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{{work}}
{{Multiple Works Need Separate Pages}}
[[File:the-terminator_b_53.jpg|frame|He needs your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.]]
{{quote|''That Terminator is out there. [[Implacable Man|It can't be bargained with; it can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, EVER, until you are DEAD]]''
|'''Kyle Reese'''}}
|'''T-800'''}}
▲{{quote|''That Terminator is out there. [[Implacable Man|It can't be bargained with; it can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, EVER, until you are DEAD]]''|'''Kyle Reese'''}}
▲{{quote|''[[Catch Phrase|I'll]] [[Arnold Schwarzenegger|be back]].''|'''T-800'''}}
'''''The Terminator''''' is an [[Implacable Man|implacable killer]] with a [[Science Fiction|Sci-Fi]] [[Justified Trope|justification]] and an oft-imitated part of the pop-cultural pantheon. [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] portrayed the titular cyborg for three (and [[Fake Shemp|a half]]) films, and his performance in the first film shot him into superstardom. Writer/director [[James Cameron]] was inspired to create the film after a dream he had when sick with a fever which involved a mechanical skeleton [[Out of the Inferno|emerging from a wall of fire]] and chasing after him. Cameron, recalling how terrified he was, ended up crafting the story of ''The Terminator'' based around that one moment. Along the way, Cameron unintentionally (or so he says) plagiarized [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' story "Soldier" (but not, as commonly believed, "Demon with a Glass Hand" -- [[wikipedia:Demon with a glass hand|source]]) for the plot; Ellison later found out and managed to get a cash settlement and an official acknowledgment in the credits. Ellison later said the trouble could have been avoided if Cameron had come to him first and offered a screen credit in the movie (which he would have offered for free).
In the first film (''The Terminator''), Sarah Connor hears grave news during another average workday: a killer is hunting down everyone in town who shares her name. After two people in her home are murdered in an effort to find her, Sarah hides in a nightclub -- and when the killer catches up with her there, she's rescued by a mysterious stranger. The stranger, Kyle Reese, explains the [[Backstory]]: [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|in the near future]], man will create SkyNet, an artificial intelligence [[
In the second film (''Terminator 2: Judgment Day''), SkyNet sends a more advanced Terminator -- the [[Nigh Invulnerability|nigh-invulnerable]], [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] T-1000 Model -- to the past. (The T-1000 was far beyond almost any other future technology depicted in any of the films, but at the time, the CGI was [[Rule of Cool|so mind-blowing, nobody really took the time to care]].) In response, Connor sends back a T-800 Model Terminator which is reprogrammed to protect his past self. Both Terminators arrive when John is ten years old and living with foster parents (Sarah was tossed into an asylum for trying to blow up a computer factory and talking about killer robots from the future). The T-1000 kills anyone it chooses to replicate, and when John figures out the T-1000 will attempt to replicate Sarah, he forces the T-800 to rescue his mother before the T-1000 can reach her. After being freed, Sarah -- now an [[Action Girl]] after [[Took a Level
From here, the series splits off into
* The original -- but deleted -- ending of ''Terminator 2'' sees a still-living Sarah Connor watching John (now a United States Senator) and her granddaughter play on a playground similar to the one she saw in her dreams. The ending takes place in 2029, when the war they successfully averted would have been won; an intact, futuristic Washington D.C. can be seen in the background. [[James Cameron]] felt this was too much of a definite, deterministic wrap-up for a film centered around the idea of "there is no fate but what we make for ourselves".
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** ''Terminator Salvation'': This film takes place during the war with the machines and shares no ties to ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]''; its references to both ''Terminator 2'' and ''3'' are rather vague, with the first ''Terminator'' being more important to the movie's themes than the other two. Instead of repeating the story of someone going back in time, ''Salvation'' is primarily a [[Genre Shift|sci-fi war movie]]. John Connor is a respected officer within the human resistance, but he is not the leader, as several high-ranking officers question his claims of being [[The Chosen One]] by [[Time Travel]]. Connor sets out to end the war as quickly as possible (and locate a young Kyle Reese), but his quest reveals an awful truth: the [[Stable Time Loop]] is beginning to break apart. SkyNet's forces are showing sophistication and progress far ahead of schedule, and there are numerous other changes Connor never accounted for, all of which throw humanity's inevitable victory into question. One major anomaly is the appearance of Marcus Wright, a criminal who reportedly died before the war began, but turned up on his own in the present; Wright's role in the movie is practically an ''inverse'' of the series' central time-travel mechanic: instead of someone being sent from the future to the past, Wright comes from the past directly into the future.
* ''Terminator: [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'': This television series' story follows the first two films, but [[Alternate Universe|overrides the canon third]] by having John and Sarah time-skip seven years. It follows the adventures of Sarah Connor, John Connor, a re-programmed Terminator named Cameron, John's uncle Derek, and various other continuing characters.
* ''Terminator Genisys'': A 2015 movie where Kyle Reese being sent back to defend a "lost and scared" Sarah Connor... only for Kyle to discover he's been sent back into one of the many timelines that has already been thoroughly screwed-with by time travel shenanigans, and that Sarah is already a hardened [[Action Girl]] who's been mentored and protected by a reprogrammed T-800 series since she was a child.
* ''[[Terminator: Dark Fate]]'':Continuing off from Terminator two, and consigning the previous three films to an alternate timeline, Terminator: Dark Fate revolves around a much older Sarah and her search for a young woman named Dani Ramos to help the fight against the machines. The major plot change is that John Connor was killed by another Terminator, and as a result he and Skynet were erased from existence, but they are not safe, as the military A.I Legion emerges with the same goal as Skynet.
''The Terminator'' (the original movie) was added to the [[National Film Registry]] in 2008. ''Terminator 2'' was added in 2023.
----
{{franchisetropes}}
== ''The Terminator'' ==
* [[Action Survivor]]: Sarah.
* [[Agent Scully]]: Dr. Silberman. Even more so in ''T2'', till he sees the T-1000 walk through the barred door.
* [[Ammunition Backpack]]
* [[Badass Biker]]: The T-800 can't be any more [[Badass]] when wearing sunglasses, a black leather jacket, and riding a Harley Davidson all at the same time.
* [[Ballistic Discount]]: The T-800 considers this the best way to complete a transaction.
* [[Ballroom Blitz]]: Tech Noir [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4kfqmv2PoQ&feature=related gets blitzed], everyone stops their eighties style dancing and runs for the exits. Luckily, Kyle was able to "Zero" the T-800 as a result, so it was worth the few dead dancers.
* [[Big Badass Rig]]: The T-800 chases down the protagonists in a cab-over 18-wheeler fuel truck.
* [[Bodyguard Crush]]: Kyle's attraction to Sarah is what conceives John Connor in the first place.
