Terminator (character) - Role in The Series

Role in The Series

A Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the main antagonist in The Terminator, the original Terminator film. An identical Series 800 Model 101, having been reprogrammed by the resistance in the future, is one of the protagonists in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Schwarzenegger plays an updated T-850 unit, with the same outward appearance as the Series 800. 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 original Terminator was sent to terminate a single target, Sarah Connor, in 1984, to prevent the birth of her son, John, the future leader of the human resistance. It survives being caught in a truck exploding, though it is fully revealed as a machine. The Terminator was finally crushed in a hydraulic press by Sarah after a lengthy chase. However, its damaged main CPU and right arm were recovered by Cyberdyne. The remains of the first Terminator were used in Cyberdyne's research to radically advance the company's technology, paradoxically creating the technology entity Skynet. The CPU and arm are destroyed in a foundry at the end of Terminator 2, along with the reprogrammed 800 model, to prevent any further advancement of Skynet.

Schwarzenegger's Terminator's role was reversed in the second film. He was reprogrammed by the future John Connor and sent back to protect his younger self from the T-1000. While interacting with the Connors as they work to try to prevent Judgement Day, this Terminator is taught how to speak in slang-like terms like "Hasta La Vista", developing into an almost fatherlike role for John Connor, with Sarah reflecting that the Terminator is the first male figure John has ever had in his life who can be guaranteed to always be there for him. At the end of the film, he orders Sarah to lower him into a molten metal vat in order to destroy the CPU, though John wanted him to stay with them, the Terminator recognising that he has to be destroyed to ensure that Skynet cannot be recreated in the future using his technology.

In the third film, he is again portrayed as the hero, this time protecting John and his future wife Kate Brewster from a T-X. 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 to postpone it again, 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 holocaust, the Terminator is destroyed when it jams its remaining hydrogen fuel cell into the T-X's mouth (with a cold remark of "You are terminated!"), resulting in a massive detonation that destroys them both. This Terminator also is revealed to hold a very important role in John's future: he's the one who kills John on July 4, 2032 after being chosen for John's emotional attachment to his model. He was captured afterwards and reprogramed to protect John and Kate and as a result of John's death in the future, follows Kate's orders rather than John's, unlike the Terminator in Terminator 2.

In the fourth film, the Terminator makes a brief cameo, though once again as an antagonist. Being the very first T-800 produced, it engages John Connor in battle during Connor's attempt to rescue Kyle Reese 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), human-cyborg terminator Marcus Wright 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 a 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.