Terminator (character)

Fictional background

A Terminator is an infiltration-based assassin described as a cybernetic organism, built in the future by the artificial intelligence Skynet during its war against humans. The model designated T-800 is the successor to the T-600 series, which had artificial rubber skin and was easily detected by the human resistance. T-800 models share an identical appearance: a muscular male human exterior of living tissue covering a metal endoskeleton actuated by hydraulic servomechanisms, granting superhuman strength.

In sequels, skinless T-800 endoskeletons are used by Skynet as soldiers in future war sequences. With the exterior applied, they are the first Terminator model capable of blending in with humans, prompting the resistance to use dogs for detection, as the animals became agitated and barked loudly in their presence. In the first film, a Terminator travels back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, ensuring Skynet's victory. Kyle Reese, a future soldier sent to stop it, describes it as an infiltration unit with a hyperalloy combat chassis and living human tissue grown for the cyborgs.

Terminators can exhibit sweating and bad breath to pass as human, and their skin ages and deteriorates but can heal. Early drafts mention they must consume small amounts of food to maintain the skin, though this detail is absent from the finished film. A Terminator withstands normal 20th-century firearms, crashes through walls with little damage, and survives explosions to some degree. Repeated shotgun blasts can knock it down and temporarily disable it, while heavy automatic fire compromises the organic disguise.

It continues functioning after losing limbs, and Reese describes it as relentless, incapable of being bargained with, reasoned with, or feeling pity, remorse, or fear.

Appearances

The Terminator appears in all six films of the franchise, each featuring a different individual with the same likeness. It is an antagonist in the original film and generally a protagonist in sequels, with every iteration destroyed at the end of each film except in Terminator Genisys. In the first film, a Model 101 is sent from 2029 to 1984 to terminate Sarah Connor, preventing the birth of her son John Connor, the future leader of the Human Resistance.

Lacking surviving records, it knows only Sarah's name and that she lives in Los Angeles, killing two other Sarah Connors before finding its target. Kyle Reese, sent to protect her, reaches her first. The Terminator withstands gunfire with superficial tissue damage, is caught in a fuel tanker explosion that burns away its flesh and damages a leg, and is ultimately destroyed when Kyle sacrifices himself with a pipe bomb that removes its legs and one hand, and Sarah crushes the endoskeleton in a hydraulic press.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a reprogrammed Model 101 is sent to 1995 to protect young John from a T-1000, an advanced shapeshifting liquid-metal Terminator. It follows John's orders, uses non-lethal force, learns slang like "Hasta la vista, baby," and develops an almost fatherly role. The T-1000 impales the Model 101 through the chest, destroying its main power supply, but it activates a backup, frees itself, and blasts the T-1000 into molten steel with a grenade launcher.

Production background

The Terminator concept was conceived by James Cameron, who directed and co-wrote the first film, produced by Gale Anne Hurd and released by Orion Pictures in 1984. The character was inspired by a fever dream Cameron had two years earlier involving a metallic entity holding kitchen knives. Orion executive Mike Medavoy suggested O. J. Simpson play the Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Kyle Reese, but Cameron and Hurd rejected this, and Cameron found Schwarzenegger ideal as the Terminator instead.

Cameron noted that casting Schwarzenegger as an infiltration unit was illogical, as he would be instantly spotted, but argued that movies require plausibility, not logic. Schwarzenegger prepared with three months of weapons training. Cameron felt his Austrian accent and deadpan delivery gave the character a synthesized quality, as if the voice system was not fully worked out. The line "I'll be back" became a popular catchphrase, though Schwarzenegger had difficulty saying it.

After the first film, Schwarzenegger suggested a sequel. An early idea had him playing two T-800s, one sent by Skynet and one by the resistance, but co-writer William Wisher found this boring, and the antagonistic T-800 was replaced by the T-1000. Schwarzenegger was initially hesitant about his role switching to a protagonist in the sequel, a twist Cameron devised to surprise audiences. Schwarzenegger later expressed pleasure with the twist and the idea of the Terminator not killing anyone and becoming more human, adding sensitivity and sweetness to the film.

Reception

The first Terminator film was an unexpected success, and Schwarzenegger's character became his best-known role. Clark Collis of Empire noted that mainstream audiences had previously viewed Schwarzenegger as a joke with minimal acting and language skills. Variety found the character perfectly cast, while Colin Greenland of Imagine called Schwarzenegger eerily wonderful as the unstoppable cyborg. Marc Weinberg of Orange Coast wrote that it was great to see a pure, unstoppable villain with no attempt to humanize him with weaknesses or emotions.

David Ansen of Newsweek felt Schwarzenegger was born to play a machine, and in Terminator 2 found him impressive, hilarious, and almost touching as an emotionless cyborg foster father. Hal Hinson of The Washington Post found his wooden performance ideal, expressing more humanity as a machine than as real people, with the delicacy of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster. Mike Clark of USA Today wrote that in Terminator 3, Schwarzenegger still looked spectacular but the script lacked deadpan zingers and his heart seemed absent.

Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club noted the character had been spoofed and ripped off too often to retain menace, but the filmmakers used him as a comic figure. Todd McCarthy of Variety felt the Terminator's physical inferiority to the T-X gave him an underdog status that brought him closer to the viewer. Some critics found Terminator Salvation disappointing due to Schwarzenegger's absence, with James Berardinelli noting the lack of a strong antagonist until the T-800's brief appearance, which he called the film's high point. Terminator Genisys received generally negative reviews, though Schwarzenegger's return was praised.