History Film / TheTerminator

* RecklessGunUsage: Intentionally invoked in the gun shop scene. ArtisticLicenseGunSafety is partially averted, with the owner telling the T-800 he needs to wait two weeks to purchase the heavy guns, and getting alarmed when he starts ''loading'' them. [[hottip:*:He still makes some really dumb mistakes, though, see TooDumbToLive below.]]

* FeetFirstIntroduction: The Teminator and Resse when they come from the past.

* OneWingedAngel: The Terminator was already an unstoppable machine, but once its human disguise is completely burned off by the truck explosion, revealing its true appearance, it completely stops holding back and begins a very determined last ditch chase to kill Sarah and Kyle.

* FootFocus / FeetFirstIntroduction: The Teminator and Resse when they come from the past. Theres also a minor one with one of Sarah's co-workers having her stocking feet on the table when the news reports of the other Sarah Connor's murder.

* TookALevelInBadass Sara does by the end of the movie.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The T-800 punking three punks during one of its first [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-TmQ1ktaLU scenes]] when they don't comply and [[MuggingTheMonster become confrontational]]. It comes across them naked, displaying a decidedly non-human behavior, it is unaffected by a knife thrust and then delivers a gruesome blow to one with its bare hands

* ArtisticLicenseCars: Due to SpecialEffectsFailure; the pickup Kyle and Sarah steal (a Chevy C10 - 2WD - dressed up like an offroading K10 - 4WD - though this isn't unheard of), when it's flipped over, is missing its drivetrain - it clealy has no engine, transmission or driveshaft.

* ANakedShoulderToCryOn: Sarah Connor ends up having sex with Kyle Reese while they're on the run from a killer robot, and she had witnessed it murder multiple people that she knew.

* BigBadassRig: The T-800 chases down the protagonists in a cab-over 18-wheeler fuel truck.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lieutenant Traxler is quite competetent and unlike his fellow officers, he doesn't laugh at the possibility that Reese may not be lying or crazy. He even comes to believe Reese in a deleted scene when he's dying, telling him to protect Sarah.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: Silberman scoffs at the prospects of the Terminator, and he leaves ''just'' as the Terminator arrives at the station. He's looking at his pager when he first walks in.

* ArtisticLicenseCars: The pickup Kyle and Sarah steal (a Chevy C10 - 2WD - dressed up like an offroading K10 - 4WD - though this isn't unheard of), when it's flipped over, is missing its drivetrain - it clealy has no engine, transmission or driveshaft.

* TooDumbToLive: The owner of the gun shop runs a gun store without putting any trigger locks on his merchandise or taking out the firing pinms. And while he may or may not have been carrying a firearm himself, her certainly should've pulled it out when the "customer" started loading the gun before paying for it (of course, a firearm would have been of no use [[ImmuneToBullets given the situation]], but he doesn't know that). He's not at all suspicious of a guy buying that many high-powered firearms in one sitting (suggesting either organized crime or a guy about to go on a killing spree), not even when the guy asks for a plasma rifle, a gun that doesn't exist.

* TooDumbToLive: The owner of the gun shop runs a gun store (where guns have no trigger locks) without carrying a firearm himself. Of course, a firearm would have been of no use [[ImmuneToBullets given the situation]], but he doesn't know that he's talking to a robot. He's not at all suspicious of a guy buying that many high-powered firearms in one sitting (suggesting either organized crime or a guy about to go on a killing spree), not even when the guy asks for a plasma rifle, a gun that doesn't exist.

* WhatYearIsIt: Appears, although questioning under gunpoint is required to receive the (incomplete) answer. The questioned police officer, whom Kyle Reese has just disarmed, gives him the date and day of the week, but balks and looks confused when Kyle demands to know the year.

* KickTheDog: A very literal example, as the humanoid Terminator in Kyle's future flashback uses his machine gun to mow down the guard dogs who detected him, although there's a GoryDiscretionShot.

* TooDumbToLive: The owner of the gun shop runs a gun store (where guns have no trigger locks) without carrying a firearm himself. Of course, a firearm would have been of no use [[ImmuneToBullets given the situation]], but he's not at all suspicious of a guy buying that many high-powered firearms in one sitting, not even when the guy asks for a plasma rifle, a gun that doesn't exist.

Two men emerge naked from two separate electrical storms in Los Angeles and quickly go out to find supplies. One stays low and out of sight to avoid the police and other authorities. The other picks up a phone book so he can find women named Sarah Connor...so he can kill them. When a young diner waitress also named Sarah Connor hears that two people with her name have been killed within the last few days, she begins to worry that the killer will come for her next. While the killer murders two people in Sarah's home in an effort to find her, Sarah hides in a nightclub; when the killer catches up with her there, she ends up rescued by the first individual, Kyle Reese, who explains the {{backstory}} to Sarah after escaping from the killer: [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in the near future]], the United States government will create [=SkyNet=], an artificial intelligence [[AIIsACrapshoot that will promptly]] [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turn against its masters]] and attempt to KillAllHumans in a cataclysmic event that will become known as [[FauxSymbolism Judgment Day]]. Mankind will eventually defeat [=SkyNet=], but at the last minute, [=SkyNet=] will send a T-800 Model Terminator -- an [[KillerRobot android assassin]] wrapped in human flesh to give it the appearance of a human -- [[TimeTravel back in time]] to kill Sarah and prevent the birth of her son John (who will become the leader of the [[LaResistance human resistance]]). John will respond by sending Reese into the past to [[WaybackTrip protect his mother and the timeline]]. After several dramatic battles and a HeroicSacrifice from Reese, Sarah destroys the Terminator in an [[NoOSHACompliance industrial factory]] -- but not before Sarah sleeps with Reese [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy and conceives John Connor]] (which means John causes his own birth and creates a StableTimeLoop).

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