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Noticeably averted with reloading scenes or magazines running empty. An exception is the parking garage chase where sloppy editing caused Arnold to fire numerous times from a pump-action shotgun without racking the slide or inserting more shells.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Arnold's famous "I'll Be Back."
* [[Coconut Superpowers]]: ''T1'' was originally conceived as a [[Robot War]] film set in [[The Future]]. Cameron was a nobody at that time, so he got a measly budget for the production. In order to save the little money he had, James clad the robot in human skin (so he could use a live actor) and moved the action into the present. Awesomeness ensued.
* [[Concealment Equals Cover]]: [[Averted Trope|Averted]], as during the Terminator's rampage through the police precinct, he can be seen killing officers by shooting through walls and desks with high-powered, automatic assault rifles and shotguns. Exactly as it would happen in real-life.
* [[Darkened Building Shootout]]: The [[No OSHA Compliance|Smoke and Fire Factory]].
* [[
▲** Also {{spoiler|Reese. His fate is sealed the minute he and Sarah make love.}}
* [[Determinator]]: Both Kyle Reese and, of course, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|De Terminator]].
* [[Dialogue Tree]]: Seen from the T-800's POV in one scene, when it considers its response options to someone inquiring about the smell in the apartment it's hiding out in. It eventually decides on a [[Precision F-Strike]].
* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Kyle Reese, justified in that he
** He also instinctively drives cars at night ''without'' the headlights on, as doing so in the future would draw Aerial Hunter-Killers.
* [[Enemy Rising Behind]]: This is how we get the first look at the Terminator's real body.
* [[Eye Scream]]: The T-800's "[[Self-Stitching|self-repair]]" scene, where he fixes one of his eyes by mucking around in it with a pen knife. That whole scene was pretty gross.
* [[Fan Service]]: [[Averted Trope]]; Sarah and Kyle have probably the most plot-critical sex scene of all time.
** Also played straight, though, in the form of male [[Fan Service]]. Watch the opening scenes of that movie (both Kyle and the T-800 are naked, courtesy of their time transport. They are both very, very well-built, and Kyle particularly stays at the least shirtless for a good long while) and tell me that wasn't intended as fanservice, on some level.
* [[Film Noir]]{{context}}
* [[Final Girl]]: Sarah Connor, clearly.
* [[Finger-Twitching Revival]]: Reese shoots the Terminator several times with a sawed-off shotgun when it tries to move in on Sarah in Tech Noir. Shortly after it hits the floor, its fingers twitch, offering the audience their first clue that the big scary guy isn't human.
* [[Foot Focus]]
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Unavoidable. It's a time-travel movie.
* [[Gaia's Lament]]: A deleted scene would have had Kyle [[Manly Tears|sobbing]] when he saw how beautiful the world used to be.
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* [[Headphones Equal Isolation]]: Sarah's roommate Ginger is so busy rocking out on her headphones that she doesn't hear her lover being beaten to death by the Terminator in the next room.
** [[Fridge Brilliance|What does that tell you about the quality of their sex]]?
* [[Hope Spot]]: When the gas tanker explodes, supposedly taking the T-800 with it, Kyle and Sarah embrace and triumphant music swells all around them... until the Terminator [[Out of the Inferno|rises from the flames]] and [[Oh Crap|they realize]] that the killing machine is ''still coming''.
** Happens again after
* [[Implacable Man]]: The T-800.
* [[The Kindnapper]]: Kyle Reese kidnaps Sarah Conner to save her from the titular character.
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* [[Rescue Introduction]]: Kyle introduce himself to Sarah by extricating her from Tech Noir just as the T-800 closes in for the kill.
* [[Ripped From the Phone Book]]: The Terminator doesn't just rip out the page, he begins to kill everybody on it.
* [[Rule of Three]]:
* [[Run or Die]]: Definitely how the T-800 is treated -- attempting to take it in a straight-up fight is suicide.
* [[Sacrificial Lion]]: {{spoiler| Kyle Reese}} and Matt both went out fighting the terminator.
* [[Sawed-Off Shotgun]]: Reese makes one from a pump-action shotgun he steals out of a police car.
* [[Scannable Man]]: Reese and his concentration-camp tattoo.
* [[Sequel Hook]]: Reese explains the history of SkyNet and Cyberdyne. The [[No OSHA Compliance|Smoke and Fire Factory]] at the end of the climax is revealed as a Cyberdyne building in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuyZ6sQ4AoY a deleted scene.]
* [[Shown Their Work]]: [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] underwent weeks of weapons training before starting the film and wound up garnering a compliment from ''Soldier of Fortune'' magazine for his realistic handling of the weapons on camera (also something of a minor [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]], because ''Soldier of Fortune'' usually ''ridicules'' movies for their unrealistic weapon handling).▼
** Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army (he actually went AWOL at one point to win his first bodybuilding competition), so he already had knowledge of firearms.▼
** Also seen when cars are hot-wired.▼
* [[Serial Killer]]: The film starts as a variation of this genre of film.
* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]: Sarah Connor, again. Though John has some of this in his character as well, due to being raised the way he has.
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*** ''[[Crapsack World|Everyone]]'' in Kyle's flashback has varying degrees of Shell-Shockedness.
* [[Shoot the Dog]]: What the Terminator invading Reese's base does in the future. Some televised versions edit that scene out.
▲* [[Shown Their Work]]: [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] underwent weeks of weapons training before starting the film and wound up garnering a compliment from ''Soldier of Fortune'' magazine for his realistic handling of the weapons on camera (also something of a minor [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]]
* [[Slasher Movies]]: A textbook example of this genre. It is fundamentally the story of a (literally) [[Made of Iron]] [[Serial Killer]] who stalks his young female victims by picking their addresses out of a phone book.▼
▲** Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army (he actually went AWOL at one point to win his first bodybuilding competition), so he already had knowledge of firearms.
* [[Stable Time Loop]]: The events of the first movie set up a simple, self-contained time loop with Sarah and Kyle. Compared to [[Kudzu Plot|the rest of the series as a whole,]] it's very straightforward, as evidenced by {{spoiler|the photograph of Sarah Connor which Sarah gives to John to give to Kyle to describe to Sarah.}}▼
▲** Also seen when cars are hot-wired.
