Terminator (character concept)

An 800-series terminator endoskeleton, a robot-only version of the cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the Terminator film series, a terminator is a fictional autonomous robot, typically humanoid, originally conceived as a practically indestructible soldier and assassin, as well as an infiltrator.

James Cameron introduced the first terminator character in the 1984 movie The Terminator, featuring a single cyborg simply called "The Terminator", portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When later Terminator movies introduced additional models, some sources retroactively gave Schwarzenegger's character a model number, leading to multiple conflicting names.

Development of the Terminators

According to the films, the terminators were created by an artificially intelligent computer, Skynet, to wipe out the remains of humanity. Some models are designed to look exactly like humans in order to infiltrate their bases, progressing from fake rubber skin, to artificially grown human flesh over their electronics, to mimetic polyalloy able to mimic any person or object.

The flesh-covering that is used on the majority of Terminators has similar qualities to real human muscle fibre and dermis, including soft tissue and skin, as well as the ability to sweat, simulate breathing and produce realistic body odor. Although Terminator flesh does contain blood it only displays very minimal bleeding when damaged and has never been shown to experience any kind of profuse bleeding even from massive lacerations and dozens of gunshot wounds. It is unknown what manner of circulatory system, if any, is employed, nor what biological processes take place to sustain the flesh covering, since Terminators do not require (or, with the exception of Cameron Phillips' unknown model, are capable of) the consumption of sustenance. Under 2007-era analysis this blood has been shown to be similar to that of a human but lacking in red blood cells, suggesting that the engineered flesh covering a Terminator does not require oxygen to live. Terminator flesh heals by itself, and at a much faster rate than normal human tissue and has never been shown to bruise or discolor from trauma, even after several days.

Although clearly not the normal proceedure, a bare T-888 endoskeleton was able to grow himself a new flesh covering using 2007 technology (with the assistance of a geneticist and its own knowledge of future formulae) by submerging himself in a blood-like bath. This improvised process resulted in a deformed covering that had the appearance of a burn victim and lacked its own biological eyes, requiring it to steal those of the geneticist and subsequently undergo cosmetic surgery to produce a more normal appearance. The theft of the scientist's eyes suggests that Terminator flesh is capable of accepting some degree of organ grafts from ordinary humans, that it can circumvent Transplant rejection, and is capable of sustaining the life of the grafted tissue via its own unknown biological process.

According to the first two films, terminators were Cyberdyne Systems models created after the war between man and machines started. In the altered timeline of T3 created by the destruction of Cyberdyne in T2, terminators were created by the Cyber Research Systems division of the U.S. Air Force to replace soldiers on the battlefield prior to Judgment Day, starting with the T-1.

Terminators were actually created as part of an ontological paradox caused by time travel. Parts from the terminator sent back to 1984 in the first film were reverse engineered and used to develop Skynet and more terminators. In this case, the terminators triggered their own invention.

In the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron Phillips establishes that modern terminators are made of coltan for heat resistance, while previous models were made of titanium.

Models

The first terminator model shown, simply called "The Terminator", was introduced in the first film, with a new model terminator added for each subsequent film. In addition to those models shown on screen, other spin off sources have introduced more, including the T-70 from T2 3-D: Battle Across Time and the female I-950 from T2: Infiltrator.

	Model	Portrayed by	Appearances
File:Terminator 3 T-1.jpg	T-1	practical remote controlled robot	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
	T-70	practical special effects model	T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
File:T-600.jpg	T-600 Series 600	practical effects	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
File:Terminator2004.jpg	T-800/850/101 aka T-800 Series 850 Model 101 aka T-101 (T3)	Arnold Schwarzenegger stop motion practical effects computer-generated imagery	The Terminator Terminator 2: Judgment Day T2 3-D: Battle Across Time Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
File:Cromartie in TSCC.jpg	T-888 Cromartie Vick	Owain Yeoman Garret Dillahunt computer-generated imagery practical effects	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
File:T-1000.gif	T-1000	Robert Patrick other cast members computer-generated imagery	Terminator 2: Judgment Day T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
	T-1000000	computer-generated imagery	T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
File:Terminatrix1001.jpg	T-X	Kristanna Loken other cast members computer-generated imagery practical special effects	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
File:Cameron Phillips in TSCC.jpg	Cameron Phillips/ Unknown model	Summer Glau practical effects	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
File:TerminatorCarter.jpg	Carter/ Unknown model	Brian Bloom practical effects	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
	I-950		T2: Infiltrator T2: Rising Storm T2: Future War

External links

• 'T2 and Technology', an essay by chief technical consultant Larry Yeager