Terminator (character)

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Terminator character

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, portraying a re-programmed T-800, sent to 1995 from future John Connor.
First appearance The Terminator (1984)
Created by James Cameron
Gale Anne Hurd
Portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger (1984, 1991, 2003, 2009*, 2015, 2019)
Roland Kickinger (2009)
Brett Azar (2015, 2019)[1]
*Archive Footage Only
Alias Uncle Bob (second film)
Guardian (fifth film)
Pops (fifth film)
Carl (sixth film)
Nickname Model 101
The “Arnold” Terminator
T-800 / T-850 “Model 101”
Uncle “Bob” / Guardian “Pops” “Carl”
Species Android (biorobotics)
Occupation Assassin (first film, fourth film, fifth film and sixth film)
Bodyguard (second film, third film, fifth film and sixth film)
Construction worker (fifth film)
Manufacturer Cyberdyne Systems
Model Series 800 Terminator Model 101 (first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth film)
Series 850 Terminator Model 101 (third film)

Cyberdyne Systems Series T-800 / T-850 Model 101, or “The Terminator“, is a fictional character from the Terminator franchise portrayed by both Arnold Schwarzenegger and numerous actor stand-ins digitally overlaid with Schwarzenegger’s likeness. The Terminator itself is part of a series of machines created by Skynet for infiltration-based assassination missions, and while an android for its appearance resembling a human, it is described as a cybernetic organism consisting of living tissue over a robotic endoskeleton.

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 androids using the same “mold” that made them look like Schwarzenegger—said physical template was described in-universe as the “Model 101“—are featured in the sequels. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate, Schwarzenegger is the protagonist instead of the antagonist, pitted against other Terminators sent by Skynet. In Terminator Salvation, the T-800 appears briefly as a T-RIP (Resistance Infiltrator Prototype) CGI model. 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 has also been used as a generic name for other human-simulating characters in the “Terminator” universe, such as the liquid metal shapeshifting T-1000 antagonist in the sequel Judgment Day and a T-850 in the sequel Rise of the Machines.

Character nomenclature[edit]

The end credits of the first three Terminator films list Schwarzenegger’s character as simply “The Terminator”, while in Terminator Genisys, he is credited as “Guardian”. In Terminator Salvation, a Terminator resembling Schwarzenegger created via facial CGI—used because Schwarzenegger’s duties at the time as Governor of California prevented him from working on the film—over Roland Kickinger‘s on-set performance is credited as “T-RIP” and later “T-800”.At different times, the Terminator character is given more specific designations such as “variant”, “model” and “series” numbers, in efforts to distinguish Schwarzenegger’s character from other mass-produced Terminators. Later films call the newer terminators by their series 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“. In Terminator 3, the Terminator refers to itself as a “T-101“, which could be an abbreviation of its model number. This also occurs throughout the T2 novels.

In Terminator Salvation, the T2 Extreme Edition DVD, and the Terminator 2 video game he is referred to as an 800 series and a T-800.[2] Trailers and a deleted scene of Terminator 2: Judgment Day identify the Terminator specifically as a “Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Model 101”. The T3 extras refer to him as an “850 series Model 101”, a “T-850”, and a “T-101”. Terminator Salvation has the first on-screen usage of the term T-800, when John Connor sees blueprints of said series’ endoskeleton. Terminator Genisys is the first to feature the Terminator referring to itself as a T-800.[3]

Additionally, most merchandising for T2 and T3—both at the time of their original releases and retroactively—(e.g. Action Masters miniatures, Cinemaquette statues, Sideshow Collectables replicas, Hollywood Collectibles statuettes, ArtFX kits, Medicom figures, Hot Toys, and McFarlane Toys) have all used the T-800 and T-850 nomenclature, contributing to this designation having arguably the most popular and widely disseminated usage, especially in direct juxtaposition to the explicitly named T-600s and T-1000.

Physical appearance[edit]

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“. Additionally, the original Terminator 2 teaser trailer further verifies this on a display monitor during android tissue generation, referencing the Series 800 Model 101.


