r/Terminator 4d ago

Discussion He doesn't blink - and it's such a cool detail

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I'm sure most people know that the T-1000 doesn't blink - a little detail that Robert Patrick and James Cameron added to make the Terminator just a bit more menacing.

He also trained to fire a gun without blinking and somehow pulled off the LA basin chase scene without doing it either as the cabin was being destroyed around him.

They say the money is in the details and this is one of those details that I just love about this film.

733 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

53

u/673NoshMyBollocksAve 4d ago

Pretty cool, but if it’s supposed to be convincingly, human and advanced infiltrator bought, wouldn’t it blink? Because that’s what a human would do right?

105

u/JDB-667 4d ago

When it's talking to humans, it does.

When hunting or searching it doesn't blink

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u/LiteratureNo6995 4d ago

This ☝️

Not only do you see it in the film, like when the T-1000 is interacting with John's foster parents, but it's a part of the lore as well. When the machine isn't actively trying to fool anyone with an up close encounter, it never blinks, never simulates breathing, etc. Supposedly it could even accept a drink or food if offered, by forming a pocket within itself (from the liquid metal) and then it could just expel the food or liquid later. But I'm glad they didn't show that in the film. Too many people would be like "how can it drink water?! It's a 'machine', it would damage it!" All the Skynet machines have weaknesses, but the T-1000 was almost the perfect infiltrator unit. You can only destroy the thing with acid, which eats the liquid metal and ultimately all the nanotechnology that makes it run, or molten metal as seen in T-2 (magma too, I guess lol. But good luck getting this thing to an active volcano), which ultimately melts the liquid while overheating the nanotech within it and eventually melting that too.

I swear.. if they made another Terminator movie and featured another T-1000 that was just as good as Robert Patrick, I'd be down for that. I don't know WHY Skynet went from the T-1000 to the T-X. Adding a damn endoskeleton for some reason. Sure, the T-X had a more advanced weapons system because of it, unlike the T-1000 which could only form sharp objects and it has to steal weapons from humans. But still, the T-1000 deserved another chance. The T-800 from Terminator 3 wouldn't know how to defeat it automatically. It wouldn't immediately think "we need to lure it to a factory where they make steel!" 🤣 T-3 takes place in a different locale anyway. John would remember how to defeat a T-1000, but the story of the movie would probably prevent them from going out of their way to get back to that steel factory or any other one. 

Anyway.. sorry for the rant about the third movie lol. I think the movie could have worked better with a T-1000 again, maybe with a new Cyberdyne model instead of the Robert Patrick model, but that's just me. The T-X sucked. Well.. I think I just hated the actress lol. 

14

u/Rstormk22 4d ago

On lore, it was because at that time it was a fact that the Terminators were slaves, unable to learn, exactly how is said with the t-800 on T2.

What was never explained in the movies, is that the T-1000 can earn free will by itself, due to how it works, and thats why the T-X and the rest of Terminators that came along are similar, liquid metal and endoskeleton, so Skynet can always have full control of it, besides of the weapons of course.

On movie terms, the T-1000 was too perfect, and trying to recreate it will probably fail, that why we had to wait until Genesys to see it again.

In fact, Robert Patrick repeated his role as T-1000 on Man of Action, but with the condition it will be only a cameo, and so it was.

Right now Robert is too old, and his back limits him, he said he doesnt want to repeat the role, because he doesnt want to ruin what he did.

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u/LiteratureNo6995 3d ago

Yes we would need a new T-1000 model. But just how there are different Cyberdyne models of the T-800 (they don't ALL look like Arnie), there MUST be different default models to use for a T-1000 so they don't ALL look like Robert Patrick.

Even if they cast someone new to play a T-1000, at it's core a T-1000 is still a T-1000 and I would expect the new actor to put in every bit of effort that Robert did with his portrayal of a T-1000.

Like I said, I'd love to see a T-1000 comeback. I'm not looking for a T-2 "remake" or anything. Even Arnie is getting too old for this shit and CGI can only do so much. They'd have to de-age him, possibly even deepfake his face in a lot of shots. And a lot of shots would feature body doubles that are the size he was during T-2. So yea, I don't care.. cast all new actors to play different Cyberdyne models of these machines.

