Sam Worthington is something of a flavor of the month. While perfect as a post-apocalyptic cyborg in “Terminator: Salvation,” he was more or less a charisma vacuum in the horrid “Clash of the Titans.” To restore your faith, here are five films featuring five Sams in whom you can repose rather more trust.

1. Sam Rockwell, “Moon” (2009)

Sam Rockwell continues to be one of the most interesting actors working, choosing interesting scripts and devoting himself completely to them. His portrayal of game show creator/spy Chuck Barris in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” seemed less like acting and more like some sort of summoning and possession.

“Moon,” however, was a role any actor would kill for. As directed by Duncan Jones, Rockwell plays the sole human occupant of a lunar mining operation.

Aided by Gerty, the station’s computer (voiced by the mellifluous Kevin Spacey), he makes a startling discovery that compels him to literally confront himself. Like all good sci-fi, this one has big ideas, and Rockwell is more than able to carry it all.

2. Sam Neill, “Event Horizon” (1997)

Sam Neill’s a talented actor who’s been in wonderful small movies like “The Dish” and “The Piano,” but he’s also never flinched from being Sammy Paycheck in stuff like “Daybreakers,” where he’s almost always the best thing in a not-terrific movie.

Why star in movies like that? Michael Caine, who starred in “Jaws The Revenge,” one of the most wretched movies ever, once said, “I’ve not seen ‘Jaws 4.’ I’ve heard it’s terrible. What I have seen, and I can assure you is not terrible, is the house it paid for.”

This might explain why Neill agreed to do “Event Horizon.”

Despite being the bastard child of a dozen other sci-fi and horror films, “Event Horizon” is balls-out awesome. As the designer of the titular faster-than-light vessel, Neill leads a rescue ship and its hard-bitten crew all the way to Neptune to board the derelict vessel, and proceeds to open the door to hell.

With jaw-dropping production design and a terrific soundtrack, this movie is very scary and very good.

3. Samantha Morton, “Minority Report” (2002)

Steven Spielberg’s movies may not always be amazing, but their craftsmanship is meticulous, for Spielberg is a filmmaker with the strongest possible grasp of the fundamentals when it comes to things like shot setups and editing choices.

His lamentable weakness for happy endings that fix every single problem has been known to give his films wobbly conclusions, and it does so in “Minority Report,” one of his very best films of the past decade.

While Tom Cruise is the film’s star, it’s Morton’s turn as Agatha that gives the film a huge dose of humanity. It’s not an easy role. Agatha spends her days in a coma, receiving visions of future murders. Cruise’s character is forced to wake her up and kidnap her, and Morton plays her as a terrified neophyte, startled by almost everything she sees, yet still wielding her powerful mental gifts to aid her abductor.

It’s a wonderful performance, veering between terror and tranquility.

Morton hasn’t made too many films, but her best work might just be in Jim Sheridan’s marvelous “In America” as Sarah, an Irish immigrant who settles in Hell’s Kitchen with her husband and two daughters. It’s a performance of grit and rich emotional resonance.

4. Sam Fuller, “Pickup on South Street” (1953)

A skilled pickpocket dips the wrong victim, ending up swiping a wallet full of microfilm on its way to a Commie spy. Now the petty thief is the target of a huge manhunt, and only the fact that he’s played by tough-as-nails badass Richard Widmark can save him in writer-director Sam Fuller’s 1953 noir.

It’s one of his best, with Widmark’s performance in the foreground, but with fascinating things happening in the background as well.

Fuller was an American original, a man who wrote and directed for the most part around the edge of A-list Hollywood, making genre films and B-movies but never embarrassing himself.

There are some genuinely terrific movies sprinkled through his work, the most famous being “The Big Red One,” his autobiographical depiction of life in the famed 1st Infantry Division. But he also took on controversial themes in pictures like “White Dog” and “Shock Corridor.”

See also “The Crimson Kimono” and “Underworld U.S.A.” for more strong doses of the Sam Fuller experience.

5. Samuel L. Jackson, “S.W.A.T” (2003)

Very little needs be said about Samuel L. Jackson, the most well-known personality in this list. Few actors have seemed so larger than life off-screen as Jackson, who embodies “badass mofo” better than any actor since the 1970s.

He can usually be counted on to raise his voice to an impassioned pitch at least once per movie, but he also turned in low-key but enjoyable performances in “1408” and John Boorman’s “In My Country.”

I chose “S.W.A.T.” because I was a fan of Aaron Spelling’s old show on which the movie was based and because I was surprised at how well-done and cool it was. Director Clark Johnson cut his teeth directing TV but was perfectly at ease with the expansion in budget and capability that an A-list action film would require.

Jackson plays the stainless steel veteran who has to mold a disparate team of rookies into a lethal unit. Since the rookies are played by Colin Farrell, LL Cool J, Michelle Rodriguez, Josh Charles and Brian Van Holt, we can safely assume that they’ll be the greatest S.W.A.T. team in history.

The villain is played by the charismatic and cool Jeremy Renner, fully aligning the stars for a great action movie.