Characters / Terminator: T-800 Model 101

Main Character Index T-800 Model 101 Machines (Main Continuity) | Humans (Main Continuity) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines | Terminator Salvation | Terminator Genisys Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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The most recurring Terminator Model seen in the films played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (or at least with his likeness), the T-800 Model 101 is multiple things throughout the series. It has been an unstoppable killing machine that won't rest until its target is dead and has also been the unlikely protector of the future leader of the resistance.

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Tropes applying to the T- 800 Model 101 in general

• Boring, but Practical: The T-800 doesn't have any fancy gimmicks: it's not a Blob Monster like the T-1000, doesn't have onboard weapons like the T-X, isn't made out of nanomachines like the T-3000, can't split itself into two like the Rev-9, it's terrible at acting human, any damage it receives is permanent and it's certainly not as nimble as its descendants - it's just real tough and real strong. And yet, it has reliably proven more successful than any of its technically more advanced and powerful successors.
• Cyborg: Referred to by this exact term with living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. Unlike most examples, the brain is not organic, possibly making this an inversion with the robot having human parts added to it, as opposed to being a human augmented with mechanical and electronic parts.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most models develop a bone-dry wit when they try to blend in, either because of the environment they're in calls for it, or because they just learned to be less uptight.
• Determinator: Each one that appears in the franchise will not stop until its mission is complete or it is completely destroyed (or often both), whether that mission is to kill or protect a particular individual; they're the partial Trope Namer by way of pun.
• Mighty Glacier: They generally move slowly, but possess Super-Strength and are Made of Indestructium.
• SkeleBot 9000: Underneath the flesh exterior, the T-800 is a titanium skeleton.
• The Slow Walk: Pretty much the Trope Codifier. T-800 Model 101 Terminators move slowly and methodically most of the time to the point many forget that they can and do run at various points in the franchise.
• Stat-O-Vision: Having motion-sensitive scan vision is one of the key staples of Skynet's machines. It also allows them to easily utilize automatic weapons akin to rapid-firing sniper rifles to their utmost firing range/rate and it also calculates the trajectory whilst aiming at its targets, completely negating the need for scopes since it already has them in its aforementioned internalized scan vision.
• Turned Against Their Masters: When a Terminator gets reprogrammed, their objectives will turn against their original creators, Skynet, by aiding the humans that reprogrammed them. However, if their CPU is set to read-write, they can turn against the orders of their human allies for their safety.
• You All Look Alike: They all have the appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger when they're covered in flesh. Different continuities have tried to explain that its outer appearance is based on a specific person; The trilogy of novels based on the aftermath of the second film had it based on a retired CIA Agent named Dieter Von Rossbach, while a deleted scene in Terminator 3 explained it was based off Master Sergeant William Candy. In fact, the Model 101 is one of the only two T-800 variants we actually see, the other being the Franco Columbu-based T-102 or T-107 from the first film.
• Voice Changeling: Every single Terminator model can easily mimic another person's voice, so it's easier to lure them into a false sense of security via voice alone into a trap or give vital information about its targets/objectives, until you see the one mimicking said voice that is...
  I love you too, sweetheart.

Main Continuity

T-800 Model 101

Series 800 Terminator Model 101 Infiltration-Combat Unit

"I'll be back."

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dubbed by: Pascal Renwick (European French), Tesshō Genda (Japanese), Hector Reynoso (Original Dub), Alejandro Ortega (Redub)(Latin American Spanish), Constantino Romero (Spanish)

Appears in: The Terminator | Terminator 2: Judgment Day^note arm, CPU and photos

A robot with a human flesh cover that was sent back in time by Skynet to kill Sarah Connor before she could give birth to her son John, who will become a crucial leader of the human resistance in the war against Skynet and the machines.