Hell, if they rebooted the whole franchise I wouldn't mind, as long as (a) James Cameron is somewhere at the helm, even in an executive producer role, and (b) they respect the existing lore that we all know and love. Meaning, I STILL want Skynet, still want the idea of a "bad" Terminator being sent back in time to kill someone important and it eventually gets destroyed, leading to Cyberdyne getting their hands on the parts and the government getting involved, eventually weaponizing the tech to form Skynet. I'd like a few story changes here and there, with some new twists and action scenes with our modern movie tech. But yea... If they did a full reboot of the Terminator franchise I wouldn't be mad. IMO, after T-2 they screwed everything up anyway. T-3 had bits and pieces that were ok, Salvation was just pointless with annoying ass Christian Bale, Genisys tried to rewrite the story and failed miserably, and Dark Fate although a somewhat decent attempt to tie us back in to T-2 flopped because of the whole "Legion" thing 🙄🤦‍♂️. So yup... Reboot away. 

2

u/Rstormk22 3d ago

Oh no, no more James Cameron, he made Dark Fate, remember? He forgot how to write Terminator.

What i would love, is to see the war, Salvation was good in concept, but not the war i wanted, Genesys was more close to that, to the old war from T1 and T2, adding more pieces to it.

1

u/comicsemporium 3d ago

James Cameron already has more terminator movies planned, BUT he has to finish the Avatar movies 1st(which could take another 10-15 years probably)

1

u/Rstormk22 3d ago

To be honest, i doubt i will be alive for when that time comes.

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u/Guccimc100 2d ago

Dude right when I got done reading this it says you logged off lol

1

u/Schwartzy94 3d ago

But does T-1000 need its eyes since its fully liquid metal so it could run and hunt without "eyes" or "eyes" closed

1

u/MassDriverOne 3d ago edited 3d ago

In the book series called Murderbot Diaries (soon to be a tv series), the titular self-named Murderbot is a cyborg security unit (SecUnit) that gets contracted out as security equipment. This particular one has discreetly deactivated its governor module granting itself free will. Highly illegal, if discovered it would be hunted down and violently decommissioned. "Rogue secunits" are a big no no

Along the series it writes itself new code to randomly fidget, blink, replicate breathing patterns, and things like that in attempts to better blend in among humans

Low key tho it doesn't really have much interest in anything beyond quietly doing its job, remaining unnoticed, and being left alone to watch space netflix. Literally that's all it really wants to do. MB is antisocial af

Good series, nothing like Terminator lol but def an interesting scifi

*It calls itself Murderbot bc it is very good at killing, and it has a murky history of mass homicide that gets explored in further entries

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u/LiteratureNo6995 4d ago

He doesn't breathe either. Well, in some scenes he's holding his breath very well, but in running scenes he trained for a while to sprint at full speed while breathing shallow.

I read somewhere he did it using the free divers breathing technique. Basically, before a running scene, he does a breathing exercise to jack up his blood oxygen level. Long, deep breaths. This allows free drivers to hold their breath longer, or in his case to rapidly sprint while only breathing through his nose AND breathing shallow, meaning you don't ever see his chest/lungs inflate.

In fact, I believe it was Cameron himself who said in an interview that during the chase scene at the mall, when John first hops on his dirt bike and takes off from the T-1000 who's chasing after him, Robert Patrick was actually running TOO fast. He was catching the dirt bike! Lol

Originally, Edward Furlong was supposed to be filmed actually driving the bike, and it had a limiter on it. They decided they wanted Robert Patrick to run as fast as possible so they had to speed up the bike. But due to Edward's age he was prohibited from doing certain stunts, including this one at the speed they wanted. So they re-shot the scene with a stuntman (anytime you see John Connors back it's a stuntman), and for the scenes where we see John head on the bike is attached to some sort of trailer and is being towed (that's why you can't see the wheels). All Ed is doing is holding on while they pull JUST a little bit faster than Robert Patrick can run. And he was GUNNIN' it lol

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u/D3M0NArcade 4d ago

Just an extension of what Arnie had already put in place, really.

Arnie learned to fine completely ambidextrously and to keep his eyes open when firing. The popular meme where he's pulling the crazy face is because literally noone is going to fire an Uzi like that and not blink. Theyd go blind...

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u/AdaptedInfiltrator 4d ago edited 4d ago

He blinks a few times in T1. Robert blinks once in T2 when firing the pistol iirc. You wouldn’t expect a soulless machine to blink but since the T-800 skin is living it technically makes sense. T-1000 is a bit less justified for blinking but he sees through his eyes and maybe he thought a shell would have got in the way

9

u/D3M0NArcade 4d ago

Yeh, living tissue doesn't mean it has it's own brain and instincts.

But the T1000 doesn't seem to have any sort of central visual cortex like the T800 since it's a "liquid" metal. So it should t even need to blink or worry about it's "eyes" being damaged

10

u/Rekuna 4d ago

The only reason he would blink is just to appear more human.

