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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
at popapostle-dot-com
Terminator
Judgment Day
Movie
Written by James Cameron and William Wisher
Directed by James Cameron
Released in 1991

 

Another 101 model Terminator is sent back in time...by John Connor to protect his own younger self.

 

Read the story summary of the film at the Terminator Wiki.

 

Didja Know?

 

This study is based on the Terminator 2: Judgment Day Extreme DVD, which includes previously deleted scenes reinserted by director James Cameron.

 

The title Judgment Day is a reference to the foretold judgment of God upon the people of the Earth believed in by the Abrahamic religions (also referred to as the Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, etc.).

 

This movie is the first film appearance of John Connor (he previously appeared--as a blond man--in the Terminator comic books published by NOW Comics starting in issue #12, "Night Convoy"). He is briefly seen at the beginning of the film as an adult in 2029, portrayed by Michael Edwards. Edward Furlong plays the 10-year old John through the rest of the film (though in Sarah's dream sequence, a toddler that is presumably meant to be John was Linda Hamilton's own son, Dalton Abbott). In Rise of the Machines, 19-year old John is portrayed by Nick Stahl and Christian Bale plays 34-year old John in Salvation. In yet another timeline, a 15-year old John is played by Thomas Dekker in the Terminator TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

 

Linda Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie, appears in the film as both a mirror reflection (in the scene where Sarah and John remove and activate the learning function on the T-800's CPU) and near the end when the T-1000 emulates Sarah while the real Sarah comes up behind him.

 

James Cameron made a point that John Connor, because he is a child, would never be seen pointing a gun at anybody throughout the film.

 

There is a fair amount of discrepancy in evidence as to what year the story takes place. John's police record states he was born on 2/28/85 and that he is ten years old, making the current year 1995. But the novelization states it is 1992. And remarks by the T-800 suggest it is 1994 (he says he was sent back from 35 years in the future, which we know was 2029, so his year of arrival would be 1994; he also states that Cyberdyne becomes the nation's largest supplier of military computer systems "in three years" and that Skynet goes online in 1997, again making the current year 1994.)

 

Didja Notice?

 

At 0:35 on the DVD, a Suzuki motor vehicle is seen on the streets of L.A.

 

At 0:59 on the DVD, a burned-out Volkswagen Beetle is seen in the post-holocaust scene of L.A. after Judgment Day.

 

In the prologue of the film, Sarah Connor states in her voiceover that Judgment Day (when Skynet caused the nuclear war that ended most of humankind) occurred on August 29, 1997. She states the lives of 3 billion people ended that day. (In 1997, the world population of human beings is estimated at about 5.8 billion.) Reese must have told her the date of Judgment Day in an off-camera scene in The Terminator, for a date is never revealed in the film or novelization.

 

The Terminators in the opening future war scenes carry the fictitious Westinghouse M95A1 Phased Plasma Rifle.

 

The shot of the adult John Connor scanning the battlefield in 2029 at 3:23 on the DVD has him almost moving like a Terminator himself with the way his head and eyes flick around in an almost mechanical fashion to take in the battle around him.

 

Adult John has a network of scars on the left side of his face. Filmwise, it's not until the events of Salvation that we see how he got them, though in the novel Rising Storm, he gets the scars from the attack of a machine-controlled seal!

 

The post-apocalypse playground in the opening scenes appears to be the same one from Sarah's visions later in the film.

 

The opening monolog of the movie by Sarah Connor ends with, "The computer which controlled the machines, Skynet, sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the human resistance, John Connor, my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me in the year 1984, before John was born. It failed. The second was set to strike at John himself when he was still a child. As before, the resistance was able to send a lone warrior, a protector for John. It was just a question of which one of them would reach him first." This nicely leads the viewer, assuming they've seen the first Terminator movie, into believing that this sequel is merely aping its progenitor, with another Schwarzenegger model Terminator striking at John and another human warrior sent to protect him. And the arrival scenes in 1995 reinforce it. But the film soon turns the cliché of "sequelitis" on its ear.

 

The truck that pulls out of the bar parking lot at 6:34 on the DVD has Michelin Pilot XZA tires.

 

At 6:43 on the DVD, a Dunkin' Donuts cup is among the litter displaced by the wind of the impending chronoport arrival.

 

When the sphere of time displacement appears behind the parked semis at 7:08 on the DVD, the semi-trailer on the right-hand side is obviously a different one, as the license plate disappears, a yellow sticker on it disappears, and the contours of the trailer doors change. Also note that the driver's side rear tires of the trailer have been cleaved by the time sphere, yet they don't appear to have lost air pressure!

 

The bar the T-800 enters is called the Corral. The novel reveals it is in Acton, California (a town in Los Angeles County).

 

As the T-800 approaches the bar, he scans the vehicles parked in front as potential transportation. The computerized POV identifies the motorcycles (from left-to-right on the screen) as a Model 435 Harley-Davidson, Model 236 Yamaha, two Model 956 Harley-Davidsons, Model 382 Harley-Davidson Fatboy (this is the motorcycle the T-800 later takes), and Model 382 Harley-Davidson Electroglide (sic, should be Electra Glide). The car is identified as a Model 453GT Plymouth sedan, but it is actually a Ford LTD Crown Victoria. The same car appears on the freeway during the van/helicopter chase at 2:02:22 on the DVD! The sedan has the California license plate 2BRI564; this same plate has since been in other Hollywood productions on different cars (such as 2011's We Bought a Zoo and the 2008 TV series My Own Worst Enemy).

 

The information presented on screen in the T-800 POV shots is much more relevant to the actual scene than the mostly computer gibberish seen on these occasions in The Terminator.

 

As the T-800 enters the bar, the song playing on the jukebox is Dwight Yoakam's 1986 song "Guitars, Cadillacs".

 

At 8:01 on the DVD, a sign for Miller Lite beer is seen, as well as a bottle of Captain Morgan rum. The light fixture over the pool table in the foreground (and one in the background) at 8:17 is also an advertisement for Miller Lite.

 

As the T-800 scans the men in the bar to find one wearing clothing in a size that would fit him, the computer readout of the individual's somatotype is shown: ectomorph, mesomorph, or endomorph. These designations represent body types: slim, muscular, or chunky. This particular T-800, being a model 101, would want to find clothing on a tall, mesomorphic, male specimen.

 

At 8:14 on the DVD, a neon Pepsi sign is seen. A Pepsi soda dispenser is also seen behind the grill bar a few seconds later.

 

A Silver Bullet neon sign is seen in the background at 8:17 on the DVD. "Silver Bullet" is a nickname and marketing campaign for Coors Light beer, based on the silver color of the can.

 

At 8:19 on the DVD, a neon sign for Miller High Life beer is seen.

 

At 8:22 on the DVD, a Budweiser neon sign is seen.

 

At 8:26 on the DVD, a waitress is wearing a t-shirt for Willie and Family Live Tour 79. Willie and Family Live was a live double album by Willie Nelson, released in 1978.

 

When the biker blows cigar smoke into the T-800's face at 8:59 on the DVD, notice that the computer POV readout shows the smoke as a carcinogen vapor. A carcinogen is a substance linked with causing cancer.

 

It seems odd that the T-800 does not kill anyone during the confrontation at the Corral bar, seeing as how young John has not yet met him to give him the order not to kill anybody. It may be that in the present situation, the programming of the T-800 tells it that killing a human at this point would be likely to bring local law enforcement into the picture which it can't afford right now.

 

If you use frame-advance as the biker stabs the T-800 (about 9:19 on the DVD), you can see that the knife is just a rubber prop as it bends against Arnold's chest! Also notice that the knife strikes just above his right nipple, but when he enters the kitchen just seconds later, the minor injury seen is significantly below it.

 

At 9:27 on the DVD, a man in the background is wearing a Harley-Davidson t-shirt. The woman's t-shirt appears to read "Good Guys".

 

At 9:35 on the DVD, a jug of Formula 409 cleaner and can of Calumet is seen in the background. Calumet baking powder is currently made by Kraft Foods.

 

At 9:42 on the DVD, a box for Miller Genuine Draft beer is seen behind the fallen biker.

 

The gun the T-800 takes from the biker is a Colt .45.

 

At 10:03 on the DVD, as the T-800 leaves the bar, notice that the man the T-800 threw out the bar window is still lying on the hood of the car on which he landed. (Although notice at 10:46 that the man has now disappeared!)

 

The song that plays as the T-800 leaves the bar in his new clothes is "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers, from 1982.

 

Why does the T-800 bother to take the sunglasses from the bartender? In The Terminator, that T-800 had a reason to wear sunglasses because it had lost its human eye in a firefight and needed to cover up the robotic, red, glowing eye thus revealed. But here, it makes no real sense, other than the audience has come to think of the Terminator as wearing sunglasses, due to the popularity of that first film.

 

The novel identifies the owner of the Corral as Lloyd. The shotgun the T-800 takes from him as the cyborg leaves the bar is a 10-gage Winchester; however, the interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD states it is a 12-guage Winchester 87.

 

At 11:11 on the DVD, the police car appears to be a Chevrolet. The novelization reveals the cop's name to be Joe "Lucky" Austin. (The interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD reveals that the "Austin" name was in honor of T2 co-producer Stephanie Austin.) He reports back to dispatch that he is investigating an electrical disturbance under the Sixth Street Bridge at Santa Fe. The reference to Santa Fe Avenue indicates he is on the west side of the Los Angeles River, which flows under the Sixth Street Bridge.

 

Los Angeles police normally travel in twos, not singly as seen here. The novelization reveals that Austin's partner came down sick with food poisoning during roll call and there hadn't been time to get a replacement.

 

The novelization reveals Austin is carrying a Beretta 9mm pistol. The T-1000 soon takes it. This model of pistol has actually been used by the LAPD at times.

 

After commandeering a police car, the T-1000 uses the car's computer terminal to look up John Connor in the Juvenile Automated Index. It lists his birth date as 2/28/85. We also see a list of his past offenses; the code numbers listed actually do conform closely to the police codes used for various crimes. The Juvenile Automated Index is maintained by Los Angeles and lists juveniles ages 14-17 who have been a ward or dependent of the court. Since John is only 10 years old at the time, he would not actually be listed in it. The novelization reveals the terminal to be an Electro-Com MDT-870. MDT stands for Mobile Data Terminal. I've been unable to independently confirm this particular brand and model of the terminal, but the interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD states it also.