A Cyberdyne Systems series T-800 Model 101 Terminator with living tissue over a metal endoskeleton, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the main antagonist of The Terminator, the original Terminator film. A further Series 800 (Model 101 so identical in appearance) having been reprogrammed by the resistance in the future, is the protagonist of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Schwarzenegger plays an updated Series 850 which also a model 101, so retaining the same outward appearance as the Series 800 model 101. His character is destroyed at the end of each of these films. The fourth installment, Terminator Salvation, reveals the origin of the 101 Model. Roland Kickinger was cast as the principal actor but CGI was used to superimpose Schwarzenegger’s face from the original 1984 film. The fifth installment, Terminator Genisys, Schwarzenegger plays an aging T-800 Model 101 (reprogrammed by an unknown party) and becomes a mentor and father figure to a young Sarah Connor of an alternate timeline, and Brett Azar portrays the original Terminator from the first film, with Schwarzenegger’s then-likeness utilized via CGI. Schwarzenegger and Azar will reprise their roles in the sixth film, Terminator: Dark Fate.

The Terminator[edit]

The original T-800 is sent to terminate a single target, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), in 1984, to prevent the birth of her son, John, the future leader of the Human Resistance. Lack of surviving records meant that it was limited to only knowing what city Sarah lived in at this time, with the result that it killed two other Sarah Connors in the same city before it found its target, allowing Kyle Reese, a soldier sent from the future to protect Sarah, to find her before the Terminator does. With Kyle unable to do much damage to the machine with contemporary weaponry, the Terminator survives superficial damage from gunfire with only minimal damage to its exterior tissue. While it is later caught in a fuel tanker explosion, this only burns away the flesh covering to fully expose its mechanical nature and causes minor damage to one of its legs, slowing it down without stopping it. After Kyle sacrifices himself to damage the Terminator with a pipe bomb that destroys its legs, Sarah crushes its upper body in a hydraulic press to shut it down permanently.

Judgment Day[edit]

A second T-800 is captured by the resistance, reprogrammed by the future John Connor (Michael Edwards), and sent back to 1995 to protect his younger self (Edward Furlong) from a prototype T-1000 (Robert Patrick) dispatched to kill him. While interacting with the Connors as they work to try to prevent Judgment Day, this T-800 is taught how to speak in slang-like terms, such as “Hasta la vista, baby“, and encouraged to act more human, to the point that it develops into an almost fatherly role for John. Sarah reflects that the T-800 is the first male figure John has ever had in his life who can be guaranteed to always be there for him. The T-1000 chases Sarah, John, and the T-800 into a steel mill and overpowers the T-800 in hand-to-hand combat, impaling him through the chest and destroying his main power supply. However, he activates a backup power source, frees himself, and blasts the T-1000 into a vat of molten steel with an M79 grenade launcher to destroy it.

Following the events of the first film, Cyberdyne recovers one forearm and the damaged CPU chip from the 1984-era T-800 and uses those components to radically advance its research and technology, leading eventually to the creation of the machine intelligence entity Skynet. In Terminator 2, John steals the items from Cyberdyne’s research lab and later throws them into the vat to destroy them. Because he cannot destroy himself, the T-800 has Sarah lower him into the steel in order to destroy his CPU as well and thus prevent his technology from being used to create Skynet.

Rise of the Machines[edit]

In the third film, a Model 101 is again portrayed as the protagonist, this time protecting John Connor (Nick Stahl) and his future wife Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) from a T-X (Kristanna Loken). Being a T-850, it is slightly different from the earlier T-800 models that the Connors had encountered, such as being powered by two hydrogen fuel cells (one of which is discarded early on due to damage). He tells John that his efforts in the second film did not stop Judgment Day, but merely delayed it. They are also running from Judgment Day, trying again to avert it, but they fail, thanks to the counter-efforts of the T-X, a new, highly advanced Terminator designed to be capable of defeating other Terminators; on one occasion, it manages to infect the Terminator with nanites that take control of its body and force it to attack John and Kate, but John is able to ‘convince’ the Terminator to reboot by reminding it of the conflict between its current actions and its programmed mission to ensure John and Kate’s survival. As John and Kate retreat to an underground bunker to wait out the now-inevitable nuclear war, the Terminator is destroyed when it jams its remaining hydrogen fuel cell into the T-X’s mouth, resulting in a massive detonation that destroys them both. This Terminator also is revealed to play a very important role in John’s possible future: he is the one who kills John in 2032 after being chosen due to John’s emotional attachment to his model, based on the events of Terminator 2. Later in 2033, the Terminator is then captured, reprogrammed and sent to the past to make sure that young-adult John and Kate would survive the start of the war. As a result of John’s death in the future, he follows Kate’s orders rather than John’s, unlike the Terminator in the second film. Before his demise, the Terminator acknowledges John as a friend.


