History Film / TheTerminator

** [[FreezeFrameBons When Kyle exits the clothing store, he walks past a sign that says "Save on women's quality shoes", with the words "save women" visible under the streetlights]], hinting that he's the one tasked with saving Sarah.

** The time jump is depicted by only blue lightning and doesn't include the sphere which instantly destroys whatever it touches nearby. Safe to say that had the sphere been there, Kyle would likely have had more luck convincing Dr. Silberman of his story.
** Ginger's boyfriend tries to fight the Terminator when he bursts into their house. It is, of course, a CurbstompBattle, but he somehow manages to keep the Terminator occupied for a good half minute or so, even managing to shove the Terminator backwards a few steps at one point. In later ''Terminator'' media, any human going up against a Terminator in hand-to-hand would get killed pretty much instantly.

** The street punks whom the T-800 mugged for their clothes. In fairness to them, they could not have known it was a killer cyborg from the future but he was still a really muscular guy who was either mentally unstable or on some drugs to be walking stark naked and unaware of it.

** The street punks whom the T-800 mugged for their clothes. In fairness to them, they could not have known it was a killer cyborg from the future but he was still a really muscular guy who did not appear mentally stable.

!!Come with me if you want tropes:

** The time jump is depicted by only blue lightning and doesn't include the sphere which instantly destroys whatever it touches nearby. Safe to say that had the sphere been there, Kyle would likely have had more lucky convincing Dr. Silberman of his story.

** The time jump is depicted by only blue lightning and doesn't include the sphere which instantly destroys whatever it touches nearby.

* RuleOfThree: [[spoiler:We think the Terminator is dead once, then twice, then finally it sticks when Sarah remembers to deliver a simultaneous PreMortemOneLiner and PrecisionFStrike.]]

* PrecisionFStrike: "Fuck you, asshole."

** Played straight when a terrified Sarah tries to contact the police from Tech Noir. She calls the LAPD emergency line and is put on hold. After trying for a while to get help she gives up and calls Ginger, explaining, "I tried the police and they keep transferring me around." And this is ''after'' Lt. Trexler made getting in contact with the last Sarah Connor in the phone book a top priority since she's almost certainly the killer's next target.

* CompromisingCall: Inverted. Sarah is the one in danger and tries to call her friend Ginger to warn her of the killer that's stalking her. Unfortunately for Sarah, Ginger is already dead and the voice mail Sarah leaves lets the Terminator not only know it killed the wrong woman but exactly where Sarah is.

!!Come with me if you want tropes:

* CrapsackWorld: Future LA. You can't move by day at all, only at night. Even then you have to be careful because the machines use infra-red. HK's hunt for any living thing to brutally and clinically murder, and everybody lives underground in squalid hovels. Hovels that from time to time get infiltrated by Terminators. A deleted scene shows Kyle suffering a HeroicBreakdown when he laments how [[GaiasLament beautiful]] the world used to be compared to the hellish BadFuture he came from, especially when he and Sarah are hiding in a wooded area.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The T-800 punking three punks during one of its first [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-TmQ1ktaLU scenes]] when they don't comply and [[UnderestimatingBadassery become confrontational]]. It comes across them naked, displaying a decidedly non-human behaviour, it is unaffected by a knife thrust and then delivers a gruesome blow to one with its bare hands.
--> "Wash day tomorrow, nothing clean!"

* DigitalAbomination: After declaring humanity a threat to its survival, the military AI Skynet goes rogue and starts a RobotWar by launching nukes worldwide, killing 3 billion humans in a single day. It then sends its robot assassins (who are typically pre-tuned to follow its directives) in the past via time travel to kill John Connor.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: When Reese knocks out his guard during the Terminator's rampage through the police station, they're knocked out instantly when Kyle rushes them and hits them in the chest with their knee. This might seem far-fetched but this is possible with a technique called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_shot liver shot]], although it's notable that Kyle was raised to fight against machines, not humans so it's unclear if he truly knows this move.

* {{Novelization}}: By Randall Frakes and William Wisher, the latter of whom would co-write [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay the sequel]].

Kyle explains [[{{Backstory}} his story]] to Sarah after they escape the killer: [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in the near future]], US Defense will start to operate using [=SkyNet=], an artificial intelligence system [[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 before its final defeat, [=SkyNet=] will send a T-800 model Terminator -- an [[KillerRobot android]] 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 [[WaybackTrip sending Reese into the past]] to protect John's mother--and the timeline.

Kyle explains [[{{Backstory}} his story]] to Sarah after they escape 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 before its final defeat, [=SkyNet=] will send a T-800 model Terminator -- an [[KillerRobot android]] 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 [[WaybackTrip sending Reese into the past]] to protect John's mother--and the timeline.

* StealthPun: [[CyberPunk Tech Noir]].

** Sarah Connor tries to issue a warning to her roommate Ginger by phone, but the killer robot has already liquefied her. Instead, Sarah's message to the answering machine reveals to the terminator that he's killed the wrong target, and that Sarah Connor is at a downtown dance club.

** Also used where the future terminator attacks Reese's base, and the picture of Sarah catches on fire. The scene goes from a closeup of the burning picture to the real Sarah's face. Also the barking of the dogs in the future were replaced by a barking of a dog far from where Sarah and Reese are.

** Sarah looks up [[spoiler:Cyberdyne System's address in a phone book, which was actually filmed but not used in the film, though it can certainly be speculated that it happened after watching the sequel]]. Together, she and Kyle [[spoiler:concoct a plan to blow up Cyberdyne and stop the rise of [=SkyNet=] ]]. The Terminator follows them. [[spoiler:The Terminator's remains, including the chip, are found at Cyberdyne, where they are taken to be studied, which leads to the development of Skynet]].

