# How Would You Fight A Terminator **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093 "2009-04-14T17:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/41 "2009-04-14T22:52:54Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > It worked in Terminator 3. Wait, I never saw Terminator 3…did they actually use a magnet on him? Hrm. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/42 "2009-04-14T23:19:29Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > One thing I don’t remember the movies covering is if there is a critical mass for sentience. The individual T-1000 pieces can ooze back together, but can each little piece form into a little terminator? > > And even if they can only form one terminator, who much mass is required? If you blow the guy up, you better be sure that all of him gets melted, otherwise you might have a rat-size terminator with knives for hands running up your pant leg. The film is inconsistent on this point. When John and Sarah and the Terminator T-101 are escaping from the mental institution the T-1000 forms hooks out of its hands and jumps on the back of the car. It uses these hooks to stick into the trunk and hold onto the moving car. The T-101 climbs into the back seat and shoots the hook off a couple inches beyond where it penetrated the trunk, thus causing the T-1000 to fall off the car and be left behind. A couple minutes later, as they’re speeding down the road, the remains of the hook(a small piece of the T-1000, about fist sized) begins to rattle against the trunk. John reaches out the back and grabs it quickly and tosses it on the highway behind them. It remained a hook fragment until the T-1000 walked up next to it and then it liquefied and rejoined the body. If the T-1000 was able to exert its will through every piece of itself, this was a golden opportunity to kill John. Turning into a spiked ball at high speed would have punctured his hand, at which point it could have curved like a fishhook and climbed up his body until it hit something vital. At very least it should have been able to mimic him(it never showed the ability to do so) because it had come into contact with him. So it seems some large amount of the T-1000 needs to be present to show decision making and intelligence skills. The opposing argument is when all the tiny shards move of their own accord in the foundry. Drop-sized globules show movement and purpose, but a fist-sized hunk couldn’t. I wonder if there is some critical mass of the T-1000 which has to be present within a certain distance(maybe controlled through radio waves, which drop off in power as a square of distance?) to get a sense of purpose. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/43 "2009-04-14T23:25:19Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > I wonder if there is some critical mass of the T-1000 which has to be present within a certain distance(maybe controlled through radio waves, which drop off in power as a square of distance?) to get a sense of purpose. Notably, even the nearby fragments didn’t actually do anything but flow together. Perhaps there is some kind of short ranged radio/magnetic/whatever field, but it’s only good enough to tell nearby severed chunks where to flow to. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/44 "2009-04-14T23:31:55Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Wait, I never saw Terminator 3…did they actually use a magnet on him? > Hrm. The evil terminator in that movie, played by Kristanna Loken, was effectively a hybrid of the Schwartzenegger and Patrick models. She had a liquid-metal shell, so she could flawlessly mimic the appearance of any human (that she had touched, presumably) over a solid exoskeleton in which she carried a variety of gnarly tools and weapons. There’s a scene in _T3_ in which she is chasing John down a curved access tunnel alongside a particle accelerator that is charging up. When it reaches full power, it exerts enough of a pull to trap Loken. She damages it enough to get free, though this takes several minutes. During the various smashy-crashies, her liquid shell gets scattered. It was able to find its way back to the robotic exoskeleton like so many silvery worms. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/45 "2009-04-15T01:16:49Z")
Given what I’m likely to have around, and the noted behavior… well. Liquid nitrogen… not so handy. I do have… hm. Case of cans of air, pump shotgun. One shot into the case of air, three into the terminator. Reload, continue fire. Grab the most disassembled bit, stuff it in a ziplock baggie, drop it in a trash can, give it to someone to run off with. Repeat fire. Pick up another bit, and so on. Scatter the sucker over 20 miles. Then see if I can find some way to actually destroy one small part. Once I do, eliminate every bit. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/46 "2009-04-15T01:23:45Z")
Have my name legally changed to something other than “Conner” ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/47 "2009-04-15T01:41:13Z")
- with a Voigt-Kampff test. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/48 "2009-04-15T01:45:42Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Have my name legally changed to something other than “Conner” This suggests another tactic. Pay other people to change their name to Doc Cathode. Sarah Conner was warned when two other women of the same name were killed. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/49 "2009-04-15T02:02:52Z")
Or just get the hell outta L.A. All the bad stuff happens there. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/50 "2009-04-15T02:18:45Z")