In the fourth film, the T-800 has a small role, though once again as an antagonist. Being the very first T-800 produced, it engages John Connor (Christian Bale) in battle during Connor’s attempt to rescue Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) from the Skynet base in San Francisco. John holds his own with his advanced weaponry, but is unable to stop the Terminator until it is drenched in molten metal and then liquid nitrogen, freezing it temporarily. As John begins planting hydrogen fuel cells (similar to the ones powering the model seen in Terminator 3), cyborg prototype Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) arrives to stall the Terminator, able to match its strength due to his own metal endoskeleton, but due to Marcus harbouring biological organs, the Terminator is able to incapacitate him long enough to stab John through the heart from behind, fatally wounding him. Marcus retaliates by jamming the same metal bar through the Terminator’s neck and twisting it until its head rips off, destroying it instantly. The hydrogen fuel cells are set off as John and Marcus escape, destroying the base and taking thousands of unfinished Terminators with it. Marcus later gives up his own heart to save John’s life.


Terminator Genisys creates an alternate continuity where a T-800 was reprogrammed by an unknown party— it is speculated that knowledge of who sent it back was deliberately erased so that Skynet (Matt Smith) could not track them down later— and sent back in time to when Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) was a child, rescuing her from a T-1000 (Lee Byung-hun) sent to kill her and her parents. The now-orphaned Sarah Connor is subsequently raised by the Terminator to prepare for her future destiny, becoming her surrogate father. Being stranded in the past, the Terminator integrates into human society, able to obtain various employments including construction when raising Sarah and/or for infiltrations, while remaining hidden from the T-1000 and Skynet. Throughout the film, the Terminator struggles with its physical limitations of lack of maintenance due to its age- stating at least twice that it is “Old, not obsolete”— to the point that it needed Sarah’s assistance to destroy the Terminator from the first film before it can begin its search for her despite the two being essentially identical in potential ability. However, the Terminator’s knowledge about Skynet and its technology in addition to the training and emotional support it provides are invaluable to Sarah, the machine is still fully capable of protecting her from human opposition (Sarah noting that it inflicts leg wounds rather than killing humans) and its decade of raising her provides it with an unprecedented level of emotional development, to the extent that it keeps her childhood drawings and photographs in its base. After Kyle Reese’s (Jai Courtney) arrival, the trio defeat the T-1000 together, but after jumping forward to 2017 to confront Skynet directly, the three find themselves battling John Connor (Jason Clarke) himself, who has been transformed into a nanocyte prototype Terminator T-3000 tasked to ensure Skynet’s rise in 2017. John Connor’s recognition towards the T-800 implies that he had encountered a same model himself (a nod to Terminator 2: Judgment Day). After multiple destructive confrontations, the Terminator attempts to sacrifice itself to destroy the T-3000, telling Kyle Reese to “protect [his] Sarah”, and thus acknowledges that it sees Sarah as a daughter. However, during the battle with the T-3000, while the T-3000 is torn apart by a prototype temporal field generator- only currently capable of generating the energy that disrupts all non-living tissue in the field without being able to actually generate a temporal portal- the Terminator is thrown into a vat of liquid metal before the T-3000’s defeat, and as a result gains shapeshifting abilities similar to the T-1000, as well as repairing earlier damage such as its lost left arm. It rescues Sarah and Kyle and accompanies them to pass a message to Kyle’s alternate younger self, giving them its version of an approval to their relationship.

The “youthful” T-800 from the first film also appears, and is intercepted by the “aging” T-800 and Sarah Connor after it arrives in the alternate 1984. Despite Sarah killing the young cyborg with her high-caliber sniper rifle, the T-1000 reactivates and reprograms it to pursue Kyle Reese. Kyle ultimately retrieves Sarah’s sniper rifle and blows the Terminator’s head off with a close-range shot, changing the outcome of the predestined battle between them. The young Terminator’s endoskeleton is later dissolved in hydrochloric acid and its CPU is used to operate Sarah and the older Terminator’s time machine. The CPU is destroyed after the time machine’s usage. With both the original T-800’s and the T-1000’s remains destroyed in 1984 and the older Terminator’s existence concealed, Cyberdyne Systems lacks the Skynet technology to work with for decades until John Connor is under Miles Dyson’s (Courtney B. Vance) employ and assists his son Danny Dyson (Dayo Okeniyi) in the development of “Genisys” technology.