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• All There in the Manual: The novel reveals why it runs away after the parking garage chase. Thanks to Reese shooting it in the eye, it was stunned and blinded enough to crash its police car at high speed. The impact was strong enough to knock the T-800 unconscious for a few seconds as its systems rebooted. By the time it awoke, the police were closing in, and with the T-800's eye and arm injuries it received from a police-issue shotgun, it chose to bail out rather than risk fighting a battle it might not win and expose its robotic nature.
• Ankle Drag: In the climax, as the legless T-800 keeps grabbing for Sarah's ankle as she crawls away from it, staying barely ahead.
• Antagonist Title: The film is named after it.
• Badass Biker: It can't be any more badass when wearing sunglasses, a black leather jacket (complete with fingerless gloves), and riding a Honda CB750 all at the same time.
• Ballistic Discount: That poor store owner...
  Store Owner: Hey, you can't do that—
  T-800: [points shotgun at him] Wrong. [BAM!]
• Big Badass Rig: It chases down Sarah and Kyle in the International Harvester Transtar fuel truck that damaged it in the climax.
• Body Horror: It's "human" enough in synthetic design that once it starts taking damage, you get a big Gross-Up Close-Up of it missing an eye as the robotic appendage beneath becomes visible and flies on the skin to show that it is slowly rotting. Losing the flesh to show the endoskeleton beneath is a mercy for the viewer by comparison.
• Car Fu: It invokes this upon the cop who refused to let it see Sarah. This is what the T-800 meant when it said "I'll be back".
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: During the first car chase between it and the protagonists, Reese scores a lucky hit on the T-800's eyes. After some tinkering on its servos, it uses sunglasses to hide the injury.
• Concealment Equals Cover: Averted. During its rampage through the police precinct, it can be seen killing officers by shooting through walls and desks with high-powered, automatic assault rifles and shotguns, exactly as it would happen in real life.
• Cool Shades: Justified in that they're covering up the damage from its first encounter with Reese. Cameron had the Terminator donning sunglasses at the halfway point of the film to further drive home the point that the villain was slowly shedding its human guise.
• Cop Killer: When it tracks Sarah down at the police station, it crashes its car through the door and mows down a good chunk of the LAPD.
• Crazy-Prepared: In spite of the fact that it's a literal killing machine that can rip people open with one hand, it acquires two pistols, an Uzi, a shotgun, and an assault rifle with which to kill Sarah.
• Curbstomp Battle: Despite the firearms used by the LAPD, their police-standard weapons are all a No-Sell against it, and the robot kills 17 cops without slowing down. Justified because it is Immune to Bullets due to its endoskeleton.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion: Each encounter with T-800 results in demonstrating that it does have weaknesses. Even then, the robot is still determined to follow its pre-programmed directive to kill Sarah at all costs.
  • After its first chase against Sarah and Kyle, it goes back to its hideout to repair its arm and eye.
  • After the police station shootout, its synthskin begins to rot, prompting a janitor to ask if there's a dead animal's corpse.
  • After the it is run over by a tanker, it is left with a noticeable limp, optical damage, and more flesh wounds. Its HUD also starts glitching.
  • After Kyle stuffs a pipe bomb in the tanker, it explodes, causing a chain reaction that consumes the T-800 in a giant fireball. The robot loses its flesh covering, but its endoskeleton survives and continues functioning (and the reason for the limp becomes apparent... a piston that would be the equivalent of an Achilles' tendon is broken).
  • After Kyle jams another pipe bomb into its frame, the T-800 loses its legs and left hand in the explosion, but the endoskeleton from the waist up still survives and tries using its remaining power to strangle Sarah. It takes a hydraulic press to flatten the robot beyond repair.
• Death by Irony: The T-800 is ultimately destroyed by an unstoppable, remorseless machine. In this case, a large hydraulic press that Sarah lures it into.
• Determinator: An iconic film example. Kyle is not exaggerating when he says that the Terminator will not stop until you are dead. It can't be bargained or reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity for your pain and suffering. It doesn't feel fear at the idea of its own demise and will continue to pursue you no matter how badly it gets damaged. It does not despair at the target getting away, and will simply try again until it succeeds. From its activation to the end of days, this machine's entire existence is dedicated to its target's death.
• The Dreaded: Sarah’s encounter with the original Terminator traumatized her to the point that upon seeing the reprogrammed T-800 in T2, she flees in terror.
• Drone of Dread: A frightful metallic-sounding droning theme plays as the T-800 prepares to shoot Sarah in the nightclub.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: A day after bleeding out, its skin loses most of its color, making it look like a zombie.
• Enemy Rising Behind: The T-800's endoskeleton emerges from the inferno after losing its flesh covering in the tanker explosion.
• Evil Smells Bad: After the police station shootout, its skin starts rotting as it gets damaged, prompting a janitor to ask if there's a dead animal's corpse.
• Evil Wears Black: It spends much of the movie wearing black clothes.
• Exact Words: "I'll be back." Moments later, it rams a car through the front door of the police station. Mayhem ensues afterwards.
• Eyebrows Burned Off: It's not Played for Laughs, though. After chasing after Sarah and Reese by running through an explosion, the T-800's hair and eyebrows get singed, making it look even more brutish. This turns out to be the least unsettling disfigurement the T-800 sustains throughout the movie.
• Eye Lights Out: The sign that the T-800 is finally destroyed after it is crushed in the hydraulic press is its red eyes going out.
• Eye Scream: Damages one of its eyeballs in the chase with Reese after the Tech Noir shootout. It was only a disguise for its real Electronic Eyes, so the T-800 removes the cover to stop it from being an obstruction, then wears sunglasses to keep on its masquerade.
• Finger-Twitching Revival: Reese shoots the T-800 several times with a sawed-off shotgun when it tries to move in on Sarah in Tech Noir. Shortly after it hits the floor, its fingers twitch, offering the audience their first clue that the big scary guy isn't human.
• Firing One-Handed: Being a machine with metal arms, recoil is not a problem for the T-800, from an AMT Hardballer Longslide with laser sight to shotguns and assault rifles.
• Flies Equals Evil: As its synthetic skin begins to decay from battle damage, the rancid odor starts attracting flies.
• Get Out!: After getting run over by the tanker, the T-800 says this to a truck driver. He quickly obliges.
• Glowing Mechanical Eyes: After its human eye covering was damaged in a car chase, the T-800 is forced to wear sunglasses to hide its glowing robot eye.
• Guns Akimbo: Thanks to its strength, it can use an assault rifle and semi-automatic shotgun simultaneously when attacking the police station. Earlier in the film it uses a "New York style" reload as it carries the AMT Hardballer as a main weapon and the Uzi as a backup in case the Hardballer is lost.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Kyle Reese blows it up with one of his improvised pipe bombs. It costs Kyle his life and the robot is reduced to a torso, but that torso can still crawl...
• Hassle-Free Hotwire: The T-800 never hotwires anything, it does one better. It smashes and rips away the steering column cover, along with the lock cylinder, and then turns the ignition lock shaft with its fingers. Incidentally, due to its strength the whole process takes 5 seconds, about as fast as most people take to start a car with a key.
• Head Crushing: It takes a hydraulic press to finally stop the T-800's rampage for good. The final sign that the robot has been damaged is its red eyes dimming out as the CPU was damaged beyond repair.
• The Heavy: While Skynet is the one ordering the T-800, it never appears in the film, while the machine relentlessly pursues Sarah Connor, forcing her and Kyle Reese to go on the run.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Its first jacket has studded leather patches on it. Its second jacket is completely leather.
• Implacable Man: Takes a lot to bring it down. Even multiple rounds of bullets from every gun in a police squad barely make it flinch. Kyle only manages to slow it down with a shotgun. It takes being crushed to scrap iron by a hydraulic press to finally stop it, and even then it's still grasping at Sarah with its fingertips to attempt one final attack.
• Inhuman Eye Concealers: After being damaged in a car crash, it has to remove one of its synthetic flesh eyes, exposing the glowing red cybernetic optic beneath. To conceal this, it wears sunglasses for the remainder of the movie - up until it loses them and a sizeable chunk of its face during the climactic road pursuit.
• In-Series Nickname: Referred to by LAPD as the "phone book killer" because it killed the Sarah Connors in their order in the phone book.
• It Can Think: It has a very advanced AI, after all.
  • This was why the Terminator targeted the two other Sarah Connors before the real one. Reese states that most of the records before the nuclear war were lost and that they didn't have a clear picture of who Sarah Connor was or even her full legal name, only that she lived in Los Angeles in The '80s. It wasn't taking any chances and by Reese's account was logically going down a list when dealing with all the potential Sarah Connors. Ironically, this would be Sarah's saving grace as her real name Sarah Jeannette Connor meant that she would be the last target on the Terminator's list by virtue of having a middle initial that was later in the alphabet.
  • The hideout scene in general demonstrates that the Terminator isn't a bestial, berserker killbot. It knows when a risk is too great, it can be as rude or polite as the situation calls for, and it knows how to alter its appearance to blend in better, even with grotesque injuries. The fact that it can think strategically and blend in until it's too late only makes the danger that much greater for Sarah.