** How DID Reese get that big wad of cash he used to pay the motel room? It's a fair assumption he spent the day stealing what he needed, but it's not really addressed. Lampshaded by Sarah, who comments "I don't wanna ask where you got it."

** We never learn exactly what was going on in Reese's first flashback/dream. In particular there is a [[ActionGirl female soldier]] fighting alongside Reese who seems to know him personally, although she [[RedShirts dies before she gets any dialogue]]. It also ends with Reese being trapped in a crashed, burning car, and we never find out how he escaped as he wakes up right at that moment.

* OnlyAFleshWound: Kyle gets shot by the Terminator while escaping from the police station, but manages to keep driving until their car runs out of gas. Later, he and Sarah hide under a bridge and when she finds out he's shot, he refuses medical attention and says it's "not bad". He's shot again later on, but this one is far more serious as it slowly saps his strength and possibly contributes to his death later.

* PetTheDog: A small hint that Kyle isn't just a dedicated soldier but a genuinely decent man comes in one of the future flashbacks (flashforwards?) when a kid pops up with a toy gun and makes "pew, pew" noises at him, and Kyle playfully points his gun at the kid and pretends to take cover.
* PlasmaCannon: While ordering guns the T-800 asks for a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range. Presumably the ray guns seen in the future sequences are the plasma weapon that the Terminator was asking for.

* SerendipitousSurvival: Dr. Silberman leaves the police station just as the Terminator arrives and massacres the place.
* SerialKiller: The film starts with the Terminator systematically killing any woman in a given area with the name "Sarah Connor".

* ShootOutTheLock: The Terminator shoots out a door lock with his SPAS-12 during the police station assault. Could count as EarlyInstallmentWeirdness as in later movies a Terminator can knock steel doors off their hinges. Perhaps it's because [[GunsAkimbo he had his hands full at the time]].

* UncommonTime: Due to [[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/02/the_time_signature_of_the_terminator_score_is_a_mystery_for_the_ages.html a mistake Brad Fiedel made when syncing the tracks manually]], the main theme is in 13/16

* DramaPreservingHandicap: [[spoiler: During the climax, the shockwave from final pipebomb Reese which blows the Terminator's lower half up also causes Sarah to fall off a ladder she was climbing and injure her legs, leaving her unable to stand. Thus when the Terminator's torso begins crawling after her to try and finish its job, Sarah herself can only crawl away from it because of her injuries.]]

* EvilSmellsBad: After another failed chase, the T-800 hides out in a flophouse to conduct self-repairs to its actuators. By then, its synthskin emits a foul odor due to the damage sustained, causing a janitor to ask if [[SmellsOfDeath there's a "dead cat in there."]] The robot responds rudely and resumes its chase against Sarah.
* EyeScream: The T-800's "[[SelfStitching self-repair]]" scene, where he cuts his damaged left eye out with an X-Acto knife.

* CrapsackWorld: Future LA. You can't move by day at all, only at night. Even then you have to be careful because the machines use infra-red. HK's hunt for any living thing to brutally and clinically murder, and everybody lives underground in squalid hovels. Hovels that from time to time get infiltrated by Terminators. A DeletedScene shows Kyle suffering a HeroicBreakdown when he laments how [[GaiasLament beautiful]] the world used to be compared to the hellish BadFuture he came from, especially when he and Sarah are hiding in a wooded area.
** To clarify, demonic {{Mechanical Abomination}}s stalk the land and roam the skies, human skulls and destroyed buildings have replaced trees and grass as the dominant natural feature of the landscape, and humanity itself has been ReducedToRatburgers. In fact, [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue military AI Skynet]] started the RobotWar by nuking out 3 billion humans in a single day. The survivors were either killed by Skynet's MechaMooks or were rounded up in concentration camps, but a human resistance force rises up to defeat Skynet and its {{Robot Soldier}}s. LaResistance wins eventually, but the crux of the franchise starts when Skynet sends the T-800 back to the past to kill Sarah in Los Angeles in a last-ditch attempt to turn the tide, and Kyle is sent to protect Sarah from the Terminator.

* My interpretation of why Ginger's boyfriend survived so long was because the Terminator was not interested in killing him at all. The Terminator only kept scanning around for a likely female person, and only reacted violently during those times when it was actually being attacked by the boyfriend. So, it was operating in a self-defensive mode only, though that was bad enough for the unfortunate boyfriend. Holding back from attacking others makes sense because it is probably programmed to where possible to conserve resources (such as pistol rounds, or even power punches) until its primary target is sighted. Note that the Terminator did not kill the trucker's mate during the truck stealing scene, though it could have easily done so, simply because that will unnecessarily consume precious time or energy that will be better expended to directly go after Sarah. The mass-killing Terminator shown in the flashback sequence is different because it was likely programmed to kill all humans in the bunker, and not just a specific one.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Terminator's massacre of an entire police station makes them into one of America's most wanted fugitives. Their infamy carries all the way into ''Terminator III'' and they are treated as armed and extremely dangerous when their presence is reported. What law enforcement doesn't realize is that each sighting after this film is ''not'' of the same Terminator; they just use the same likeness due to being made on an assembly line.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Terminator's massacre of an entire police station makes them into one of America's most wanted fugitives. Their infamy carries all the way into ''Terminator III'' and they are treated as armed and extremely dangerous when he their presence is reported. What law enforcement doesn't realize is that each sighting after this film is ''not'' the same Terminator; they just use the same likeness due to being made on an assembly line.