# What would the first Terminator done if it had killed Sarah Conner?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-first-terminator-done-if-it-had-killed-sarah-conner/363837>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 10, 2006, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-first-terminator-done-if-it-had-killed-sarah-conner/363837 "2006-07-10T07:33:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-first-terminator-done-if-it-had-killed-sarah-conner/363837/81 "2006-07-13T20:46:51Z")

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> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> Brings up another question…
> 
> In the 1st movie, the 800/101 is in a hotel room, lopping off pieces of his damaged skin. The hotel manager comes complaining about the smell (Fuck off, asshole!). Was it just the eye and that little bit of skin and blood on the face and arm that he was smelling? Did the flesh start rotting that quickly if damaged? Or was the entire flesh overlay starting to go gamey?

I’d presumed simply that he’d sustained enough damage to his flesh that gangrene was setting in. If you listen carefully you hear the buzzing of flies attracted to the smell. Evidently preserving the viability of the flesh shell was a low-to-nonexistent priority in that instance.

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-first-terminator-done-if-it-had-killed-sarah-conner/363837/82 "2006-07-13T20:51:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> If you listen carefully you hear the buzzing of flies attracted to the smell. Evidently preserving the viability of the flesh shell was a low-to-nonexistent priority in that instance.

Hear flies? Heck, you could _see_ them. they made a point of them being visible.  
Preserving the viability of the flesh _was_ important, because the Terminator had to “pass” as a person. A gleaming metallic endoskeleton with a rictus grinning skull face is going to attract attention and have a hard time interacting nonchalantly with people. The problem was that his skin had started to rot, and there wasn’t anything he could d about it. He was cutting away the damaged eyeball in order to allow an unfettered view of the world from that eye, but he was still careful to cover it up with his Gargoyle dark glasses.

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