* [[A Storm Is Coming]]: In the final moments of the film, while Sarah is waiting at a gas station, a Mexican child takes her photo (the same one that Kyle later sees {{spoiler|and falls in love with her from}}). Right after, the child mentions the incoming storm [[Bilingual Bonus|in Spanish]], which the gas station attendant translates to Sarah as a storm is coming; the pregnant Sarah replies "I know."▼
▲* [[Slasher
* [[Sunglasses At Night]]: [[Justified Trope]], because the Terminator uses them to hide his robot eye.▼
▲* [[Stable Time Loop]]: The events of the first movie set up a simple, self-contained time loop with Sarah and Kyle. Compared to [[Kudzu Plot|the rest of the series as a whole
▲* [[A Storm Is Coming]]: In the final moments of the film, while Sarah is waiting at a gas station, a Mexican child takes her photo (the same one that Kyle later sees
▲* [[Sunglasses
* [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch]]: "You're terminated, fucker!"
* [[Time Travel Romance]]: One where the romance has a good deal of plot significance.
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** Well, its common to leave ammo on sale on the counter so the customer can see them, but he is [[Too Dumb to Live]] due to the fact that he runs a gun store (where guns have no trigger locks) without carrying a firearm himself.
** Though, a firearm would be of no use [[Immune to Bullets|given the situation]].
* [[Uncanny Valley]]: [[Invoked Trope|Deliberately invoked]] by Arnold's make-up artists. Not only is his face given a thin coating of some kind of shiny goop to give his skin a faux-
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: It's strongly implied that
▲* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: It's strongly implied that {{spoiler|John Connor deliberately manipulated Reese into falling in love with his mother by giving him her picture. And then he had to send his own father back in time to certain doom, just to make shure he would exist to save the world. Reese never knew his true role in the bigger picture, never realizing he was fighting for his own son. Must have been heart breaking for John.}} [[Shoot the Dog|Pretty heavy...]]
* [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?]]: "There's over 30 cops in this building. You're perfectly safe here."
* [[Zipping Up the Bodybag]]: {{spoiler|Kyle Reese
== ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' ==
* [[A-Team Firing]]: "Human casualties: 0.0". Despite aiming a minigun and several grenades at their feet. And blowing up several vehicles. Either the Terminator is really that good or the cops are [[Made of Iron|made of stronger metal]] than he is.▼
* [[A Boy and His X]]: A boy and his cybernetic killing machine.▼
** He visibly pauses to let the police officers flee when using the grenade launcher. The minigun does not cause a SINGLE POLICE CAR to actually explode; that's right, he NEVER HIT THE FUEL TANK with a damn MINIGUN. He even chases some police officers off by firing near their feet. But then, being a highly advanced robot, this might be the one time that it's justified. He was deliberately crippling their vehicles to prevent them from giving chase.▼
* [[Action Girl]] / [[Action Mom]]: Sarah Connor [[Took a Level In Badass|learned a lot between films.]]▼
*** Actually, in real life, fuel tanks WON'T explode when you shoot them. Not even with a tracer round. So this is an example of a movie refreshingly choosing reality over explosions.▼
** Remember that the Terminator is still under John Connor's order not to kill anyone.▼
▲* [[Action Girl]] / [[Action Mom]]: Sarah Connor [[Took a Level
** Sarah is arguably a [[Deconstruction]] of the [[Action Girl]] tropes, since she is both indisputably [[Badass]] and ''fundamentally'' screwed-up.
** Given that she's been forced to take antipsychotics (Thorazine is specifically mentioned) for at least two or three years for psychoses that she ''doesn't actually have'', or didn't when she was admitted to the mental hospital, the "screwed-up" part of that may be justified.
*** Or more accurately, Sarah was treated (badly) for the wrong issues. She's not schizophrenic but she's certainly not well either. At the very least she's suffering from the ongoing stress and doesn't have any healthy relationships with others. In T2 she's definitely an Action Mom and that's then played with brutal realism.
* [[All of Them]]: How many police?
* [[Apocalypse Wow]]: Sarah's dream of Judgment Day, first described to the psychiatrist then shown. Involves her silently and helplessly screaming at a playground full of children to run for their lives (and getting an odd look from the parents...notably, one that is "Sarah Connor if she had kept being the suburban housewife she used to be")), until the first nuke hits over the city. "...then the shockwave hits...and...and they fly apart like leaves!" Also flying apart like leaves: Sarah's incinerated skeleton, still clinging to the playground fence.
** [[James Cameron]] has mentioned getting mail after the film's release from nuclear physicists who commended him on [[Shown Their Work|the most realistic depiction]] of a close-up nuclear detonation put on film thus far.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: The asylum attendant who licks Sarah's face while she's helpless and John's foster parents, Todd and Janelle.
* [[Badass and Child Duo]]: Terminator and John.▼
▲* [[A-Team Firing]]: "Human casualties: 0.0". Despite aiming a minigun and several grenades at their feet. And blowing up several vehicles. Either the Terminator is really that good or the cops are [[Made of Iron|made of stronger metal]] than he is.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Silberman presses it hard when he refuses to transfer her to the minimum security wing so that John could visit her. She made a point that he promised her, if she shown improvement within 6 months she would get the transfer. Even going as far as denouncing her previously passionate view on the future and the Terminators as insane psychobabble. Silberman however is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know that Sarah may be lying to gain trust and says flat out to her face that she's gonna stay in maximum for another 6 months. She even begs to at least make a phone call to him, which he denies her. She then proceeds to try to strangle him with his own tie, prompting the guards to restrain and Thorazine her. Since the camera kept rolling during their sezsion, it was implied that [[Jerkass|Silberman]] [[Manipulative Bastard|deliberately made her snap]].
▲** He visibly pauses to let the police officers flee when using the grenade launcher. The minigun does not cause a SINGLE POLICE CAR to actually explode; that's right, he NEVER HIT THE FUEL TANK with a damn MINIGUN. He even chases some police officers off by firing near their feet. But then, being a highly advanced robot, this might be the one time that it's justified. He was deliberately crippling their vehicles to prevent them from giving chase.
▲*** Actually, in real life, fuel tanks WON'T explode when you shoot them. Not even with a tracer round. So this is an example of a movie refreshingly choosing reality over explosions.
▲** Remember that the Terminator is still under John Connor's order not to kill anyone.
▲* [[Badass and Child Duo]]: Terminator and John
* [[Bad to the Bone]]: The [[Trope Namer]] song plays as the T-800 is first shown in leather clothes. And [[Guns N' Roses]]'s "You Could be Mine" playing in the boombox John Connor is carrying in his bike might also fit.▼
* [[Big No]]: Sarah almost makes it out of the asylum, but she sees the T-800 walking out of an elevator. After saying "no" in a low tone of disbelief, it turns into this out of sheer terror.
* [[Bishonen]]: John Connor as portrayed by [[Edward Furlong]] is a younger example of the trope.
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* [[Bluff the Impostor]]
* [[Boom! Headshot!]]: Overdone. Utterly. The T-800 unloads an entire fully automatic assault rifle straight into the T-1000's face.
