T-800 Terminator: The Cyborg Arnold Schwarzenegger Plays

The T-800 is a cyborg assassin built by Skynet, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, that is sent back in time to kill in The Terminator (1984), directed by James Cameron. It arrives naked in 1984 Los Angeles from the year 2029, and its mission is to kill a waitress named Sarah Connor, whose unborn son John will one day lead the human resistance. Schwarzenegger is billed first in that film, under the credit "Terminator".

The credits change from film to film, which is why searches for the Terminator and the T-800 lead to the same character. Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines both credit Schwarzenegger as "The Terminator". Terminator Genisys (2015) credits "Guardian / The Terminator", and this is the version Sarah Connor calls Pops. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) credits "T-800 / Carl", the name the machine takes once it has a human life.

The model is best known for the line "I will be back" from the first film, and for the metal frame left once its flesh is burned away. Stan Winston built the effects for the original, and the endoskeleton he created remains the image most people picture when they hear the name.

The T-800 is a Skynet killer in The Terminator (1984), a reprogrammed protector of John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and a recurring guardian or enemy in later films. In the first film it is the antagonist. It works through women named Sarah Connor in the phone book, attacks the police station where Sarah is held, and keeps coming even after it is badly damaged and stripped down to a metal frame. The chase ends at a factory, where Kyle Reese dies helping Sarah destroy the machine.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day the resistance sends back a reprogrammed older model to guard the young John Connor. It saves him from the liquid metal T-1000 at a shopping mall, and John orders it not to kill people. It also explains that Cyberdyne engineer Miles Dyson is developing the technology that leads to Skynet. At the steel mill the T-1000 disables it, but it is reactivated and helps Sarah push the T-1000 into molten steel.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) returns Schwarzenegger as an older Terminator protecting John and Kate Brewster from the T-X. The T-X takes control of it and orders it to kill John, but it forces its own shutdown to resist. Terminator Salvation (2009) then shows a T-800 on the machine side again. In 2018 it stabs John Connor through the chest, and Marcus Wright tears off its head.

In Terminator Genisys (2015) the Guardian, whom Sarah Connor calls Pops, has protected her since childhood. In Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) a T-800 kills John Connor in 1998 in Guatemala, and years later it lives as a man named Carl and has developed a conscience.

The T-800's main allies are Sarah Connor and, in the sequels, John Connor, and its main enemies are Skynet and the newer Terminators it sends. The pairing with Sarah is the longest. In The Terminator (1984) she is its target, and Kyle Reese, the soldier sent back from the same future, is the human ally who tries to protect her and dies in the factory. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day she becomes its ally, while John treats it as a protector. In Terminator Genisys, Sarah calls the Guardian Pops, and Reese arrives in 1984 to find the two already fighting together.

On the other side stands Skynet, the machine network that sends Terminators back in time. Each sequel pits the T-800 against a newer model: the T-1000 played by Robert Patrick in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the T-X played by Kristanna Loken in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and the Rev-9 played by Gabriel Luna in Terminator: Dark Fate. Terminator Genisys also features a T-1000, credited to Lee Byung-hun as "Cop / T-1000".

Other humans shape its behavior. Miles Dyson learns from the T-800 where his work leads, and Kate Brewster is protected alongside John in the third film. In Terminator: Dark Fate, Grace and Dani Ramos fight beside it with Sarah Connor.

The T-800 is destroyed at the end of The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Dark Fate, while Pops is rebuilt in Terminator Genisys. In the first film the machine is finished off at the factory. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day it convinces a tearful John that it must also be destroyed so its technology can never help build Skynet. Sarah lowers it into the vat of molten steel, and it gives a thumbs up as it sinks.

In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines the Terminator crashes a helicopter into the T-X at Crystal Peak, then uses its last fuel cell to destroy both itself and the T-X, which holds the bunker door open long enough for John and Kate to get inside. In Terminator Salvation the T-800 that stabs John is beheaded by Marcus Wright.

In Terminator Genisys, Pops traps John inside the field of the time machine's reactor, and both are torn apart in the blast. Pops is later rebuilt from the surviving liquid metal debris and rejoins Sarah and Reese. In Terminator: Dark Fate, Carl holds the Rev-9 in place while Dani destroys it with Grace's power core, and Carl is destroyed along with it.

The best T-800 moments are the steel mill thumbs up in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the mall rescue in the same film, the factory chase in The Terminator, and the forced shutdown in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In my opinion, the ranking below follows how much each scene changes what the machine means, not how loud it is.

1. The steel mill thumbs up (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). The T-800 sinks into the molten steel so that its technology can never help build Skynet, and it is the one ending where the machine chooses its own destruction in front of a crying John.
2. The mall rescue (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). The audience still expects a villain, and instead watches the T-800 shield a boy from the T-1000, with John ordering it not to kill people.
3. The factory chase (The Terminator). The machine has lost its skin and keeps crawling after Sarah, which makes it the purest version of the character: no jokes, no mercy, just the metal frame.
4. The forced shutdown (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines). When the T-X orders it to kill John, the Terminator shuts itself down to resist, a rare scene where the machine fights its own programming. The helicopter crash into the T-X is the set piece that follows.
5. Carl holds the Rev-9 (Terminator: Dark Fate). The T-800 that killed John Connor ends its life as a man with a conscience, keeping the Rev-9 in place so Dani can destroy it.

If you are new to the series, start with the second film, because it gives the T-800 its most complete turn.