Dark Fate[edit]

With the rights to revert to series creator James Cameron in 2019, production is under way for a direct sequel to be produced by Cameron and directed by Tim Miller. Schwarzenegger is set to return to reprise his role as the T-800. In this film, set 27 years following Judgment Day, Schwarzenegger plays a T-800 called “Carl”, an aging Terminator recruited by Sarah Connor, to protect Dani from Rev-9, an enhanced Terminator sent back in time to terminate her. [4]

Concept and characteristics[edit]



A trait persistent throughout the series is the faint red (or blue in the case of the T-X) glow of the “eyes” when the cyborg is online, which dim to nothing when a Terminator shuts down. In all four 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,[5] with some even replicating the dimming/reillumination effect that occurs during shut down or start up.[6]



“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.”


The endoskeleton is actuated by a powerful network of hydraulic servomechanisms, making Terminators superhumanly strong. For instance, in the third movie, Schwarzenegger’s character was able to handle firing a Browning .30 machine gun from the hip with one hand, while holding a coffin containing an alive John Connor and a heavy cache of weapons, showing no signs of the extra weight being any real concern.

Late in the first film, the Terminator is stripped of its organic elements when the tanker truck it is driving is blown up. What remains is the machine itself, in James Cameron’s own words “a chrome skeleton, like death rendered in steel.”[7] 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.


The Terminator CPU is an artificial neural network with the ability to learn and adapt. It was also briefly referred to as a room-temperature superconductor.[8] In Terminator 2, The Terminator states that “the more contact [it] has with humans, the more [it] learns.” In the original film, it learns how to swear from the punks it encounters in the beginning of the film, and when a janitor of his building visits him to ask about the odor from his room, it replies with “Fuck you, asshole“, from a list of responses. In the second movie’s Special Edition, it 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 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 catchphrasehasta la vista, baby“. He ultimately “learn[s] the value of human life” as mused by Sarah in the closing narration. The Terminator apologized – something it had never done previously – when John was frantically trying to convince it not to be sacrificed. Its last words to John were “I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do.” The Terminator shown in Genisys underwent an even greater degree of personal development after spending over a decade raising Sarah Connor after her parents were killed when she was a child, with Sarah referring to it as “Pops” and the Terminator referring to her as “my Sarah”, its words reflecting a reluctance to allow harm to come to her for emotional reasons rather than just its programmed mission.

Organic camouflage[edit]


Terminator flesh heals by itself,[11] and at a much faster rate than normal human tissue[12] and has never been shown to bruise or discolor from trauma, even after several days. However, a Terminator’s flesh covering can die if it sustains adequately massive damage without maintenance, at which point it takes on a waxy, corpse-like pallor and begins to decompose.[13] In Terminator Genisys its shown that a T-800’s covering ages; the Guardian is shown as having aged over eleven years and then a further thirty-three. By contrast, a T-800’s undamaged flesh can remain un-aging for decades; Myron Stark immured itself for 89 years, emerging from its wall unchanged.[14] In Genisys is it also shown that after the T-3000 threw a T-800 (credited as ‘The Guardian’; nicknamed ‘Pops’) into a T-1000 type liquid, “The Guardian” attained characteristics and abilities of a T-1000.

Although clearly not the normal procedure, a bare T-800 endoskeleton is able to grow itself a new flesh covering using 2007 technology (with the assistance of a geneticist and its own knowledge of future formulae) by submerging itself in a blood-like bath.[10] This improvised process results in a deformed covering that has the appearance of a burn victim and lacks its own biological eyes, requiring it to steal some and subsequently undergo cosmetic surgery to produce a more normal appearance (while escaping detection from law enforcement as it was able to undergo this procedure without the use of pain medication).[12] Whether or not this replacement flesh possessed the T-800’s original flesh’s un-aging properties, it appeared healthy despite the T-800’s deactivation for many days. The theft of the eyes suggests that Terminator flesh is capable of accepting some degree of organ grafts from ordinary humans, that it can circumvent transplant rejection, and is capable of sustaining the life of the grafted tissue via its own unknown biological process.


