Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To GeekParamount+ dumped a mountain (see what I did there?) of catalog titles on its service at the beginning of the month, and U.S. subscribers responded by watching The Hangover so much that it’s the No. 1 movie right now, according to Flixster. The most thrilling thing near the top 10, though, is Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, but I think we can do better than that.
Dig past the new arrivals, and P+ has loads of way better options, including a terrifying staple about a therapist who keeps seeing the same sinister upside-down frown everywhere, a future-set sci-fi classic that might be the best of a franchise, and my top pick, an interstellar grudge match against a famous starship captain.
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Smile
A therapist inherits her patient’s worst nightmare
Some of the best thrillers and horrors are the ones that take everyday simplicities—you know, like children’s dolls and teddy bears—and turn them into sinister demons from hell. Welp, you can thank writer/director Parker Finn for ruining the warmth and innocence of a simple smile. Yes, 2022’s Smile smirked its way to the year’s biggest original horror release, to the tune of $217 million.
Based on Finn’s own SXSW short film, Laura Hasn’t Slept, Smile follows Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick), a psychiatrist treating a patient named Laura (Caitlin Stasey) who says she’s being haunted by a malevolent entity. Rose then watches Laura kill herself while wearing a horrific frozen grin. Days later, Rose starts seeing the same smile on people everywhere, including her fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), and soon learns that the entity has jumped to her. The only way to rid herself of it? It must be passed on to a new witness to a death, whether her own or someone else’s.
Smile won solid reviews (79% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes), as did its sequel, Smile 2 (also streaming on P+), which fared even better at 86%. There’s reportedly a third installment in development, but it’s unclear if Finn will be involved.
Cast
Kyle Gallner, Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn, Rob Morgan, Gillian Zinser, Judy Reyes, Jack Sochet, Nick Arapoglou, Perry Strong, Matthew Lamb, Dora Kiss, Meghan Brown Pratt, Jared Johnston, Ura Yoana Sánchez, Vanessa Cozart, Gabriel Mark, Shevy Gutierrez, Sara Kapner, Steven Strickland, Kevin Keppy, Marti Matulis, Scot Teller
Runtime
115 minutes
Director
Parker Finn
Writers
Parker Finn
Producers
Isaac Klausner, Marty Bowen, Robert Salerno, Wyck Godfrey
Budget
$17 million
Studio(s)
Paramount Pictures
Distributor(s)
Paramount Pictures
Executive Producer(s)
Adam Fishbach
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Liquid metal, Linda Hamilton’s guns, and a perfect sequel
Paramount+ may not have James Cameron’s original genre-defining 1984 masterpiece, The Terminator, currently streaming on its service, but that’s fine because it does have the franchise’s golden child, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is universally considered the perfect sequel and better than the original.
Quiz
The Terminator franchise
Trivia challenge
From Skynet to Judgment Day — see how much you really know about the
Terminator movies.
CharactersPlotQuotesMachinesSequels
Characters
What is the name of the human resistance leader that Skynet sends the Terminator
back in time to kill in the original 1984 film?
back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor before John is even born, hoping to erase him from existence before he
can lead humanity to victory.
soldier sent back by John Connor himself to protect Sarah, and he ends up being John’s father. Skynet’s
plan was to eliminate John before he could become a threat.
Quotes
Which iconic line does the T-800 say upon arriving in the original 1984 Terminator
film?
spoken line is a demand for clothes from a group of punks. It’s a chilling introduction to the
character’s cold, mission-focused nature.
first spoken line in the film. ‘I’ll be back’ comes later and is probably the franchise’s most famous
quote, while ‘Hasta la vista, baby’ doesn’t appear until Terminator 2.
Machines
What model number is the liquid-metal Terminator that serves as the main villain in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day?
Terminator is made of mimetic polyalloy, allowing it to shapeshift and mimic any person or object it
touches. It was a revolutionary visual effects achievement for 1991.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, while the T-600 is mentioned in dialogue as an earlier, less
sophisticated model. The T-1000’s liquid-metal effects wowed audiences in 1991.
Plot
In the original Terminator, who sent Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah
Connor?
one of cinema’s most famous bootstrap paradoxes: John sends Reese back, Reese falls in love with Sarah,
and Reese becomes John’s father — meaning John is responsible for his own existence.
creates an incredible time paradox at the heart of the story. John already knew Reese was his father and
essentially orchestrated the very events that led to his own birth.
Characters
Which actress plays Sarah Connor in the original 1984 Terminator and Terminator 2:
Judgment Day?
is iconic: going from a frightened waitress in 1984 to a hardened, muscle-bound warrior in 1991.
Hamilton’s physical and emotional commitment to the role made Sarah Connor one of cinema’s greatest
action heroes.
Connor, but only in the 2015 film Terminator Genisys. Hamilton’s portrayal across the first two films
remains definitive, and she reprised the role again in 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate.