▲* [[A Boy and His X]]: A boy and his cybernetic killing machine.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Reportedly, Sarah Connor using a shotgun one-handed was inserted because Linda Hamilton's pre-film training regimen had made her strong enough to work a pump-action with one hand.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: [[Gratuitous Spanish|"¡Hasta la vista, baby!"]]
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* [[The Comically Serious]]: The Terminator. "He's my Uncle Bob..."
* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Averted during the foundry scene while the protagonists are trying to escape the T-1000. When they approach a vat of molten steel, Sarah says "Wait. No No. It's too hot. Go back."
* [[Conversation Casualty]]: The T-1000, disguised as John's foster mother, is talking to him on the phone, when the foster father interrupts her about their madly barking dog in the backyard. It promptly skewers him through the mouth with its morphing
* [[Curb Stomp Cushion]]: The intro to ''Terminator 2'' shows an army of SkyNet's robots slowly working their way across the battlefield, seemingly rolling over everything in their paths. Then we see a [[La Résistance|human soldier]] standing over a crippled Terminator before finishing it off, followed by a flying Hunter Killer being blasted out of the air by another trooper.
* [[Dead Ex Machina]]: The T-800.
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* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: A computer in Cyberdyne asks John for a PIN Identification Number (Personal Identification Number Identification Number).
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: John teaches the T-800 to say "no problemo" rather than the correct "no hay problema" or "ningún problema." This is especially notable since he also teaches him to say "Hasta la vista," which is proper Spanish. Also, Sarah Connor at one point mentions the human body having 215 bones, but the correct number is 206.
* [[Disturbing Statistic]]: "Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997."
* [[Dungeon Bypass]]: "She's in the cleanroom! There's no way out!" Oh yes, there is.
* [[Elevator Action Sequence]]
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* [[Final First Hug]]: John Connor and the T-800's heartbreaking farewell.
* [[Finger Wag]]: The T-1000 issues one to Sarah at the climax.
* [[Foe-Tossing Charge]]: Some poor passerby gets riddled with bullets for standing between the T-1000 and the T-800 when they open fire.
* [[Foot Focus]] / [[Feet First Introduction]]
* [[Free Wheel]]: After the truck gets shot.
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* [[Genre Savvy]]: When the workers in the plant see a semi chase a pickup into their plant at the climax they run like hell; no questions asked.
* [[Genre Shift]]: From the second movie onward, the Terminator movies became an action/sci-fi series while the first film was more of a standard horror movie with a sci-fi backdrop.
* [[Gentle Giant]]: The T-800, especially towards John.
* [[Go Out with a Smile]]: The T-800's encouraging final "thumbs up."▼
* [[Gratuitous Spanish]]: "¡Hasta la vista, baby!"▼
* [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]: [[Discussed Trope]] -- John is surprised that Russia will fire its nuclear missiles at the U.S., given that "Russians are our friends now;" the latter line was actually added late to the script following this happening in [[Real Life]]. Also, in the first Cyberdyne scene, a lollipop-licking employee is shown wearing a black souvenir T-shirt with the Russian coat-of-arms, implying that he went on a trip to Moscow, which was next to impossible before ''perestroika''.
** Those who saw ''T2'' in a movie theater in August of 1991, when the attempted Soviet coup d'état attempt was going on or had just been put down, laughed [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|a bit nervously]] when John says how Russia and America are now "friends."
▲* [[Go Out with a Smile]]: The T-800's encouraging final "thumbs up."
▲* [[Gratuitous Spanish]]: "¡Hasta la vista, baby!"
* [[Gun Porn]]: ''T2'' is one big showcase of just about all [[Cool Guns]] ever made and then some.
* [[Hairpin Lockpick]]: Sarah Conner uses unfolded paper clips to pick the locks on the straps holding her and the lock on the door of her room.
* [[Hand Signals]]: SWAT team leaders use them twice: to direct team movement during the infiltration of Cyberdyne, and to order that tear gas be fired at the T-800.
* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Sarah stops attacking Miles Dyson when she realizes, from the horrified reactions of his wife and son, that she's acting like the merciless Terminators she hates so much.▼
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Sarah loses it when she sees the T-800, which looks ''exactly'' like the machine that chased her for days and killed her lover in the first film, and has probably haunted her nightmares ever since. Until this point, she believes she's in a [[Stable Time Loop]] in which no new players would arrive from the future, since that's what Reese told her. After this point, she knows things have been changed and she can keep changing them.
** Also, when she gets a "[[My God, What Have I Done?]]" moment in Dyson's house.
* [[Heroic RROD]]: The T-800 gets skewered through his main power supply by the T-1000 in the climactic fight. He has a backup battery though.
* [[Heroic Suicide]]: T-800.
▲* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Sarah stops attacking Miles Dyson when she realizes, from the horrified reactions of his wife and son, that she's acting like the merciless Terminators she hates so much.
* [[Hollywood Silencer]]: When Sarah Conner tries to assassinate Miles Dyson, she uses a Colt Commando CAR-15 assault rifle with a
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: John Connor is an admirable example this trope -- he stops his mother from killing Dyson even believing it would prevent Judgment Day, and his idealism allowed a war for humanity's future to be waged and won without murdering a single innocent human being.
▲* [[Hollywood Silencer]]: When Sarah Conner tries to assassinate Miles Dyson, she uses a Colt Commando CAR-15 assault rifle with a supressor. Not quite as silent as some examples, but still quieter than it would be in real life.
* [[Hot Amazon]]: Sarah is ''ripped'' when she's rescued from the hospital. Especially notable because Linda Hamilton isn't just fit and trim: she is battle ready and extremely well trained, which is most visible in her movements and posture (one of the obvious moments is when she runs inside hospital corridors).
* [[Idiot Ball]]: The mental hospital personnel carries a few of these. When they try to stop Sarah from escaping, they couldn't care less about the shotgun-wielding bodybuilder who's coming towards them.
** To be fair, he was down the hall and they probably didn't even notice him, given that they were focused on capturing an escaped patient who has proven to be wily and dangerous on several occasions.
* [[Impersonating an Officer]]: T-1000.
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* [[The Kindnapper]]: The T-800 kidnaps John Connor in order to save him from the T-1000.
* [[Kneecapping]]: After being explicitly ordered not to kill, the T-800 proceeds to neutralize a security guard this way, to John's dismay.
{{quote|
** Later, while attempting to flee the Cyberdyne building, the T-800 walks through a hail of SWAT gunfire and methodically kneecaps the lot of 'em.
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: A guard at the mental hospital commits a [[Squick|sexual assault]] on Sarah and harasses the other patients by tapping their door jambs with his nightstick. Guess who's the second casualty in that scene?<ref> Not from the Terminator!</ref>
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* [[Literally Shattered Lives]]: The T-1000 after being frozen and shot.