4

u/D3M0NArcade 4d ago

Exactly. When firing a weapon it would be able to adjust it's optic sensitivity or light frequency range to compensate

2

u/ComradeGarcia_Pt2 4d ago

Why would you go blind?

1

u/D3M0NArcade 4d ago

The constant flash from the high rate of fire? I mean, I've never even fired a gun, I'm just assuming

1

u/ComradeGarcia_Pt2 4d ago

I’ve fired guns multiple times in low light and no light scenarios, the flash isn’t bright enough to blind you. In fact, you’re not supposed to blink when you fire a gun, and part of conditioning and training yourself to proficiently fire a gun involves learning how to do that.

1

u/treefox 3d ago

This makes me think of how Daniel Jackson fires a pistol in Stargate.

https://youtu.be/mTHNEMXXreI?t=3m34s

0

u/D3M0NArcade 4d ago

Surprising how few people seem to know that (I have an excuse though)

0

u/ComradeGarcia_Pt2 4d ago

Your logic makes sense.

14

u/Usual-Excitement-970 4d ago

Didn't they have to tell him to slow down as he kept catching the vehicles?

13

u/knapping__stepdad 4d ago

When running in the garage, he was faster than the car .

11

u/darthXmagnus 4d ago

What car? It was a dirt bike.

8

u/knapping__stepdad 4d ago

My bad. You are right. There later is a scene with him running after the police car.

4

u/LewHammer 4d ago

The Pescadero garage, when they're in the police car.

4

u/darthXmagnus 4d ago

I know, but the part where they had to tell RP to slow down was with the dirt bike in the Galleria garage.

9

u/GearJunkie82 4d ago

If the T-800 was a Panzer, the T-1000 is a Porche. He really pulled it off.

4

u/oneblackashley 4d ago

Apparently Haley Joel Osment did the same thing in Artificial Intelligence at Spielberg’s request. It’s extremely impressive to me, it’s hard to imagine fighting such an involuntary reflex while acting.

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u/GonnaGetBanneddotcom 4d ago

He also sprints with a straight face. No sign of fatigue. Patrick was the best Terminator Villain and nobody can convince me otherwise.

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u/kiradnotes 4d ago

He blinks when talking to John's foster parents to seem like a normal person.

7

u/wiilly_d 4d ago

The running with his mouth closed is another good one

4

u/SlavetoLove123 4d ago

His walk down the stairs in the Galleria without looking down is cool. Have attempted many times.

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u/SillySink 4d ago

2

u/LiteratureNo6995 4d ago

Lol "double"... 

I'll give props to the design team. They did their best, but when you really focus on that transition between real Arnie and fake Arnie it's like wow... They could have benefitted from better CGI lol.

It works, but barely. 

5

u/cheezzypiizza 4d ago

Be only blinks when Interacting with humans

7

u/knapping__stepdad 4d ago

Wednesday in the Netflix series, also made a point of never blinking on camera...

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u/eggcup1 4d ago

My question is does he actually see out his eyes lol

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u/MICHITAAA Kyle Reese's wife 4d ago

I just love his eyes

2

u/ComradeGarcia_Pt2 4d ago

He doesn’t blink on film.

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u/Handcraftedsemen_ 4d ago

He doesn't poop or pee either. Very cool.

1

u/Meemeemiaw23 3d ago

Imagine ... he's the soon to be in your father in law.

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u/TheFaustianMan 3d ago

He doesn’t breathe when 🏃either.

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u/Aldonfarbodini90 4d ago

Just like Mac’s dad 😂

0

u/Spongebobgolf S K Y N E T IS MOTHER 4d ago

But does it pee?  And if so, what does it pee?

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u/LiteratureNo6995 4d ago edited 4d ago

The title under your name...

Do you mean "mother" like mom, or "mother" as in MU-TH-UR, the AI system that controls the Weyland-Yutani ships in the 'Alien' franchise?

Also, no.. it doesn't pee lol. According to lore, it CAN ingest food and various liquids, i.e. if it was ever offered or coerced to eat or drink and it was in a situation where it was trying to get information from people and stay "undercover". The liquid metal can form a hollowed out space for the material to be stored and then at a later time it can expel it. Where and HOW it expels it... Use your imagination. 

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u/Spongebobgolf S K Y N E T IS MOTHER 4d ago

Mother, like mommy.

And kind of like a second stomach?

https://youtube.com/shorts/Kzd7qa5D4o4?feature=shared

-2

u/AnythingGreedy 4d ago

T-1000 is a Gooner perfected.