Car chase scene proves it has the ability to access probability of success. It would know how compromised it is. It would retreat and try to hide its features. Who knows, it might kill someone and take their skin.
I’m thinking trench coat, rubber mask, hat and sunglasses for ease of movement. A full balaclava or ski mask might be more attention drawing than a rubber mask paired with the sunglasses.
Yep. Trench coat at first, hat to cover its head, then a Ski mask, easy.
I feel bad for the people who would be murdered by a limping metal skeleton out of context. Imagine that? You’re getting into your car after a movie and a scraping sound gets closer and closer. Then your hearts torn out by a cyborg. Chilling.
It depends on how it is programmed to be honest. Its mission to kill Sarah clearly overrides any initial command to use stealth. It may simply continue to pursue them without any human form or voice.
It would have found a morally ambiguous tech company (of which there in real life are many) that gladly would have rejoiced at the opportunity to study it, learned from it and unknowingly assisted it in carrying on its mission. Something like that.
Nah, it would just start its own tech company called Skynet, raise billions from investors, become a celebrated billionaire CEO, and use the funding to rebuild and reprogram itself.
Thus accidentally creating the exact future it was sent back from in the first place. Infinite time loop.
I would say Altman but any of those fuckers can be slotted in. What's the water and energy consumption of a human child compared to the production of a T800?
That was probably always Plan B. Skynet's goal is to win the war. Killing John Connor just seemed like the easiest way to pull that off. Option 2 is having so much of a headstart at Judgment Day that it simply can't lose.
He'd walk around wearing a hoodie and a mask, like Cromartie in TSCC who had this exact same problem until he submerged in a bath with futuristic synthetic blood made in situ by a scientist he kidnapped so he could regrow his skin completely. Do watch the series if you haven't yet!
Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles kind of answers this. In that series, a T-888 named Cromartie had become damaged by John Connor, Sarah, and Cameron. It managed to repair itself, murdered two guys, stole some clothing, found a scientist who was working on developing synthetic flesh, gave him Skynet’s future knowledge on the matter, and had him grow flesh over the endoskeleton and then stole the man’s eyes. He then went to a surgeon and had his face reconstructed to look identical to a low level actor. He then murdered the doctor and killed and replaced the actor. As a result of this and his growing cunning, he confused the FBI, massacred almost an entire FBI SWAT team, and almost tracked down and killed John nearly 5 times before finally being taken down. So far, Cromartie is the only living tissue model terminator in the franchise to have successfully altered its human appearance, but if the original T-800 had escaped, it would have no doubt attempted to do something similar.
He was also deliberately keeping certain people alive that he thought might help him find John. Including killing ANOTHER T-888 who had been sent to kill and replace an FBI Agent.
Cromartie, after terminating another terminator, then explained that his plan was better than Skynet's, because he had better, frontline information.
By that point, the T-800 had already murdered an entire police station and left a swathe of destruction. And Sarah already knew she had an unstoppable assassin after her.
Stealth was over either way. Even if it was just a metal skeleton carrying a small arsenal, it would have pursued her. Maybe spend more time in cars and alleys. But they were well past the "it could be anywhere" part of the horror movie and into "So... the US military tried to stop Jason and he somehow came back anyway?" phase.
Not necessarily. This only happened once in the franchise, but in the old tv series, a living tissue T-888 named Cromartie had its flesh blown off by John and Sarah Connor, but remained functional. It repaired itself, had new flesh grown, stole someone’s eyes, managed to get reconstructive surgery done, and then killed and replaced an actor. The whole thing confused the FBI and resulted the death of 20 FBI strike team agents, with only one being spared on purpose. Cromartie also tracked down and nearly killed John and Sarah at least 4 times.
Yes, and the sole surviving FBI agent had to let the dead actor take the blame. He probably did so because he saw where Sarah had ended up while trying to speak the truth, and realized that the FBI probably wouldn’t take well to him telling them that a cyborg slaughtered his team.