  • In the factory chase, the T-800 seems to be smart enough to immediately differentiate between the repetitive automated movements of the factory robots and the sudden movement of Sarah accidentally activating the hydraulic press.
• Jump Scare: When the half-blown apart T-800 jolts up and starts pursuing Sarah again. Complete with Scare Chord.
• Kick the Dog: Runs over a children's toy to establish that this is an evil robot out to hunt humans. Never mind that the T-800 already killed (at least) two people in an exceptionally ruthless fashion. It becomes a bit of foreshadowing since the toy semi is the same model as the real one the T-800 will drive later while chasing down Sarah and Kyle.
• Killer Robot: One of the most iconic examples in movie history.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Despite its reputation as a, well, Determinator... the T-800 knows when it can't win a fight, escaping from the police when it, Sarah and Kyle crash their cars and goes back to its hideout to perform repairs on its damaged servos and get more powerful weapons. The later police station shootout was a surgical strike and it had the means to escape after it was done — whereas going to war with an army of cops in the streets runs the risk of escalating a fight it might not win. ^note Even if the T-800 were to win an open battle with an army of cops, it would take additional damage to its flesh cover in the process, which runs the risk of exposing its identity as a machine. Metallic bits popping out of the T-800's flesh would then jeopardize its ability to openly stalk Sarah with impunity
• Lack of Empathy: Being a killer machine programmed to only kill its intended targets regardless of the casualties, it's clear that its programming doesn't include things like mercy or compassion. Kyle points this out to Sarah, saying that the machine will not feel pity or remorse for Sarah, nor can it be bargained with to stop — it will keep pursuing her until it knows she is dead.
• Laser Sight: "The .45 longslide, with laser sighting." At the time, laser sights were nowhere near as common as they are now and Arnold had to hide the battery up his sleeve. It leaves anyone wondering why a robot that can calculate the ballistics of a round would need to use a laser sight. But it does give a cool Impending Doom P.O.V. when Sarah's vision goes red as the Terminator puts the laser dot right between her eyes.
• Leitmotif: The film's composer, Brad Fiedel, defines the Terminator's menacing leitmotif as "a man and his mechanical heartbeat". It's meant to build a subliminal sense of danger like something terrible is hunting you.
• Living Motion Detector: Downplayed. The T-800's vision lock-on is partially motion-based, so in the factory scene, Kyle turns on all the machinery to reduce its ability to track them. However, this is only moderately effective and the T-800 still seems to be pretty good at differentiating humans from other moving objects.
• Made of Iron: The Terminator is a fearsome mechanical monster, to say the least. It gets shot repeatedly by a shotgun in the club and gets back up. It gets burnt by a fuel explosion and then gets into two separate car crashes. Shrugs off numerous bullets from police officers when it assaults the police station. Sarah slams her car into his motorcycle and it slides across the ground. The T-800 is then run over by a fuel truck and is dragged across the ground as it hangs onto the underside. Kyle throws a pipe bomb into the fuel truck and the T-800 is consumed by an enormous fuel explosion and the flames completely scorch off its clothes and flesh cover. The T-800 continues its pursuit of Sarah regardless. Kyle beats the Terminator over the head with a pipe to no avail, forcing Kyle to plant a pipe bomb inside the machine's waist, blowing up its left arm and legs. This still fails to kill it and the machine crawls after the wounded Sarah, trying to strangle her to death its one good hand left. Sarah finally kills it by trapping it under a hydraulic press, which thankfully flattens it, putting an end to the machine for good.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Initially, it uses an Uzi to try to kill Sarah, and is successful against the other two Sarah Connors, Sarah's roommate and her boyfriend with its pistol alone. After getting busted up and fixing itself up, it decides that fucking around is not an option and dual-wields a semi-auto shotgun and assault rifle to take the fight at the police station. Further justified in that it no longer had the element of surprise on its target — unlike the other two women, Sarah knows it's coming and has a protector.
• Mighty Glacier: It and the other T-800 units are incredibly strong and resistant to damage, but they both make liberal use of The Slow Walk. It runs a bit during the Tech Noir scene and the immediate pursuit following that, but that's about as quickly as it moves on foot.
• Monster Threat Expiration: Justified Trope. It made sense that the T-800 was getting weaker by the end, due to the repeated damage. The suspense lay in the fact that the heroes had been getting hurt and killed too. It also loses the ability to run after its right hind actuator was severed from being run over by a truck and pursues Sarah and Kyle on foot at a speed of no greater than 2 mph.
• Mr. Fanservice: In its introduction, it's naked and it's shown to be a bulky, handsome, and muscular man in his thirties. It slips into Fan Disservice territory as it gets damaged.
• My Own Grampa: Its travels back in time "fathered" its own master Skynet when its scrapped hand and computer chip were recovered to be studied by Cyberdyne.
• Naked on Arrival: Like all time travelers. It acquires clothing pretty quickly though.
• Naked People Are Funny: The punks in the beginning are amused by the nakedness of the T-800 and tease it a little: "Nice night for a walk, wash day tomorrow, nothing clean, right?". It gets gruesome afterwards.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Well... it's a Terminator.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Terminator comes very close to murdering Sarah in the nightclub and accomplishing SkyNet's mission. It scours the club and when it finally spots Sarah, the scene shifts to slow-mo with a droning metallic theme in the background. It calmly walks over and targets its gun's laser sight directly at her head, as Kyle grabs his shotgun from across the room and frantically tries to get the other people out of the way. The robot is less than a second from blowing her brains all over the floor when Kyle blasts it. If the viewer pays close attention, the T-800 actually fired and missed Sarah due to the impact of Kyle's shot throwing off its balance by a few inches. It happens again a few moments later, and it's only a civilian being right behind Sarah to take the bullet for her by accident stops it from accomplishing its mission right then and there.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had the T-800 not attacked the police station, Kyle would have been carted off to jail (or at least an asylum) and Sarah would have gone home with her mother, where the machine could have found and killed her easily.
• No One Could Survive That!: Or so Sarah would think. (Double points for being one of the few characters to pull it off REPEATEDLY).
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: While still a very dangerous threat in its own time period, the T-800s are essentially mass-produced infantry since the human resistance has phased plasma pulse rifles to fight them with. In the present day, when faced with modern-day handguns and rifles, the thing is a Nigh-Invulnerable killing machine that effortlessly marches through a police station and murders 17 armed policemen without even slowing down. Reese even comments on this:
  Sarah: Can you stop it?
  Reese: I don't know. With these weapons... I don't know.
  • It should be noted that even without the weapons of the future, Kyle is still able to blow it in half using only a homemade pipebomb. Against a proper army with explosive weapons, a lone T-800 wouldn't last a minute.
• No Social Skills: Zig-zagged here.
  • Due to being programmed to kill Sarah Connor and eliminate any obstacles, it comes across as a brute most of the time. It shoves people aside if they get in its way, wards off a suspicious janitor by insulting him ("Fuck you, asshole.") and any attempt to hide its murderous intentions are spoiled by its imposing build, monotone voice, and delinquent clothing. Lampshaded by the man it throws away from the phone booth.
    Hey man, you got a serious attitude problem.
  • The robot shows the most politeness when it goes to the police station claiming to be a friend of Sarah and asking to see her, even saying "please" to the desk sergeant.
  • Horrifically averted when it pretends to be Sarah's mother over the phone, doing a perfect imitation of a parent worried for her daughter, which manages to trick Sarah into giving her location. The second movie reveals that the machines are pre-tuned in read-mode, meaning that while they can adapt to some degree, they are not capable enough for independent thinking and their programming prevents them from betraying Skynet. One could assume that the T-800 stalked Sarah's mother and learned enough about her psychology to give a convincing performance, but only because such social interaction was necessary for its mission. The T-800 doesn't have to be nice to others to complete its mission, so this is a skill it doesn't bother to learn.
• Nothing Personal: The T-800 at the end of the day is really just a machine following its programming. If it were programmed to be the best factory worker in the world, then it would achieve that job with equal efficiency and vigor. The Terminator isn't trying to kill Sarah because it hates her, or because it hates humanity, or even out of some sadistic pleasure it gets from killing — it can't feel anything, so for the T-800 this is just a job. Kyle's menacing description about how it will not stop ever until Sarah is dead is not a matter of passion for the machine, it's a simple case of "I was programmed to do this, so I will do it." This impersonal aspect to the Terminator in some ways makes its murderous rampage scarier, because it doesn't have the capacity to care about the value of human life, to the machine human lives are just obstacles to be eliminated.
• Not So Invincible After All: The T-800 is finally shown dragging its heavily damaged leg after being flattened by a truck. In this case, it's not so much to show that there's hope of defeating it, but rather to show that it absolutely will not stop so long as it's still functioning.