* [[Ludicrous Precision]]: The somewhat infamous "Human Casualties: 0.0." What the decimal is for or how tenths of being dead would be calculated is not all that clear; the implication that the Terminator could half-kill someone twice and end up counting a whole kill without actually killing anyone leads to [[Fridge Logic|a bad place where your brain turns to cottage cheese]].
** In the commentary, James Cameron acknowledges that the concept of 0.1 casualties is slightly nuts, but says that they tried it with just 0 and it looked dumb. 0.0 gives an "air of precision."
*** Also, 'Casualties' doesn't mean dead, it can mean injured or wounded. So [[Wild Mass Guessing|potentially]] 0.0 means 0 dead, 0 injured, and would always be the method of representing post fight kills no matter the weapon.
* [[Made of Iron]]: ''Liquid'' Iron. T-1000 is even harder to stop than the T-800 from the first film. All they manage to do for most of the film is just ''slow it down''.
* [[Mama Bear]]: Sarah Connor is the patron saint of the trope.
* [[Manly Tears]]: "I know now why you cry, but it's something I could never do."
* [[Master of Unlocking]]: John has a laptop with a code-cracking program he apparently uses to brute-force PIN numbers on stolen credit cards. {{spoiler|1=Later, he uses the same program to crack door codes at Cyberdyne; in one of the comics, he was shown using the same program again to ''destroy SkyNet'', with the final prompt being "Easy money."}}
** Also it is said that Linda Hamilton, who took role preparation VERY seriously (just look at her), in fact picked both the harness lock and the door lock with pieces of a paper clip on-camera. She explicitly refused to imitate it, because she was given
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The T-800 cracking a joke on how it "needs a vacation" after destroying the T-1000 is pretty much immediately followed by its [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]] scene.
* [[Muggle Foster Parents]]: John's foster parents in the second movie fall under this. Their relationship with John is strained but they seem to avert the [[Abusive Parents]] trope. They're just frustrated by John's lack of respect for them more than anything else.
* [[Murder by Cremation]]: More of an "assisted suicide" than murder, but still...
* [[Next Sunday
* [[Not So Different]]: Sarah Connor has effectively ''become'' a Terminator by this point.
* [[Ominous Walk]]: The T-1000 does this multiple times, which ended up screwing him over in the end.
* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: Sarah Conner is shot in the leg and impaled in the shoulder and keeps on going. The T-800 shoots a large number of people in the knee and they're not seriously hurt.
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* [[Prisons Are Gymnasiums]]: Sarah.
* [[Railing Kill]]: T-1000.
* [[Resurrection Sickness]]: A very subtle example. Edited out of the theatrical release but included in the [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]], after being frozen, shattered, melted and re-formed at the steel mill, the T-1000 is shown struggling to keep its form. Its feet and hands keep "merging" into the floor and handrails, and its entire body refreshes itself from head to toe repeatedly.
* [[Rewind, Replay, Repeat]]: The recording from 1984 of the original T-800 is replayed a couple times by the astonished police as the 1994 Terminator stalks through a mall.
* [[Rousseau Was Right]]: The movie, surprisingly enough, is an action movie in which the entire goal of the protagonist was to save the world without killing a soul. The [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of SkyNet's creator really hit the point home.
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** "Get down." With those two words, John (and the audience if [[The Reveal]] wasn't spoiled for them ahead of time) know who the good guy is.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: While searching for John, the T-800 is carrying a box of roses, which we find out when he confronts the T-1000 is where he hid his shotgun. [[Guns N' Roses]] did one of the music tracks for the movie.
* [[Stop or I Will Shoot]]: Averted hard in the [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of {{spoiler|Miles Dyson}}. The SWAT unit simply spots him walking in the central area -- ''without'' any weapon or the explosives detonator, mind you -- and immediately opens fire when he turns around.
* [[Super Toughness]]: The original Terminator.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: When the police have Sarah pinned down in the lab at Cyberdyne, John remarks that there's no way out. Cue T800 smashing through the wall.
* [[Take the Wheel]]: The T-800 does this to Sarah and John.
* [[Technical Pacifist]]: The T-800, after John tells him he can't kill anyone.
{{quote|
'''T-800:''' (examines the guard, who is still yelling in agony) He'll live.
* [[Technicolor Death]]: The T-1000's death is a notable example of a [[Shapeshifter Swan Song]], but it becomes even more spectacular when the T-1000 starts to do things like split into two heads, form into a mouth, and ''turn inside out'' as it tries to save itself.
* [[Technology Porn]]: All over the place. The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbcmLPXuQzo teaser trailer] qualifies for this trope alone.
* [[Terrifying Rescuer]]: The T-800 showing up at the psyche ward to rescue Sarah is one of the more famous examples in film.
* [[That's What I Would Do]]: How the T-800 knows that the T-1000 is staking out John's house.
* [[Took a Level
* [[Totally Radical]]: John teaching the T-800 how to talk like a human. The film actually made "Hasta la vista, baby" into a genuinely cool phrase, but "No problem-o" is still cringe-worthy.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The pre-release publicity campaign involved releasing three trailers. The first, a teaser, showed a factory assembling a Terminator, step-by-step, then a close-up on an Arnie's face with the words "I'll be back" heard. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KfJ9kqRec4 The second trailer] revealed there were two terminators, but deliberately avoided spoiling the twist that the T-800 was the {{spoiler|good}} guy. The final trailer, which did spoil it, was released shortly before the film's premiere and is now one of the most famous example of this trope.
* [[Two
* [[Unorthodox Reload]]: The T-800 cocks a lever-action shotgun by flipping it over his fingers while using the other hand to handle a motorcycle (only possible because his fingers aren't human). Also, Sarah using her SWAT-issue shotgun on the T-1000.
** Schwarzenegger commented during an interview that doing this nearly broke his hand when he accidentally flip-cocked the ''real'' gun instead of the prop gun specially modified to be flip-cocked in that shot.
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** Where exactly would you EXPECT him to reappear in the film? Do you think John would take some time off from being chased by a murderous shape shifting Terminator to give his friend a call? It isn't like he ever went back to his house. I think he had a little more important things to do.
** Deleted scenes show Miles Dyson had a daughter. Which makes her absence in the scene where Sarah tries to kill Miles a bit odd, since all the shooting would have certainly awakened her.
* [[Workout Fanservice]]: When we first see Sarah Connor, she's doing some chin-ups off an overturned bed.
* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: Averted mostly. T-800 ''does'' attack the female guard, but she simply gets pushed down, as opposed to the male orderlies, who get tossed into/through windows and concrete walls.