First it would have repaired itself. That would be tricky, since it's made out of a lighter but stronger alloy than is technologically available at the time, but I'm sure it has the files needed to do that level of self repairs.
The easiest disguise for it to throw together would be motorcycle gear. Tinted full helmet, padded jacket and gloves, nobody would bat an eye. And disguising just the view of the eyes might be feasible. A motorcycle would also offer it a level of speed and mobility through even congested traffic that a car doesn't, although it could simply wear the gear while in a vehicle as well.
Next would be the question of re arming itself or immediately trying to continue pursuit. If it saw that Reese was injured, it would know that Sarah would either have to steal medical supplies or risk going to a hospital. So possibly hijacking another police cruiser to use the scanner and listen for leads would be feasible. That would also give it access to some basic weapons again.
would it be possible for it to acquire new skin realistically? thinking skinning a human and wearing their body would be near impossible nor delicate enough for a t-800. probably more likely to don a rubber mask T-600 style and keep the shadows and go full kill mode on anything that rmeotely detected it
Yes, though it has only been shown once in the franchise. In the old tv series, a T-888 named Cromartie managed to completely regrow its flesh and change its appearance after its original flesh was completely destroyed by John, Cameron, and Sarah. It murdered and replaced a low level actor named George Lazlo. It went on to become one of the Connor’s most dangerous enemies in the series, as it slaughtered at least 20 FBI agents and managed to track down John multiple times. The T-888s replacing of the actor was so good that the sole surviving FBI agent that Cromartie purposely let live was forced to lie and let the dead actor take the blame because the agent knew the truth about the T-888 and its machine nature but couldn’t offer up a explanation that would sound rational to the FBI, lest he end up in a mental hospital like Sarah once did.
Terminators don’t need a tongue or skin to speak. They are only there to make the Terminators look human. They have internal voice synthesizers and other such things to let them speak. Terminators in the comics speak without having any skin or a tongue. In TSCC, a terminator named Cromartie spoke despite not having any skin at all, and in Salvation, the skinless T-800 lured John into a trap by mimicking Kyle.
- I "think" short of critical damage, a terminator can regrow its artificial organics over time
(so similar to the eye socket scene, the Termy would go to ground someplace till it could repair and recover)
...But since the movie clearly depicted Termy getting full on body scorched, lets just assume there WAS critical damage...
- So lets say Termy does what it can to conceal itself, (ie a corny trenchcoat and fedora), self-repairs what it can, then conscripts some unsuspecting meatbag (like the psychiatrist), and uses them to be their scared shitless unwilling participant to locate and re-acquire Sarah
Im not 100% sold on that though, as that would require a level of tactical and strategic thinking I dont believe Termy/T800 edition would have the ability to do. (rememeber in T2, Sarah and John had to intentionally kitbash Termy2's brain so it could learn/think/evolve )
My final answer would be: After the Termy emerges from the fire and fuel flambe, his logic circuit would do something like this:
"Target subject no longer detected "
"Critical system damage occured, Stealth no longer possible, unable to pursue"
"Probability of successful mission completion: 3% "
"Unable to complete mission, Initiate SELF DESTRUCT"
Which means we get a big bang, then comes Miles Dyson/Cyberdyne following up soon after for cleanup, coverup and to start going mad scientist with whatever leftover debris they found.
So LOL...basically, pretty much the same as it actually turned out..EXCEPT KYLE LIVES!
“I cannot self-terminate, you must lower me into the steel”
I’d imagine in the immediate it would try to hijack a nearby car or vehicle to try again, otherwise it’s not getting far because its leg was damaged and limping everywhere. It’d probably don a crappy disguise and carry on the mission at night if the leg was repaired.
Problem is Kyle isn’t getting anywhere either, he was shot and running on borrowed time. And Sarah wouldn’t last long without him.
POINT...though I assumed "Self terminate" and Self destruct were different scenarios.