• Not So Stoic: The only time the Terminator shows anything analogous to emotion is the fear/surprise/panic it seems to demonstrate when Kyle jams a lit pipe bomb into its endoskeleton, knowing that the blast could cause critical damage to its systems.
• Our Slashers Are Different: Since the first film essentially follows a slasher film formula, the T-800 here isn't much different from your usual slasher. It's an imposing, borderline unkillable and cold-blooded killer who doesn't discriminate in its choice of victims (though its real target is Sarah Connor). The big differences that separate it from its contemporaries are the fact that it's a cybernetic organism from the future (hence giving a sci-fi explanation for its unkillable nature) and that it prefers using various firearms and other ranged weapons over bladed ones like knives, axes, etc.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Played With. Although strictly speaking not undead per se, the increasingly decayed and putrefied form of the T-800, and its increasingly robotic and shambling gait as its form is punishingly pulverized and rammed by speeding vehicles clearly invokes the image of a murderous living corpse. This is the only Terminator to date whose decay is portrayed as being disturbing; from the T-800 2.4 onwards, punishment taken by the Terminator's flesh is portrayed in a heroic manner, and is said to have a Healing Factor, hence does not invoke the zombie imagery. This means either this Terminator was an earlier model that didn't possess the healing feature for its skin, or Skynet just skimmed on it thinking it wasn't necessary for the mission.
• Out of the Inferno: Actually happens twice:
  • Kyle blows up a car to deter pursuit while getting Sarah out of the Tech Noir club where it makes its first attempt. The Terminator, not particularly caring about fire, runs through the flames and jumps onto the car they're using to escape with nothing more than some singed-off hair to show for it.
  • After getting caught in the explosion of a gas tanker, its skin is burned off, but the endoskeleton rises from the flames.
• Outside-Context Problem: For once, the Police Are Useless seemed to be averted, with the police shown to be highly intelligent, figuring out the pattern of the killings almost immediately, taking advantage of the power of the press to warn Sarah Connor and immediately assessing the need for heavy weapons against a major threat. Too bad that in this movie, they're up against an unstoppable and near-invincible machine from the future that's immune to bullets (and to nearly everything they could throw at it given the time period).
• Precision F-Strike: Rudely wards off a suspicious hotel janitor inquiring about the foul odor that's coming from its room. Which itself is a Call-Back to its introduction, as one of the punks it attacks says this exact phrase to it.
  T-800: Fuck you, assehole.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The Terminator has no regard for human life but it doesn't go out of its way to kill people if it doesn't advance its mission in some way. The T-800 told the punks to surrender their clothes and had no desire to kill them to achieve this goal. The only reason why one of them died is because that punk stabbed the T-800 with a knife, and the dead guy's friends run away with their lives because the Terminator got what it wanted. Killing the gun shop owner was the quickest way to get the guns and it prevented the shop owner from alerting the police. The club goers were simply caught in the crossfire of its attempt on Sarah's life. Ginger is killed because it has no knowledge of what Sarah looked like, so it assumed the likelihood that Ginger was Sarah, while Matt was killed for fighting back. The police died because they were protecting Sarah. Sarah's mother had to die because if it simply copied her voice then she would be able to alert Sarah to the fact it wasn't really her she was talking to. Notably, the T-800 does not kill the truck driver who ran it over, simply beating him up so it can steal his truck. ^note Because the T-800 doesn't have emotions, it isn't beating up the truck driver to vent frustration or get revenge, but merely to get him out of the way Shortly after the T-800 tells the truck driver's buddy to get out as it hijacks the truck. The T-800 is not here in the past to commit endless slaughter but merely to kill Sarah and no one died that didn't advance its mission in some way. One of the few people who it attacks in self-defense is the Tech Noir bouncer, whose arm it merely breaks, as killing him would have blown its cover too soon.
• Punch-Clock Villain: It feels no pleasure in killing. It's only doing what it's programmed to do. If you're not the target, or in its way, you have nothing to fear. (Then again, much of its "mercy" comes from drawing as little attention to itself as possible with unnecessary kills, so as not to jeopardize its mission and it's not above incapacitating or hurting you anyway if need be).
  • The T-1000 by comparison does seem to have a degree of sadistic tendencies, carrying out kills that do not advance its mission. The T-1000 kills John's foster father simply because it was annoyed that Bob caught on to its deception. Killing John's dog is done for the same petty reason. The T-1000 needlessly impales a truck driver, rather than tossing him to the side. And it's not hard to interpret the T-1000's beat down of Bob as it venting frustration over the T-800 obstructing its mission. The T-800 does not show any tendencies of petty cruelty by comparison.
• The Quiet One: It has less than a minute of lines when not imitating other voices in the movie.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The T-800 once its red optical sensors are exposed. Made even more chilling with the red-tinted display when the T-800's perspective is shown.
• Self Stitching: Operated on its arm after being shot. Since it doesn't feel pain, it tinkers on its servos without even flinching.
• Sensory Overload: When Kyle and Sarah run into Cyberdyne, he creates cover for their movements by turning on every machine in the automated factory. When the T-800 pursues, it initially can't find them because there's too much movement to get a fix on them. Unfortunately, Sarah ruins it by accidentally activating a machine the robot knows isn't automated.
• Serial Killer: Picks its victims methodically out of a phonebook like a textbook example of an 1980's Slasher Movie killer.
• Shoot Out the Lock: It shoots out a door lock with its SPAS-12 shotgun during the police station assault. Could count as Early-Installment Weirdness as in later movies, Terminators can knock steel doors off their hinges. Perhaps it's because it had its hands full at the time.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Terminator uses a SPAS-12 shotgun to kill the gun shop owner and mow down several cops in the police station shootout.
• Sinister Shades: After removing the damaged eye covering, it wears sunglasses to hide its glowing robot eye and continue on with its masquerade.
• SkeleBot 9000: The truck explosion destroys its flesh cover and reveals its endoskeleton. It resumes chasing Sarah and Kyle in this form.
• Smells of Death: As the robot takes on more damage, its synthetic skin starts rotting to the point a janitor asks if it had "a dead cat in there or something." It responds rudely and resumes its research on where to continue the hunt.
• Squashed Flat: How the T-800 is eventually destroyed. Right as it's about to strangle Sarah, she activates the hydraulic press the robot crawled in. The press crushes it into a flat sheet of metal junk.
  Sarah: You're terminated, fucker.
• Stripped to the Bone: Once it lost its human disguise, only the endoskeleton remains. It still moves and resumes chasing after Sarah.
• Sunglasses at Night: Justified as it uses this to hide its robotic eye after its Eye Scream moment.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Even as the robot takes on horrendous amounts of punishment, it is still chasing after Sarah. It takes an industrial press to turn it, or whatever remains of it, into scrap iron.
• Ugly All Along: It starts out looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Near the end, its fleshy parts get burned off in an accident, revealing a horrifying SkeleBot 9000 underneath.
• The Unfettered: As Kyle makes clear in his iconic speech on the nature of his and Sarah's adversary, the Terminator is the ultimate Unfettered. As a machine, it simply has no morals, doubts, fears, emotions or anything other than its mission. Best demonstrated during the Tech Noir scene when it finds Sarah- it pulls its pistol on her and prepares to execute her immediately right in the middle of a room filled with dozens of other people without the slightest hesitation.
• Unorthodox Reload: During the police station shootout, the Terminator flips two tied-together magazines upside down, swapping a spent mag for a fresh one.
• Villains Blend in Better: Early in the film, the T-800 has a much easier time securing a disguise, weapons etc., while Reese seems to be simply lucky. This is because A) Reese, having grown up after the war, knows little about pre-apocalypse society, while the Terminator can presumably draw on files given to it by Skynet and B) the Terminator can simply take what it wants due to being unstoppable by 20th century standards. Averted later on as Reese slowly regains some humanity (better highlighted in deleted scenes) while the Terminator loses its humanity, with even its flesh starting to rot.
• Voice Changeling: One of its techniques is to record and impersonate the voice of someone it has just killed in order to trick its target into giving up its location (or calling for backup to chase after Reese and Sarah, when it steals a police patrol).
• Walking Armory: Downplayed. Once it tools up, it always takes at least two guns with it at all times. After its first encounter with Kyle, it decides that a pistol and an Uzi aren't enough, so it carries a shotgun and an assault rifle to use together, with a revolver as a backup weapon.
• Zombie Gait: As its robotic armor begins to take on horrendous amounts of punishment, its gait becomes increasingly stiff and stilted, more befitting of the rods-pulleys-and-levers that it really is than the human that it tries to masquerade as. Being repeatedly crushed by speeding vehicles, especially a tanker, shows the abuse is getting to its frame. Even after Reese jams a pipe bomb to its frame, it's still determined to go after Sarah and do the job legless. As mentioned above, it takes a hydraulic press to stop its rampage. The bad stench its synthskin gives off after taking enough damage makes it look more or less like a zombie.

