The Terminator, also known as a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 or T-800, is the name of several film characters from the Terminator franchise portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator itself is part of a series of machines created by Skynet, an artificial intelligence, for infiltration-based surveillance and assassination missions. It is a cyborg, with a tough computer-controlled metal endoskeleton covered in living tissue. The first appearance of the Terminator was as the titular antagonist in The Terminator, a 1984 film directed and co-written by James Cameron. While the original Terminator was destroyed, other machines with the same appearance are featured in the sequels. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Schwarzenegger's Terminator serves as the main protagonist, while in Terminator Genisys (2015) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), it serves as a supporting protagonist, and is pitted against other Terminators sent by Skynet and its successor Legion. In Terminator Salvation (2009) and Dark Fate, the character also appears briefly as an antagonist. In the context of the stories, the plot device of having various robots looking the same provides a certain continuity for the human characters by exploiting their emotional familiarity with a particular "human" visage associated with each "model". The "Terminator" title is also used as a generic name for other human-simulating characters in the Terminator franchise, such as the liquid-metal T-1000 antagonist in Judgment Day. The Terminator is Schwarzenegger's best-known role, and resulted in two catchphrases, "I'll be back" and "Hasta la vista, baby", used in the first and second film respectively.
Fictional background A Terminator is an infiltration-based assassin, described in the films as a cybernetic organism. They are built in the future by Skynet, an artificial intelligence engaged in a war against humans. This model, often designated as the T-800, is the successor to the T-600 series, which had artificial rubber skin and was easily spotted by members of the human resistance. T-800 models are all identical in appearance: a muscular, male human exterior made up of living tissue, covering a metal endoskeleton actuated by a powerful network of hydraulic servomechanisms, which provide superhuman strength. In the Terminator sequels, armies of skinless T-800 endoskeletons are shown to be used by Skynet during future war sequences, serving as soldiers rather than infiltrators. With the exterior appearance applied, they are the first Terminator model capable of blending in with humans; as a result, the resistance began using dogs to detect them, since 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 alter the past by killing Sarah Connor, retroactively ensuring victory for Skynet. Kyle Reese, a future soldier sent back to stop the Terminator, describes the latter as such:
"The Terminator is an infiltration unit, part man, part machine. Underneath it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled, fully armored, very tough. But outside it's living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs." Reese adds that Terminators are capable of exhibiting behavior such as sweating and bad breath, in order to more effectively pass as human. The skin is prone to aging and injury related deterioration, but can heal itself with enough time. According to early drafts for the original film, a Terminator must consume small amounts of food to maintain the human skin, a detail that is absent in the finished film. A Terminator can withstand normal 20th century firearms, crash through walls with little to no damage, and survive explosions to some degree. Repeated shotgun blasts have enough force to knock down and temporarily disable the cyborg, while heavy amounts of automatic fire are able to compromise the organic disguise layer. Terminators can continue functioning even after losing one or more limbs. Reese describes the Terminator's relentlessness to Sarah in the first film:
"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!" The Terminator's CPU is an artificial neural network with the ability to learn and adapt. For instance, in the original film, it learns how to swear from a group of punks it encounters. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the character states, "The more contact I have with humans, the more I learn." A deleted scene from the second film, restored in the Special Edition, provides more backstory on the Terminator's learning ability; the character says that Terminators are set to read-only, a measure taken by Skynet to prevent them from "thinking too much". Sarah and John then activate its learning ability, after which it becomes more curious and begins trying to understand and imitate human behavior. It ultimately learns "the value of human life" as mused by Sarah in the closing narration of the theatrical cut. Later films in the series further humanize the character.
Throughout the series, the Terminator is typically depicted wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket. Another trait persistent throughout the series is the faint red glow of the "eyes" when the cyborg is online; the lack of the glow has been used to show when one is out of action. The Terminator has an Austrian accent but can also copy the voice of others. In the second film, the Terminator states that he can operate for 120 years on his power cell. In the third film, the Terminator is slightly modified, operating on two hydrogen fuel cells; when damaged, these explode with enough force to produce a small mushroom cloud. This iteration of the character also has an understanding of basic psychology.
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