** She's also wearing one arm in a sling, so he may not have been reacting so much to her
* [[You Shall Not Pass/Film|You Shall Not Pass]]: Sarah Conner tricks John into escaping without her, then stays behind to prevent the T-1000 from following and killing him.
* [[You Taste Delicious]]: While Sarah is being held in the mental hospital an attendant licks her face while she's tied to a bed.
== ''T2 3-D: Battle Across Time'' ==
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* [[The Nudifier]]: The fact that [[Time Travel]] does this is extremely averted, as the Terminator keeps not only his clothes, but his bike, his [[Cool Shades]], and his shotgun. Probably [[Enforced Trope]], since this ''is'' a theme park attraction.
* [[Stop Helping Me!]]: When John and the Terminator are trying to outrun a Hunter-Killer's laserfire.
{{quote|
'''Terminator:''' John, please stop helping. }}
* [[You Do NOT Want to Know]]: The Terminator when John asks why they're headed ''towards'' Skynet headquarters.
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** SkyNet is online and infecting the entire internets. We must stop SkyNet getting online, or it will infect the...huh?
*** Though it is possible that SkyNet could not effectively invade the military systems until they put it online. Sure, it might have gotten a few via satelites, but it likely would not have been able to hack into the hardened systems that were not connected to networks until it was directly plugged in.
** The movie contradicts the first two's idea that the future is not set by saying that Judgment Day is inevitable, that all outcomes foretold by Kyle Reese are inevitable. If so, the T-X or Skynet should be unable to kill John Connor or Kate or any of Connor's important Lieutenants until their time is actually up, as a result sending a Terminator back in time to kill all of these people is an exercise in futility. This massive plot hole carries over to the fourth film.
** How exactly did the military rebuild Skynet, and it's stated to be the exact same system, if all of the information on the system and the technology used to create it was destroyed in the second film? In essence, how did the military rebuild something out of nothing?
*** IIRC, there was a passing line in the movie that explains this one. Basically, the military found out what [[Cyber Dyne]] was working on, and made copies of all their notes so they could keep tabs on the project. When the lab blew up, the military started making their own
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: The T-1 robots activated by the T-X at the CRS complex, and the T-850 after being corrupted by the T-X, though he got better. Also the exoskeletal T-850's in the future war sequence.
* [[Retcon]]: Nice job of accounting for the development of the internet and distributed computing, which arose between the second and third films.
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* [[Temporal Paradox]]: It's just about possible to buy that SkyNet had time to send back two Terminators before it was destroyed, but the narrative makes it clear that it was aware they'd failed when it sent back the third. Never mind that it's now a ''totally different SkyNet'' doing all this since the first was never built.
* [[The Worf Effect]]: The badassery of the T-X is largely established by scenes where she wails on the T-850 and scenes where the T-850 complains she's better than him.
* [[You Can See the Explosion from Orbit]]: At the end of the movie.
== ''Terminator Salvation'' ==
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* [[Ironic Echo]]: Kyle Reese tries this with Marcus' line about shooting people ("You point that gun at someone, you better be ready to pull the trigger"). Subverted in that he says this to people holding him at gunpoint and who really would be willing. Marcus naturally gives him a "[[What an Idiot!]]" stare.
* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: All the talk about salvation and second chances in ''Salvation'' after some very famous [[Fanon Discontinuity]] in ''Terminator 3''? Totally about the series itself.
* [[Literal Change of Heart]]: A heroic version. {{spoiler|John Conner gets mortally wounded and Marcus makes a Heroic Sacrifice giving him his own heart}}.
* [[Mythology Gag]]: ''T4'' has this in ''spades''.
** When Marcus first meets Reese, Reese tells him "Come with me if you want to live."
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* [[Open-Heart Dentistry]]: Kate Brewster was formally trained as a veternarian. She was promoted to doctor after Judgment Day and it couldn't have been by attending medical school. Bonus points for actually performing heart surgery.
* [[Parachute in a Tree]]: Marcus first meets Blair Williams dangling by her parachute from a derelict pylon and catches her when she cuts herself free of the parachute.
* [[Plot Hole]]: As carried over from the third film. If Judgment Day and the war on Skynet were inevitable, then by the same token Skynet should be unable to kill John Connor or Kyle Reese until the exact point that they're destined to die, making their attempts to kill either beforehand an exercise in futility.
* [[Purposefully Overpowered]]: The T-800 in ''Salvation'', being able to survive attacks that have defeated earlier movies' T-800s. It is implied by John Connor that the T-800 should NOT exist until at least 2024 or so when he discovers them. It seems that SkyNet not only knows about the other timeline and as such advanced faster, but it also knew the flaws of the original timeline's models and rooted them out.
** One of the popular fan theories is that Skynet reverse-engineered its technology from another source. Namely, the T-850 with a perfectly intact skull (and therefore perfectly intact hard drive and CPU). Not enough to make a cookie-cutter version of Skynet, but it would certainly explain how they knew about previous time travel attempts and Kyle Reese.
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* [[Viral Marketing]]
** ''Welcome to [http://www.skynetresearch.com/ SkyNet Research]...''
** "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110202230258/http://resistorbeterminated.com/ Resist or be terminated.]"
* [[The Worf Effect]]: It seems like the Terminators (T-600 models) themselves seen in this film are subject to this: while they are certainly extremely deadly, they seem to tale far less punishment then the original film version did, which was stabbed, shot by heavy gunfire and blown up without any real damage except to it's cover, at least until they put a bomb literally in between it's joints to blow it in half. {{spoiler|Then the ORIGINAL T-800 model shows up, and it takes a tremendous amount of damage before dying, shrugging multiple grenade launcher blasts to the body without even slowing down, tossing around Marcus with very little effort, getting molten lead dumped on him (which KILLED the T-1000) and then getting frozen in it, and it STILL doesn't die before seriously wounding John Connor.}}
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|1=SkyNet's plan in ''T4'' to destroy the Resistance by giving it a false shutdown signal for its machines.}} The preferable goal is for the group to use the information but if they don't their situation will get worse.
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** "I'll be back." (And he usually returns driving a vehicle into a building.)
** "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."
* [[Sean Connery Is
* [[Backstory]]
* [[Badass]]: Any of the terminators, but particularly the T-101. Reese was the first human badass and Sarah Connor [[Took a Level
** And John Connor. In fact, very little of the ''Terminator'' movies [[World of Badass|is not badassery.]]
* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Kyle Reese and Marcus Wright.
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* [[Determinator]]: Not only the [[You Keep Using That Word|titular]] terminators but also many human characters including Reese, Sarah Connor, and John Connor. Kate Connor also counts in terms of emotional trauma.
* [[Do Androids Dream?]]: It's implied that when freed from [[Robots Enslaving Robots|Skynet's control]], even Terminators are capable of learning to understand humanity.
