OVER THE TOP: SUPERTERMINATORS

James Cameron is known for his extremely realistic portrayal of the sci-fi characters and elements. Just like he does with all of his creations, James Cameron carefully thought up the technical data and details for the Terminators to inject as much plausible reality into them as possible. He was recently described as someone who doesn't create science-fiction, but science facts. His designs for the latest movie Avatar are so well thought up that some of the machines can actually work in real life.

Terminators weren't some kind of super strong robots. That's one of the reasons why the character didn't join other 80's cliché characters which nowadays seem ludicrous. It wasn't a big bad robot who could lift a car and would be immune to everything. It wasn't a comic book character. It wasn't The Incredible HULK. It had thought and realism behind it. Just like a machine of that kind would be, the Terminator doesn't have any super strength. It has a strength of a extremely strong man, but not something truly unnatural. It can be hurt by the same things people can, but has an extra invulnerability. It's far from being over the top - it gets knocked down and hurt by large caliber guns and by car crashes. Once the franchise had been bought and continued by other, unrelated to the franchise people, in addition to many other franchise related errors and inconsistencies, Terminators became something of an over the top cartoons. Their strength not only contradicted the original movies but even contradicted what has been presented on screen by the same writers. Everything is now over the top, with Terminators having Marvel superhero-like strength and ridiculous invulnerability, even making loud thumps when walking. The first non-Cameron Terminator movie already took out all the realism possible associated with the franchise . It placed Terminator movies in a fictional world. Before, they were set in a real world - it could've all really happen (the events presented in the first two movies). It was extremely clever for Cameron to "UN-date" the movies that would be dated in 1997 or 2029. It did happen, but it was prevented, that's why you cant make the joke like "Ha, I don't see any robots walking round annihilating human race". But when the bombs fell in T3, the Terminator universe wasn't set in real environment anymore, but in a fictional sci-fi world and became a pure fantasy with no link or reference point with the real world. And that was the case with everything.

But here, we want to focus just on the inconsistency and over the top portrayal of the Terminators by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. Some may say the differences in T3 is the upgrade in the T-850 model, but isn't it a large stretch to just have an upgrade on a model and have it 10 times stronger and more powerful than the model of the same series? Or have it being stronger than more advanced models? Even if the difference in power could be explained with the slight model upgrade, the fact remains that the portrayal of the Terminators remains over the top and cartoonish, and there's no explaining why the T-800 in Terminator Salvation is even stronger than T-850.

In T2, when Miles Dyson couldn't open the small safe that held the key to the vault, the T-800 couldn't open it either. The time was extremely valuable because the alarm has been triggered. He was standing right next to them and didn't even try because he couldn't. Terminators were like humans, with just a small boost of strength and damage resistance that was given naturally by having skeleton built of metal instead of calcium.

In T3, the T-850 rips the small safe with one hand without even flinching. Judgment: over the top

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Like mentioned above, the Terminators in James Cameron movies were very strong but their strength wasn't comic book like or over the top. They were as strong as an extremely strong human being. In the first movie, Matt puts on a fight against the T-800 and holds up well for some time. He pushes him, moves him and fights with him for a while, yet he's a college bodybuilder.

In T2, T-800 is shown as putting a lot of effort to remove the metal plate covering the weapons pit. It also took two hands for him to hold the Minigun

According to what is shown in T3, there would be no human match for the T-850, not even for a split second. He holds the Minigun with one hand and turns the car into harmonica with his punches. Such strength would kill a man with one punch.

Not to even mention T-850 kicking the ambulance like a toy. If it was a big ambulance truck that gave in and not Terminator's body, human being would stand no chance in pushing or moving the Terminator because it would be even harder than charging at the ambulance truck. Judgment: over the top

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The Terminator could not get through the worn out, beaten up, old  iron doors in the factory, held together with a pry bar. It took him quite a while to just punch a hole in them so he can slip his hand in and open them from the outside.

Same in T2. The Terminator doesn't even think about trying to take the steel doors. He destroys them with the grenade launcher.