 

John is listed as living with guardians Todd and Janelle Voight at 19828 S. Almond Avenue, Reseda (the last two letters of the city are off the screen, but the novelization confirms it is the community of Reseda in the city of Los Angeles). However, the address listed does not exist in the real Reseda; there is no Almond Avenue running through it.

 

The novelization reveals that John's young friend is named Tim and he's two years older than John, though John is the leader of the two.

 

The song playing in the background as John and his friend work on the dirt bike at 13:00 on the DVD is "You Could Be Mine" by Guns N' Roses. The song also plays during a portion of the end credits. (It's also played by John on a boom box, in an homage to this film, in Salvation.) In the novelization, the boys are listening to the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" instead. The interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD reveals that John's dirt bike is a Honda XR100 (the novelization states that John's dirt bike is a 1990 Honda 125).

 

The car parked in the Voights' driveway may be a 1970's model Pontiac Trans Am.

 

Young John is wearing a Public Enemy t-shirt throughout the film. Public Enemy is a hip-hop group that started in 1985 and is still performing today. It's possible the band's t-shirt was used due to the presence of the band member called Terminator X. It may also be intended as an ironic gag that John Connor, who will grow up to be the savior of humanity, is wearing a shirt labeled "public enemy". John's friend may be wearing an L.A. Guns t-shirt, but I've not been able to positively identify it.

 

The boom box carried by John's friend Tim appears to be a Sony CFS-213.

 

Sarah is depicted as being confined to Pescadero State Hospital. While the town of Pescadero is real (a very tiny town about 45 miles south of San Francisco), there is no state mental hospital there. Possibly the name was used to suggest Atascadero State Hospital, though it is an all-male hospital. The novelization states that Pescadero is an all-female hospital.

 

Dr. Silberman states that Sarah is suffering from acute schizoaffective disorder. This is an actual mental disorder featuring symptoms of psychosis and abnormal emotional response. Dr. Silberman was previously seen as an LAPD psychiatric advisor in The Terminator.

 

Sarah asks Dr. Silberman, "How's the knee?" and he tells his students that she stabbed him the knee with his pen a few weeks ago. But later in the film, it's implied that she's been well-behaved for the past six months, wanting to see her son again. How can stabbing her psychiatrist in the knee be accepted as part of being well-behaved?

 

Dr. Silberman tells Douglas to make sure Sarah is taking her Thorazine. Thorazine is the brand name of chlorpromazine in the U.S., an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia.

 

Sarah refers to Douglas as "Dougie".

 

As the T-1000 visits the Voight household and asks about John, notice that the family dog (actually John's dog Max) is barking frantically in the background. As revealed in previous Terminator stories, dogs are able to sniff out Terminators.

 

Does the T-1000 know who the Voights are talking about when they tell him a "big guy on a bike" came around earlier looking for John. It almost seems like he does, but the reprogrammed T-800 was sent by the resistance after he was.

 

At 17:47 on the DVD, John is using his hacking skills to steal money from a Federal Security Bank ATM. This appears to be a fictional bank.

 

A restored scene of Reese visiting Sarah in a dream appears at 19:10 on the DVD. Reese repeats the phrase "On your feet, soldier," used by Sarah in The Terminator, to her. He also repeats a phrase from the message he delivered to her for John, "stronger than you ever thought you could be".

 

The skyline in the background of Sarah's holocaust vision is that of Los Angeles.

 

At 23:55 on the DVD, Sarah is smoking a cigarette which the novelization reveals is a Marlboro she convinced one of the attendants to give her.

 

Notice that the computer graphic in the Cyberdyne lab at 25:23 on the DVD is of the T-800 processor chip. A large-scale physical model of the chip is seen seconds later as the camera pans across the lab.

 

At 25:31 on the DVD, an inflatable dinosaur (a sauropod) is seen in the Cyberdyne lab. A toy of a spiked prehistoric synapsid is also seen on top of a computer monitor at 25:43.

 

At 25:40 on the DVD, the lab assistant is carrying a can of Pepsi balanced on his clipboard. At 30:23, an employee at the Galleria mall is also seen carrying a Pepsi. And a Pepsi vending machine is seen in the back corridor of the mall at 30:25 and in Pescadero State Hospital at 51:36. It seems likely that Pepsi was a product-placement sponsor of the film.

 

At 25:43 on the DVD, one of the lab workers at Cyberdyne has a sticker on the side of his computer monitor reading, "My other computer is a Macintosh."

 

At 26:10 on the DVD, notice that Cyberdyne does not appear to have very good clean room procedures. Dyson is allowed to walk straight into the clean room, among geared-up workers, without any kind of clean gear himself!

 

When Sarah loses it during her review with Dr. Silberman, he orders 10 cc's of sodium amobarbital for her. Sodium amobarbital is a sedative with some hypnotic properties.

 

The girls the T-1000 speaks to at 28:29 on the DVD are carrying drinks in Subway soda cups (what do you want to bet the cups are filled with Pepsi?). The novelization reveals that the girls are stopped by the T-1000 in front of the Subway sandwich shop. The girls tell him that John was headed for the Galleria (the novelization refers to it as the Reseda Galleria); this seems to be a fictional shopping mall, but it was shot at the real world Santa Monica Place. (At 28:43 on the DVD, the words "Monica" and "Mall" can be seen in the background on the wall of the parking garage.)

 

The motorcycle seen in the parking garage at the Galleria at 28:42 on the DVD appears to be a 1991 Kawasaki GPZ 500S.

 

As John and Tim visit the video arcade at the mall, the following real world video games are seen: Rampage, Missile Command, After Burner, Trog, Arch Rivals, Space Invaders, and Hit the Ice. It's ironic that John is seen playing Missile Command, as the game depicts a nuclear war scenario.

 

At 30:00 on the DVD, a boy at the video arcade is wearing a shirt that appears to say something about "Zero Gravity" sport. Not sure what that is referring to.

 

At 30:29 on the DVD, John seems to recognize the T-800 approaching him. It's probable his mother showed him video or stills of the T-800 from police cameras as it assaulted the police station in 1984 in The Terminator. (This is confirmed in the novelization.)

 

The T-800's hiding of a shotgun inside a box of long-stemmed roses may have been inspired by a similar scene in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 film, The Killing.

 

At 31:22 on the DVD, we see that the police officer's name badge "worn" by the T-1000 is "Austin", from the name of the cop he killed, though he does not look like that cop.

 

If you freeze-frame at about 31:31 on the DVD, it can be seen that there is already a hole in the wall in the spot into which the T-1000 is bashed.

 

At 31:42 on the DVD, the two Terminators have crashed through a wall of the Galleria, into a menswear store. A sign for Hero Cologne is seen. This is a real world men's cologne made by Prince Matchabelli (though the interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD states the cologne was from Brut).

 

There's a nice joke about the T-1000's real look when he looks at the store mannequin at 31:48 on the DVD.

 

At 32:01 on the DVD, notice that a bystander is taking automatic shots of the T-800 with his Pentax camera as the cyborg rises after his crash through the storefront window. The photos show up later at the police precinct house.

 

The T-1000 runs past a couple of Toyota pickups parked in the mall parking structure.

 

If you do a freeze-frame at 32:40 on the DVD, as John jumps his dirt bike out of the mall parking structure, it is obviously a stunt man on the bike, not young actor Edward Furlong. (Also at 32:48 and 33:36.) The interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD reveals the stunt rider to be Bobby Porter, who went on to play Stink in the 1990s Land of the Lost TV series.

 

The exterior of Robinson's department store is seen at 32:45 on the DVD. This was a department store name in the U.S. southwest officially known as J.W. Robinson's. It merged with the May Company department store chain in 1993 to become Robinson's-May, and then bought out by Macy's in 2005.

 

At 33:07 on the DVD, we see that the Road Ranger Towing truck commandeered by the T-1000 is a Freightliner (in the novelization, a Kenworth). A Public Storage facility is also seen in this shot.

 

During the motor chase at 33:18 on the DVD, John zooms past a Hyundai vehicle and then a Honda Accord LXi.

 

At 33:25 on the DVD, the street sign in the background as the T-800 zooms onto the street is blurry, but appears to say "Plummer". This is the same street name seen on the sign when the T-1000 drives the tow truck through the cement railing of the Hayvenhurst overpass into the concrete river bed at 34:02.

 

A Mitsubishi Fuso truck is seen at 33:36 on the DVD.

 

The overpass at 33:57 on the DVD is stenciled with Hayvenhurst Ave. This is an actual street running through Encino, Reseda, and Northridge areas of greater Los Angeles. 

 

The shot of the tow truck driving through the cement railing of the Hayvenhurst overpass into the concrete waterway at 34:02 doesn't seem to make sense at first glance, as an overpass does not (by definition!) have a street running perpendicular into it! The interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD reveals that the production found an overpass that had a street running at a diagonal into it, allowing for the shot. The bridge railings were constructed at the end of a ramp over the real railings, so the real railings were not damaged. The bridge is part of Plummer Street, which is an actual street in Los Angeles (it also crosses Reseda Blvd.). The concrete waterway below is Bull Creek.

 

When the tow truck lands in the culvert, its two windshield panes fall out in the impact. Yet they are still in place in later shots until the T-1000 pushes them out himself during the chase.

 

At 34:15 on the DVD, the front axle of the tow truck appears to be broken, hanging in a "v" from the wheels. But, of course, it's back to normal as the chase continues.

 

The exhaust stacks on the tow truck disappear and reappear throughout the ravine chase.

 

At 34:29 on the DVD, the T-800 appears to crash right through a chain-locked gate onto the access road of the culvert! He doesn't even fire a shotgun blast at it first as he does in upcoming locked gate scenes during the chase.

 

Notice that the handle of the cocking lever on the T-800's shotgun is bigger during the ravine chase sequence, allowing Arnold to more easily twirl it in the air to re-cock it as he rides. Before and after the chase, the handle is normal size.

 

At 34:37 on the DVD, the T-800's motorcycle is seen to have the California license plate 9A7218.

 

When the T-800 jumps the Harley off the concrete ledge into the culvert at 36:08, the ledge is much wider than it was when he was approaching it.

 

At 36:28 on the DVD, the driver's side headlight is suddenly missing from the tow truck. But it is back again just seconds later.

