There was a time in the early 1990s when Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed unassailably popular. Building on his 1980s success, he starred in a string of key hits: Kindergarten Cop, Terminator 2, and True Lies were all hugely successful. It was a comparatively short-lived peak, however: The Last Action Hero (1993) was a disastrous commercial failure, and the comedy Junior (1994) did not meet the expectations raised by Kindergarten Cop or Twins before it. What all of this is leading toward is that I think Eraser (1996), directed by Chuck Russell and co-starring James Caan and Vanessa Williams, is the first large-scale Schwarzenegger film that nobody cared about.

Not that it was a failure, of course. Eraser grossed more than US$240 million off the back of a US$100 million budget, so there is a decent chance Warner Bros saw a modest profit once home video and television revenue came in. What I honestly think lets Eraser down is that audiences simply did not care about it. Millions paid to see it because it was a Schwarzenegger action film, but there was little to no hype, little excitement, and literally no cultural footprint left behind. People remember Terminator 2 and True Lies. They still watch Kindergarten Cop occasionally. I would be surprised if many people remember Eraser at all.

Schwarzenegger plays U.S. Marshal John Kruger, who specialises in rescuing witnesses to crimes and placing them under secret protection. After rescuing tech executive Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), Kruger comes to realise there is a mole in the witness protection program and that Cullen is still in mortal danger.

There is nothing exciting about Eraser. It goes through the motions for almost two hours. Quality actors like Caan and James Coburn give rudimentary performances with one eye on a pay cheque. Vanessa Williams underwhelms with a standard sort of ‘damsel in distress’ character. Schwarzenegger, to his credit, gives one-hundred per-cent as Kruger, but he struggles with a deeply ordinary screenplay. Part of his reputation was built on quotable one-liners – “Hasta la vista, baby”, “It’s not a tumour”, and so on. The best Eraser can manage is “You’re luggage”, said to a enraged crocodile shortly before shooting it in the head.

There is also a weird disjoint in the film’s use of technology. It partly wants to be a grounded contemporary action-thriller, but at the same time its villains employ giant high technology rail guns out of a science fiction picture. Director Chuck Russell directs serviceably, with for Russell is generally par for the course. His films, which include A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, The Scorpion King, and The Mask, are all competently made, but he has never managed to helm an excellent film. Just watchable ones. Eraser is arguably watchable as well, but it is the sort of watchable where you can comfortably knit a sweater at the same time.

I think it is fair to say that from this point, Schwarzenegger’s career never quite recovered. He has continued to make films – albeit with a lengthy gap during which time he was Governor of California. Some of them have been enjoyable, including The Last Stand (2013), Maggie (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). A lot more of them have been utterly forgettable. In 2022 Warner Bros produced a direct-to-DVD sequel, Eraser: Reborn, which bore little similarity beyond the title. I am honestly unsure why they did.