Sequels
What is the subtitle of the third Terminator film, released in 2003?
directed by Jonathan Mostow, it introduced the T-X Terminator played by Kristanna Loken. It was the
first film in the franchise not directed by James Cameron.
Salvation is the fourth film (2009), Genisys is the fifth (2015), and Dark Fate is the sixth (2019).
Rise of the Machines was notable for being the first sequel without director James Cameron at the helm.
Plot
What is the name of the artificial intelligence that becomes self-aware and launches
a nuclear war against humanity in the Terminator franchise?
Cyberdyne Systems, Skynet becomes self-aware and, perceiving humans as a threat, launches nuclear
missiles to trigger what becomes known as Judgment Day. It then creates the Terminators to hunt down
survivors.
Odyssey, and Colossus is from the 1970 film Colossus: The Forbin Project. Legion does appear as a
Skynet-like AI in Terminator: Dark Fate, serving as that film’s version of the franchise’s machine
overlord.
Machines
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, what does the reprogrammed T-800 promise John Connor
he will never do, leading to one of the film’s most emotional moments?
horrified to see the Terminator wound people while escaping the hospital, he orders it to swear off
killing. The T-800 complies, resorting only to injuring people — showing how it follows John’s commands
with robotic literalness.
being. This becomes a key theme of the film — exploring whether a machine can develop something like
morality. It also makes the T-800’s eventual self-sacrifice at the end all the more powerful and
emotionally resonant.
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Released in the summer of 1991, Judgment Day gave us so, so much—a ripped Linda Hamilton, transformed into the action star she still is today; a reprogrammed, kinder, gentler T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), this time risking his life to save young John Connor’s (Edward Furlong); and the pièce de résistance, the advanced, indestructible, liquid-metallic T-1000 (played by Robert Patrick) still intent on killing John so Skynet can keep control of the future. This time, though, the robot, Sarah, and John set out to hunt down original Skynet engineer Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) to stop him before he starts.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a juggernaut that scored four Academy Award wins—including for makeup, sound, and its groundbreaking visual effects. The critical darling (currently at 90% on RT) is also set to return to theaters at the end of August for its 35th anniversary run.
Cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen, Joe Morton, S. Epatha Merkerson, Castulo Guerra, Danny Cooksey, Jenette Goldstein, Xander Berkeley, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, Ken Gibbel, Robert Winley, Pete Schrum, Shane Wilder, Michael Edwards, Jared Lounsbery, Casey Chavez, Ennalls Berl, Don Lake, Richard Vidan, Tom McDonald, Jim Palmer, Gerard ‘Gus’ Williams
Runtime
137 minutes
Director
James Cameron
Writers
James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher
Producers
James Cameron, Van Ling
Prequel(s)
Terminator
Sequel(s)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, Terminator Genisys, Terminator: Dark Fate
Franchise(s)
Terminator
Main Genre
Sci-Fi
Budget
$94-102 Million
Studio(s)
Carolco Pictures, Pacific Western Productions, Lightstorm Entertainment, Le Studio Canal+
Distributor(s)
Tri-Star Pictures
Executive Producer(s)
Gale Anne Hurd, Mario Kassar
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Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
A name that echoed throughout the galaxy
After the warp-coil detonation that was 1979’s bloated Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry’s franchise needed a hit. With a pared-down budget, director Nicholas Meyer delivered what many fans and critics call the best Star Trek movie of them all—The Wrath of Khan.
While you wouldn’t normally slot Star Trek into thriller territory, Khan was less its usual sci-fi space fantasy and more of a tense, cat-and-mouse revenge story. And much of that is thanks to the film’s lead villain, Khan Noonien Singh—played by the incomparable Ricardo Montalbán—a bare-chested, genetically engineered warlord, a character ripped from the celluloid of the classic 1960s TV series. It’s been 15 years since Kirk (William Shatner at his finest) left Khan and his followers stranded on a planet that was later devastated.
After escaping, Khan sets out to exact his revenge on the now Admiral Kirk, seizing a Federation starship and the Genesis Device, which can destroy a planet as easily as it can create a new one. Khan gets the drop on Kirk, leading to one of cinema’s most furious name-screams ever. But hands down, the film’s ending belongs to Spock (Leonard Nimoy). If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it, but it’s epic.
Cast
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig
Runtime
112 Minutes
Director
Nicholas Meyer
Writers
Jack B. Sowards
Franchise(s)
Star Trek
Main Genre
Action
Budget
12000000.0
Where to watch
Max
Studio(s)
Paramount
Where To Stream
M
IMDb ID
tt0084726
TMDB User Rating
7
.5
Thrills from demons, the future, and deep space
An intense, fast-paced, high-stakes thriller can come from many different genres or realms, but whichever you prefer, the above list has three movies that will get your heart rate up. And when you’re done, How-To Geek’s streaming section runs picks like these weekly, for all the major services.
Subscription with ads
Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
3
Live TV
Select live sports (NFL on CBS & UEFA Champions League)
Price
Starting at $8/month or $60/year