 

Using freeze-frame at 36:30 on the DVD, one can see that it's not really Arnold and Edward riding the motorcycles as the T-800 reaches to grab John off his bike.

 

When the T-800 pulls John off the dirt bike, the dirt bike falls under the pursuing tow truck's tires seat first. But when the shot changes to another view at that split second, the bike is hit rear wheel first.

 

At 36:39 on the DVD, a red cable can be seen on the right side of the screen, apparently attached to the motorcycle, just before the T-800 blows out the tow truck's tire with the shotgun.

 

The T-800 blows out the left front tire of the tow truck with the shotgun, and it appears to be ripping off the rim seconds later. Yet, it appears to be fully on the rim (and reinflated!) seconds later when the truck strikes the concrete abutment.

 

A spark from the battery cable is seen to ignite the fuel from the tow truck after the crash, causing the explosion. But the semi-tractor truck would most likely be fueled by diesel, which is not ignited by spark as is traditional gasoline, but by high temperature and pressure in the engine. In short, diesel is less flammable than gasoline and unlikely to be ignited by a spark as seen here.

 

After the tow truck explodes, the T-800 cocks the shotgun, thinking the T-1000 is emerging, but it turns out to be just a rolling tire from the wreck, so he never fires it. But in the next scene when he pulls off the street with John, he clears an empty cartridge from gun!

 

A Goodhew ambulance is seen in a restored scene at 40:07 on the DVD. Goodhew was an ambulance company in southern California at the time the movie was shot and was seen in many movies and TV shows shot in the L.A. area from the late 1960s through the 1990s.

 

At 40:43 on the DVD, the T-800 and John pass by a parked semi with a Coors Light trailer on it.

 

As the T-800 and John pull into the liquor store parking lot at 40:50 on the DVD, signs for Marlboro and the California Lottery are seen. A billboard for Santos brand of some product is also seen. A few seconds later, a Pacific Bell phone booth is seen; Pacific Bell is a telephone service company in California.

 

At 40:56 on the DVD, notice that, in the background, the two young men who later attempt to help when John yells for it against the T-800, are seen getting out of their car and entering the liquor store.

 

At 41:06 on the DVD, it can briefly be seen that the pay phone is already busted open on the bottom, before the T-800 breaks it to get at the quarters inside!

 

At 41:18 on the DVD, a can of Lady Lee canned tomatoes is seen on the kitchen counter. Just seconds later, Todd takes a carton of Lady Lee milk from the refrigerator and drinks from it. Lady Lee is a real world brand of grocery products.

 

   John says the name of his German Shepherd dog is Max, but the T-800 tricks the T-1000 into revealing itself over the phone by referring to the dog as Wolfie. Wolfie was also the nickname of James Cameron's German Shepherd, Beowulf, in 1984 and which appeared in the motel scenes in The Terminator.

   Some fans have speculated that John's dog here is the same German Shepherd Sarah acquired before heading to Mexico at the end of The Terminator. However, the novelization of that film reveals that dog was named Pugsley, Jr.

 

A restored scene appears at 43:14 on the DVD. It features the T-1000 killing John's dog and finding that the collar bears the name "Max" instead of "Wolfie", so the Terminator knows he was fooled over the phone.

 

   Notice at 43:50 on the DVD that the police investigator has a Wildcard Poker cup of coffee sitting on the table during the questioning of Sarah. Obviously he got it from the coffee vending machine at the hospital, just has the security guard Lewis will later on, just before he is killed by the T-1000.

   A small bag of Lay's potato chips and a Subway soda cup are also seen on the table.

   The novelization reveals the detective's name is Weatherby. The other detective in the room is Mossberg. The interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD points out that the names were inspired by the firearms manufacturers, Weatherby, Inc. and O.F. Mossberg & Sons. In "Judgment Impaired", Mossberg's first name is revealed to be David.

 

During Sarah's questioning, the investigator tells her that 17 police officers were killed (by the Terminator) at the police headquarters in 1984. This occurred in The Terminator.

 

Young John is kind of a jerk. When he calls out for help outside the liquor store when the T-800 won't let him go, two guys come to help him and he says, "Take a hike, bozo," and then tells the Terminator to beat the guys up.

 

When one of the jocks calls John a dipshit, John says, "Did you call moi a dipshit?" Moi is French for "me".

 

John tells the T-800 that his mom was once shacked up with an ex-Green Beret. The Green Berets are U.S. Army Special Forces personnel who conduct missions of unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, and counter-terrorism.

 

After the encounter with the jocks in the liquor store parking lot, the T-800's pistol is seen intermittently cocked and uncocked throughout the "you can't just go around killing people" lecture from John.

 

At 52:03 on the DVD, Lewis looks at his Wildcard Poker cup of coffee and tells Gwen he got a full house. But he didn't! His cup shows two jacks and two aces on the side and a queen on the bottom. So his hand is just two pairs. A full house requires three of one rank and two of another (he would have to have a jack or an ace on the bottom to get the full house).

 

At 52:13 on the DVD, it's fairly obvious that Lewis' head is just a model as the T-1000 stabs him through the eyeball. A suture in the rubber or plastic is visible alongside the ear.

 

The Wildcard Poker cup that drops to the floor at 52:14 on the DVD is not the same one Lewis was holding just seconds earlier! The queen of diamonds symbol is missing from the bottom of the cup; instead, it shows a crown symbol.

 

At 52:26 on the DVD, a number of cleaning products are seen in the supply room, such as Viva paper towels, Comet cleanser, Purex laundry detergent, and Joy dishwashing liquid.

 

When Douglas opens the door of the maintenance room at 52:59 on the DVD, a can of Comet cleanser and box of Spic and Span household cleaner are seen on a shelf. (Cans of Comet are also seen on top of a cleaning cart as Sarah uses the baton on Silberman at 54:32.)

 

At 54:02 on the DVD as Sarah runs down the hallway after escaping from her cell, her footfalls sound as if she's wearing shoes, but she's actually barefoot! Later scenes correct the problem with sounds of bare feet slapping the floor as she runs.

 

At 54:17 on the DVD, the T-800 and John ride past a Mobil gas station.

 

After breaking his arm, Sarah tells Dr. Silberman there are over 215 bones in the human body. Experts usually state that there are approximately 206 distinct bones in humans.

 

Sarah fills a syringe with Liquid Rooter drain cleaner at 54:43 on the DVD. I believe this was a fictional brand at the time, but there is currently a drain cleaner with that name.

 

The female security guard who first spots Sarah holding Silberman hostage on the security cameras appears to have a name badge identifying her as Fisher.

 

Notice that the T-800's leather jacket loses and regains the bullet holes in it numerous times throughout the film.

 

The female guard hits the T-800 in the face, damaging his sunglasses. But immediately after the blow, the left lens is still intact. In the next shot a split second later, the left lens is half missing.

 

The T-800 shoves the female guard, Fisher, down the hallway and she slides to a stop not far from the bars in the middle of the hall. Her prone form disappears and reappears a couple of times as the scene progresses.

 

If you freeze-frame at 59:44 on the DVD, you'll see that the T-1000's head is already slightly separated before the T-800's shotgun goes off.

 

At 1:00:39 on the DVD, notice that the T-800's Harley is parked outside the parking structure elevator as he, John, and Sarah exit.

 

The bullet hole Sarah puts into the windshield of the security vehicle at 1:00:47 on the DVD, is missing some subsequent shots.

 

At 1:01:27 on the DVD, we see that the hospital security vehicle is a Ford.

 

The light bar on the security vehicle changes back-and-forth from all blue to blue and orange throughout the T-1000 chase sequence. The license plate of the vehicle also changes between shots.

 

At 1:02:04 on the DVD, production crew and equipment can be seen on the right-hand side of the screen as the T-800 drives the security vehicle backwards through the Pescadero parking lot.

 

At 1:03:50 on the DVD, Sarah's wound on her back (received from the blade of the T-1000 in the elevator) is missing as she checks John for injuries in the car.

 

The T-800 tells John that he can last about 120 years on his existing power cell.

 

As our heroes pull into the closed gas station at 1:05:07 on the DVD, the stylized BP logo of Benthic Petroleum can just barely be made out on the gas pumps. Benthic Petroleum is name of the company in James Cameron's 1989 film The Abyss. Page 142 of the novelization also confirms the company name.

 

There is a restored scene from 1:06:26-1:09:51, detailing the activation of the learning component of the T-800's microchip. The T-800 reveals that Skynet sends independent units out with the learning function deactivated so it won't think too much.

 

At 1:08:20 on the DVD, a tool chest at the closed service station seems to have a "Stack On" logo on it. This may be a play on the real world manufacturer of high-end tools, Snap-On.

 

At 1:09:42 on the DVD, the T-800's internal chronometer reads 1:26 elapsed time since it was deactivated by the removal of its CPU. But the movie time was actually around 1:50.

 

At 1:10:30 on the DVD, Sarah puts on a denim jacket that appears to have the logo of Chett's Auto Parts sewn onto the back. She must have found it in the service station (the novelization confirms this). Chett's appears to be a fictional business.

 

John teaches the T-800 to say "Hasta la vista, baby," and "No problemo." These are both Spanish phrases. "Hasta la vista" means "good-bye" and "no problemo" means "no problem".

 

Our heroes pull into Cactus Jack's Market at 1:11:24 on the DVD (another Pepsi sign too!). This was a fictional establishment; the name may have been derived from the character of Cactus Jack (played by Kirk Douglas) who appears in an earlier Arnold Schwarzenegger film, 1979's The Villain. Notice that a semi blows its horn as the T-800 somewhat recklessly pulls across the opposing lane to enter the store's lot. The scenes there were shot at this forlorn location in Lancaster, CA.

 

A restored scene is found from 1:11:53-1:12:57 on the DVD, as John tries to teach the T-800 how to smile. The scene does help to set up the later scene when the T-800 gives a crooked smile after picking up a massive machine gun (meant to be mounted to a helicopter) and John says, "It's definitely you."

 

At 1:12:12 on the DVD a young woman is holding a...guess what? Pepsi soda cup!

 

A stray Pepsi cup is seen at 1:12:21 on the DVD.

 

As two young boys play shoot-'em-up with toy guns, John wonders if people are going to make it and the T-800 remarks, "It's in your nature to destroy yourselves." And notice that the mother of the children pulls them apart, saying, "Break it up before I ring both your necks," reinforcing the (often unintentional) human tendency to express things in violent terms.