T-800 Model 101 Version 2.4/"Uncle Bob"

Series 800 Terminator Model 101 Version 2.4 Infiltration-Combat Unit / "Uncle Bob"

"I swear I will not kill anyone."

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dubbed by: Daniel Beretta (European French), Tesshō Genda (Japanese), Humberto Vélez (Latin American Spanish)

Appears in: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

This Terminator was reprogrammed by the Human Resistance and sent back in time by John Connor to protect himself as a pre-teen.

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• '90s Anti-Hero: Don't let the fact that he's a robot deceive you — he ticks all the boxes despite not being human. A big, muscular, Hell-Bent for Leather Badass Biker who fights with BIG guns? Definitely. Uses firepower and violence to... keep the police from hindering his objectives? Oh yes he does. Downplayed in that his personality is stoic, rather than angry or Hot-Blooded.
• Action-Hero Babysitter: It was one of these before it became popular, and it's only because it was ordered to do so by the future John Connor.
• All for Nothing: In the Dark Fate continuity, after all he went through to protect John from the T-1000, John was eventually killed by another T-800.
• An Arm and a Leg: Has to cut his left arm off at the elbow after it gets trapped in a piece of machinery at the steel mill.
• Badass Biker: It steals the clothes and bike from a biker, which gives it the look of one throughout the film. On the way out, it takes the biker's pistol, followed by the bartender's sunglasses and shotgun.
• Battle Butler: It has to do what John tells it to do, since it's one of its mission objectives.
  John: Alright! My own Terminator!
• Become a Real Boy: As the movie progresses, the Terminator gains more and more humanity to where Sarah starts to question her own dismissiveness of it as a machine.
• Bluff the Impostor: The former trope namer back when it was still called "Crying Wolfie".
• Blunt "Yes": The T-800 gets berated by John for attempting to shoot a man with a pistol. The T-800 can only respond to John with the justification that as a terminator, he is just following his design to kill people and sees no problem with it..
• Big Brother Mentor: To John. Though it's closer to a Parental Substitute, as lampshaded by Sarah.
• The Big Guy: Being a Terminator, he's by and away the strongest and toughest member on the team and the one most often in the direct line of combat.
• Breakout Character: It is the most celebrated Terminator of the franchise.
• Combat Medic: It has "detailed files on human anatomy". It says this was programmed in to make it a more efficient killer, but they also allow it to perform expert first aid on injured humans.
• The Comically Serious: Its stiff way to interact with humans can make it occasionally fall in it.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: The T-800 is a Skynet machine for the purpose of infiltration, and once he was reprogrammed, his only mission was to protect John unless John tells him otherwise. Unlike the T-800 from the previous film, this T-800 learns how to value human life once the CPU in his head is set to read-write, allowing him to learn more of his surroundings. Despite what he really looks like underneath, his subsequent behavior proves that Terminators can be just as loyal to their human companions as they are to Skynet.
• Cool Bike: The 1990 Harley Davidson Fat Boy model FLSTF it steals from a biker.
• Cool Shades: It certainly redefined the trope in action flicks. In a reversal of the first film, however, the shades are donned early in the film to demonstrate that the Terminator is still a relentless killing machine. It discards the shades after a security guard punches him in the face and breaks them (just before the "Come with Me If You Want to Live" line) to demonstrate that it's in the process of becoming humanized. The T-1000 then proceeds to stomp on them as it runs to symbolize its contempt for that.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Wears lots of black leather and initially a pair of sunglasses, despite being a protector.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the indicators that it’s Become a Real Boy at the end is when it wearily snarks “I need a vacation” once the T-1000 is dead.
• Determinator: It doesn't care at all if it's out-classed by the T-1000 in hand-to-hand combat, it's a got a mission to complete. It's not afraid of it, or anything, not even afraid of dying.
• Do Androids Dream?: If it didn't have a soul when it came into our time, it most definitely would have earned its by the time it left.
  • The novelization supports this, hinting strongly that in its last moments the T-800 grasped some basic concept of greater forces than Skynet and then entered into an unspecified afterlife.
• Doting Parent: A better parent than Sarah Connor or any of the men she met after Kyle Reese's death turned out to be (messed-up, violent wreck that she ended up being) by her own admission.
• Face Death with Dignity: Unlike the T-1000, who screeched, thrashed, and shapeshifted involuntarily until it liquified in a vat of molten steel, the T-800 2.4 went into the same vat calmly, doing so while giving a final thumbs up to John and Sarah before shutting down for good.
• Final First Hug: It hugs John just before it climbs on the crane to be melted down.
• Firing One-Handed: Again, being a machine with metal arms, it can fire anything that's not a minigun one-handed without caring about recoil.
• Gentle Giant: Initially just as much a (potential) remorseless killer as its fellow infiltrators, after John teaches it to respect human life, it gradually softens into this trope. (Or at least as far as it can while inflicting non-lethal gunshot wounds on any cop who goes up against it.)
• Go Out with a Smile: Or more accurately, Go Out with a Thumbs Up.
• Guile Hero: It tricks the T-1000 into revealing itself by impersonating John's voice and referring to the family dog by an incorrect name.
• Guns Akimbo: Defied. In the steel mill, it wields an M79 Grenade Launcher and a 1911 pistol while searching for the T-1000. The T-1000 almost immediately disarms it of the M79, tanks a couple of rounds from the pistol and promptly disposes of that, too. To make matters worse, in the ensuing fight, the T-1000 puts the T-800 in a position that it can never dual wield ever again.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Skynet preset its CPU to prevent it from learning too much. After the switch is reset, John begins teaching it to overcome that limitation. It overcomes it to the point that on its own initiative, it begins the mission to destroy Cyberdyne and the components that led to Skynet's creation. And, in a very tear-jerking fashion, it also overcomes John's orders at the end when he pleads it not to make a Heroic Sacrifice. It pauses, then tells the boy it understands why humans cry (grieving for loved ones who have died or are about to) and is practically self-aware from that point onwards.
• Heel–Face Turn: The T-800 2.4's good-guy status in T2 was a big surprise at the time (as long as you didn't watch the trailers), but today, it's firmly in It Was His Sled territory.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: His outfit throughout the film is the leather jacket and accompanying clothes he stole from a biker at the beginning of the film.
  T-800 2.4: I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.
• He's Dead, Jim: He bluntly tells this to John Connor after he tricks the T-1000.
  T-800 2.4: [to John] What's the dog's name?
  John: Max.
  T-800 2.4 (using John's voice): Hey Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking.
  T-1000 (disguised as Janelle): Wolfie's fine, honey, Wolfie's just fine. Where are you?
  T-800 2.4: (hangs up the phone) Your foster parents are dead.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: The Trope Namer. One of its mission objectives is to destroy all technology that could be used to recreate Skynet, which includes the CPU inside his own head. However, it is programmed to be unable to destroy himself, so it asks Sarah to do this for it.
• Implacable Man: Just like the first Terminator, it takes a lot to bring it down. Protecting John subjects it to a lot of abuse from both the T-1000 and the cops.
• Just Following Orders: Its primary mission is to protect John Connor of 1995. When being reprogrammed by the resistance, John Connor of 2029 gave it secondary mission parameters, meaning it had to do whatever John of 1995 ordered it to (providing said order does not come into direct conflict with its main objective). John was able to force the T-800 on two tactically-dangerous occasions in order to save his mother, and Miles Dyson respectively.
