Terminator (character)

This article is about the character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. For other "terminator" characters, see Terminator (character concept).

The Terminator
A Terminator endoskeleton.
First appearance	The Terminator
Last appearance	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Created by	James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd
Portrayed by	Arnold Schwarzenegger
In-universe information
Species	Cyborg
Manufacturer	Skynet

"The Terminator" is a fictional character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger — a cyborg, initially portrayed as a programmable assassin and military infiltration unit. "The Terminator" character first appeared in the 1984 movie of the same name, directed and co-written by James Cameron, and its sequels. The first film in the series (titled simply The Terminator, like the character) features only one cyborg: the one portrayed by Schwarzenegger, although a second Terminator is shown in future flashback scene and is played by Franco Columbu. In both sequels, Schwarzenegger's Terminator is pitted against other Terminators.

In the sequels, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Schwarzenegger reprises the role, but with a twist: Schwarzenegger is the hero instead of the villain, playing a different but visually identical cyborg in each of the three films. Within the Terminator universe created by Cameron, Terminators of the same "model" share identical characteristics. In the production of the films, this has allowed multiple Terminators to be portrayed by Schwarzenegger. In the context of the stories, this plot device provides a certain continuity for the human characters, by exploiting their emotional familiarity with a particular visage.

"The Terminator" is the name of Schwarzenegger's character in the credits of the three Terminator movies. At different times, the character is given more specific designations such as model and series numbers, in efforts to distinguish Schwarzenegger's character from other Terminators. However, this is done with several inconsistencies. No definitive canonical explanation is present in any of the films which clarifies what exactly the differing numbers ascribed to the character represent.

The Terminator is the only character in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains to appear in both lists (the "original" Terminator is #22 in the villains, while the reprogrammed one from T2 is #48 in the heroes).

Character nomenclature

The end credits of all three Terminator films list Schwarzenegger's character as simply "The Terminator". Later films call the newer terminator characters by their model numbers (T-1000, T-X, etc.). The only consistent name for Schwarzenegger's Terminator character has been "The Terminator". Kyle Reese in The Terminator and Schwarzenegger's character in Terminator 2 refer to it as a "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101", and in Terminator 3, the Terminator refers to itself as a "T-101".

However, other sources contradict this designation. On the T2 Extreme Edition DVD, he is referred to as an 800 series and a T-800. The T3 extras refer to him as an "850 series Model 101", a "T-850", and a "T-101".

In the T2 commentary, Cameron states that the Model 101s all look like Schwarzenegger, with a 102 looking like someone else, leading to speculation that the 101 refers to the physical appearance while the 800 refers to the endoskeleton common to many models. A scene deleted from the theatrical cut, but restored in the Terminator 2 Special Edition, lends the most credence to this explanation. In this scene, John and Sarah shut down The Terminator for modification according to his instructions. When he reboots, the upper-left of his HUD reads "Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Model 101 Version 2.4".

Characteristics

In the fictional Terminator universe, the Terminator is a formidable robotic assassin and soldier, designed by the military supercomputer Skynet for infiltration and combat duty, towards the ultimate goal of exterminating the human resistance. It can speak naturally, copy the voices of others, read human handwriting, and even genuinely sweat, smell, and bleed. To detect the Terminators, who are otherwise indistinguishable from humans, the human resistance uses dogs to alert humans to their presence.

A trait persistent throughout the series is the faint red glow of the "eyes" when online, which dim to nothing when a Terminator shuts down. In all three movies, the lack of the glow has been used to show when one is out of action. The trait is so characteristic that light-up eyes are often found on Terminator merchandise, with some even replicating the dimming/reillumination effect that occurs during shut down or start up.

