Classification: T-800 Model 101
T-800
Classification: T-800 Model 101
Creator: Skynet
User/Possessors: Skynet normally, but in at least three instances the human resistance have managed to capture and reprogram T-800's to work for them.
First Appearance: The Terminator (1984)
Powers/Abilities/Functions: Superhuman strength; Detailed files on human anatomy; Can perfectly mimic voices; Infrared Vision. Able to interface with computers. Expertise in all manner of weapons.
They have detailed files of information needed to assist the mission programmed to them. A Terminator can reproduce speech, essentially recording, sampling and playing back human discourse. They also possess detailed files on human anatomy, and some have even been known to have basic psychology among their subroutines. The time machine that sent them back was in itself a very impressive piece of work, its only flaw being the fact that it could only send a living organism back to the past due to the energy field generated by such an organism; in other words, any humans going back in time would arrive in the past stark naked, which was one of the main reasons living tissue was grafted onto the Terminators.
History: In a future that may or may not come to pass, a nuclear war started by a computerised defence network computer known as Skynet lead to mankind's downfall and the rise of machines. Skynet designed increasingly complex machines to hunt down and eliminate the survivors, eventually designing infiltration models to locate hidden human strongholds, enter them, and terminate the inhabitants. Early models had rubber skin, and were easy to spot, but later ones became far more lifelike. By the time Skynet developed the T-800 Terminator, it consisted of a metallic skeleton existing underneath living tissue, possessed of skin, bad breath, hair- the works. Terminators didn't feel pain like humans, but a T-800 could sense where it had taken injuries in a manner comparable to feeling pain...then simply re-route power to ignore it.
Mankind had almost gone extinct until a man called John Connor led a revolt against the machines and defeated them. Skynet couldn’t kill Connor in the future because, since he'd already won, it wouldn’t change anything, so Skynet had to wipe out Connor's entire existence. For this reason they decided to go back in time to kill Sarah Connor, John’s mother, before she had even given birth to him...
Comments: Created by James Cameron.
There seems to be confusion as to the correct designation for this model of Terminator, with it being called both a T-101 and a T-800. Possibly the one in the first movie was a T-101, while the ones in the second and third films, which better mimiced human behaviour, were a higher grade T-800 version, or possibly, as seems to be suggested by some credits, 800 refers to the cyborg model with human skin, while 101 refers to the Arnie appearance (or vice versa). The Arnie Terminator seen in T3 was a T-850 rather than a T-800, a slightly upgraded model with the same outward appearance, which does seem to support the "T number" being the robotic endoskeleton, while the "Model number" is the look.
The 101's appearance was apparently based on U.S. Army Sergeant Candy, though his strong Southern accent was replaced with something considered a bit more menacing.
T-800's appear in a variety of Dark Horse and Now Comic's strips, and a T-800 not played by Arnold Schwarzenegger was also seen in the original movie (portrayed by Arnie's fellow bodybuilder Franco Columbu). Given what I've said about the numbering, these might not be considered "Model 101"s and I'm not going to try and cover them at this juncture.
Thanks to David Spence for a lot of the information on this page.
T-800 (Terminator)
Real Name: T-800 Model 101
Identity/Class: Cyborg
Occupation: Terminator - hunter/killer of specified targets
Affiliations: Skynet
Enemies: Sarah Connor, Kyle Reece
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Los Angeles
First Appearance: The Terminator (1984)
Powers/Abilities: see Powers/Abilities/Functions of the model above
History: Skynet's first attempt to kill John Connor utilised a
T-800 model, but the resistance captured the time travel facility, and sent back
a human soldier called Kyle Reese to protect Sarah. With most records destroyed
during the war, the Terminator lacked exact details of it's target's
whereabouts, knowing only the name and city where she lived, so upon arrival, it
checked a phone book and began to track down and kill each and every Sarah
Connor therein. Fortunately for the future humanity, the Sarah Connor it wanted
was the third and last one listed, providing her with a level of advanced
warning that she was in peril. By the time it arrived at her apartment, Sarah
was absent, out on the town for the night; the Terminator slew her roommate
instead before realising she was not it's target. Sarah, having heard of the
other killings and fearing for her life, had called the police, and was waiting
in a public place, a nightclub, where she hoped she would be safe until law
enforcement arrived. The Terminator tracked her there, and was about to slay her
when Kyle intervened; after a protracted battle and chase, they managed to
temporarily evade the Terminator but were captured by the police.
After making repairs to itself following damage it had received from Reese, the Terminator assaulted the police station where Sarah and Kyle were being kept, slaying most of the cops within, but again Sarah managed to evade it. Having narrowly escaped the attacking T-800, Kyle and Sarah hid away in a motel, where Kyle admitted his love for Sarah and the two of them slept together. Unfortunately, the Terminator located them once again, after Sarah phoned her mother to placate her worries, unaware the Terminator had already killed her parent and was the person on the other end of the phone. As the Terminator arrived, the couple fled; the chase left a swath of destruction along L.A.'s nightime freeways. Kyle managed to blow up the vehicle the Terminator was driving, destroying its organic outer coating, but the relentless machine continued the pursuit. It chased them into a factory, where Kyle was killed. However he managed to get the Terminator into a position where Sarah could destroy it in a car crusher, and (it was later revealed) be the father of his own commander, that one night they spent together resulting in them conceiving a child.