 

The T-800 reveals that Skynet came online on August 4, 1997 and became self-aware at 2:14 a.m. EST on August 29.

 

A restored scene at 1:15:09-1:17:34 shows a bit of Miles Dyson's home life, including a daughter not seen otherwise in the film. During Sarah's attack on the house later in the film, only the son, Danny, is present; Mrs. Dyson states that Danny's sister has gone to bed. In the novelization the daughter is awake and playing with Danny during the attack; her name is Blythe.

 

At 1:15:37 on the DVD, Dyson has a poster for a Cyberdyne symposium in Monterey, CA on the wall of his home office. Notice also that he has a large-scale version of the Terminator microchip on his desk, with data cables running to it; he is obviously trying to get the large scale version working properly and then figuring out how to miniaturize it.

 

At 1:15:51 on the DVD, Dyson has a piece of paper with the words "Bit Happens" written on it taped to the top of his computer monitor. This is a play on the colloquialism "Shit Happens"; in computer parlance, a "bit" is the most basic unit of information in computing.

 

Dyson's wife reminds him that he promised to take the kids to Raging Waters today. There is a Raging Waters park near L.A. in San Dimas.

 

Dyson's wife mimics back to him his own spiel about how important the new neural net processor he's working on will be. The term "neural net processor" was invented for the movie.

 

A number of rattlesnake heads adorn the fence at the Salceda compound and the one seen at 1:17:45 on the DVD has two fangs on its left side. This occasionally happens, as rattlesnakes grow new fangs every 6-10 weeks, and sometimes the previous fang is still functional as the new one grows in to replace it.

 

The shot at 1:17:56 on the DVD, of the camera panning through the windows of the trailer from inside as the station wagon pulls up, seems like a character POV, an early hint that the site is not as abandoned as it first appears.

 

When first meeting with Enrique in the desert, several Spanish phrases are used by Sarah, Enrique, Yolanda, and John (thanks to AmericanBuddha.com for an assist with the translations):

 

 
  • "Enrique? Estas aqui?" = ""Enrique? Are you here?"
 
  • "Y tu?" = "And you?"
 
  • "Siempre como culebra." = "Always like the snake."
 
  • "Que bueno verte, Connor." = "It's good to see you, Connor."
 
  • "Te dije que va regresar." = "I told you I'd be returning."
 
  • "Y yo lo sabia, carajo. Que bueno verte. Yolanda, venga, que hay visita, carajo. Traiga la pinche tequila. Ey, Big John, como te va?" = "And I knew it, you rascal. So good to see you. Yolanda, come out here, we got visitors, dammit. Bring the damn tequila! Hey Big John, how ya' doin'?
 
  • "Que grandote es este?" = "Who's the big dude?"
 
  • "Que bonito! = "How cute!"
 
  • "Como estas?" "How are you?"
 
  • "Como estas? Que grande estas, mi hijito?" = "How are you? How big you are, my little boy."

 

Enrique and Yolanda at times refer to Sarah and John as Sarita and Juanito. The suffix -ita (feminine) and -ito (masculine) are used in the Spanish language to denote affection when attached to names, and technically means "little", i.e. little Sarah and little John.

 

Most of the rifles in the weapons bunker at Enrique's' holdout appear to be AK-47s, and possibly a few M-16s.

 

At 1:20:24 on the DVD, John picks up what appears to be an Uzi in the weapons bunker. The general Uzi line of weapons was designed by Israeli Captain Uziel Gal in the late 1940s and named after him.

 

The weapon examined by the T-800 in the weapons bunker at 1:20:24 on the DVD is an M79 grenade launcher. We see him use it throughout the Cyberdyne/chase scenes later.

 

The truck taken by Sarah from Enrique's holdout is a Ford Bronco.

 

While he repairs the Bronco, Sarah tells Enrique she's going to wait until dark to cross the border. This would seem to imply that they are in Mexico now, with her planning to cross the border into the U.S. to strike at Cyberdyne that night. But other sources imply that Enrique's holdout is in California, just north of the Mexican border. It may be that Sarah is tricking her cohorts into thinking she is crossing the border into Mexico to make contact with other friends or acquire equipment rather than her actual plan to kill Dyson.

 

While raiding the weapons from Sarah's stash at Enrique's holdout, John tells the T-800 how different his upbringing was from the typical kid, "...I grew up in places like this, so I just thought that's how people lived, riding around in helicopters, learning how to blow shit up. But then when my mom got busted I got put into a regular school. All the other kids were into Nintendo." "Nintendo" is a reference to the home video games systems made by the Japanese electronics company Nintendo.

 

At 1:21:45 on the DVD, a box with a Mountain House label is seen in the storage bunker. Mountain House is a maker of freeze-dried foods for long term storage and survival.

 

The massive six-barreled machine gun the T-800 finds in the bunker appears to be an M134 Minigun, manufactured by General Electric from 1962-present. It is normally intended to be mounted to military helicopters. The novelization's statements that it fires 7.62 mm shells and is capable of firing 6000 rounds per minute are accurate. The same gun was wielded by actor Jesse Ventura in an earlier Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Predator.

 

The crooked smile delivered by the T-800 when he hefts the M134 Minigun is similar to that of John, indicating he is learning to smile from the boy.

 

Several dogs are seen running around at the Salceda's property. Why do they not bark at the T-800 as other dogs are seen to do in the presence of a Terminator? I suppose there could have been an off-screen moment when the dogs did notice and start barking at him, but came to accept him when they see that their human masters have already done so.

 

The rifle Sarah carries at 1:23:05 on the DVD appears to be an M16. 

 

The knife Sarah uses to carve "NO FATE" into the picnic table is said to be a Ka-Bar bayonet in Infiltrator. Ka-Bar makes a variety of knives, most popularly the combat knife used by the United States Marine Corps. However, PopApostle reader Richard K. has pointed out that Sarah's knife is not a Ka-Bar at all, but a SOG Specialty Knife, a replica of a knife designed for personnel of the U.S. Studies and Observations Group in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
Sarah's blade Sarah's knife 
Sarah's knife Sarah's knife 
   
SOG replica knife 
SOG replica knife 

 

During Sarah's dream sequence at 1:27:35 on the DVD, notice that she is wearing her waitress uniform from Big Jeff's as seen in The Terminator.

 

At 1:33:24 on the DVD, Dyson's son, Danny, is seen wearing a Raging Waters shirt, obviously a souvenir of the day's recreation at the water park with his dad. He is also wearing a Minnesota Twins baseball cap; this may be an in-joke to the fact that former Twins relief pitcher Jeff Reardon, who threw the final pitch when the Twins won the 1987 World Series, was nicknamed "The Terminator" for his closing abilities on the mound.

 

According to Dark Futures, Danny was born in 1988, making him about 6 years old here.

 

Notice that the music soundtrack as Sarah attacks the Dyson home is similar to the Terminator theme music, indicating how she has become something of a killing machine herself in her quest to prevent Judgment Day, in danger of sacrificing her own humanity.

 

At 1:34:51 on the DVD, issues of Interior Design are seen on a coffee table in the Dyson home.

 

On another coffee table in the Dyson home at 1:34:54 on the DVD, issues of Traditional Home, House Beautiful, and Estate are seen. The positions of the magazines change from shot to shot. I've not been able to confirm the existence of an actual magazine called Estate.

 

The time on John's watch fluctuates during the shots of him comforting his mom after her aborted attempt to kill Dyson.

 

An Evil Hour reveals that the raid on Cyberdyne headquarters took place in May of 1994. 

 

In its entry on Sarah Connor, the Terminator Wikia speculates that the duster worn by Sarah during the raid on Cyberdyne is the same one Kyle Reese wore in The Terminator. Indeed, they do look similar!
Kyle Reese trench coat Sarah's trench coat

 

At 1:42:00 on the DVD, the camera screens at the security station inside Cyberdyne are made by Panasonic.

 

   The badges of the two security guards at Cyberdyne reveal their names as Gibbons and Moshier. Dyson refers to Gibbons as Carl; in the script (and book and comic book adaptations) his name is Paul. For some reason, the Cyberdyne logo on the sleeves of the security uniforms has two black triangles and one silver, whereas the logo seen everywhere else is two silver and one black.

   The book reveals the magazine Gibbons was reading when the Connor crew walked in was Westways. He was reading an article about the origin of yucca trees. Westways is a magazine published by the Automobile Club of Southern California for its members.

 

Dyson remarks that the automatic fire extinguishers in the Cyberdyne lab use halon. This refers to halomethane, a real world gaseous compound often used in the extinguishing of fires.

 

As the T-1000 comes upon the remains of Dyson's home office, a police dispatch call comes over his police radio stating a 211 in progress at the Cyberdyne building. "211" is police code for robbery. At this point the police assume the break-in at Cyberdyne is for theft.

 

The novelization reveals that Cyberdyne is located in Irvine, CA. This is a city in Orange County, not far from L.A.

 

While the T-1000 is searching the remains of Dyson's home office, a police dispatcher on the radio states the address of Cyberdyne as 2144 Kramer Street. Just seconds later, as police pull up to the Cyberdyne complex, the dispatcher says 2111 instead. Also, there is no such street as Kramer in Irvine.

 

The police helicopter that arrives outside of Cyberdyne appears to be a Bell 206B JetRanger II.

 

At 1:46:55 on the DVD, notice that as Dyson is looking at the large prototype model of the microchip, a vector graphic of the chip is rotating on the computer screen next to him.

 

The large, yellow metal drums set to explode by the T-800 at 1:49:15 on the DVD are labeled "polydichloric euthimol". This is a fictional compound. In the director's commentary on the DVD, James Cameron says he borrowed the name from the 1981 science-fiction film Outland, where the compound was a hallucinogen (Outland's director, Peter Hyams, is a friend of Cameron's).

 

The machine guns used by the SWAT officers at 1:51:31 are Heckler & Koch MP5s, often used by U.S. SWAT teams. The T-1000 is also carrying one while riding his police cycle through the building at 1:59:25. (The novelization mistakenly refers to the maker as "Keckler and Koch" and "Hoechler and Koch" and "MPK").

 

Realistically, the destruction of the files at Cyberdyne headquarters would be of limited use since a well-run company would have a policy of backing up files to one or more offsite locations on a daily (if not more frequent) basis. In the later novel Infiltrator, the U.S. government liaison to Cyberdyne chastises the president and CEO of the company for not having offsite backup.

