MovieChat Forums > The Terminator (1984) Discussion > More things that make no sense

More things that make no sense


The more I think about the concept, the premise, and the robot's (it is a robot, not a cyborg, the future people don't know the definitions of words, apparently, there's nothing cybernetic about it, and it's DEFINITELY not an organism of any kind, it's all manufactured, nothing was created organically) actions and decisions, nothing makes sense.

Why does it decide to go to the police station and murder everyone it sees IMMEDIATELY without first scanning them and trying other methods? Remember, it's supposed to be an INFILTRATION unit.

Why isn't there an APB for its arrest anyway, since it already shot a whole discoful of people? Why aren't the cops the LEAST bit suspicious when a guy matching a murderer's description just walks in wearing sunglasses at night, in leather gear, looking like a big psycho?

In any case, so it's looking for Sarah, but instead of scanning the building using infrared and such (Kyle tells us the machines have this ability, so surely their 'terminators' would be equipped with it), it just starts murdering everything in sight.

First of all, this is inconsistent. Earlier, it's very picky about what it murders, and tries to NEGOTIATE first (the 'give me your clothes' scene, the phone booth scene where the supposed biker is just tossed aside, not murdered, the gun shop scene). Why does it change tactics later? Because it's evening?

It knows the building Sarah is in, so it would have multiple options, like blowing up the whole building and then scanning the rubble, or finding out what room Sarah is in, and so on. 'She's making a statement' - why not ask further questions, or suggest he has valuable information and could also make a statement and so on..? You know, try to act human, negotiate, trick the cops and so on..

What does the terminator gain by terminating the police officers? Does it even know what a 'cop' is? Why waste your ammo, energy, etc. by attacking first, instead of at least trying to find Sarah stealthily or defensively or something? Why does it care if there are lights on in the building, why does it go for the fuse box or whatever it is? Waste of time again, unless it benefits from 'darkening a place that's already hard to see due to it wearing sunglasses'..

It makes sense for it to shoot someone that's shooting it first. Sure. But it starts shooting completely irrelevant, innocent cops that have nothing to do with anything, and don't even look armed or hostile. This makes no sense considering its behaviour earlier. It should have instantly murdered everyone it meets and sees, OR used the same kind of 'trying to be human' tactics it tried earlier. Inconsistency makes no sense, it's a programmed robot, the program shouldn't change like that. And don't talk to me about adapting to a situation, that's not what's happening.

It should AT LEAST do it the way it did in the disco; just walk in, the cop tries to stop it, is tossed away or something, it keeps walking, cops try to stop it, it uses martial arts to quickly disable the cops, and by the time anyone notices something is going on, half the cops are dead and it has probably found Sarah.

It makes no sense for it to decide to just go on a rampage and murder everything - notice that it doesn't even murder the people in the disco except when it has to do with Sarah or when it tries to defend itself against an attacker. The cops did not attack it, it has no reason to shoot the completely unrelated cops, OR it should just shoot anything and everyone it sees (which it doesn't do).

Also, what are the bright lamps pointed outside, pointed towards the windows of the police station? I have never seen that anywhere, including other movies. What are those lights, who thought it's a good idea? Even if they're emergency lights, why are they OUTSIDE, pointed at the windows?

Why would the 'guard' have to be specifically told to 'watch him'? Wasn't he doing that already? Why isn't Kyle more heavily detained, why isn't Kyle injected with 'psychiatric medications', when he's considered not only violent, but dangerous and 'a loon'? That's not how psychiatry works, Kyle would've been interviewed in a mental hospital, not a police station (at least as soon as they figured out he's saying weird things).

As soon as he has his 'violent episode' about 'it ripping her heart out', Kyle would definitely have been sedated, no question about it.

It's amazing how much energy, resources, etc. the robot wastes by shooting telephones and glass cubicles and such. Why even do that when it could just 'precision-shoot' everyone in the head with one bullet per individual?

Why make so much noise anyway, losing the element of the surprise in the process? BAD TACTICS!

Why does it need to rest the shotgun on its shoulder, when we've seen it effortlessly carry those two guns anyway? It's a robot, it doesn't get tired or muscle cramps. Also, why DUAL-WIELD, ensuring useless waste of bullets? What can two guns do that one gun can't?



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Why do something as lightweight as BULLETS generate enough force to MOVE this massively heavy robot body? Except sometimes, when they don't seemingly do anything? Inconsistency again. Sometimes the robot seems to be swayed heavily by single bullets, then a hail from a machine gun does NOTHING. What? WHY?

A bullet wouldn't even make a man move, let alone a heavy robot like that. It would be like raindrops on an elephant - exactly as shown in some scenes.

If it's going to blow its cover ANYWAY by publicly carrying enormous weapons, guns and such, then WHY BOTHER with the facade of the 'responses' or ANY conversations (and why not kill the janitor, too? It kills everyone in the police station it sees, so why this inconsistency?), and WHY WEAR THE SUNGLASSES if you are going to just massacre whole buildings full of people anyway?

It makes no sense!

Not that almost anything makes much sense in this (or almost any other) movie, but when you think about these things, it's really weird. Also, why shoot Ginger, but beat up Matt (and very slowly and inefficiently, too)?

Why be so stealthy when entering their apartment that Matt doesn't even know there's anyone there until he opens his eyes by happenstance, and yet be SO unstealthy in the police station?

If you compare its behaviour when it enters the motel to when it enters Sarah's and Ginger's apartment, there's a WORLD of difference. Why is this? What has changed?

For all it knows, any of the cops could have BEEN Sarah - it didn't stop to scan everyone's face, it shoots some of them from behind. Yet it verbally CONFIRMS 'Sarah Connor' instead of just kicking the door in and starting to shoot when it comes to the fat Sarah Connor. Why the inconsistency?

Is there some kind of random number generator that dictates how this robot behaves in any given situation, or is it damaged or does it reprogram itself or what? Nothing it does makes any sense due to all the inconsistencies.




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Why bother writing 'TL/DR'? What does that add? Just leave the discussion to us who actually can type and think about things, and go play Super Mario or something.. if you don't have enough intelligence to read a simple, relatively short post in a discussion board, you have no business being in discussion boards.

Yeah, I know the modern people and their 'two-word youtube comments tapped on your thumbs while you're on a bus eating a hamburger', but I can't understand it. Use a proper computer, use your brain, think properly, read properly, answer properly, and use correct grammar, for crying out loud.

There's just so much to complain about your (completely intelligence-devoid and useless) post, I could write a book about it. You, of course, wouldn't read it, because you can't read anything more complex or longer than what's written on a cereal box, and even that's probably too much for the modern mind with attention span of two seconds MAX.

To get back to the topic..

I don't mind a time-traveling killer robot from the future (this would've been a more accurate name, as the robot never terminates anyone it's supposed to terminate, and as RLM said, they should be called 'Tryanators'), but the inconsistent behaviour and nonsensical things that shouldn't logically happen are just bad writing.

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Um...it seems like you're trolling here yea.

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