Construction

As seen in the movies, a Terminator can easily withstand standard 20th century firearms, crash through walls intact, and survive explosions to some degree. Repeated shotgun blasts have enough force to knock it down and temporarily disable it, while heavy amounts of automatic fire are able to compromise the organic disguise layer. In the second film, the Terminator says he can run for 120 years on his existing power cells. In the finale to Terminator 2, his power source is damaged, and he is able to find an alternate source, described on the DVD commentary as heat sinks, harnessing the thermal energy from the hot surroundings. In the third film, the Terminator operates on two hydrogen cells and discards one of them early due to damage. It explodes shortly thereafter with enough force to produce a small mushroom cloud.

File:Terminator 2 Endoskeleton Arm.jpg

Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson examines the Terminator's right hand.

The endoskeleton is actuated by a powerful network of hydraulic servomechanisms, making Terminators very strong. For instance, in the third movie, Schwarzenegger's character was able to handle firing a machine gun from the hip with one hand, while holding a coffin containing John Connor and a heavy cache of weapons, showing no signs of the extra weight being any real concern; in the second film, Schwarzenegger's character was able to resist the recoil of firing a minigun without any noticeable difficulty.

Late in the first film, the Terminator is stripped of its organic elements by fire. What remains is the machine itself, in James Cameron's own words "a chrome skeleton", "like Death rendered in steel." In the later Terminator films, armies of endoskeleton-only Terminators are seen. They are visually identical to the one in the first film, and feature prominently in the "future war" sequences of those films.

CPU

The Terminator CPU is an artificial neural network, constructed from room-temperature superconductor material and having the ability to learn. In Terminator 2, The Terminator states that "the more contact [he] has with humans, the more [he] learns." In the Special Edition, he says that Skynet "presets the switch to 'read-only' when [Terminators] are sent out alone", to prevent them from "thinking too much". (Realistically though, a read-only neural network would be virtually useless as it would prevent the Terminator from learning and indexing new facts about its targets and their whereabouts.) Sarah and John activate his learning ability, after which he becomes more curious and begins trying to understand and imitate human behavior. This leads to his use of the catch phrase "Hasta la vista, baby." A line spoken by the Terminator at the end of the movie indicates that Terminators may have the potential to understand emotion: "I know now why you cry, but it is something that I can never do." Sarah muses in the closing narration that the Terminator had "learn[ed] the value of human life".

Physical template

File:Terminator2004.jpg

Terminator confronting a biker in Terminator 2.

A deleted scene from T3 reveals that the Model 101's appearance was based on Chief Master Sergeant William Candy, with his Southern accent replaced by the more menacing voice of one of the developers. One part of the scene shows Candy next to a partially-complete endoskeleton, indicating that the Terminators were developed by humans before Judgment Day. This contradicts information from the first film, where Kyle Reese refers to the Model 101 as "new", replacing the older rubber-skinned 600 series. However, the fact that the scene was deleted makes its canonicity dubious.

An entirely different origin of the Model 101's physical and vocal templates was provided in the novel T2: Infiltrator (published prior to T3), in the form of former counter-terrorist Dieter Rossbach. The reason stated for copying Dieter was that Skynet was looking in the old military files for someone whose body could effectively conceal the Terminator's massive endoskeleton.

Role in the series

A Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the main antagonist in the original Terminator film. An identical Model 101, having been reprogrammed by the resistance in the future, is one of the protagonists in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. A similar Terminator is portrayed by Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. At the end of each of the above films, Schwarzenegger's Terminator character is destroyed. Each sequel subsequently features another visually identical Terminator, with each one portrayed by Schwarzenegger.

The original Terminator was sent to terminate a single target, Sarah Connor, in 1984, to prevent the birth of her son, John, the future leader of the human resistance. It was crushed in a hydraulic press by Sarah at the end of the first Terminator film after a lengthy chase. However, its damaged main CPU and one arm were recovered by Cyberdyne. These relics were used to advance dramatically the technological level and direction of the research at Cyberdyne, paradoxically leading to the creation of Skynet. At the end of the second film, both new Terminators and the surviving components from the first were destroyed in a vat of molten steel. In the third film, the Terminator is destroyed when it jams its remaining fuel cell into the T-X's mouth, resulting in a massive detonation that destroys them both.

External links

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