 

At 1:55:13 on the DVD, I believe that the piece of debris Dyson is holding over the remote detonator is actually a piece of the microchip prototype. (In the novelization, he is holding a thick technical manual instead.)

 

What may be a film crew for the production is visible at 1:56:01 on the DVD, as the police helicopter flies around the exploding Cyberdyne building.

 

When the T-800 steps out of the smoke to confront the SWAT team at 1:57:03 on the DVD, his grenade belt is in a different position than it was seconds earlier in the elevator.

 

At 1:57:46 on the DVD, the T-800 picks up a SWAT Hawk MM-1 grenade gun (a similar weapon was used by Detective Sloane in "The Enemy Within" Part 3).

 

At 1:58:13 on the DVD, one of the police cars has a D.A.R.E. bumper sticker on it. This is the international Drug Abuse Resistance Education program founded to prevent the use of controlled drugs by minors.

 

Sarah picks up a Remington 870 shotgun from the gun rack of the SWAT van during the escape from Cyberdyne.

 

The struts of the side view mirror on the driver's side of the SWAT van get bent inward when the T-800 smashes through the lobby at Cyberdyne. But the struts are straight again when he drives the van out of the building.

 

When the T-1000 crashes his police motorcycle through the glass of the second story of Cyberdyne headquarters to intercept the helicopter, the motorcycle's windshield flies off. But it's intact again when the bike hits the asphalt.

 

After oozing into the police helicopter at 2:00:07 on the DVD, the T-1000 tells the pilot, "Get out." This same scene was also played out in The Terminator when the Terminator climbs into the cab of a tractor-trailer and tells the man in the passenger seat, "Get out." The helicopter scene may also be a callback to a scene in Cameron's script (co-written with Sylvester Stallone) for the 1985 film Rambo: First Blood Part II in which a Russian helicopter pilot jumps from the hovering aircraft rather than face the wrath of Rambo.

 

Dark Futures reveals that the pilot of the police helicopter survived his jump, though he was badly injured and has no memory of the events.

 

The hole in the helicopter windshield that the T-1000 oozed in through comes and goes throughout the copter chase.

 

During the copter/van chase, the same white sedan is seen spinning out of control at 2:01:18 and at 2:02:03.

 

At 2:01:21 on the DVD, Sarah fires an M16 at the pursuing helicopter piloted by the T-1000.

 

The handle on the passenger side rear door of the SWAT van comes and goes throughout the copter chase sequence.

 

At 2:01:49 on the DVD, notice that the T-1000 has grown two more arms so he can pilot the helicopter while also reloading his MP5 submachine gun.

 

Notice that the Cryoco liquid nitrogen truck first appears on the freeway in the background at 2:02:02 on the DVD, well before it comes to center stage at 2:03:00. At 2:03:48, the truck is seen to be a Freightliner. Cryoco appears to have been a fictional company.

 

When the SWAT van flips over, the driver's side windshield pane falls out at 2:02:54 on the DVD. But at 2:04:16, the passenger side pane is the one that's missing.

 

The Chevy pickup truck taken by the Connor party after the SWAT van overturns has BOL-L-GOL GARDENING 555-8141 painted on the doors. This appears to be a fictional business, but it sure is a strange name to give it! The 555 prefix of the phone number is a long-time convention in Hollywood TV and film. 

 

The T-800 is supposed to be wearing black gloves throughout the freeway chase sequence, but occasionally is seen driving barehanded.

 

At 2:05:46 on the DVD, the Cryoco truck strikes some yellow barrels on the freeway off-ramp. The barrels are known as Fitch Barriers, filled with water or sand and designed to attenuate the impact of an out-of-control vehicle and slow it down with minimal injury to the passengers. They were invented by race car driver John Fitch (1917-2012), inspired by sand-filled cans he used to protect his tent from airplane strafing during WWII.

 

Our heroes crash through the gates of a foundry that appears to be owned by CSI Steel. This is California Steel Industries. The scenes were shot at the company's steel mill at 14000 San Bernardino Ave, Fontana, CA. (In the comic book adaptation, the foundry is called simply Steel Industries.) "Lost & Found" reveals the mill to be located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington within the Terminator universe.

 

At 2:06:22 on the DVD, the T-800 grabs up an M16 rifle in his fight to slow down the T-1000.

 

At 2:06:50 on the DVD, the cable dragging the overturned Cryoco truck across the pavement at the foundry can be seen.

 

A worker at the steel mill hits an alarm after the nitrogen truck overturns and a siren begins to blare. Yet it only lasts a few seconds as a background noise before vanishing. It is a common trope in films to have alarms and other annoying sounds fade away, to avoid irritating the audience, even though the sound would realistically continue indefinitely until someone shut it off or the crisis was past.

 

The extent of the damage to the T-800's left arm after it's caught in the giant gear changes from scene to scene.

 

As the T-1000 boils in the molten metal near the end of the film, notice that it morphs through all of the human bodies it took the forms of throughout the movie.

 

The T-800 self-terminates in the novelization and comic book adaption by simply jumping into the vat of molten metal. In the film, he states he cannot self-terminate and must be lowered into the vat on a chain rig by Sarah.

 

As the T-800 is submerged in the molten metal at 2:27:51 on the DVD, notice that the POV data screen says things like "ambient temperature overload", "system failure", "neural net misfire", and "imminent shutdown". 

 

Notes from the novelization of Judgment Day by Randall Frakes
(The page numbers come from the 1st printing, paperback edition, published July 1991)

 

The chapters in the novel do not have chapter numbers, only titles.

 

The first chapter of the novel, "Day One Twenty-Six" picks up where The Terminator left off, with Sarah Connor driving across a Mexican desert highway, away from the gas station where she refueled and obtained the photo of the herself that would later be given to Kyle Reese decades in the future. It is 8:58 a.m. on Thursday, July 19, 1984.

 

On page 1, Sarah is described as holding her Walkman to her ear to listen to what she had previously recorded. But in the movie version of The Terminator, she is not recording with a Walkman recorder; it is a larger cassette recorder with a wired, handheld microphone.

 

Page 2 reveals that Sarah had a high school science teacher named Mr. Bowland.

 

Also on page 2, Sarah pops out the cassette she'd been listening to, placing it in the glove compartment with a growing stack of C-90s. C-90 refers to an audio Cassette of 90 minutes length.

 

Page 4 reveals that Kyle had referred to the future time he came from as Upthen.

 

On page 5, Sarah thinks of her smile in the Polaroid picture as a Mona Lisa smile. The Mona Lisa is a famous painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, painted in the 16th Century. The smile on the woman in the painting is considered enigmatic by many.

 

The second chapter of the novel, "Upthen", gives the date of Wednesday, July 11, 2029, 9:01 a.m. It seems to depict much of the events of the future prologue of the film, with additional material revealing this day to be the day Skynet was defeated.

 

On page 8, a Series 800 Terminator carries a Westinghouse M-25 forty-watt phased plasma pulse-gun. The M-25 was also referred to in the novelization of The Terminator, near the beginning of the book, when Reese wishes he could have brought one back with him through time. It may also be the same weapon to which the Terminator refers in The Terminator when it asks the gun store owner for a Phased Plasma Rifle in a 40 watt range (which, of course, the owner has never heard of). The description of it being in the 40 watt range seems unrealistically small, as 40 watts is the equivalent of that used by a typical light bulb! In The Future War, author S.M. Stirling uses the description of "40 megawatt range" instead.

 

Page 9 reveals that Skynet has realized in 2029 that human reproduction is outpacing its manufacturing capabilities and that there would soon be more human soldiers than mechanical.

 

Page 9 also reveals the war is entering its 31st year (counting from 1998, a year after Judgment Day).

 

On page 9, Pico and Robertson is an actual intersection in Los Angeles.

 

Page 10 notes that most of the human survivors of Judgment Day come from the southern hemisphere since the nuclear exchange triggered by Skynet was between the northern hemisphere superpowers of the United States and the Russia.

 

Page 10 reveals that, in addition to the Terminators and aerial and tank HKs, Skynet uses four-legged, running gun-pods called Centurions and moving centipede-like bombs called Silverfish. These two designs appeared in production art for the movie but were not realized. The Silverfish is obviously named for its superficial resemblance to the insect known by that common name.
Production art of Centurion (from the Terminator Wiki) Silverfish bomb (from the Terminator Wiki) Silverfish insect (from Wikipedia)

 

On page 10, an aerial HK is targeted from the ground by a hand-launched Stinger missile. This refers to the FIM-92 Stinger portable homing surface-to-air missile developed by the U.S. in 1981 and still produced today.

 

Page 10 describes the human soldiers as bleeding, frostbitten, and dressed in rags...Valley Forge with better weapons. "Valley Forge" is a reference to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where the American Continental Army led by General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War was forced to spend a harsh winter in 1777-78, in conditions of disease, exposure, and starvation with few supplies.

 

A 17-year old guerilla named Cowan is a member of the future fighting force. It's unknown if he is in any way related to Jordon Cowan, who committed suicide at John Connors' high school in the Sarah Connors Chronicles episode "The Turk".

 

Page 13 reveals that, by 2029, New York had been overrun by the machines years ago.

 

Page 13 also reveals that most of the human fighters come from the countries least damaged by the war and speaking many languages. 

 

Page 13 reveals that Skynet's mainframe is located in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado and its second-largest underground complex is in the former Westside Pavilion in Los Angeles. Cheyenne Mountain is a government nuclear war bunker and command center. The Westside Pavilion was a shopping mall in West Los Angeles, opened in 1985, but is being converted to mostly office spaces to open in 2022.

 

Page 15 introduces Lt. Fuentes, one of John's closest associates as leader of the human forces.

 

Page 16 describes that even though Skynet has been taken down, hundreds of autonomous Terminators still roam and seek out human targets for elimination.

 

Page 18 reveals that Sarah had survived into the war times as one of John's high-placed officers. She was killed leading a convoy when John was in his mid-twenties, placing her death in approximately 2010. (Of course, in the Rise of the Machines timeline, Sarah died before the war, of leukemia.)

 

As Reese is being prepped to make the jump back in time to 1984 on page 21, it's revealed that he's only met John Connor five times before. Here, John reveals to Reese that Sarah told him who he would send. Reese now knows he is a part of history he hasn't lived yet.

