Terminator | |
---|---|
Terminator character | |
![]() Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) | |
First appearance | The Terminator (1984) |
Last appearance | Terminator Zero (2024) |
Created by | James Cameron Gale Anne Hurd |
Portrayed by | Arnold Schwarzenegger[a] |
Voiced by | |
Body doubles |
|
In-universe information | |
Aliases | Uncle Bob (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, T2) Guardian, Pops (Terminator Genisys) Carl (Terminator: Dark Fate) |
Species | Cyborg/android (human tissue-grafted robotic endoskeleton) |
Gender | Male human tissue exterior |
Occupation | Assassin, infiltrator (The Terminator, Salvation, Genisys, and Dark Fate) Bodyguard (T2, T3, Genisys and Dark Fate) |
Manufacturer | Cyberdyne Systems |
Machine designation | Model 101 (The Terminator, T2, Genisys, Dark Fate) T-101 / T-850 (T3) T-800 (Salvation, Genisys, Dark Fate) |
| ||
---|---|---|
Bodybuilding and business career
![]() |
||
The Terminator, also known as a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 or the T-800, is the name of several film characters from the Terminator franchise portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator himself is part of a series of machines created by Skynet, an artificial intelligence, for infiltration-based surveillance and assassination missions. While an android for his appearance, he is usually described as a cyborg consisting of living tissue over a robotic endoskeleton.
The first appearance of the Terminator was as the eponymous main antagonist in The Terminator, a 1984 film directed and co-written by James Cameron. While the original Terminator was destroyed, other machines with the same appearance are featured in the sequels. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Schwarzenegger's Terminator serves as the main protagonist, while in Terminator Genisys (2015) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), he serves as a supporting protagonist, and is pitted against other Terminators sent by Skynet and its successor Legion.
In Terminator Salvation (2009) and Dark Fate, the character also appears briefly as an antagonist. In the context of the stories, the plot device of having various robots looking the same provides a certain continuity for the human characters by exploiting their emotional familiarity with a particular "human" visage associated with each "model". The "Terminator" title is also used as a generic name for other human-simulating characters in the Terminator franchise, such as the liquid-metal T-1000 antagonist in Judgment Day.
The Terminator is Schwarzenegger's best-known role, and resulted in two catchphrases, "I'll be back" and "Hasta la vista, baby", used in the first and second film respectively.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha>
tags or {{efn}}
templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
template or {{notelist}}
template (see the help page).