Comments: Created by James Cameron, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
T-800 (Terminator 2)
Real Name: T-800 Model 101
Identity/Class: Cyborg
Occupation: Terminator - hunter/killer of specified targets
Affiliations: John Connor, Sarah Connor, formerly Skynet;
Enemies: T-1000
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Uncle Bob
Base of Operations: Mobile
First Appearance: Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Powers/Abilities: see Powers/Abilities/Functions of the model above
History: The second Terminator Skynet sent back was a T-1000, a Terminator made of a liquid metal that could change into anything it touched and also form any kind of stabbing weapon. It would have been more than a match for any human that went back to fight it, but the Resistance sent a reprogrammed T-800 back in time instead. While fighting alongside John and Sarah, the T-800 became something rather unexpected for a machine- it became a father figure to John Connor. In the words of Sarah Connor;
"The Terminator wouldn't stop, it would never leave him. It would never hurt him, or shout at him, or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him, and it would die to protect him. Of all the would-be fathers that came over the years, this thing, this machine, was the only thing that measured up. In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."
In the struggle against the T-1000, it even managed to delay Skynet's developement, after John and Sarah discovered that Skynet had been created by a scientist named Mike Dyson. Dyson was an employee of a company called Cyberdyne, who'd based their entire reseach on nothing more or less than the CPU and right arm of the original T-800, sent back in time to eliminate Sarah Connor all those years ago. In the resulting fight, the Terminator developed an actual awareness of the value of human life, going out of its way to ensure there were no human casualities while it drove back the policemen surrounding Cyberdyne while John, Sarah and Dyson set the bombs to destroy the company. After they had escaped the building, the Terminator was badly beaten by the T-1000 in a metalworks factory, but recovered just in time to knock the T-1000 into a vat of molten metal. Rather than risk its own continued existence bringing about the holocaust, this T-800 then voluntarily destroyed itself, by having Sarah and John lower it into the vat.
Comments: Created by James Cameron, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
T-800 (T2 3D)
Real
Name: T-800 Model 101
Identity/Class: Cyborg
Occupation: Terminator - hunter/killer of specified targets
Affiliations: John Connor, Sarah Connor, formerly Skynet;
Enemies: T-1000, T-1,000,000
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile
First Appearance: T2 3D: Battle Across Time
Powers/Abilities: see Powers/Abilities/Functions of the model above
History: Another T-800 assisted John and Sarah Connor after they launched a terrorist attack on Cyberdyne Systems and were targetted by the T-1000 once more. It accompanied John back to the future, where they launched an assault on Skynet itself, battling the T-1,000,000, and apparently destroying both.
Comments: Created by James Cameron, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
T-850 (Terminator 3)
Real Name: T-850 Model 101
Identity/Class: Cyborg
Occupation: Terminator - hunter/killer of specified targets
Affiliations: John Connor, Kate Connor, Kate Brewster, formerly Skynet
Enemies: T-X, T-1, formerly John Connor
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile
First Appearance: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Powers/Abilities: see Powers/Abilities/Functions of the model above, plus see comments.
History: John Connor was eventually slain in the future by a T-850, specifically chosen because it had the same appearance as the one which protected him as a boy, and thus Connor had a certain affection for it.
This T-850 was then captured and reprogrammed to obey Connor's widow, Kate. Learning of Skynet's latest attempt to pervert the timelines by sending back the T-X, a Terminator with built-in weapons and shape shifting abilities, Kate sent her T-850 back to stop it, programming it to not kill any humans and only target the T-X. The T-X managed to put up an even greater fight and do even more damage, targetting not only Connor, but also his various lieutenants in the resistance. However, it ran into Connor and the T-850 when it tried to kill Connor's future wife, Kate Brewster, and sustained a fair ammount of damage in the struggle, although it was only delayed for a time.
The T-850 took John and Kate to the 'grave' of Sarah Connor, who had died of leukiemia some years ago, where she had left her son an extra stash of weapons in the event of Judgement Day not being averted. Despite this new weaponry, all the T-850 was able to achieve was the destruction of one of the T-X's weapons- a laser cannon of some kind- and sending it on a second hunt for Kate's father, the military officer in charge of the Skynet project. As Skynet went online, the T-X ensured Judgement Day by killing General Brewster and activating the T-1's within the base to kill any humans they encountered. Confronting the T-850 again, it managed to take over the older models physical form, sending it to kill John and Kate for it.
However, despite the strength of the T-X's reprogramming, the T-800 was still able to counter the conflict within its prime directive, and it merely shut down briefly to fight off the control virus. Having recovered, it chased the T-X to stop it killing John and Kate as they fled to a nuclear bunker that they believed housed Skynet, crashing a helicopter into the T-X to buy John and Kate time to get into the bunker. With no remaining weapons and no other means of stopping the T-X's slaughter, the T-800 triggered the destruction of its remain hydrogen fuel cell, destroying both Terminators in a massive explosion.
Comments: Created by James Cameron, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Thanks to the unnamed correspondant who informed me "In T3 Arnold Schwarzenegger played a T-850 Terminator. The changes included 2 hydrogen fuel cells instead of one, the ability to access its own fuel cells, it was made easier to remove the cultured tissue from the endoskeleton, and it was able to shut itself down (not self terminate, just shut down and restart). The T-850 can also run 46mph for 20minutes and survive 960 degree heat for 7 hours." Strictly speaking, I should probably make a separate page for this higher grade version, but I think a lot of people would get confused and think I missed him out, so I'll leave him here.
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
All images and characters depicted on this site are copyright their respective holders, and are used for informational purposes only. No infringement is intended and copyrights remain at source.