History Film / Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines

** The T-X and T-850 [[Film/{{TrueLies}} demolish a restroom]] while fighting.

* BittersweetEnding:
** With heavy emphasis on the bitter. [[spoiler:The film heavily implies that YouCantFightFate, overriding the more hopeful tone of the previous film, with John and Kate realizing they are powerless to stop Skynet's nuclear assault on humanity. It's also heavily implied that John will be unable to avert his fate of dying at the hands of the T-850 in the future. At the same time, John will still be able to fulfill his destiny and defeat Skynet, giving humanity a chance to rebuild.]]
** [[spoiler:The T-X fails its primary objective, but successfully kills off several of John's future lieutenants.]]

* OedipusComplex: After Kate destroys an Aerial HK drone with a machine gun, a visibly attracted John stares at her in awed silence.

* SuicidalGotcha: It's rather subtle, but after it becomes clear [[spoiler:they have failed to avert Judgment Day]] and having rigged the Crystal Peak mountain to explode, Kate Brewster suggests "we could just let it blow" which Connor seems to acquiesce to, only for them to change their minds (making this a Gotcha) [[spoiler:when the radio starts receiving a call from defense forces, turning Connor into the effective leader of the resistance]].

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: In the director's commentary for the T-X / T-850 fight scene in the toilets, Mostow comments that the two "literally weigh a ton." No, they do not. If they did, they would leave footprints in almost any material, would collapse the suspension of almost any vehicle they got into, and would be unable to use elevators or stairs. In ''T1'', a hydrolic press smashed a T800, but the T850 can hold up a huge blast door with one hand, and manage to wrestle and blow up the TX at the same time.

* TookAThirdOption: The T-850 ends up infected by the T-X hacking ability, and its' body attacks John all the while telling him to get away. On the edge of killing him, John reminds of its primary mission to keep him safe. Faced with that conflict of programming, it shut itself down entirely. Doing a complete reboot cleared away the T-X influence, allowing for another rescue at the end.

* UnconventionalVehicleChase: John Connor flees the scene in a veterinary van belonging to his future wife. The T-X hacks then hacks into several police cars she can operate remotely, while driving an oversized crane truck herself. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator then steals a police motorcycle and pursues as well. Shortly afterwards, he abandons the motorcycle and falls onto a fire truck, where he promptly pushes out the occupants and continues to give chase in his new vehicle.
* UnderTheTruck: The Terminator drives a hearse underneath a tractor-trailer, to scrape off the TX who is on the roof, forcing herself into the cabin. The whole cabin is torn off, but it works.
* UnPerson: The reason why the T-X originally goes after John's lieutenants instead of John himself. He severed ties with everyone and went off the grid. The T-X only found him by accident.

* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The T-X is the newest, most advanced model Skynet has sent back, and while the T-850 is slightly more advanced than the T-800 of the previous films it is still outclassed. But the film does introduce the T-1, the first generation "Terminator" with a semi-humanoid upper body, gatling gun appendages and tank treads. The T-850 easily slips behind one and uses its own gatling gun to disable another.

* SceneryCensor: When the naked T-X walks towards the camera, there's a tactically placed side view mirror, so we can't see her full body. Then we cut to a POV from behind her, and we ''can'' see it.

* UpgradeVsPrototypeFight: The T-X is the newest, most advanced model Skynet has sent back, and while the T-850 is slightly more advanced than the T-800 of the previous films it is still outclassed. But the film does introduce the T-1, the first generation "Terminator" with a semi-humanoid upper body, gatling gun appendages and tank treads. The T-850 easily slips behind one and uses its' own gatling gun to disable another.

* AdultFear: [[spoiler:[[WouldHurtAChild The T-X guns down William Anderson]] in front of his family]].

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: When the T-X is launched into a gravestone, by the T-850’s RPG, chunks of the grave are seen bouncing off the dirt. Concrete doesn’t bounce.

* MaleGaze: When the naked T-X is walking to a rich woman's car to steal her clothes, we have a very nice shot of the T-X's rear. It's nice to see some female booty in a Terminator movie for once.