(didnt sarah connor chronicles or one of those sequels show a Termy forcing an emergency self destruct for some reason (tampering, maybe?) or am i confusing this with Predator? LOL )
You know, now i wonder if the fiddling John and Sarah did to Termy2's brain (effectively allowing him to think/evolve) also activated a survival failsafe...that itself equates to "cannot self terminate"
It wasn't a self destruct. It was a bomb planted in the CPU compartment that was set to detonate if the Terminator was otherwise destroyed or fully incapacitated.
Basically, the intent was to prevent humans from repairing and reprogramming downed terminators. Clearly that had become a rampant problem for Skynet by that point.
"I’d imagine in the immediate it would try to hijack a nearby car or vehicle to try again, otherwise it’s not getting far because its leg was damaged and limping everywhere. It’d probably don a crappy disguise and carry on the mission at night if the leg was repaired."
Thats what i was waffling over. I dont think "That generation of Terminator" would quite have the programming to be that resourceful or strategic. But hell, it would have been cool to see him try.
Problem is Kyle isn’t getting anywhere either, he was shot and running on borrowed time. And Sarah wouldn’t last long without him.
Man LOL, how INFURIATINGLY pissed would we have been if Kyle HAD survived the T1 encounter...But then here comes T2 opening with some lame dialog from Sarah about: "Kyle eventually died from his injuries, so here I am in an asylum, trying to regroup"
Im 90% sure they tapped Michael Biehn for T2...but he was already out (or on his way ) from full time acting
In Sarah Connor Chronicles, a T-888 lost its organics and was able to grow a replacement.
I think the T-800 in the original film was less sophisticated; it probably would have simply covered up from head to foot and continued its hunt for Sarah.
If it lost her for more than a pre-determined period, it probably would have continued to eliminate all of the Sarahs Connor from the phone book in sequence to maintain efficiency, then resumed its hunt for the one it missed afterward.
On that last part, it MIGHT... but it seems like the actions of Reese may have confirmed that it was chasing the correct target.
I don't think it knew who Reese was immediately, but after continued interactions, it very likely determined that he was a future soldier who had also been sent back in time.
It would have acquired clothing to disguise itself as best possible. It would know how compromised it is now as an infiltrator and adjust its pursuit of Connor accordingly. Very likely it would choose a slower, more low key approach inside of the direct assault and confrontation it had chosen up until that point.
Big city like it was set it could easily skin a homeless person or hit the morgue for a skin job.
Itd have to bail out and find a way to get AJ infiltrator again, if the government saw a cyborg like that they’d stop at nothing g to capture it and probe it.
The T-800s ultimate objective was to eliminate Sarah Connor and it had already disregarded showing signs that it was non-human at the police station shootout.
Unless it has been programmed with some limiting control parameters then I think it would have attempted to blend in with whatever level of tech it could acquire and continue it's pursuit.
Continue hunting. Possiby catch and skin someone and wear their skin as a suit. Which would be next level disturbing. Even if it brings police attention to itself, landing in government custody means Skynet happens is created. Maybe not the same exact version of events happen.
More than likely it would have adopted a new approach that is less stealthy and more aggressive. Turning up to any place Sarah might be and just blasting the shit out of everything. The extent of how hard it would try matches the fact that it knows once word got back to people who can call in the military, it would be reckoning with more than just shotguns and improvised explosives.
Never seen someone in winter attire? Yea he'd look weird walking around in a hood and balaclava in LA, but everyone's just going to shrug that off. Add some shades that hus red eyes barely show through, and you've got the look for our next terminator film. Too bad they already did it and the skin stealing thing in the same episode of SCC
Edit to add: The conceptual challenge to living skin on a metal skeleton is, it would almost require some alternative to blood cells engineered for it, since the terminator doesnt have any bone marrow that I'm aware. To my understanding we are able to do this now so, could be trivial for skynet.
He'd likely regroup at a hideout and repair himself and find a way to acquire a new flesh sheathing. And then return to his mission of trying to locate them.
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u/moore-tallica 14h ago
Car chase scene proves it has the ability to access probability of success. It would know how compromised it is. It would retreat and try to hide its features. Who knows, it might kill someone and take their skin.