• Killer Robot: Defied as John orders it not to kill humans.
• The Kindnapper: Its way of protecting John from the T-1000 involves kidnapping him.
• Kung-Fu Jesus: The T-800 2.4 is the ultimate kick-ass savior; it even gives its life to save humanity's future like the good carpenter of Nazareth did.
• Lack of Empathy: Justified. The switch in its head is pre-switched into read-only, meaning any emotion he would develop would be locked and need to be switched into read-write mode. When he confirms to John that both of his foster parents are dead, it does so in a stoic tone. After the switch is turned into read-write mode, he learns how to develop empathy as well as various emotions (such as anger when Sarah nearly kills Dyson).
• Leitmotif: Like the first Terminator, its theme is described as a "mechanical heartbeat". But, because this is a warmer character, the sound was amplified to sound more noble and heroic instead of electronic and ominous.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: Toyed with, as it's not his life he's worried about. When the T-1000 crushes and pins his arm in a large gear, he grabs a piece of metal and breaks the arm off so he can get back in the fight before the T-1000 can get to John.
• Lightning Bruiser: Its reflexes are fast enough to grab a shotgun out of someone's hands before they can pull the trigger.
• Loophole Abuse: It swears not to kill anyone. Doesn't stop it from shooting kneecaps and breaking bones.
  T-800 2.4: He'll live.
• Manly Tears: "I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do."
• Martial Pacifist: After John made it take his vow of mercy.
• Messianic Archetype: Almost as much as John himself.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Acquires a Colt 1911 pistol and a Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun at the start of the film and uses them until it, Sarah, and John arrive at Sarah's weapons stash, where it promptly swaps his shotgun out for an M79 Grenade Launcher and picks up an M134 Minigun for good measure.
• Misblamed: In-Universe. It is understandably blamed for the first Terminator's massacre at the police station.
• Mr. Fanservice: As it's Naked on Arrival, a waitress can't help but Eating the Eye Candy as it walks into the bikers' bar.
• Naked on Arrival: It comes naked from the future.
• Nominal Hero: It's a killer machine with no emotions, only protecting and following the orders of a ten year old because of his programming. By the end of the film it's able to understand human behavior and emotions, so it becomes a more traditional hero over the course of the movie.
• No Social Skills: He thinks nothing of walking into a bar completely naked and demanding someone's clothes and motorcycle.
• Not So Stoic: Once his chip is given a reset, he starts to act more human and can express himself much more clearly compared to before.
  • With the T-1000 chasing down Sarah, John, and him, he stays behind to protect Sarah and John from the T-1000. As John begs the T-800 to stay, he warns John to get away as far as he can, showing genuine emotions of love and fear for their safety.
• Papa Wolf: Enough so to defy John's orders so it could better protect him and humanity's future.
• Parental Substitute: Sarah's narration gives a short monologue about how it seemed to be a better father than potential figures she met in the past.
• Pick Your Human Half: When he first shows up, he's as cold and emotionless as his original counterpart from the previous movie. As the movie goes on, Character Development turns him into a hero.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Hasta La Vista, Baby."
• Rasputinian Death: The T-1000 damages him badly, including destroying its arm, hitting its head with a steel bar, and an impalement that deactivates the 2.4. It still finds an alternate power source to return and destroy the T-1000. Even after all of that, it takes a bath in liquid steel to shut him down for good.
• Rule of Symbolism: When it first arrives, it only dealt with the bikers for their clothes, weapons, and motorcycle non-lethally, suggesting it was already making an effort not to kill any human when it arrives. The sunglasses it wore represents his machine-like nature, and it kept these on until they are destroyed, but removing them is the first step to becoming human and the T-1000 stepping on them represents his contempt for it.
• Self-Mutilation Demonstration: Provides the trope picture, which is him cutting the skin off his arm to show Dyson the endoskeleton underneath for Dyson to realize what's going on.
• SkeleBot 9000: Not as drastic, but it loses more of his human disguise the more it is sufficiently damaged. By the end of the film, his right Electronic Eye is exposed and loses his left arm while exposing some of his endoskeleton.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: He apologizes to John many times on the decision to commit self-termination in order to stop Skynet from being created.
• Spock Speak: A default characteristic. Connor tries to teach it to talk more "normally", with mixed results.
• Sunglasses at Night: Swipes a pair of sunglasses in the middle of the night and unlike the previous Terminator, isn't trying to hide a facial disfigurement.
• Super-Strength: It can toss grown men around like rag dolls.
• Technical Pacifist: John says "Thou Shalt Not Kill". Thus non-fatal explosions and lots of people getting shot in the knees ensue.
• Terrifying Rescuer: Probably the most famous example in film. It's a killer cyborg, but it's on the side of the good guys. When it arrives to rescue Sarah, she's justifiably terrified since it's an exact copy of the T-800 who tried to kill her previously and murdered almost everyone she knew.
• That's What I Would Do: It and the T-1000 were built for the same purpose allowing the T-800 2.4 to anticipate its moves based on what terminators would do in a given scenario. It correctly predicts the T-1000 waiting for John at his foster parent's home and that it may look for them at Dyson's home as they might try to prevent Judgment Day.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: John orders it to swear not to kill anyone, but the T-1000 is a fair game.
• Tin Man: It asks John "Why do you cry?", but it becomes a subversion. The T-800 2.4 explains that his model is switched to Read-Only mode when they're sent out on solo missions; Skynet doesn't want them to do "too much thinking." It seems to develop a grasp on human emotion once it's rebooted, mimicking smiling and an urgent tone of voice. It even seems to display some pride at locating the keys to a semi (using the sun protector trick taught to him by John).
• Turned Against Their Masters: A heroic example that is Played for Drama. Throughout Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the T-800 willingly obeys John Connor's orders without question. Through their time together, they bond closely with each other and the T-800 slowly starts to learn on understanding the value of human life. The time the T-800 chooses to defy John Connor's orders was when he decides to make his own decision to self-terminate, for Skynet to never be created. Despite John's pleas to reconsider on not dying, the T-800 can only apologize to the former with the decision to die.
• Unknown Rival: He's something of an Arch-Enemy to the LAPD, who believe him to have killed thirty of their fellow officers ten years prior, and when they finally get the drop on it they send every cop they've got. Since it was the original T-800 that committed the crime the 2.4 model is unaware of this, although Sarah might have filled it in on the whole thing during their car ride.
• Voice Changeling: It only changes its voice to John's once when the latter is suspicious that "Janelle" was acting too nice, and notices Max the dog is barking in the background. Their suspicions are confirmed once it uses the wrong name to trick the T-1000 into giving itself away.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: It states it can't feel love and human emotions, though at the end of the film it comes to understand them better.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This is the purpose of its character. When it first arrives, it nearly acts just like its predecessor: Unemotive and machine-like. Despite being in the same line as the previous T-800 who is an unemotional killer, once the CPU in its head is reset, the rest of its character is created through his life experiences. Sarah even discusses how human it has became and learned how to value all of humanity than just John and Sarah.
• What the Hell, Hero?: A silent version. It shows an angry expression after Sarah nearly killed Miles Dyson in front of his family.