By putting it on [Friday night.](http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b118625_was_terminators_last_shot.html?utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/51 "2009-04-15T03:08:59Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > - with a Voigt-Kampff test. Cameron found a tortoise in the dessert flipped over on it’s back. She just put it right side up. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/52 "2009-04-15T03:18:49Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > Well, if “liquid metal” as 1991-ese for “nano machines”, then “nano machines” is 2009-ish for magic. It’s capabilities are definitelymagic, and the word nano does not help. Sorry, but that’s science. Always telling you that no, it doesn’t work. Not with nanites, anyway. I could think of some other possibilities, but they are pretty far-out. I can’t believe that a movie about time travelling killer robots would stoop to such scientific implausabilities. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/53 "2009-04-15T04:23:42Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Cameron found a tortoise in the dessert flipped over on it’s back. She just put it right side up. Really? I don’t watch the show. ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/54 "2009-04-15T08:23:36Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Really? I don’t watch the show. IIRC, **msmith537** is a little bit off. In episode 9 (_Complications_), Cameron watched Sarah righting an overturned tortoise. Later, when she and John were waiting in front of Ellison’s house to ask him about the whereabouts of Cromartie’s body, they talked about the incident and Cameron said: “It didn’t seem like much of a threat. We’re not built for cruelty.” Soon afterwards, she was tossing around Ellison and after she had almost choked him to death, she looked down to the gasping man on the floor and turned him back onto his front. ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/55 "2009-04-15T08:44:43Z")
**drastic\_quench** , since you don’t watch the show: \*Cameron \*is a female looking terminator, played by Summer Glau, who was sent back into the past to "protect John (Connor) and stop Skynet (an AI that is going to declare war on humanity – I guess you know that much). \*Cromartie \*was another terminator from the future; his mission, however, was the assassination of John Connor. The Connors and Cameron destroyed its chip and buried the body in the desert. \*Ellison \*is a former FBI agent who helped to defeat Cromartie. But later, he delivered the body to Catherine Weaver, who told Ellison that she wanted to find out more about the AIs. _Catherine Weaver_, CEO of a high-tech company, however, is another terminator, a T1001, who plays a role that is not yet clear. We do know, that it’s not her mission to kill John Connor or protect Skynet. Quite to the contrary, she needed Cromartie’s body to build another AI, that is meant to fight Skynet and “save the world” – for what purpose, we don’t know yet. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/56 "2009-04-15T11:22:41Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Driving away a very great distance at as high a speed as possible, while screaming like a little girl until I was hoarse. would be my most likely tactic. This seems like a good tactic for most things in life: Taxes, Impending Fatherhood, someone offering you season tickets for the Mets… I kid - taxes and fatherhood aren’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/57 "2009-04-15T13:47:23Z")
I’d probably offer sexual favors to the director and the script writers. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/58 "2009-04-15T14:05:19Z")
> [@wintertime](#): > > _Catherine Weaver_, CEO of a high-tech company, however, is another terminator, a T1001, who plays a role that is not yet clear. Thought I’d throw it out there that Weaver is played by Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson. Also, the T1001 model is essentially the same type of terminator as the T1000 played by Robert Pattrick in T2. The major difference seems to be that the T1001 makes an effective career-minded single mom while the T1000 mostly glares at people. The T1001 also has a penchant for clever one-liners right before or immediately after killing someone. It occurs to me that the scene in a previous epsiode where Jesse and her submarine crew discover their cargo is a T1000 series liquid metal terminator was sort of dumb. One of the crew, unsurprisingly, raises her weapon to shoot it and is instantly killed by the terminator. Presumably because she was perceived as a “threat”. It seems dumb to me that first of all, a machinegun would be no more a threat than a pillow. Second, Conner might have sent a message along the lines of “oh by the way, if for some reason the crew doesn’t listen, opens the case and discovers what you are, they are likely to be really freaked the fuck out. So don’t do anything crazy like kill any of them (since they can’t hurt you anyway) and then hide in the vents so they freak out even more and send the sub into a suicidal crash dive below its crush depth. Just a thought” ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/59 "2009-04-15T14:37:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Anyhow, I mostly fight one by shitting my pants, curling up into a ball, and sobbing uncontrolably. I see you and I share much the same strategy, except mine involves more bleeding. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093/60 "2009-04-15T14:46:49Z")
> [@wintertime](#): > > I can’t speak for **Smiling Bandit** , but my objections are not based on the possibility of nano-machines per se, some do already exist, after all. > … What nanomachine exists? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’ve heard of some microscopic motors, but the smallest components are orders of magnitude larger than nano scale. Most nanotechnoogy that I’ve seen is just taking advantage of the materials properties that result from these unique structures. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-fight-a-terminator/493093.md?page=4)