TERMINATOR (CHARACTER)

'"The Terminator"' is a fictional character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger -- a cyborg^[1], 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. In both sequels, Schwarzenegger's terminator is pitted against other terminators.
In the sequels, '' and '', Schwarzenegger reprises the role, but with a twist: Schwarzenegger plays 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).^[2]

Contents

Character nomenclature

Characteristics

Construction

CPU

Physical template

Role in the series

References

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". In ''Terminator 2'', Schwarzenegger refers to himself as a "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101", and in ''Terminator 3'', he refers to himself 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.^[3] 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 weight 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 "Series 800 Model 101 Version 2.4".

Characteristics

In the fictional ''Terminator'' universe, "The Terminator" is a formidable robot 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 the ability of most dogs to alert humans to their presence.

Construction

As seen in the movies, it's able to shrug off 20th century small arms fire, crash through walls intact and survive explosions to some degree, although repeated shotgun blasts actually have enough force to knock it down and temporarily disable it. In the second film, The Terminator says that he can run for 120 years on his existing power cells, making the maximum life something greater than this, depending on how long the machine ran previously. 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 on due to damage. It explodes shortly thereafter with enough force to produce a mushroom cloud.

The endoskeleton is actuated by a network of sheathed cables, hydraulic cylinders, and 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 with John Connor and a cache of weapons inside.
Late in the first film, the "Terminator" character is stripped of its organic elements by fire. What remains is the machine itself, in James Cameron's own words "a chrome skeleton". In the later ''Terminator'' films, we see armies of endoskeleton-only Terminators. They are visually identical to the one in the first film, and feature prominently in the "future war" sequences of the second and third movies.

CPU

The CPU is an artificial neural network with the ability to learn. In ''Terminator 2'', The Terminator states that 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". Sarah and John re-enable 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

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. This explicitly indicates that the Terminators were developed by human beings before Judgment Day. This contradicts information from the first film, where Kyle Reese refers to the Model 101 as "new", replacing the older 600 series. However, the fact that the scene was deleted makes it 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 would be able to 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 ''. A similar Terminator is portrayed by Schwarzenegger in ''. At the end of each of the above films, Schwarzenegger's Terminator character is destroyed. Thus, each sequel 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, one arm and its damaged main CPU were recovered by Cyberdyne. These relics were used to dramatically advance the technological level and direction of the research at Cyberdyne, ironically 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 Terminatrix, resulting in a massive detonation that eliminates them both.

References

1. In dialogue from ''Terminator 2'', Schwarzenegger's character states, ''"I'm a cybernetic organism: living tissue over a metal endoskeleton."''
2. AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
3. ''Terminator 2 Extreme Edition DVD'' 30-page booklet; DVD interactive documentary titled "Data Core", Chapter 9: "Casting"