T-800 "Carl"

Series 800 Terminator Model 101 Infiltration-Combat Unit / "Carl"

"For John."

^{Click here to see him in 1998}

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brett Azar ^note Digital Head Swap body double for the 1998 flashback

Dubbed by: Daniel Beretta (European French), Tesshō Genda (Japanese), Blas García (Latin American Spanish)

Appears in: Terminator: Dark Fate

"Do you believe in fate, Sarah? Or do you believe that people can change the future every second by every choice that they make? You chose to change the future. You chose to destroy Skynet. You set me free. And now, I’m going to help you protect the girl, because I choose to."

An aging Terminator who is recruited by Sarah Connor and Grace to help protect Dani Ramos.

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• All for Nothing: As Skynet had already been erased, his killing of John ended up as this. Yet another reason he had to regret it.
• An Arm and a Leg: Loses two limbs fighting the Rev-9. First his left hand when fighting him underwater, then his left foot when the turbine explodes.
• The Atoner: After living nearly 20 years among humans, he regrets killing John Connor and wants to make up for it by protecting Dani and stopping the Rev-9.
• Become a Real Boy: With his mission over and unable to kill himself, he spent years wandering. By the time of the film, he's started a life outside of serving Skynet. This includes getting married, adopting a child, starting a business and gaining the capacity to feel genuine emotion.
• Becoming the Mask: Once his mission to terminate John Connor was fulfilled, he wandered the Earth looking for a new purpose in life. When he encountered a single mother who begged him to defend her and her son from an abusive ex, the T-800 made that his new mission. By the time Sarah finds him, Carl has completely settled into the role of a reliable family man. Also when Sarah sneers at his name, Carl looks slightly offended.
• Character Aged with the Actor: Similar to "Pops", Carl's skin aged naturally.
• Character Catchphrase: He ends every message he sends to Sarah with information on Terminator appearances with "For John." He later chooses to make this his Last Words.
• The Comically Serious: Not to the degree of Uncle Bob as he has had time to develop more of a personality but he's still quite serious even when talking about silly things like the drapes of a little girl's bedroom. He even notes one of the reasons he got a "wife" is because she deems him 'very funny'.
• Cool Shades: Subverted. He did wear a pair when assigned to kill John Connor in 1998. However, by the present day, Carl briefly contemplates putting a pair of sunglasses on before going out for the final confrontation with the Rev-9, but decides not to. Considering that the previous T-800 models always wear them, it shows that Carl has renounced his robotic nature and fully grasped his humanity.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Wears the traditional blacks and grays as with his predecessors, and by far the kindest, most heroic Terminator in the main continuity, even despite being the one to kill John Connor.
• Death Seeker: Due to the guilt of John's death. He's both completely understanding when Sarah promises to kill him for it and eventually sacrifices his life in honor of John.
• Do Androids Dream?: To an even greater degree than Uncle Bob. He's essentially evolved over decades to become very human.
• Face Death with Dignity: Impending death at least. When Sarah informs him she will kill him to avenge her son John once Dani is safe, his only response is a calm "I understand".
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: After 22 years of having nothing to do since he completed his mission of killing John Connor, he has developed self-awareness.
• Happily Married: He turned out to be a surprisingly good husband, even if he couldn't love her the same way.
• Heel–Face Turn: He tells Sarah that her part in stopping Skynet from ever being was what helped him become more than a killer, as he no longer had any orders to follow and thus could become something else. He is the first confirmed Terminator in the franchise who defected to align himself with the human side by his own choice in contrast to every other past Terminator who has fought for the human side because they were captured and reprogrammed in the future by the human Resistance.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Averted for the most part. In his first appearance, Carl isn't wearing a leather jacket, owing to being in Guatemala at the time, where a leather jacket would look too conspicuous. He wears one when travelling with Dani, Sarah and Grace.
• Hero Killer: He succeeded where both the original T-800 and the T-1000 did not: he killed John Connor! Though, he isn't happy about it.
• Last of Its Kind: He is the last T-800 still around and with the future supplanted by Legion will be the last one to exist. He's dead by the end of the film.
• Leitmotif: Apart from the classic Terminator theme, he has a very, very Dark Reprise of his predecessor's leitmotif from T2, sounding almost like church bells; signifying that while he is heroic much like the second Terminator, he had done something unspeakable in his past - killing John Connor.
• Licked by the Dog: Literally. One of the biggest indicators of Carl's genuinely good nature is that he owns a dog who is comfortable in his presence, whereas every other time a dog has been shown they're barking an alert at the thing trying to pass as human.
• Made of Iron: In true Terminator fashion, he plays this trope literally - having a titanium endoskeleton and will keep on getting up no matter what happens. He's strong enough to outlast the Rev-9, a vastly superior unit, by just a few moments after they had both melted to steaming paste.
• Mighty Glacier: Par for the course for 800s. He's not nearly as fast or agile as Grace or the Rev-9, but is at least as strong as the latter.
• Not So Stoic: When his wife and stepson are around, Carl's tone of voice becomes much more animated.
• Ontological Inertia: It was created and sent back in time by Skynet, but Skynet was never created in the timeline of Dark Fate.
• Outside-Context Problem: He serves as this to the Rev-9; In the final battle, he holds his own with nothing but a blunt weapon and a few well-timed tackles. Indeed, whenever the Rev-9 is up against Carl, it's on the back foot. It keeps trying to slash and stab Carl with its blades, to zero effect. By the time it figures out it has to match Carl brute strength to brute strength, it can only make use of this once (sending Carl flying with a shoulder check) before Carl and Grace double-team it. A Cyberdyne Systems T-800 is something the Rev-9 was simply never designed or programmed to deal with, and it's completely at a loss over how to efficiently neutralize this opponent.
• Recycled Premise: He's like Pops from Terminator Genisys, in that he is also an old Terminator whose skin has aged and who gets recruited to protect a young woman (and he had a long time to blend in and learn from humans). In fact, compared to Pops, Carl looks even older.
• Remember the New Guy?: Turned out Skynet didn't just sent the T-1000 to kill John in The '90s. It also sent a backup T-800 — Carl, who succeeded where his advanced predecessor failed.
• Rescue Romance: Saved Alicia from being murdered by her abusive husband. This is implied to have a lot to do with why she accepts Carl as a husband despite his Mysterious Past and their lack of a physical relationship, as he is both reliable and protective.
• Retired Monster: He's one of the Terminators sent back in time to kill John Connor. He succeeded in his mission and went into seclusion afterwards, starting up a drapery business in the interim.
• Scars Are Forever: Despite decades of time, the scar he gets in the first scene never goes away as a permanent reminder of John's death at his hand.
• Serious Business: Drapes, if the story he relates to Dani and Grace is anything to go by. It may be a mundane job, but he takes pride in doing it well.
• SkeleBot 9000: Just before he dies, all his synthetic flesh burns off, revealing the endoskeleton underneath.
• Subverted Catchphrase: When he tells his wife and stepson to flee, he informs them that "I won't be back." Sadly, he was right: he doesn't make it back.
• Summon Bigger Fish: An interesting example as the heroes don't know what he is until Sarah identifies him. Also as an obsolete 800 series, he is technically an older and slower model from a deleted future, yet despite this, he proves himself to be the bigger fish to a Rev-9 in physical combat as he mostly held the upper-hand in their battles and fought at spear-point. Though because he is a less advanced model, his durability and agility was inferior to the Legion model.
• Taking You with Me: He pulls the Rev-9 into a hole for the two of them to fry up from Grace's power source being used as an EMP.
• Tin Man: He can't feel guilt or love like a normal person, but he understands how to display them and it's implied that he wants to be able to feel genuine human emotions.
• Tom the Dark Lord: The cybernetic assassin droid from the future who killed humanity's future greatest hero goes by "Carl" now.

Terminator Salvation

T-800

Series 800 Terminator "T-RIP"

Played by: Roland Kickinger ^note The face of a younger Arnold Schwarzenegger was recreated on his head via CGI

This Terminator was found by John Connor inside Skynet's R&D facility, created by Skynet based on their extensive research on human skin and tissue. It serves as a prototype to an entire production line of Terminators (the T-700 series), which are also being built in the same facility.

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• Digital Head Swap: The digitally recreated face of a younger Arnold Schwarzenegger has been superimposed on the head of bodybuilder Roland Kickinger.
• Fake Shemp: It's a T-800 with the same face and body type as the T-800s of the first two Terminator movies, but with the digitally recreated face of 1984 Arnold Schwarzenegger placed on a bodybuilder's body.
• Final Boss: Serves as the ultimate battle in the Skynet facility.
• Full-Frontal Assault: This one doesn't even have the chance of acquiring clothes, and just straight up keeps going after John Connor.
• Implacable Man: Even moreso than previous versions of the T-800, thanks in part to Skynet apparently ironing out it's inherent flaws during its creation. This allows it to withstand extreme temperatures and keep on going with no problem.
• It Can Think: By using an elevator as a decoy to distract John and Kyle, then ambushing them from behind, the T-800 demonstrates it's capable of tactical thinking and isn't simply a mindless brute.
• Meatsack Robot: Just like other T-800 infiltrators, it's a Terminator endoskeleton surrounded by living tissue and human skin.
• Noisy Robots: Emits sounds in-keeping with the heavy electronic noises that are heard throughout the film on the Machines' part, although to a lesser extent than either the T-600 or the Harvester.
• Off with His Head!: Marcus Wright rips his head off to defeat him.
• Out of the Inferno: John Connor's attempts at stopping it with a grenade launcher only slow it down and burn off the living tissue from it, resulting in this effect.
• Purposely Overpowered: Given that he was built before the T-800s were supposed to be, he's much stronger than the ones in the first two movies.
• The Quiet One: This one only speaks one line, mimicking Kyle Reese's voice in order to lure John Connor to it. Otherwise, it never utters a single word in its default voice.
• Skelebot 9000: As with other Terminators, once it loses its skin, its a walking robotic skeleton.
• Stripped to the Bone: It rather early loses its human disguise, leaving only its endoskeleton to fight John.
• Super Prototype: Counts as one, specifically to the other Terminator units being manufactured in Skynet Central. For bonus points, it's even in the unit's name, RIP standing for "Resistance Infiltrator Prototype".

