative process. Tracing key developments in the evolution of music in film, and exploring some of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks, 'Score' is an aural valentine for film lovers.
Dir. Matt Schrader · With Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Quincy Jones

Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.
Dir. Tim Miller · With Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis
Since the invention of cinema, the standard format for recording moving images has been film. Over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. Keanu Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood masters, such as James Cameron, David Fincher, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh, and many more.
Dir. Christopher Kenneally · With Keanu Reeves, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron

Documentary about the art of film editing. Clips are shown from many groundbreaking films with innovative editing styles.
Dir. Wendy Apple · With Kathy Bates, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino
Capturing Avatar is a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Avatar. It uses footage from the film's development, as well as stock footage from as far back as the production of Titanic in 1995. Also included are numerous interviews with cast, artists, and other crew members. The documentary was released as a bonus feature on the extended collector's edition of Avatar.
Dir. Laurent Bouzereau · With James Cameron, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña

With a team of the world's foremost historic and marine experts as well as friend Bill Paxton, James Cameron embarks on an unscripted adventure back to the wreck of the Titanic where nearly 1,500 souls lost their lives almost a century ago.
Dir. James Cameron · With Bill Paxton, John Broadwater, James Cameron
Super soldier Max Guevera tries to live a normal life in post-apocalyptic Seattle while eluding capture by government agents from the covert biotech facility she escaped from as a child and searching for her genetically-enhanced brothers and sisters who have dispersed after escape.
Dir. James Cameron, Charles H. Eglee · With Jessica Alba, Michael Weatherly, Valarie Rae Miller
The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.
Dir. Thomas C. Grane · With James Cameron, Laz Alonso, Richard Baneham
A scuba diving instructor, her biochemist boyfriend, and her police chief ex-husband try to link a series of bizarre deaths to a mutant strain of piranha fish whose lair is a sunken freighter ship off a Caribbean island resort.
Dir. James Cameron · With Tricia O'Neil, Steve Marachuk, Lance Henriksen