Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Plot hole: It makes absolutely no sense why the Terminator, who is a programmed killer, chooses not to kill anyone in this film. In Terminator 2, he didn't kill because John, who was his master, ordered him not to. In this film, we learn that John is not his master. Kate Brewster is. And she spends most of her time complaining and trying to escape from John and the Terminator. She certainly wasn't gonna bother giving the Terminator a pep talk on no killing. So it just remains a plot hole.

Gavin Jackson

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Suggested correction: Kate Brewster told the Terminator not to kill when she reprogrammed him in the future. It's a logical order to give since its mission is to protect. It's likely John gave her that idea in the future when telling her about the terminator from T-2 (before he died of course) who he gave the same order to.

lionhead

I agree, but it is also possible that Kate programmed him not to kill anyone.

That's what I said.

lionhead

Plot hole: The T-X did not hear Catherine in the Animal Hospital when she was only a few feet away and breathing loudly. Considering the scope of some of her technology, one would assume she would easily find her. (00:22:20)

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Suggested correction: This isn't a plot hole. It's just your unfounded assumption. There's no evidence to support the supposition that the T-X has such audio detection capability.

Even if she could detect it, how could she discriminate between the sound of Catherine breathing and that of the dozens of caged animals in the room? That's stretching even fictional technology a little far.

Factual error: When the T-X is driving the crane and swinging the Terminator around, that is mechanically impossible. All mobile cranes are designed to run only when they are in neutral. The T-X would have burned out the hydraulic pump within seconds. (00:33:50)

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Suggested correction: The TX can control other machines including police cars, it's not far fetched she could control and manipulate the crane truck in anyway she wanted.

Being able to control the crane truck does not alter the fact that the hydraulic pump would burn out. That's the purpose of the safety system.

Noman

The T-X is a super robot from the future with machine controlling superpowers. So she presumably overrode the hydraulic systems in some techno magical way. None of the Terminator movies are particularly mechanically realistic so this shouldn't shake our willing suspension of disbelief.

I can't answer for every single model of crane as I imagine they all vary, but we have a Demag AC45, a Bocker AK46 or our Manitou 2150. We can operate the hydraulics whilst in motion and we've never once had a problem. That being said, we're not doing 30MPH at the same time as using them, might very well be a different story if we were.

Question: In the second Terminator movie, the Terminator says that he can't self-terminate. When the Terminator is trying to defeat T-X, he manages to destroy himself and her in the process. If the Terminator couldn't self-terminate in the second movie, how come the new one could?

Answer: The difference there would be suicide vs sacrifice. In T2, basically what he meant is he could not commit suicide as it was against his programming. They had beat the T-1000 and had won, but it was too dangerous for Terminator to stick around and knew he had to be destroyed. But he could not purposely do it to himself as it was an act of suicide. However in T3, it was a sacrificial move. The goal of his actions was not to destroy himself, it was to take out the TX and prevent her from reaching John. He had to do this by any means necessary and made a sacrifice play by shoving his core into her mouth and blowing them both up. It wasn't suicide this way, it wasn't self termination. He was taking her out but caused himself to be collateral damage.

Quantom X

Also, after watching that scene again, I'm adding this little tidbit. The Terminator didn't actually die from the thing he did to the TX in that move. If you notice towards the end after the nuclear bombs go off, the fall out ash is falling down around its head and its eyes are still on, slowly fading away. It was badly damaged by its move, but the bombs in the end finished him off.

Quantom X

Answer: For me, T2 was a lot about machines being able to learn so in T3 when he managed to shut himself down it was because he had learned compassion and not to be just a machine following orders as well as understanding how vital it was that John survived.

The_Iceman

Answer: If you listen in the second film, I don't remember if it was cut out of the theatrical film and put back in the extended version or not, John and Terminator are in the desert looking at the guns Terminator says "I have to stay functional until the missions is complete." Once the T1000 is dead Terminator had no other reason to function and thus sacrificed himself. In this film he knows the fuel cell would destroy the TX once that happened his mission was completed and no longer had any real reason to function anyone.

That can't be the case, because by the end of T2 his mission was complete, and he still couldn't self terminate.

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Character mistake: When the Terminator scans the doorman at the bar, a display comes up categorizing each piece of the doorman's clothing. The word "briefs" is misspelled "breifs". (00:13:40)

Phil C.

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Trivia: In the movie, Kate's fiance Scott is referred to as "Scott Mason", but in the credits, he is listed as "Scott Petersen", they changed the dialogue of his name in light of Scott Peterson, the man accused of killing his wife and unborn son in California. The name Scott Petersen also appears on the list of inmates in Demolition Man. (00:48:00)

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Answer: He was originally in talks - and by some reports, did appear on set for some period of time. While factual answers are in short supply (for obvious reasons), there appears to be a connection to his drug-use habits. For instance, he was checked into a hospital (LA Cedars Sinai) for what friends feared was a drug overdose in April 2001, and has been in and out of rehab over the years. Chances are the production company was unable or unwilling to get completion insurance.

Rooster of Doom

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