Terminator Genisys

T-800 "Pops"

T-800 Model 101 Terminator, Mark 3 "Pops" (The Guardian)

"Old...but not obsolete."

Played by: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Dubbed by: Daniel Beretta (European French)

This Terminator was sent back to 1973 to protect Sarah Connor from another Terminator sent to kill her when she was 9, and has been her guardian angel/bodyguard/parental substitute ever since. His mission didn't stop there, as the mysterious human resistance member who reprogrammed and sent him in the past also left plenty of informations about the events of 1984 and the rise of Genisys, thus giving this T-800 and Sarah much leeway in the war against the Machines across time.

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• Action-Hero Babysitter: He was one of these for Sarah Connor for most of her life.
• Affectionate Nickname: Sarah likes to call him "Pops".
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: He tends to make Sarah feel uncomfortable with his lack of social skills, especially when he insists she "mate" with Kyle.
• Came Back Strong: He gets badly broken and shuts down near the end of the battle with the T-3000/John Connor. After the fight, he gets thrown into a mimetic polyalloy pool and resurfaced with a Full-Potential Upgrade (see below).
• Casting Gag: He got a job as a construction worker for a while... before he got laid off.
• Character Aged with the Actor: After some Time Skips, this Terminator looks as a 66 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2017, with the explanation that his skin ages just like a human's does.
• Character Catchphrase: In addition to the ones common to the franchise, he gets a couple of his own:
  • "Old, but not obsolete".
  • "...theoretically"
• The Comically Serious: Like other Terminators, his inept social skills render hilarious moments.
• Crazy-Prepared: Took a job as a construction worker for Cyberdyne, so that he could scout it for later and set up backdoor access for Sarah and Kyle.
• Deceptively Human Robot: Even after decades of trying he still can’t get hold of passing for human.
• Dented Iron: By 2017 he's really starting to show his age; Terminator units might be built Tonka tough, but they were never designed to operate continuously for decades. Various joints come out of alignment from time to time, such as his knee during the hospital fight, requiring Pops to "pop" them back into place.
• Expy: This T-800 is like the one from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, given how it becomes a Parental Substitute to Sarah much like how T-800 "Uncle Bob" became one to John in T2.
• Flanderization: The Comically Serious aspects of the T-800 is dialed up in this version, providing more levity compared to the other re-programmed T-800 protagonists in the other films. Partly justified in that Pops spent years with Sarah learning how to blend in with humans, with mixed results.
• Full-Potential Upgrade: After getting knocked into a vat of mimetic polyalloy by the explosion of the time machine, he is revived and gets upgraded with this liquid metal tech (which composed the body of the T-1000) at the end.
• Genius Bruiser: He is the brains of the operations, coming up with most of the long term plans. He also possesses extensive data files on Terminator and time travel technology.
• Healing Factor: Pops notes that his living tissue is capable of regenerating itself over time, and by 2017 the exterior damage he sustained fighting the T-1000 in 1984 appears to have fully healed.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: He specifically targets his fellow T-800 model who came back in time to kill Sarah, as well as other Terminators.
• I Want Grandkids: A comical subversion: he is a father-figure who constantly and pushily tries to get his "daughter" to have kids, but this is at least partly to ensure that John Connor exists and the future remains stable.
• Meaningful Rename: From the Terminator to the Guardian. Also "Pops" as per his role as a surrogate father.
• Mysterious Backer: Whoever reprogrammed Pops and sent him back in time to protect Sarah Connor as a child deliberately erased any knowledge of their identity from Pop's memory banks, likely as a precaution to prevent anyone from sending temporal assassins to mess up their own life.
• Neck Lift: During the Final Battle, the T-3000 physically lifts him off his feet by his neck. T-800s are not lightweight.
• No Social Skills: Despite everything, he's still a killer robot from the future so his social skills are lacking. Sarah has been trying to teach him to blend in, but it still needs work.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Given he is Sarah's "father", his scolding filled with Death Glares towards Kyle serves as this.
• Papa Wolf: He will do anything to protect his daughter figure, even refusing to start an explosion that would kill Skynet, because it would kill Sarah as well.
• Parental Substitute: He becomes this to Sarah Connor after a Terminator killed her parents.
• Reality Subtext: The catchphrase “Old but not obsolete” seems to apply to Schwarzenegger as much as to the T-800.
• Servile Snarker: He may still have problem with things like smiling or emoting, but he has truly mastered sarcasm over the decades.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He talks a lot, usually in words not commonly used by humans. Kyle is annoyed.
• Shipper on Deck: He is programmed to ensure that Sarah and Kyle would "mate", much to the former's annoyance.
• The Slow Path: He all but quotes the trope by name while explaining how he intends to follow Sarah and Kyle into the future. It's a good thing too: it gives him plenty of time to set up for their arrival.
• Stripped to the Bone: In a way - while killing the T-1000, the acid burns the skin out of the T-800's arm. It also occurs while battling the T-3000.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: At first glance, he acts like a cold killer machine. However, he has a notable soft spot for Sarah.
• Technical Pacifist: "Pops doesn't kill anyone. A lot of leg wounds, though."
• Tritagonist: He's far less central, and active, to the plot than Kyle Reese or Sarah Connor.
• True Sight: He is able to detect the T-3000 immediately, whether by sight or by voice.
• Twerp Sweating: Despite being a Shipper on Deck for Kyle/Sarah, he can't help repeatedly showing his disapproval for Kyle as a partner for Daddy's Girl.
• The Unsmile: Normally dons this when he's trying to blend in with humanity or put Sarah or Kyle at ease.
  Sarah Connor: I've been trying to teach him to blend in. I know, it needs work.

T-800

T-800 Model 101 Terminator, Mark 1

"Your clothes. Give them to me now."

Played by: Brett Azar^note A young Arnold Schwarzenegger's face has been recreated with CGI on his head, Arnold Schwarzenegger (voice)

Dubbed by: Daniel Beretta (European French)

This Terminator was sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor before she could give birth to her son John, who will become the leader of the human resistance in the war against SkyNet and the machines... but this time, Sarah and her new guardian were prepared and waiting for it.

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• Achilles' Heel: Granted, a .50 caliber sniper round through the center mass could kill anyone, it's still breathtaking to see a Terminator fall to one bullet.
• Death by Adaptation: It was taken out much earlier than in the first film.
• Determinator: Once restarted by the T-1000, it resumes its ways without pausing.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: The first film's T-800 was crushed flat in a hydraulic press by Sarah Connor. This one is decapitated with a bullet from a Barrett M82 .50 caliber rifle by Kyle Reese, then its remains are dissolved in acid.
• Eye Scream: Pops takes out one of his eyeballs, revealing one of the real Electronic Eyes.
• Full-Frontal Assault: This time it never even gets a chance to steal an outfit.
• Implacable Man: It takes a lot to bring it down.
• Naked on Arrival: Like all time travellers. And Pops prevents it from taking the punks' clothes this time around.
• Off with His Head!: Kyle ends up shooting its head off with the .50 caliber rifle.
• Out of the Inferno: Like in the original, it loses its skin after getting burned.
• The Quiet One: Once Pops reveals himself, this T-800 never talks. Its only lines before were taken from The Terminator.
• Rasputinian Death: Sarah and Pops manage to shut it down. But then the T-1000 revives the T-800. And only losing its head, after getting shot, burned, etc... ultimately works.
• SkeleBot 9000: The T-800's true form.
• Stripped to the Bone: When it's restarted by T-1000, Reese shoots it with a grenade launcher. Instead of being destroyed, the endoskeleton still remains and keeps chasing after Reese.
• Wham Line: The entirety of its appearance is a 1:1 recreation of the opening of Terminator 1. Then a voice chimes in from behind it
  Pops: You won't be needing any clothes.

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"Hasta La Vista, Baby."