 

Page 22 reveals that many men have paper copies of the famous Sarah Connor photo that they carry with them for inspiration. Reese has the original, as given to him by John. 

 

Page 23 describes the time displacement generator quite differently than that depicted in the various Terminator comic books. The description is similar to the one seen in preproduction artwork for the movie. The scene of the machine's discovery by the resistance and transport of Reese was written in the script but never filmed. (Production art from the Terminator Wiki.)

 

   On page 29, bar patron Dana Shorte is driving a Kenworth semi-tractor-trailer along the 14 Freeway near Vasquez Rocks. Dana gets off at the Sierra Highway exit and pulls into the parking lot of the Corral bar. The 14 Freeway is also known as the Antelope Valley Freeway and it does cross Sierra Highway just as described. Vasquez Rocks is a Los Angeles county park which has been seen in numerous Hollywood productions since the silent film era. It is, perhaps, most recognized as the off-world setting of the "Arena" episode of Star Trek in which Captain Kirk fought the reptilian Gorn.

   Dana is revealed near the end of the novel to be the driver of the Cryoco truck who is killed by the T-1000 on the freeway. 

 

Page 30 describes the electrical precursors of the T-800's arrival in 1995 as looking similar to St. Elmo's Fire and page 31 as like a thousand Instamatic cameras going off. These same descriptions were applied in the novelization of The Terminator.

 

The chapter heading reveals the T-800 to have arrived in Acton at 3:14 a.m.

 

As the naked T-800 takes in his surroundings after arriving in 1995, he is described in the narrative as a Promethean man. Prometheus was one of the Titans of Greek mythology; the use of "Promethean" here is presumably a reference to the cyborg's chiseled body being like that of a Greek god.

 

Page 32 describes some of the patrons of the Corral as wearing CAT hats. This is a reference to the ubiquitous baseball-style caps with the "CAT Diesel Power" logo on them popular among blue-collar working men, especially in the 1970s-1990s. "CAT" is short for Caterpillar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of tractors, bulldozers, and diesel engines.

 

Page 33 mentions I Love Lucy reruns. I Love Lucy was a sitcom that ran from 1951-1957.

 

Page 33 reveals the name of the cigar-smoking biker from whom the T-800 takes his clothes is Robert Pantelli.

 

Page 34 describes using a pool cue against the T-800 like a Louisville Slugger. The Louisville Slugger is a famous model of baseball bat made by the Hillerich & Bradsby Company.

 

Page 36 describes the bar crowd parting like the Red Sea for the T-800 as he leaves the bar. This is, or course, a reference to the parting of the Red Sea by Moses in the Biblical Book of Exodus.

 

Unlike in the film, the T-800 has to try the ignition key in two motorcycles before finding the one it fits.

 

On page 39, the T-800 takes the 14 Freeway to the 5 south into L.A. This corresponds to the route on a map of southern California.

 

The chapter heading reveals the T-1000 to have arrived in L.A. at 4:58 a.m.

 

On page 40, the graffiti "History Is Dead" is spray-painted underneath the Sixth Street Bridge. The narrative describes this same phrase appearing in various locales around the city, including the East L.A. barrio near Dodger Stadium and on a wall outside the Griffith Observatory in the Hollywood Hills. Strangely perhaps, the phrase does appear on a wall outside the Griffith Observatory in the novelization of The Terminator, but that was more than 10 years earlier, in 1984! No one has removed the Griffith graffiti in all that time? Or is someone constantly going back to spray-paint it again over-and-over?

 

On page 41, officer Austin is musing on the recent increase in activity by the White Fence gang and the MAC-10 wielding homeboys. White Fence is an actual East L.A. street gang. The gun referenced is the Ingram MAC-10 machine gun (designed in 1964 by Gordon B. Ingram).

 

Also on page 41, the author refers to the electrical disturbance of the T-1000's arrival as a "lightstorm". This may be a nod to James Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, which produced this film.

 

On page 43, a cat observes the T-1000's actions as it morphs its body to form a police uniform around it. The cat does not understand what is happening, its brain described as being "pea-sized". Actually, a cat's brain is much larger than a pea, being about 2 inches in length.

 

Page 44 describes a light wind pushing the L.A. smog all the way back to San Bernardino. San Bernardino is a city about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

 

Page 44 describes John as wearing artfully ripped Levi's.

 

Page 45 reveals that Janelle is 33 and is unable to bear children, which is why she and her husband signed up for the foster parent program.

 

Page 45 describes John as the future general of a vast multinational army. John is referred to as a general in many other Terminator stories in books and comics.

 

On page 46, Todd Voight is watching a baseball game, with the Mets' Howard Johnson up to bat as his wife nags him about John not cleaning his room. Johnson played Major League baseball for several teams from 1982-1995, including the Mets, however, in 1995 when this story takes place, he was playing with the Colorado Rockies, not the Mets; one of an author's disadvantages of writing stories set in the near future is not foreseeing such changes in popular culture. Page 61 also mentions pitcher Dwight Gooden; again, Gooden was not playing for the Mets by 1995. (In the film, Todd is watching a boxing match instead.)

 

The novelization states that Sarah is Patient 82 at Pescadero State Hospital.

 

The novelization states that Pescadero State Hospital is three miles outside of Chino, CA, off Happy Camp Road. There is no Happy Camp Road in Chino, though there is one in Moorpark in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. It seems the author chose to mix locational references for the site of Pescadero State Hospital.

 

Page 50 states that Pescadero State Hospital is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with concertina wire. Concertina wire is the coiled type of barbed wire often seen on prison fences or on freeway signs to prevent graffiti vandalization.

 

Page 50 states that Pescadero State Hospital looks about as inviting as KGB headquarters. The KGB was the national security agency of the Soviet Union before its fall in November 1991.

 

Page 52 describes the small window in the door of Sarah's cell as Plexiglas. This is the trademark name of transparent thermoplastic of polymethyl methacrylate made by the Rohm and Haas Company (now part of Dow Chemical).

 

Here, Dr. Silberman says Sarah stabbed him in the knee with a screwdriver, rather than a pen as stated in the movie.

 

Page 56 reveals the portable terminal used by John to hack the pin number of an ATM card was made by Radio Shack. However, the interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD states it to be an Atari Portfolio, the first IBM-compatible palmtop computer.

 

Page 56 also reveals that John used a can of Arrid Extra Dry deodorant to spray the lens of the ATM camera and block the view of the user.

 

On page 60, Janelle is carrying a People magazine.

 

On page 61, the T-800 is said to be driving through the Valley on the stolen Harley. The "Valley" is a reference to the San Fernando Valley, where Reseda is located.

 

Page 72 reveals that Cyberdyne is located in Irvine, CA. This is a city in Orange County, not far from L.A.

 

Chapter 12 of the novel is titled "Rosetta Stone", a reference to the ancient Egyptian stele transcribed in 196 BC, featuring a text in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script, and the ancient Greek, becoming a translation tool for Egyptian hieroglyphics. Since then the term "Rosetta Stone" has come to stand for anything that promotes translation from one form of description to another; later in the novel, the recovered Terminator microchip is referred to as "the Rosetta stone microprocessor".

 

The sprawling three-story headquarters of Cyberdyne is nicknamed the Monolith.

 

The novel reveals that Dyson is a brilliant microphysicist and chemist and supervisor of the Special Projects Division at Cyberdyne. Originally, all he'd wanted to do was play basketball. He attended high school in Detroit and college at CalTech.

 

On page 73, Greg Simmons is named as being the owner and CEO of Cyberdyne. This was first suggested near the end of the novelization of The Terminator when he and his associate Jack Kroll discovered the Terminator's remains in the factory they worked at. Kroll is revealed to have died from a brain tumor five years later on page 75. Page 75 also reveals that the company Simmons and Kroll had worked for back in 1984 was Kleinhaus Electronics. Kleinhaus appears to be a fictional company.

 

On pages 78-79, Cyberdyne's recovered robotic arm and microchip are labeled as Lot One and Lot Two, respectively.

 

Page 79 compares the care taken of the microchip remnant with that of the Turin Shroud. The Turin Shroud is an ancient length of linen displayed in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, believed by some to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, though radiocarbon dating seems to place its origin in the Middle Ages.

 

On page 81, we are informed that Sarah realizes she fits the profile of someone with a messianic complex perfectly: she named her son to have the initials J.C., like Jesus Christ; her son is going to be the savior of humanity; her son was fathered by a phantom from the future, a stand-in for the immaculate conception.

 

After musing on her own version of a "messiah complex", she watches Dr. Silberman come back into the room, wearing his "reptilian smile". This may be an inference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, i.e. Satan.

 

When the T-800 spots John and Tim on the dirt bike, he positively identifies John from his files, but is able to find no information on the passenger.

 

As John and Tim arrive at the video arcade on page 88, the Aliens video game is mentioned. This game is based on the 1986 film co-written and directed by James Cameron.

 

Also on page 88, John plays a video game called Desert War. As far as I can tell this is a fictional arcade game at the time the novel was written. However, there was an arcade game distributed by Jaleco by the name Desert War in 1995, when the story of T2: Judgment Day takes place! The novel describes F-14s involved in the game scenario; the F-14 is a fighter craft of the U.S. Navy introduced in 1974 and retired in 2006.

 

Page 89 mentions a Perry's Pizza in the Galleria. There is a local chain of Perry's Pizza restaurants in the L.A. area since 1974, but none in Reseda that I can find.

 

Also on page 89, John plays Missile Command, featuring ICBMs deploying MIRVs. An ICBM is an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and a MIRV is a Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle, often associated with nuclear payloads.

 

Page 89 describes the T-800 as striding through the shoppers in the mall like Paul Bunyon through the forest. Paul Bunyon is a North American folkloric character of giant size and lumberjacking skill.

 

Page 90 describes John shooting down MiGs at Mach 2 in the Afterburner (sic) arcade game. MiGs were Soviet military planes during the Cold War, mostly fighter jet models. MiG is the abbreviation of "Mikoyan and Gurevich", the founders of the Russian Aircraft Corporation who built the planes. After Burner is a 1987 arcade game released by Sega.

 

Page 93 reveals that the programming about the T-1000 in the T-800 was made by a man who had only memory to go on. This would seem to be a reference to the future John Connor himself.

 

Fleeing from the T-1000 on page 97, John angles around a Jeep.

 

Page 97 describes the T-1000 as driving the tow truck through the traffic like a drunken dinosaur. Dinosaurs are known to have been unrepentant alcoholics.

