T-1000 played Kyle Reese in "The Terminator", in the role with the explanation that Skynet managed to acquire Reese's DNA and use it for a new Terminator. Cameron ultimately dropped this idea after deciding the audience would find it too confusing: eventually casting came down to Robert Patrick, as a deliberate contrast to the original Terminator - Cameron stated "I wanted to find someone who would be a good contrast to Arnold. If the 800 series is a kind of human Panzer tank, then the 1000 series had to be a Porsche." For a more machine-like performance, Patrick had to learn
T-1000 reform and reshape itself at will, due to its "cells" having been programmed by Skynet with on-board nanotechnology. This technology can be programmed with commands from Skynet, and can help the T-1000 scan the cellular makeup of whatever it is touching (including the DNA of living animals), and can magnetically attract broken off pieces of itself back to the main body. The T-1000's weaknesses are extreme temperatures and its overall lack of knowledge concerning other Terminators. When it was frozen solid from a coating of liquid nitrogen, it could not move; it was then shot by the Terminator and split