Lately there is this one thing that has been bugging me, that I can't seem to find a clear answer to.

The Schwarzenegger version of T-800 is the model 101, and every model 101 looks like him. Model 102 looks like Franco Columbu, and was seen in the original Terminator film, and every model 102 looks like him.

But now in this new trilogy that James Cameron is planning, the idea is that the T-800 design itself was molded or designed after a human, Chief Master Sergeant William Candy (played by Arnold), which is seen in deleted clips from Terminator 3. And since he was a big bulky guy, it makes sense that other models also needs to be big, like Franco indeed is.

If the T-800 series itself was designed after William Candy, why is he model 101?

Is there no model 1? Did they start at model 101?

This has been bugging me, because I always thought to myself that there was a model 42, and a model 98 and so on, model 101 just happened to look like Arnold, and maybe he was "closest to the door" when Skynet decided to send a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah.

  • I assumed the numbering started at 101 and worked upwards – Valorum Aug 25 '17 at 19:56
  • It might be the case. However that raises some other questions. How likely it was that the very first model they ever made also was the one they sent back. But of course if we assume there is only a few models, like 5-10 for example, it's not that unlikely. But skynet should have had hundreds of different models, to efficiently infiltrate the human hideouts. If they only had a few, people would start to recognize them – Mandsome Aug 25 '17 at 20:24
  • It's (presumably) the first model of the T-800 series. We can safely assume that there were dozens of previous Terminator series. We know of the T-1 and the T600 and T700, for instance. – Valorum Aug 25 '17 at 20:40
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    We see the T-1 in Terminator 3. We learn about the existence of the 600 and 700 series in The Terminator. – Valorum Aug 25 '17 at 20:44
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    Akshat. In the Skynet edition of Terminator 2 there is a scene where you see Arnold boot up. And in the display it says. T-800 Model 101 Version 2.4 – Mandsome Aug 25 '17 at 20:47

I always assumed the deleted scene you mentioned was just a joke and was never meant to be included in the film except as an extra, however if it was not a joke the T-800 model 101 was already called such in the first 2 films when judgement day occurred in 1997 instead of 2003 which would indicate that initially the terminators were not designed around one William Candy (unless the military had been experimenting with robots for a long time and they really sucked at it) temporal mechanics class always kicks me in the canons.

not sure how canonical it is but here goes

Cribbed from an answer linked in a comment the model number seems to be for the skin over the robot so a T-700 model 101 would look like Arnie as a T-850 model 101 looked like Arnie in T3

If we accept that model number indicates the skin of the unit then presumably there was a model 1-100 some or all of these were most likely the rubber skinned infiltrator units that Kyle talks about


Actually there is a T-1 series. It is shown in the Terminator 3 movie.Here is the 8 model of the series

Well the thing with the skin is that, the T-800 model was the first succesful attempt of Skynets infiltration Terminators. The T-600 and the T-700 models had of course the option of tissue cover, but it lacked the ideal proportions that the T-800 had, so they were used mainly as combat units at the time of the war of the machines. The timline is convoluted and messy in this movies, couse we see in the Terminator 2 that the first works on the Terminator was around the humanoidal type, not this strange tank thing. But if we include the "Seargent Candy" cut off scene, it makes more sense

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