{{quote|
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: ''T4'' makes SkyNet's death camps for humans very eerily reminiscent of the Holocaust, with one prisoner even referring to the HK Transports that take them to the facility as "cattle cars."
** Oddly enough, the art book indicates that the inspiration were literal cattle cars. The quote from production designer Martin Laing in the book: "There's nothing sadder than seeing a cattle car go by with all these sad eyes of the cattle staring back at you. So it was on a drive down the freeway of Albuquerque that I came up with the idea that people in the future are being used and abused like cattle, so let's use the same device."
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* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Reese, Miles Dyson, the Terminator in T2 and T3, and Marcus Wright.}}
* [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act]]
{{quote|
'''Terminator:''' "You only postponed it. Judgment Day is inevitable." }}
* [[Homage]]: {{spoiler|The [[Humongous Mecha]] scooping up humans and dropping them in cages, as in ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]''. And [[Transformers]] too, given the same robots' shapeshifting abilities.}}
** The Harverster's mounted gun fires, sounds and operates like the [[Predator]] shoulder Cannon. Same as the other Plasma guns the Machines use, although the Harvester makes the best resemblance.
** John Connor's Tracker sounds similar to the motion trackers U.S.C.M. used in [[Aliens]].
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* [[Improbable Age]]: Sarah Connor ends up as the "Mother of the Future" at 19 -- though her age isn't mentioned in the film and Linda Hamilton was obviously much older. Averted in ''Salvation,'' {{spoiler|as it is implied that the reason John Connor isn't in command of the Resistance for ¾ of the movie is because when Judgment Day happened he was a 19-year-old kid hiding in a bunker while General Ashdown was, you know, a ''general.''}}
* [[The Juggernaut]]: Terminators are unstoppable. (Unless you get their weakpoints.)
* [[Just Hit Him]]: Happens all the freaking time. You have the target(s) in your hands... crush the skull/windpipe with your super robot strength? No, that would be far too easy. Throw him halfway across the room and then saunter over to do it again, giving him ample opportunity to escape? Now you're talking.
* [[Kill All Humans]]: SkyNet wishes to do this, seeing humans as a threat to its existence.
* [[Killer Robot|Killer Robots]]: They absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
* [[The Kindnapper]]: The protector of the Terminator Twosome in any film of the Terminator film franchise usually ends up doing the second variant of kindnapping as part of protecting their assigned charge(s) from whatever Terminator has been sent back in time to kill them.
* [[Knight Templar]]: General Ashdown in ''Salvation''.
* [[Large Ham]]: John Connor in ''Salvation.''
{{quote|
** Just to add: seeing Bale's [[Memetic Mutation|infamous]] rant on the set [[Hilarious in Hindsight|turns]] every scene of him yelling at someone in the movie [[Narm|hilarious]].
** Michael Biehn as Reese might count.
* [[Laser Guided Tykebomb]]: John Connor
* [[Literally Fearless]]: The titular Terminators, for the obvious reason that they lack organic brains. They only retreat if they feel they can't fulfill their tasks, but otherwise will jump headfirst even if it means their destruction is imminent.
* [[The Load]]: Both Sarah and John Connor assume this role in the first and second movies respectively, the former initially being a relatively airheaded fast food waitress and the latter being a delinquent kid. Of course they both [[Took a Level
* [[Lowered Monster Difficulty]]: The first terminator and T-X are damaged until they become only endoskeletons, and after that even lose their legs.
* [[Made of Explodium]]: Subverted in ''T4'' in one scene where Marcus tries to take out a giant terminator by ramming a tank of gas into it and having Reese shoot the tank as they drove away. The tank of gasoline refused to explode until they finally tossed a lit flare at the leaking gas.
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* [[More Dakka]]: Lots of instances.
* [[My Own Grampa]]: The very first Terminator sent back in time ended up "fathering" his own creator and master Skynet in death.
** John Connor himself sent his father back in time. Connor explicitly knows this, but it's unclear when and if Kyle Reese ever found out.
*** I think he probably realized at one point or another. Why not, I'll elaborate: I'm not sure if it's ever directly stated when Future!John decides to send Kyle back. Let's just say it's when he's 35. Kyle goes back in time about 35 and a half years. Then he bones John's mother. Probably some in-universe fridge logic going on.
*** In retrospect, it's probably best John Connor doesn't tell Kyle Reese outright. In the first film, Reese has a lot on his mind as it is with adjusting to a world he never knew and trying to protect Sarah Connor from the original Terminator. Telling him before sending him back in time would influence his actions in 1984. Not to mention that he would think of conceiving John Connor as "part of the mission" and not a natural act out of love for Sarah.
* [[A Nazi by Any Other Name]]: Skynet and the machines' rule are pretty much the future version of [[Nazi Germany]]. In the first film, Kylr Reese has a barcode tattoo that is similar in vein to the barcode tattoos for Nazi concentration camps, and in Salvation, Kyle Reese and several other humans are being placed in what is unmistakably an extermination camp.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: This is SkyNet's basic goal in every film. Even ''Salvation,'' where the only person higher than John Connor on Skynet's hit list is Kyle Reese, Connor's eventual father.
** But why does Skynet know that Kyle Reese is the father? Are there records?
*** The ''Salvation'' iteration of Skynet has apparently discovered evidence of previous temporal incursions to assassinate John Connor and as such is using the information to upgrade its Terminator production. This is why its already creating the T-800, 10 years ''early''.
* [[Nigh Invulnerability]]: The first Terminator "merely" has [[Super Toughness]], but other examples do fit this trope:
** In ''Terminator 2'', the T-1000's [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|blob-like nature]] makes him a Regenerator [[Blob Monster|Blob]].
** In ''Terminator 3'' The T-X a.k.a. Terminatrix has a standard [[Super Tough]] Terminator frame with a Regenerator [[Blob Monster|Blob]] cover, just like the T-1000.
** Meanwhile, {{spoiler|the
* [[No Flow in CGI]]: Averted.
* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: The Smoke and Fire Factory in the first two, and the SkyNet terminator factory in ''T4.''
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* [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]: Once per film, someone will say "You're terminated", or a variant.
* [[Rasputinian Death]]: All Terminators take a while to kill.
* [[Reality Ensues]]: They really are that armored, that accurate, that persistent and that totally merciless. Consistently. Absent explosives, you have, regardless of training, skill and determination, about as much chance of stopping one as waving your arms at a tsunami.
** Applies to the Terminators as well. SkyNet's upgrades mean a decisive technological advantage over the earlier Terminator. As might be expected from computers, older model losing a straight-up fight to newer model is a near certainty. The older Terminators, being machines, are fully aware of this.
