Terminator (character concept)

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An 800-series terminator endoskeleton, a robot-only version of the cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the Terminator film series, a terminator is a fictional autonomous robot, typically humanoid, originally conceived as a practically indestructible soldier and assassin, as well as an infiltrator. James Cameron introduced the first terminator character in the 1984 movie The Terminator, featuring a single cyborg simply called "The Terminator", portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When later Terminator movies introduced additional models, some sources retroactively gave Schwarzenegger's character a model number, leading to multiple conflicting names.

Inspirations

Main article: Terminator Inspirations

James Cameron asserts that he came up with the concept of the terminator characters on his own. However, several works of science fiction predating his bear great similarity, including "Soldier", "Demon with a Glass Hand", "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", "Second Variety", "Jon's World", Cyborg, La Jetée, and Cyborg 2087.

Development of the Terminators

According to the films, the terminators were created by an artificially intelligent computer, Skynet, to wipe out the remains of humanity. Some models are designed to look exactly like humans in order to infiltrate their bases, progressing from fake rubber skin, to cloned human flesh over their electronics, to mimetic polyalloy able to mimic any person or object. According to the first two films, terminators were Cyberdyne Systems models created after the war between man and machines started. In the altered timeline of T3 created by the destruction of Cyberdyne in T2, terminators were created by the Cyber Research Systems division of the Air Force to replace soldiers on the battlefield prior to Judgment Day, starting with the T-1. Terminators were actually created as part of a predestination paradox caused by time travel. Parts from the terminator sent back to 1984 in the first film were reverse engineered and used to develop Skynet and more terminators. In this case, the terminators triggered their own invention.

Models

The first terminator model, simply called "The Terminator", was introduced in the first film, with a new model terminator added for each subsequent film. In addition to those models shown on screen, other spin off sources have introduced more, including the T-70 from T2 3-D: Battle Across Time and the female I-950 from T2: Infiltrator.

	Model	Portrayed by	Appearances
	T-800/850/101	Arnold Schwarzenegger stop motion practical effects computer-generated imagery	The Terminator Terminator 2: Judgment Day T2 3-D: Battle Across Time Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
	T-1000	Robert Patrick other cast members computer-generated imagery	Terminator 2: Judgment Day' T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
	T-1000000	computer-generated imagery	T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
	T-X	Kristanna Loken other cast members computer-generated imagery practical special effects	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
	T-1	practical remote controlled robot	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
	T-70	practical special effects model	T2 3-D: Battle Across Time
	I-950		T2: Infiltrator T2: Rising Storm T2: Future War

External links

• 'T2 and Technology', an essay by chief technical consultant Larry Yeager