Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a 2003 science fiction action film, the third installment in the Terminator franchise and a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). It is directed by Jonathan Mostow and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. In its plot, the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet sends a T-X (Loken)—a highly advanced Terminator—back in time to ensure the rise of machines by killing top members of the future human resistance as John Connor's (Stahl) location is unknown. The resistance sends back a reprogrammed T-850 (Schwarzenegger) to protect John and Kate (Danes).

While Terminator creator James Cameron was interested in directing the third film, he ultimately had no involvement with Terminator 3. Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar, who had produced Terminator 2: Judgment Day through their company Carolco Pictures, obtained the rights for the franchise through both Carolco's liquidation auction and negotiations with producer Gale Ann Hurd. In 1999, Tedi Sarafian was hired to write the first draft of the script. Mostow joined the project as director in 2001, and he brought on John Brancato and Michael Ferris to rewrite Sarafian's script. The $187 million budget included a $5 million salary for Mostow and a record $30 million salary for Schwarzenegger. Filming took place in California from April to September 2002. Industrial Light & Magic and Stan Winston created the special effects, as they did for the previous film.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines premiered at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, on June 30, 2003, and was released on July 2, 2003, by Warner Bros. Pictures in North America. The film was rolled out overseas throughout the summer, with Columbia Pictures overseeing the bulk of the international distribution. It received generally positive reviews and earned $433.4 million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2003. A sequel, Terminator Salvation, was released in 2009. Coincidentally, the film was used to mark Schwarzenegger's formal entry into politics, having being speculated to be a vehicle for his 2003 gubernatorial run.