 

Page 98 describes the tow truck crashing through the bridge railing and ricocheting off the culvert wall, bellowing like a gunshot stegosaurus. The dinosaur species should be written as "Stegosaurus", as per the Latin name of the genus.

 

Page 103 opens in Studio City. Studio City is an affluent neighborhood of L.A. where many celebrities live.

 

On page 105, the T-800 and John turn onto Ventura Blvd. This is a real street in Los Angeles running parallel to the Ventura Freeway (101).

 

On page 106, the T-1000-as-Janelle tells John she is making a casserole for dinner. In the movie she says she's making beef stew.

 

Page 108 reveals that John had a Tandy home computer in his room at the Voight house. Tandy was a company started in 1919 for producing leather goods which branched off into electronics in the 1960s. It produced a popular line of personal computers from 1977 through the early 1990s. The company went defunct in 2000, though the brand name is now in use again in the U.K. since 2012.

 

   Page 109 reveals that John has cut out a small hole in the wall of his bedroom, hidden behind a Public Enemy poster, in which he has stashed his mom's audio tapes, photos, and letters. Presumably this is what John was referring to in the movie when he told the T-800 he wanted to get some things from home.

   Among the photos are: Sarah teaching John how to aim an RPG launcher; Sarah standing next to a case of Stinger missiles; John and Sarah in a Contra camp. RPG stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade; Stinger missiles were explained earlier in this study; the Contra camp is a reference to the Contras, Nicaraguan rebels opposing the Sandinista government in the country of Nicaragua from 1979-1990.

   Page 113 reveals that the most recently dated letter from Sarah was just two weeks ago. From this letter, the T-1000 learns that she is incarcerated in the isolation ward at Pescadero State Hospital. 

 

Page 114 describes the still shots from the surveillance camera at the police station in 1984 as the T-800 carrying an AR-180 and 12-guage shotgun, just as depicted in The Terminator film and novelization.

 

Page 115 reveals that Sarah had been in a few plays in junior high school. Her drama teacher was Mrs. Kolb.

 

On page 117, Douglas thinks of Sarah as "Ms. Hardcase".

 

On page 119, the hospital guard Lewis is said to carry a Browning 9mm. The gun has been produced since 1935 and still is widely used by numerous militaries around the world today.

 

Page 120 describes the pointed, liquid metal index finger of the T-1000 penetrating past Lewis' eyeball like a transorbital lobotomy tool. A lobotomy is a neurological procedure that severs the prefrontal cortex of the brain, believed in some mental cases in the past to relieve certain disorders. Transorbital lobotomy is performed by using a slim tool to penetrate the thin bone of the eye socket to reach the prefrontal lobe.

 

Page 121 indicates that Sarah is held in cell #19 at Pescadero.

 

Page 123 mentions Drano and has Sarah filling a syringe with Liquid-Plumr (in the movie she fills the syringe with Liquid Rooter).

 

Page 128 refers to a syringe with a full load of "trank". This is a reference to "tranquilizer" and is usually abbreviated as "tranq" rather than "trank".

 

On page 129, Dr. Silberman witnesses the actions of the two Terminators and comes to the realization that Sarah Connor was right all along...everything she said was true and she was not insane. Later stories in the Terminator series depict Silberman as either sympathetic to Sarah's predicament or having been committed to an institution himself. (Page 140 states that Silberman's days as a psychiatrist were over.)

 

Page 130 compares the T-1000's morphing through the bars of the door at Pescadero State Hospital with Jell-O and PlayDoh (sic). Jell-O is a gelatin dessert made by Kraft Foods. Play-Doh is a children's modeling compound.

 

Page 137 reveals that the T-800, Sarah, and John are driving on Highway 33. This is California State Route 33, which goes from Ventura north to the city of Tracy.

 

Page 137 also refers to the restaurant at which Sarah formerly worked as Big Buns, though it is referred to as Big Jeff's in The Terminator. Sarah does seem to refer to the statue mascot of Big Jeff's as "big buns" in that movie, though.

 

Page 140 states Dr. Silberman's first name as Leonard, but both The Terminator and Judgment Day scripts refer to his first name as Peter.

 

Page 142 reveals that the closed service station the T-800, Sarah, and John stop at after escaping from Pescadero is outside La Mesa, California. La Mesa is a city just east of San Diego. Their presence in La Mesa suggests they must have doubled back from their previous course on Highway 33 to head south, probably on the I-5 south to San Diego and then I-8 east to La Mesa.

 

On page 143, a sign at the gas station reads CLOSED SUNDAY, suggesting that "today" is Sunday since no one else shows up in the morning when our heroes wake up at daybreak.

 

As Sarah tends to the T-800's flesh wounds on page 144, she recalls clumsily dressing the wounds of a young man years ago. This is a reference to treating Reese in The Terminator.

 

On page 145, Sarah uses an X-Acto knife to cut open a portion of the skin on the T-800's skull, to expose the CPU (Central Processing Unit) port.

 

As John gives language lessons to the T-800 as they drive through the desert, page 152 reveals it is Sunday, June 9, 1992, 9:46 a.m. on Highway 215. However, the year should be 1995! Also, June 9 does not fall on a Sunday on either of those two years! Highway 215 is actually Interstate 215, but it never has the two-lane structure seen in the movie during this scene; I-215 is a full-fledged freeway running from Murrieta to San Bernardino in California.

 

In the novel, the food and fuel stop is called Jack's Cafe instead of Cactus Jack's.

 

The novel states that Dyson's home is in South Laguna. This is an area of the city of Laguna Beach.

 

The novel reveals that Dyson's wife is named Tarissa.

 

On page 163, Tarissa muses that her husband's obsession with his work was beginning to make her feel like a Stepford Wife. The term "Stepford wife" has come to be used to describe a wife who is a docile and submissive homemaker to her husband. The term derives from Ira Levin's 1972 satirical novel (and later film adaptations) The Stepford Wives, in which the husbands of the town of Stepford, Connecticut have somehow turned their wives into almost robotically docile homemakers.

 

Page 165 reveals that the stripped down helicopter hulk at Enrique's holdout is a Huey. Hueys are a family of helicopters built by the Bell Helicopter company.

 

Page 166 reveals that Enrique's last name is Salceda and he is Guatemalan. The book describes him as armed with an AK-47, but in the movie, he wields a shotgun (a Mossberg Model 590 12-guage, according to the interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD). The AK-47 is a Russian automatic rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947.

 

Page 167 reveals that Enrique's childrens' names are Franco, Juanita, Jamie, and Paco (the toddler the T-800 picks up in the movie). Franco is said to be armed with a MAC-10 A; this refers to an Ingram MAC-10 machine gun (designed in 1964 by Gordon B. Ingram).

 

On page 171, Sarah muses on her past, when she briefly thought humankind might not be worth saving, thinking, Let mankind wind down. Hell, maybe it was natural selection anyway. Darwin mechanized into an efficient killing machine that mowed down its original creators. "Natural selection" is Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection as introduced in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.

 

On page 172, John spins a Sig Saur (sic) 9mm on his finger backwards and forwards like Bat Masterson. SIG Sauer is a German manufacturer of firearms. Bat Masterson (1853-1921) was a renowned gunfighter and lawman of the American old west.

 

Page 178 reveals that Skynet had hesitated until the last minute before making the T-1000, due to the thing's unpredictability in longevity and ability to process commands, and sent it back in time only at the very last microsecond before Skynet's shutdown.

 

Page 178 quotes Einstein as saying that God didn't play dice with the universe. Einstein (1879-1955), of course, is a reference to Albert Einstein, the renowned German theoretical physicist who refused, during a visit to America in the 1930s, to return to Germany after Hitler came into power, and became an American citizen. He did say something similar to this.

 

On page 178, the T-1000 takes a Kawasaki 1100 motorcycle from a police officer to continue his pursuit of Sarah and John Connor in a scene not presented in the movie. Some police departments of the time were known to use this model of motorcycle.

 

Page 182 states that Sarah is carrying a CAR-15 assault rifle as she heads out to confront Dyson. The CAR-15 is a Colt variant of the M16. Page 185 describes it using .223 rounds, which some models of the CAR-15 do.

 

Page 185 describes Dyson's monitor as a CRT type. CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. CRT monitors were commonly used on computers for decades before being largely replaced by slimmer LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors since 2000.

 

Page 185 also describes Danny's radio-controlled toy truck as a Bigfoot. Bigfoot is a line of monster trucks built by off-road enthusiast Bob Chandler and his company Bigfoot 4×4, Inc. (though page 186 refers to the toy as a Bigfoot station wagon rather than the traditional pickup truck). 

 

As Dyson listens to the relating of his role in the history of the future, page 193 describes him as looking like the damned soul on the Sistine Chapel wall. This is a reference to the so-called "damned man" being pulled down to Hell by demons as painted on the front wall of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo.

 

Page 200 explains that the T-800 uses an H.E. 40mm grenade in the M79 grenade launcher to blow open the door of Dyson's lab at Cyberdyne. H.E. (High Explosive) 40mm grenades are in fact the type normally used in an M79. 

 

On page 200, Sarah tapes Claymore mines to the top of solvent drums to blow up Dyson's Cyberdyne lab. Claymore mines are rigged to fire metal balls in a blast in a certain direction. At 1:49:11 on the DVD, we see Sarah insert a detonator cord into one of the Claymores.

 

On page 202, the T-800 attaches blocks of C-plastic explosive to the computer cabinets. "C-plastic explosive" is a reference to C-4 or Composition C type plastic explosive.

 

Page 205 references a Mars bar. This is a chocolate and almonds candy bar made in the U.S.

 

Page 210 refers to the gas canisters fired by the SWAT team as CS gas. This is a type of tear gas.

 

Page 220 refers to the M79 grenade launcher as a blooper. This is a nickname given to the M79 by American soldiers who used it in the Vietnam War due to the sound it makes when firing.

 

On page 223, when the Cryoco truck crashes, the temperature of the liquid nitrogen that spills out of the tanker is said to be -230 degrees. The unit of measurement is not stated, but is incorrect in either Centigrade or Fahrenheit temperature measurements. At 230 centigrade, the nitrogen would be frozen and at Fahrenheit it would be a gas.

 

Page 226 refers to the O.S.H.A. yellow-and-black safety tape on the guardrails at the steel mill. This is a reference to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration which enforces work safety standards at U.S. businesses, part of the Department of Labor.

