We still wouldnt know. Did you know which one is a terminator when that group walked in? I bet no one did. We all saw a bunch of men in rags



Yet Reese didnt spot T-800 in TechNoir and Columbu made its way to the base



Bodybuilders or not we couldnt tell. Check Columbu for example. I dont care one way or another but if we were never showed a normally sized man as a terminator then I believe in Skynet's by-the-anatomy-book thinking



But we were still shown only bodybuilders



They wouldnt be big because if we go by Skynet's reasoning theyd be slim and sexy



It doesnt. But Skynet created men in which you can see every muscle making them too perfect. Too good

I kind of figured it out about five seconds in, when the Terminator shoved people out of the way and pulled out a gun less than two seconds after entering the shot. Because of its actions, it was clearly recognizable as a Terminator even before I got a good look at it. All of its infiltration happened off-screen, so we really only see the Terminator in assault mode. And it is a bit different in T1 since nobody really knew what to expect yet. Nobody thought all Terminator looked like bodybuilders, because nobody had seen Terminators prior to that movie. But if people have their way and all Terminators look like bodybuilders, then that's going to add an element of predictability that wasn't present in the first movie.


I'm still talking about the audience. Kyle wasn't part of the audience.


If we can't tell they're bodybuilders, then I see no need to specifically cast bodybuilders. And Skynet wasn't going with by-the anatomy-book thinking, because a bodybuilder physique is rather unnatural. People don't end up with bodies like that without undergoing very specific physical and dietary routines. It doesn't make sense to me for Skynet to pick a physical template that is substantially different from almost every single human specimen Skynet has had access to. But regardless of all that, the fact that we see two bulky Terminator models doesn't mean that leaner models couldn't exist. We were never given an in-fiction reason why less bulky Terminators couldn't be built. The assumption that all Terminators are huge is fan speculation. Between James Cameron's description of the original concept and comments made about the casting of Arnold, there's plenty of room to embrace the original concept. The casting of Arnold did not cross some point of no return.


James Cameron really screwed up then by giving us the T-1000. Not only was it a lean guy instead of a bodybuilder, but it wasn't a metal skeleton with living tissue on it. You'd think the guy who wrote the story would have figured out that all Terminators should be the same. But if he's willing to throw away a two-bodybuilder trend by giving us something different, then I say embrace the idea, at least a little. Let's have more Terminators that defy the stereotype. Let's have Terminators that don't look like they have lifetime gym memberships. Lets have Terminators that can surprise the audience.


Skynet's reasoning has never been firmly established, and that logic completely ignores the artistic reasons behind hiring Arnold. Anyway, how sexy is a female Terminator going to be with matted hair, a dirty face, and covered in rags? It's not like they'll be wearing eyeshadow, lipstick, red nail polish, and evening gowns. Considering that one stereotype for attractive women is a thin figure, that's actually pretty consistent with what happens to people who don't eat a lot.


So that means that Skynet cannot learn from its mistakes? Kyle Reese's testimony in T1 establishes that Skynet has the ability and willingness to improve upon a product. All of Skynet's machines were HK's, until it added Terminators to its arsenal. Skynet's most advanced infiltrators had rubber skin, until Skynet developed living tissue. Living tissue was state-of-the-art, until Skynet developed mimetic polyalloy. Skynet ultimately created a Terminator model that could flawlessly mimic any individual down to the most minute detail. Why would Skynet be able to do that, yet be unable to make incremental improvements to lesser technology that it already created?

So you figured it out because of his actions, not his appearance. You didnt go 'look! that one is a terminator!' despite his ripped body. The audience couldnt tell and neither the survivors



But they were cast. Skynet put together a man that would have every muscle visible because it didnt occur to him that not every man is perfectly built



And it is known that Skynet is not familiar with something called individuality



T-1000's appearance was still overdoing the perfection but in a different way. Cameron described him as a Porsche



Why would it need to change anything? Terminators were very successfull

Endoskeletons tall are and big, so if you cover it with flesh it will not look like a twig

Even if we assume that to be true, the biggest people I've ever met didn't have chiseled, muscular physiques.

How do a couple of examples establish what the entirety of Skynet's machine army is like, anyway? Do all Terminators look like Franco Columbu and Arnold Schwarzenegger? We've never seen any other models within the T-800 series, so clearly those are the only two models Skynet is capable of making. There's no way a Terminator could look like Sylvester Stallone for instance, because we've never seen one like that in any of the movies.

yeah but T-800s have various sizes (check Columbu) and different shapes. For example, 102 model will have a different teeth and skull shape, assuming from what Rosengrant said

Yep. If people are going to insist that Terminators must all be hulking machines because they were played by bodybuilders, then they'd also better be prepared to accept endoskeletons that are less than 5'5" tall.

It would be so cool to see models other than 101. Columbu is not enough, Im starving for more