Terminator Salvation's T-800 is strong enough to punch a 4"+ thick door 5 meters away with one hand without putting any effort in it. Judgment: over the top

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In the first movie, the T-800 is crushed by hydraulic press which had a pressure of 40 tons. Novelization: hydraulic press slammed down with forty tons of pressure

The T-850 holds heavier blast doors with one shoulder! Not only that, but he also manages to hold , crush and defeat the T-X with the other free hand. That's a hell of an upgrade! Most large blast doors work the same way, they're pressed by hydraulic systems. Smaller blast doors are more powerful than hydraulic press because their weight and mass is much bigger, so more powerful pumps are required to operate and control them. Those huge hangar doors alone certainly weight much more than 40 tons since blast doors are filled with concrete and steel. In addition to that, the weight has to be multiplied because of the hydraulic system pushing it down. Blast doors with the size of the regular house doors can withstand 8000 pounds per square foot. And we're talking small, thin, house sized doors here. Now look at those MASSIVE , thick hangar-like doors. Since they're blast doors, they're filled with concrete and steel AND like mentioned before, in addition to that they're pressed down by at least two hydraulic mechanisms. The weight pressure is incredible. Plus, we're talking about doors that can withstand nuclear destruction, not some small factory pressing machine.

So the T-850 can hold the blast doors with one elbow and then shoulder and easily overcome and defeat T-X with just one hand, which is puzzling. T-X was not only suppose to be a newer and much stronger model, but she was also suppose to be an anti-terminator. Yet, T-850 was too strong for her and she couldn't break free from his grip, she got her hand squashed like a bug by his hand and couldn't even pull off his one hand with her two when he was pressing and holding the power cell in her mouth. Judgment: way over the top

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In T2, T-800 had to use a crowbar to break his arm to get free. He knew his grip wasn't nearly strong enough to just break or rip his superalloy arm.

In T3, the T-850 easily breaks T-X's hand, squashing it like a bug. Not only he does that with no effort, but he's also crushing hand that was suppose to be made from even more advanced and stronger alloy! Judgment: over the top

In Terminator Salvation the T-800 snaps T-600 in half with his bare hands.

The original T-800 was knocked over by several blasts from a shotgun, and was even stunned and seriously hurt by it (hand damage). Same goes for the much much more advanced model T-1000 who was composed of even more advanced alloys. It was stunned by multiple shotgun hits from Winchester 1887  and by Series 70 slide Colt Commando CAR-15.

Also, in the first movie the T-800 was blown in half by a home made pipe bomb.

In Terminator Salvation, T-800's resistance is brought to a completely ridiculous levels. T-800 took two direct hits from a grenade launcher, with no problems other than losing its flesh concealment. He didn't even fall or lose balance, just leaned and instantly straightened up. Judgment: way over the top

Another interesting thing is how both T3 and TS contradict each other as well. Putting aside the fact that the T-800 in Salvation is even more powerful than the T-850 in T3, it took multiple grenade hits in his torso yet the power cell was unaffected.

It's also interesting that F&B Terminators can withstand a direct hit from a weapon DESIGNED to kill Terminators (T-X's Plasma Weapon) and be just knocked out by them for a minute, whereas JC Terminators can receive mild damage from small arms.

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In T2, the T-800 completely melts under molten steel in seconds. After just a secon, when his head goes under, he cease to function. And the CPU is almost in the center of his skull and is the most guarded and safest part in Terminator's body. But the enormous temperature of the molten steel melts the entire skull instantly and gets to the processor within seconds. Even the far more advanced and resistant T-1000 blows into pieces when exposed to extreme temperatures.

In Terminator Salvation, The T-800 is mostly unaffected by both molten steel and freezing. When it comes to heat treating, one interesting problem with water cooling is that the water can end up turning to steam, producing pockets of gas that make it difficult to get a proper quench, since the air bubbles act as insulators preventing the heat from bleeding from the part fast enough. There are limits to heat transfer in metals, too. The larger the metal object, the longer it takes to heat up and the longer it takes to cool down. Increasing surface area can help, which is how heat sinks do their job, but a stream of metal pouring out of an opening won't get that benefit. Most of the mass of the liquid metal is not in contact with the air, meaning the heat has to disperse throughout the part as it cools. Also, the air is going to rapidly heat up around the part. As the air heats up, the rate of transfer drops. And regardless of anything else, that metal was still glowing and it was still liquid when it hit the Terminator. That means the stuff was still thousands of degrees in temperature. And unless Skynet doesn't believe in plastics, rubber, lubricants, hydraulic fluid, copper wiring, or other non-titanium materials in the construction of a Terminator, there are a lot of parts that could fail even if the chassis doesn't.