* [[Reality Subtext]]: Remember the orderly that Sarah brutalizes during her breakout? The one who beat her so she could be restrained? The actor kept pulling that blow too much, and Linda Hamilton badly bruised her knees on the hard floor with each take. She took out her frustration on the poor guy.
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* [[Sphere of Destruction]]: Time-travelers arrive in the center of one.
* [[Spock Speak]]: All of the terminators played by Schwarzenegger, and the Terminatrix. The T-1000 falls somewhere between this and normal speech. Averted by {{spoiler|1=Marcus and SkyNet.}}
** Although in T1, the Terminator scrolls through [[Dialogue Tree|possible responses]], and picks the one that says "Fuck you asshole."
* [[Stable Time Loop]]: Broken in ''T2.'' Even if Connor sends Reese back in time again, it won't be the same Reese who said Judgment Day was in the '90s. Or not, maybe we'll discover that all the details of ''T2'' and ''T3'' have been [[Broad Strokes|Broad Stroked]] out.
* [[Stan Winston]]: The man responsible for the metal skeleton of the title role.
** Amazingly enough, '''ten''' of the ''fifteen'' minutes that the T-1000 transformed onscreen were '''also''' his amazingly-articulate puppets rather than lazy CGI.
** As noted below, at the time, CGI was the novel ''expensive'' option, saved to be used with the T-1000's morphing effects.
▲* [[
* [[Stat-O-Vision]]: Standard for terminator [[Robo Cam|Robo Cams]].
* [[Sunglasses
* [[Super Prototype]]: The T-1000 and the T-X. And in Salvation, the first T-800 in history can survive damages that would have destroyed the Terminators seen in the previous movies, such as being dipped in molten iron.
** [[Fridge Logic|To be fair]], the previous Terminators were fully submerged in a huge vat of continuously heated, molten steel until they were destroyed. The T-800 in T4 only gets a blanketing coat of molten steel... you can see it cooling rapidly even before John uses cold air to solidify it all the way.
** The first Terminator exoskeleton was literally destroyed by a simple home-made explosive, while the Salvation T-800 got hit by military-level grenades and rockets, yet his skeleton was really never even scratched by any of those strikes.
*** Those were small anti-infantry fragmentation weapons, and don't contain the same amount of explosive that can be packed into a pipe bomb.
*** Not to mention the fact that even when it's legs and arm were blown off, the terminator in T1 still kept moving.
* [[Terminator Twosome]]: [[Trope Namer]]. Seen in all three movies with time travel, and the first episode of the TV series (apparently).
** It was an ongoing plotline in the TV series until halfway through the second season, and there are hints of it after that with a different terminator in the role of the pursuer {{spoiler|but that turns out to be a subversion, since Catherine Weaver is a good guy}}.
* [[They Look Like Us Now]]
* [[Timeline-Altering MacGuffin]]: The first terminator remains.
* [[Time Travel]]
* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: Possibly the most [[Egregious]] example of all time: no two films treat the rules of [[Time Travel]] exactly the same way, and sometimes there are inconsistencies even within the same film. Figuring out how it's all supposed to work is nigh impossible.
** And yet, [http://io9.com/5191092/10-different-timelines-from-the-terminator-universe people] [http://io9.com/5192446/a-whiteboard-that-explains-terminators-entire-history try].
** In ''T4'' how any of this works is not clear at all.
* [[Took a Level
** John Connor since ''Salvation'' uses ''T3'' as canon
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: ''T2'' is pretty careful to imply the T-101 is the bad guy; the T-1000 is shown to be non-violent, apparently only knocking out a cop; Arnie instead goes the "violent barfight" route to getting clothes. Unfortunately, the advertising guys decided potential audiences ''really'' need to know Arnie was the good guy, making the whole setup pointless.
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** The campaign for ''Salvation'' spoiled that Marcus {{spoiler|was a cyborg}}.
* [[Trust Password]]: "Come with me if you want to live" is what Reese says to Sarah Connor when they first meet. In ''T2'' and ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]],'' it's how terminators identify themselves as good guys.
* [[Truth in Television]]: The British Ministry of Defence actually operates a [[wikipedia:Skynet (satellites)|satellite network]] used to coordinate unmanned vehicles - including "Hunter Killer drones" - called SkyNet.
** The US Air Force has a unit readiness tracking system called, I shit you not, ''SkyNet''. During exercises, announcements come over the loudspeakers for group commanders to "update numbers in SkyNet".
** There is a company called Cyberdyne that is working on exoskeletons. Based in Japan. The version it's getting the most attention for is called the HAL 5. Anyone else see the three problems with this?
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* [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny]]: The Terminator vs. [[RoboCop]].
** [[Alien (franchise)|Alien]] vs. [[Predator]] vs. Terminator.
** Terminator vs. [[Superman]].
* [[Vague Age]]: Both John and Sarah have really unclear birthdates (in T1, Sarah is obviously an adult with an apartment; in T2, she's 29, he's 10; in T3, he was ''[[Did Not Do the Research|12]]'' during the previous film). Again, with all the time-traveling, who would know the truth?
** Possibly justified in that John and Sarah move around a lot and used multiple false identities. They probably lied about their ages so often that John lost track.
* [[Villain Based Franchise]]: Well, sorta.
* [[Voice Changeling]]: The T-101.
* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]
* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: Marcus is every bit as tough and unstoppable as you would expect {{spoiler|from a terminator...}} except for {{spoiler|his glaring exposed weakpoint in the form of his organic human heart (which isn't even covered with any sort of armor; it just hangs there in a big gaping hole in his chest, leaving it completely exposed to any stray pistol shot or well-aimed punch)}}.
** {{spoiler|The fact that he has a heart is bizarre, and the cynical side of me says that the only reason he has it is to donate it to John Connor at the end. Judging by the evidence of the film his body is entirely mechanical with no circulatory system, rendering a heart unnecessary. The only explanation is that his brain seems to still be part biological (although I'm not sure about this), but pumping blood through the brain would hardly require an entire human heart; it could be accomplished with a small mechanical device.)}}
* [[Would Not Shoot a Good Guy]]
* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]: Dialogue notwithstanding, the actual events in ''The Terminator'' imply a simple time-travel physics where [[Stable Time Loop|there's one future and one past and you can't really change anything]].
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{{reflist}}
{{AFI's 100 Years 100 Heroes and Villains}}
[[Category:Sega Genesis]]▼
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[[Category:
[[Category:Arnold Schwarzenegger]]
[[Category:Danny Peary Cult Movies List]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]▼
[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Hugo Award]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Science Fiction Films]]
▲[[Category:Sega Genesis]]
[[Category:Terminator]]
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[[Category:
[[Category:National Film Registry]]
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