The Terminator (1984)

Yes, The Terminator. No, it doesn’t take place around Christmas. And no, you didn’t miss a scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger dresses up as Santa. But The Terminator is perhaps the most true Christmas movie of any film on this list, because it is so obviously inspired by the Biblical account of the birth of Christ.

Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor symbolizes the Virgin Mary — a teenager who will soon give birth to humanity’s savior, by extraordinary means: her meeting with Michael Biehn’s Kyle Reese, a time traveler from the future. Her son, John Connor, shares initials with Jesus Christ.

SkyNet, the terrifying AI that sends The Terminator back in time to kill Sarah before her baby is born, is not unlike King Herod of Judea, who ordered the “massacre of the innocents” — the murder of Bethlehem’s newborns — because he feared Jesus would one day seize his kingdom.

Interestingly, James Cameron came up with the idea of The Terminator in Rome, not so far from the Vatican.