The problem isn't so much with the Terminator not melting. But warping or other moderate damage to the surface is expected, even though rightfully, thin parts with lots of surface area should have had problems. And T-800 broke its way out of solidified metal! People can argue heat resistance all day long, but having the Terminator get trapped in the stuff while it was still solidifying, yet be able to break out after it cooled to maximum hardness is .... If Terminators are really that tough, The Terminators on the assembly line could probably just crawl out of the wreckage of the base. The "real" terminators from the original movies would have been twisted into an obelisk had it not just exploded in that situation. Judgment: over the top

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In the first movie, the car crash seriously affects and knocks out the Terminator. Novelization:  Terminator's vision dropped out first. Then all the systems in its microprocessor went off like due to the horrific impact to its hardened chassis. The impact was so strong that Reese even thought The Terminator might be destroyed: He wondered if Terminator was dead - he couldn't see the wreck from where he was. The accident on the bike seriously damages the Terminator as well. Any sane person knows the force of the impact during the accident. The fall damaged Terminator's leg and he was now walking with a limp. Also, when the truck exploded, the Terminator took serious damage to his system so much that he shut down temporarily.

In T2, the T-800 jumps of the rolling semi and hits the pavement with big impact. Such impact would total any human leg, and it damaged Terminator's leg as well. He was now walking with a limp.

In T3, The T-850 survived a massive helicopter crash and explosion with only cosmetic damage to the flesh, getting out of the wreckage instantly and even sporting a smile - "I'm Back". He was running like a healthy rabbit and could later hold the blast doors with one elbow and defeat the villain with the other hand, something of a novelty too - it was the first time the protector actually defeated the villain in the Terminator series. Before it was only the circumstances of being in the right place at the right time, never a direct battle...No damage at all. Judgment: over the top

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In T2 when the Terminators fight they affect the walls but don't break through the concrete ones. The T-800 only damaged a cinderblock wall by slamming the T-1000 into it. Even the drywall that they broke through offered some resistance. Once the T-800 is used to take down a wall and then goes through the glass, it knocks him out for a while.

In T3, the superhero Terminators go through much harder obstacles and multiple concrete walls completely unaffected. The scene resembles videogame or Superman type of a fight. Judgment: over the top

Same with Terminator Salvation where Marcus fights the T-800 and they fly around smashing into steel blocks. Marcus gets hit multiple times by a cinder block which affects him as much as fist punches.

According to the 1984's Making of The Terminator, T-800 weights 220 pounds. In fact, there's really no reason to believe a Terminator would be particularly hugely heavy. With the advancement of alloys surely they'd get lighter and stronger. Titanium for example, is much much lighter and stronger than steel.
It would make sense for a Terminator to be 'light' too, to be agile and covertly infiltrate places. It's servos and hydraulics aren't that big, so having a lot of weight would be very detrimental to overall performance. When T-800 jumps on the hood of Reese's car, he doesn't even bend it or anything like that. Another example is that the Terminator had to quietly climb up to Sarah's apartment.

There was a scene in T3 that indicated that the T-850 was very heavy for its volume. The EMT's could not even budge him. Same when he jumped on the Toyota - the roof bended over his weight. In T3 Terminators were apparently so heavy they could shatter asphalt and tile floors. Judgment: over the top

If you look at the close-up of a T-850 in T3 during the future war snippet, you'll see that the incisors are quite a bit shorter than they are on a T-800. He has baby teeth. In the original Terminator movies, the endoskull had the mold of the actual Arnold Schwarzenegger's teeth. In T:S, the entire skeleton was redesign, from subtle redesigns and shape changes of the skull, to completely different body proportions and redesigns of the body

They did get it right in Terminator Genisys

Article by Adrian Czarny

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