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Overview[]

Don't worry, he'll be back! And he's done it over and over again!

The Terminator, the T-800 is a cybernetic infiltrator designed to mimic humans for assassination purposes. Gifted with superhuman strength, inhuman durability, and expertise in a wide variety of weapons; the Terminator lives up to its name: it is an unstoppable killing machine.

The Terminator was the primary antagonist of 1984 The Terminator film as portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. However the popularity of the character and the actor has resulted in his reprising of his former role, albeit a shift as a heroic protagonist for the majority of the sequel films. As a major part of the Terminator Franchise, he is often pitted against more sophisticated "Terminator" Models such as the T-1000, the T-X, and the T-3000 as a stalwart defender of humanity.

Background[]

The T-800 is the first cybernetic organism created by Skynet which consists of living tissue of flesh, skin, hair, blood, and body fluids covering a hyperalloy endoskeleton.

Heavily based on previous Terminator models such as the T-90 which was the basic field combat units; Skynet sought to create a series of infiltrator models to destroy the Human Resistance. It's immediate predecessor was the T-600 which had a rubber skin of synthetic latex which were easily spotted by the Resistance resulting in Skynet finally perfecting an improved version, the T-700 models and finally, it's successor the T-800. It was so successful that Skynet would mass produce a large number of this model including several variants such as the T-850 and the T-888.

The cloned biological tissues gave the T-800's enabled them to pass for humans as they could bleed, sweat, and breath. Further, they would slowly heal injuries and even show signs of aging which enabled the T-800's to pass as a human being for extended periods. Even a thermal scanners would not be able to tell the difference between a T-800 and a human being.

One such T-800 was originally sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor by its creator and programmer, Skynet; an artificial intelligence defense network that gained self-awareness and seeks the eradication of humanity. The plan was to kill her before the birth of her future son, John Connor who grows up to be Skynet's primary adversary and later permanently deactivates it. Ironically, the heavily damaged wreckage of this T-800 which was destroyed by Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor, led the creation of Skynet itself via attempts by the present-day humans at reverse-engineering it.

Successive models of the outdated T-800 model have also been reprogrammed by the Human Resistance and have served as protectors and soldiers against the Machines.

Major Plots[]

Personality and Traits[]

The Terminator is a cyborg with living skin, blood, and hair overlaying a hyperalloy chasis under-skeleton. This organic 'camouflage' allows the Terminator to be more adept as passing for a human being as it appears to sweat, smell, and even bleed. This incredibly sophisticated clone tissue can heal itself when it is damaged and even ages to a certain extent, allowing the Terminator to conduct long term convert infiltrations. However, although this advanced organic camouflage can fool human senses; animals with hyperdeveloped senses such as canines can readily detect just what the Terminators truly are. The living skin and tissue is also what allows Terminators to utilize Skynet's time travel technology which prohibits non-organic matter from being transferred unless it is surrounded or shielded via organic tissue. Fire and extreme trauma may be able to destroy the organic camouflage overlay and ruin it's ability to disguise itself. This organic camouflage will even begin to decompose if it is damaged beyond repair.

The T-800 is primarily a military infiltration unit and assassin and has extensive programming in human psychology and anatomy. This allows it to predict human behavior to a certain degree which allows it function as more efficient killers but they only have a very limited personality; deliberately so on part of Skynet as it would require them to be much more intelligent and self-aware and thus a potential threat to itself.

It has been noted that the longer that a T-800 model interacts with humans, the more it "learns" from their behavior. A freshly released T-800 is often extremely emotionless and single-minded with what most people would regard as an "attitude" problem; rude, anti-social, and unafraid to be physically violent to remove any obstacles in its way. Although it is intelligent enough and resourceful enough to develop alternate strategies that it doesn't have to resort of physically throwing people out of its path; the T-800's rarely bothers to. It has been noted that Terminators are not conversant with torture and although they understand aggressive interrogation, they are not sadistic or cruel in that sense nor would they kill unless they view it as necessary to its mission or removing a potential obstacle.

Captured models which are reprogrammed by the Human Resistance often develop improved personalities thanks to their increased interactions with humans and the Skynet built-in inhibitions of self-awareness are disabled.

T-800's are constructed with titanium and coltan (columbite-tanalite) hydraulic servomotors that are powerful enough that they can literally punch through concrete walls. Superhumanly strong, a Terminator can lift massive weights without showing any sign of strain and even wield heavy weapons like a Browning .30 medium machinegun one handed; a weapon that would ordinarily require two men to use with a supporting tripod.

Their robust construction also enable the machine to withstand extreme impacts or falls without harm and 20th Century firearms are simply incapable of truly damaging it's hyperalloy chassis even if it will will damage the organic camoflague.  Repeated shotgun blasts can knock a T-800 down but that is due to the kinetic energy of the shotgun blasts and will not actually inflict significant damage to them although it may ruin the organic camouflage. Extreme forces such as explosives could dislocate or even potentailly destroy a Terminator; for example a pipe bomb was jammed into the internal frame of the T-800 which blew it in half. However the upper torso was still functional to a limited extent which is an indication of the sheer ruggedness and hardiness of the Terminator.

The Terminators have sophisticated optical sensors that are heavily shielded and can quite literally see in the dark and detect body heat and also move independently; allowing it to track up to two targets simultaneously. It is also equipped with motion tracking and zoom enhancement capabilities. In addition, it has body movement analysis software which can accurately estimate the height and weight of subjects allowing it to better identify it's targets and potential weaknesses and targeting software for improved accuracy with a variety of weapons makes and models.

T-800's has the capacity to speak naturally or copy the voices of other human beings that it has heard, imitating them to such a degree that they are indistinguishable from the original. The T-800's all have detailed files in combat tactics and weapons training and can be regarded as experts in all known military weapons, firearms, and vehicles. They can run for up to 120 years on their internal nuclear power cell.

Appearances[]

Films[]

Trivia[]

  • The Terminator is the sole character who appears simultaneously on the American Film Institute's 100 Heroes and Villains List for his roles as a villain in the 1984 Terminator film and as a hero in the 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • Former athlete O.J. Simpson was one of the actors considered for the role of the Terminator but was passed over by James Cameron who viewed him as too nice a guy to play "a ruthless killer".
  • The character of the Terminator was inducted into Carnegie Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame on April 21, 2010. The Robot Hall of Fame includes such fictional characters as Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still; R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars Franchise; Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet; and the T-800 from the Terminator Franchise as well as real-life robots such as the Unimate, the first industrial robot created by General Motors and ASIMO, the first walking robot created by Honda Motors.

Quotes[]

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