# Why of WHY did they make "Terminator 3"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556 "2003-01-30T05:48:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/41 "2003-01-31T21:18:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The Rugrats Meet the Wild Thornberrys Time to kill… ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/42 "2003-01-31T21:25:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El Elvis Rojo \* > \*\*Does anyone else seem to recall that in the original **Terminator** , the Terminators looked _different_ from one another. The one that blew up the shelter didn’t look a damned thing like Arnold (aside from being a body builder and all). Would people watch another well-done Terminator sequel if it didn’t have Arnold in it (I’m just trying to think of a way to get around the fact that this “ageless machine” has gotten thirty damned near thirty years older). \*\* I would. I thought the story plot was kinda intruiguing and damn cool - would’ve been cooler if Hollywood hadn’t gotten their grubby litte hands on it. I remember that scene, how they used dogs to sniff out the real humans versus the machines. IIRC, SkyNet would want to have made them look different than the cookie-cutter Aaaaahnold types to keep them less than instantly identifiable. Call me crazy. Tripler I’d like a naked Terminatrix too. Even if she killed me. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/43 "2003-01-31T21:27:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skeezix \* > \*\*But new Terminators coming back from a timeline that’s been wiped out and can’t exist now… \*\* Since when? I pointed out to people after the second movie that the war couldn’t have been prevented, because Skynet devised the time machine that sent Reese back in time. If the war _had_ been prevented, John Connor would have ceased to exist. (And no pedants about how “but JC had already been born”, please; if it were the case that events that had already happened were immutable, there’d be no point sending the terminators back after the Connor family in the first place.) ---
**Author:** ![Intaglio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/71e660/32.png) [@Intaglio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intaglio)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/44 "2003-01-31T23:31:38Z")
XXX Sequel, XXX2 is being made. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/45 "2003-02-01T02:42:59Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Tars Tarkas_ > \*\* I want naked Terminatrix!!!\*\* > _Originally posted by Tripler_ > **I’d like a naked Terminatrix too. Even if she killed me.** But, guys…technically, wouldn’t a _naked_ Terminatrix have to be fleshless? And then how would you know? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/46 "2003-02-01T02:51:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Terrifel \* > \*\*But, guys…technically, wouldn’t a _naked_ Terminatrix have to be fleshless? > > And then how would you know? \*\* The location of her input port. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/47 "2003-02-01T03:03:40Z")
Thank you for that disturbing concept, **Tuckerfan.** Well, I done been visited a website that clarified a few things. Naked Terminatrix now seems much more necessary to the plot. Odd how these Terminators seem to keep getting more and more sophisticated, even though they’re sent back through time; you’d think Skynet would have sent back the most powerful one first. Awfully sporting of it, I say. It’d be interesting if there was some kind of screwup and the next one sent back was actually a really early model, a T-12 or something. I envision it as being like the Robot from _Lost in Space_, but with miniguns instead of claws. Arnold could still do the voice! “Danger! Danger, John Connor!” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/48 "2003-02-01T03:10:32Z")
I thought that it was the SAME Arnold terminator, not a different one, but a reprogrammed one. In the first one, they should have sent a whole bunch of people forward. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/49 "2003-02-01T03:18:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by doc\_miller \* > \*\*How about calling it a Bootstrap Paradox? \*\* You mean as in “Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? I like it 🆒 Another name for this is the Djinn Paradox. The classic example goes something like this: You’re walking down the street one day, when a temporal rift opens up and a watch falls out. You take the watch and use it. Years later, you become involved in time travel experiments. The scientists want to send a small object into the past to see if the technology works. You volunteer the watch, and it is sent into the past, where you find it and take it, and you wear it until you become involved in the experiments, when it gets sent into the past again, and so on. Where did the watch come from? It would seem that the watch has no origin. It’s as if a djinn (a genie) simply zapped the watch into existance. But I like the term “Bootstrap Paradox” much better 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/50 "2003-02-01T05:31:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > \*\* > But I like the term “Bootstrap Paradox” much better 🙂 \*\* Similar to the story by Heinlein called [“By His Bootstraps”](http://www.robertaheinlein.com/reviews/shortstories/byhisbootstraps.htm). I think they\* should just combine the Terminator and Matrix franchises into a single epic series, where the latter is merely a future in which the Terminator robots are successful in their time travelling endeavors, and thus wipe out almost all of the human resistance. \*They = the powers that be. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/51 "2003-02-01T05:43:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > You mean as in “Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? I like it 🆒 [jargonfiletrivia] Which is the etymological ancestor of the verb “boot” when referring to turning on a computer, and “bootstrap code.” [/jargonfiletrivia] ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556/52 "2003-02-01T06:23:08Z")
I like “Bootstrap Paradox” too. And, **Diceman** , you might want to read Robert Heinlein’s _By His Bootstraps_, which is almost certainly **doc\_miller** ’s inspiration for the name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-of-why-did-they-make-terminator-3/151556.md?page=2)