** When the T-850 stabs and electrocutes the T/X whilst locked in her struggle, sparks fly from her onto them, and a brief flash onto the face of the T-850 reveals his red endoskeleton eye.

* SuddenDownerEnding: In comparison to the {{Bittersweet Ending}}s of the first two films, this is the first one to end on a depressing note. Yes, our heroes live, but Judgment Day just happened, billions of people are dead, the world is a nuclear wasteland, and the RobotWar has begun. In fact, the heroes being alive is the only thing that makes it a RayOfHopeEnding.

** When the T-850 stabs and electrocutes the T/X whilst locked in her struggle, sparks fly from her onto them, and a brief flash onto the face of the T-859 reveals his red endoskeleton eye.

** When the T-850 is looking at a watch in a car that he just acquired upon first arriving, the time analog quite quickly calculates from the presumed time in which he was sent from (28th October, 2033) and the time that he arrived in and is currently in (24 July, 2004).

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The woman who came to the vet about her dog, we last see her lying on the ground wounded; and we don't even know what was wrong with her dog. Also, the JerkAss who's car got trashed, which he deserved. Not that either matters, since Judgment Day was about to happen.

* WhyWontYouDie: Kate does this when she sees the T-X still alive on the reactor.

* DoubleTake: The T-X has reaction when she sees the T-850 riding a fire truck that is tailing her, even though she just crashed him into that same one.

* ContinuitySnarl: The opening of this movie has John state that he was 13 during the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''. Except his age on a computer in that movie is stated to be 10 and furthermore, as that movie states he was born in 1985 and ''2'' states the original date of Judgment Day was August 29, 1997, so John would be 13 ''after'' Judgment Day.

* WritersCannotDoMath: As stated in ContinuitySnarl, changing John's age in the second movie to 13 would've placed the events of that movie ''after'' the original date of Judgment Day, August 29, 1997, as John was born in 1985.

* AlternateContinuity: This movie, ''[[Ride/Terminator23DBattleAcrossTime T2 3D]]'', and ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' go in three different directions after the events of ''Terminator 2''. Although ''Sarah Connor Chronicles'' also gives ''T3'' a BroadStrokes treatment; it features a John and Sarah time displaced from 1999 specifically so it wouldn't have to worry about this film's canon status, but keeps Sarah's death from cancer.
** ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'' once again disregards this continuity and goes in its own direction.
* AlternateTimeline: Again, the movie sets up one of these. [[spoiler:Given Judgment Day was originally in 1997, now it happens in 2004 (and it's implied Kyle Reese's departure in the original film was also postponed from 2029 to 2037).]]

* BreastExpansion: The T-X increases its breast size to distract someone.

* ContinuitySnarl: The opening of this movie has John state that he was 13 during the events of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''. Except his age on a computer in that movie is stated to be 10 and furthermore, as that movie states he was born in 1985 and ''2'' states the original date of Judgment Day was August 29, 1997, so John would be 13 ''after'' Judgment Day.

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: The T-X has on-board ranged weapons! She never uses them effectively because [[StoryBreakerPower if she did John and Kate would be dead]].

-->'''John:''' No I can do whatever I want, I'm not a robot like you!
-->'''T-850:''' Cybernetic organism.

-->'''Kate''': What?
-->'''John''': Nothing. ''[[{{Beat}} <<beat>>]]'' You remind me of my mother.

* PoliceAreUseless: The police who attempt to intervene in the T-X's rampage are swiftly terminated, inadvertently giving her a gun and even some cars to control in her pursuit of John Connor and/or his lieutenants.

-->'''John:''' There doesn't have to be a war! We can stop it.
-->'''T-850:''' [[spoiler:There is insufficient time. The first launch sequences will be initiated at 6:18 p.m.]]

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Averted, [[AllThereInTheManual which is explained in a deleted scene and the novelization]]. While the Connors were able to destroy everything at the lab in the last film, it turns out Cyberdyne kept copies of all the important notes off-site and when the company went bankrupt, they sold them to the Air Force's research and development branch.