 

Page 229 describes how the T-1000's spiked finger threatens to pierce Sarah's eye through the upper medulla into her frontal lobe. The upper medulla and frontal lobe are parts of the human brain.

 

Page 233 reveals that Strategy 9,085 for a Terminator is to play dead.

 

After destroying the original Terminator arm and chip, and the current T-800 sacrificing itself in the vat, John also tosses in the pieces of the current T-800's arm, broken off during the battle with the T-1000 in the steel mill. However, in Infiltrator, the arm has survived and was recovered by the government.

 

At the end of the book, in a scene from the original script that was cut from the final film, John is seen to be a U.S. senator, achieving victories for human rights in a very different way than in the Skynet timeline. Judgment Day was averted, thanks to our heroes actions in 1995. In most of the Terminator timelines, Judgment Day was simply delayed by a matter of years, but still took place.

 

Page 237 takes place in the now idyllic 2029 in a park near Washington D.C., with the Capitol and Washington Monument on the skyline.

 

Page 238 mentions that instead of Judgment Day occurring on August 29, 1997, Michael Jackson merely turned 40. Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, so he would have turned 39, not 40.

 

Page 238 reveals that, in the novel's timeline, Sarah never married as of 2029. She did search for the young Kyle Reese (and even hired a private investigator) but then stopped it, realizing he would be a very different person in this new timeline and could not love her the way she did him. 

 

Notes from the 3-issue comic book adaptation published by Marvel Comics

Adaptation by Gregory Wright
Based on the screenplay by James Cameron & William Wisher
Art by Klaus Janson
Covers by Klaus Janson

 

Marvel Comics published a 3-issue mini-series adaptation of the film. Each issue has its own subtitle: "Arrival", "Escape", and "Departure".

 

Issue 1: The Voight address is shown as 523 S. Almond St. In the movie it is 19828 S. Almond Avenue.

 

Issue 1 (and 3): The recovered microchip appears essentially whole, unlike the visibly damaged one seen in the film.

 

Issue 1: Deciding to phone his foster parents to warn them about the Terminator, John refers to Todd and Janelle as dorks. In the movie he says "dicks".

 

Issue 1: After killing Janelle and Todd at their home, the T-1000 finds the address of Pescadero State Hospital there: 1416 W. Knoll, Los Angeles. There is no such address in Los Angeles. The novelization states the hospital is a few miles outside of Chino.

 

Issue 1: Page 21 shows Sarah's cell number at Pescadero as #19 (as does the novelization).

 

Issue 2: On page 9, panel 4, the panel border appears to be bisecting the T-1000's head!

 

Issue 2: On page 13, after fleeing from Pescadero and the T-1000, Sarah asks John if he's okay, to which he responds, "Aye-firmative." Obviously, he's saying "affirmative", but the use of "aye-firmative" may be intended as a reference to James Cameron's 1986 film, Aliens, in which the characters of both Hudson and Newt use the term "aye-firmative".

 

Issue 2: While giving the T-800 language lessons, John says "junk" instead of "shit", "stick it" instead of "eat me", and "jerkwad" instead of "dickwad".

 

Issue 2: This issue reveals that Enrique's holdout is located on Charon Mesa, near the Mexican border. The script indicates this is in California and the novelization states it is northwest of Calexico. Charon Mesa appears to be a fictional location. Calexico is a California city just north of the Mexican border.

 

Issue 2: The car driven by the T-800 after leaving the service station in which he and his human charges spent the night seems to alternate between being a station wagon and a truck throughout this issue.

 

Issue 3: The security guard at the front desk when Dyson and friends enter Cyberdyne is a white guy named Paul; in the movie, it is a black guy named Carl.

 

Issue 3: As they retrieve the microchip and arm from the Cyberdyne vault, John says they've got Skynet "by the brass" instead of "by the balls" as in the film.

 

Issue 3: On page 15 of the story, our heroes and their pursuer exit the freeway on Bill Road to enter the foundry grounds. Their is no Bill Road in Irvine.

 

Issue 3: On page 17, the T-800 shoots the frozen T-1000 with the M79 grenade launcher instead of a .45 pistol as in the film.

 

Notes from the Director's Commentary on the Extreme DVD by James Cameron and William Wisher

 

The Corral bar was shot just across the street from where Rodney King was beaten by LAPD officers on the night of March 2, 1991 (the film was shot before the beating occurred). This would place the location at the corner of Foothill Blvd. and Osborne St. in Los Angeles.

 

When the T-1000 arrives in 1984, actor Robert Patrick's willy had to be removed digitally.

 

Co-writer William Wisher is the man taking photos of the T-800 at about 32:00 on the DVD.

 

When Sarah picks the locks on her restraints and cell door, actress Linda Hamilton actually did pick the locks!

 

Linda Hamilton received permanent hearing damage in one ear during a scene in the elevator at Pescadero State Hospital when Arnold fires the 10-guage shotgun near her. She had removed her earplugs between scenes and forgot to replace them during this shot.

 

At 1:02:13 on the DVD, a stunt driver's head can be seen in the backseat of the security car as our heroes make their escape from Pescadero.

 

Cameron states that he later learned from his younger brother Mike (a Marine) that the scene of the T-800 blowing out the laboratory door at Cyberdyne with the M79 at 1:44:50 on the DVD would not have worked in real life. The T-800 was standing too close; the grenade must spin seven times before it arms and is able to explode when striking the target. (The interactive version of the movie on the DVD reveals that Mike Cameron appears briefly as one of the soldiers greeted by John Connor in the tunnel in 2029 near the beginning of the film.)

 

Notes from the interactive version of the movie on the Extreme DVD

 

The soldier who blasts the downed Terminator at 2:48 on the DVD is Pasha Afshar, who was also the stand-in for the T-1000 throughout the filming.

 

Edward Furlong's stand-in is the woman seen at the jukebox in the Corral at 8:11 on the DVD.

 

The sunglasses worn by the T-800 in this film are made by Oakley.

 

Theories as to how the T-1000 could travel through time, considering only organic or organic-covered matter could go through (as stated by Reese in The Terminator), abounded on the set during filming. It was speculated that the liquid metal molecules of the T-1000 were able to pass as organic or that it wore a skin of living tissue for the transport which it shed after arrival.

 

The Voight house was filmed at an actual house on Valerio Street in Winnetka, CA.

 

Pescadero State Hospital was shot at Lakeview Terrace Medical Center, Sylmar, which had been shut down by 1991 due to earthquake damage.

 

The scenes of John stealing money from an ATM were shot at a closed-down bank in Panorama City, CA (a neighborhood of L.A.).

 

The park scene of Sarah's visions was actually an on-location set filmed at a landfill above Elysian Park in Los Angeles.

 

The personal computers seen in the Cyberdyne labs were manufactured by Northgate Computers, a real world company from 1987-2005.

 

The girl who speaks to "Officer Austin" (the T-1000) at 28:29 on the DVD is Nikki Cox, who went on to star in several TV series.

 

The kitchen knife used by "Janelle" to chop vegetables at 41:16 on the DVD is the model the T-1000 soon uses for his arm knife to kill Todd, as seen about a minute later.

 

The pistol used by the T-800 when he nearly kills one of the jocks at the liquor store is a Coltonic, a hybrid of a Colt Government Model frame with a Detonics Score Master top, a custom made prop gun for shooting blanks in close proximity to actors. The gun was made by Stembridge Gun Rentals, a company specializing in guns for Hollywood productions, founded in 1920 by James Stembridge and Cecil B. DeMille.

 

The driving scenes after our heroes escape from Pescadero feature footage shot on Bouquet Canyon Road, north of L.A.

 

The rifle used by Sarah outside the Dyson home in her assassination attempt is a Colt XM-177 E2 5.56mm machine gun. Her pistol is a Special Detonics Speed Master handgun.

 

The freeway chase after our heroes escape Cyberdyne with the T-1000 in pursuit was shot on the Terminal Island Freeway. This is a short stretch of freeway between L.A. and Long Beach.

 

The gun used by Sarah during her final confrontation with the T-1000 is a Remington A70 police model folding-stock shotgun.

 

And, last but not least... 


"pretzelman" is the melting T-1000 in the vat of molten steel.

 

Unanswered Questions

 

What did our heroes do with the security car in which they fled from the Pescadero hospital? They are seen driving it to a desert service station at night and then steal a station wagon from there in the morning. But if they left the Pescadero security car behind, it would provide a clue to the authorities of which direction they had headed.

 

How is the T-800 able to resist John's order not to sacrifice himself at the end of the film? Is it due to a newfound humanity from the activated learning chip?

 

Memorable Dialog

 

Judgment Day.wav

clothes, boots, motorcycle.wav

she's not my mother.wav

the delusional architecture is fairly unique.wav

how's the knee.wav

she's a total loser.wav

on your feet, soldier.wav

there is no fate but what we make.wav

there's not much time left in the world.wav

anybody not wearing two million sunblock is going to have a real bad day.wav

you're the one living in a fucking dream.wav

don't ask.wav

don't take this the wrong way.wav

who sent you?.wav

your mom's a psycho, didn't you know?.wav

my own Terminator.wav

you were gonna kill that guy.wav

you just can't go around killing people.wav

I swear I will not kill anyone.wav

he'll live.wav

you know I believe it.wav

come with me if you want to live.wav

so, what's your story?.wav

that's a nice bike.wav

watch it, lug nuts.wav

I have detailed files.wav

does it hurt when you get shot?.wav

can you learn.wav

a learning computer.wav

great military leader.wav

are we learning yet?.wav

no problemo.wav

it's in your nature to destroy yourselves.wav 

you're pretty jumpy, Connor.wav

Uncle Bob.wav

she always plans ahead.wav

it's definitely you.wav

I wish I could have met my real dad.wav

all right, my man.wav

of all the would-be fathers.wav

no fate.wav

no fate but what we make.wav

three billion deaths.wav

we need to be a little more constructive here, okay?.wav

the chip.wav

making up history.wav

we got company.wav

trust me.wav

we got Skynet by the balls.wav

I'll be back.wav

step on it.wav 

hasta la vista, baby.wav

I need a vacation.wav

terminated.wav

there's one more chip.wav

I cannot self-terminate.wav

I order you not to go.wav 

it's something I can never do.wav

the value of human life.wav

 

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