Physical template[edit]


It has been shown that Terminators’ flesh coverings are somehow grown identically, producing many multiple copies of exactly the same physical appearance, indicating the use of specific physical templates for different variations of a model or series. The most well known is that worn by multiple T-800/850 Model 101 units portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger; a scene in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles displays a memory of a T-888 model, referred to as “Vick”, facing a room (presumably in the factory where he was created) of several dozen units sharing an identical template to himself, naked and moving in unison to his direction.[16] However, not all T-800’s are made with an identical appearance, such as the Terminator from the future bunker scene in the original movie (portrayed by Franco Columbu).

The ‘Arnold’ model came to be known as the 101, which refers to its likeness and skin type.A deleted scene from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines reveals that the Model 101’s appearance was based on Chief Master Sergeant William Candy, portrayed by Schwarzenegger with a dubbed-over Southern accent, which was replaced by the more menacing Austrian-accented voice of one of the developers. One part of the scene shows Candy next to a partially complete endoskeleton, indicating that the Terminators were being 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, also seen in Terminator Salvation (although this can be explained due to Judgement Day having been delayed in the second movie, suggesting that humanity was able to come up with some of the ideas that Skynet would have taken longer to conceive of on its own). The T-800 is shown to be stronger physically, tearing a malfunctioning T-600 in half. It is also the first model to be manufactured using a titanium alloy. However, titanium loses strength when heated above 430 °C (806 °F) which later prompted Skynet’s decision to use coltan, which is also referred as columbite–tantalite, for better heat resistance as its metal base as stated in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; it is also used for the T-850 and T-888 models.

According to Terminator Salvation, the T-800 was the first terminator to have a human styled skeleton built using coltan and titanium alloy. The earlier Terminators had a bulkier appearance.

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 von Rossbach, who meets and joins forces with the Connors in the present (the novel reveals that he was never questioned about the Terminators’ actions as his superiors always knew that he was somewhere else during its rampages). 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. Its voice was provided through Kurt Viemeister, the scientist that taught Skynet its sentience. Skynet also uses Viemeister’s voice.

The teaser trailer for Terminator 2: Judgment Day shows a T-800 having its flesh covering applied by a large industrial mold.


  • In a rating of 100 Heroes & Villains made by the American Film Institute the character takes two positions at once — number 48 as the hero and number 22 as the villain. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself presented this on television.
  • The character holds the 14th place in Empire magazine’s rating of 100 greatest film characters.[17]
  • As of June 2019, T-800 is currently voted #16 on Ranker’s “Best Movie Characters of All Time”.[18]
  • Watchmojo ranked the character #1 as the hero and #6 as the villain on their list of “Top 10 Terminator Characters”.[19]


  1. ^ Acuna, Kirsten (June 27, 2015), Meet the bodybuilder who plays Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body double in ‘Terminator Genisys’, Business Insider

  2. ^ Terminator 2 Extreme Edition DVD 30-page booklet; DVD interactive documentary titled “Data Core”, Chapter 9: “Casting”
  3. ^ Guardian: As a T-800, I lack the mimetic skills to appear as anyone else.”. Terminator Genisys script
  4. ^ “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 in Terminator: Dark Fate Is Named Carl”. Movies. Retrieved 2019-07-19.
  5. ^ “Hot Toys”. hottoys.com.hk. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  6. ^ “Pop Culture Collectible Figures – Sideshow Collectibles”. Sideshow Collectibles. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  7. ^ Dana Goodyear (26 October 2009). “Man of Extremes”. The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  8. ^ Tarissa: “It’s a neural-net processor. It thinks and learns like we do. It’s superconducting at room temperature.” (Terminator 2: Judgement Day Script)
  9. ^ As mentioned by Kyle Reese in The Terminator.
  10. ^ a b Episode 3: “The Turk”, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
  12. ^ a b Episode 4: “Heavy Metal”, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
  14. ^ Self-Made Man
  15. ^ James Cameron talks about his involvement with Terminator: Genisys
  16. ^ Episode 8, “Vick’s Chip”, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
  17. ^ Empire’s The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Empire Magazine.
  19. ^ https://watchmojo.com/video/id/13981