BaconIsMyBFF

Question: How did the T-800 figure out that John's foster parents were dead?

Answer: He tested the T-1000 by asking him about the barking dog. The dog's actual name is Max, so the T-800 asks "What's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking." When the T-1000 answers that "Wolfie is just fine", The T-800 knows that the T-1000 has killed Todd and Janelle. There's actually a deleted scene (reincorporated into the Director's Cut) where the T-1000 then goes outside, kills the dog, and checks the tag to find out if he was duped.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: When John said "I order you not to go", why didn't that work? Doesn't the T-800 have to do what John says?

MikeH

Answer: The T-800 has been learning since he has been with John and Sarah. John specifically has been teaching him to have compassion for human life. Stopping Skynet from ever coming to be is the ultimate way to protect humanity, even more important than following John's order to stay with him. In short, he has overcome his programming and is making a selfless sacrifice.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: Why did the SWAT team start shooting when they enter the room? Shouldn't they just hold for a second to see if everyone is unarmed before they start firing?

Trainman

Answer: At this point they believe they are dealing with a team of mass murderers, possibly terrorists. It is perfectly reasonable they would shoot on sight to stop the threat. This particular group (at least based on what they know) has no problem gunning down an entire police station.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: This has always been a question between my friend and I. Why does the T-800 take the sunglasses in the movie?In the first movie it made sense, to hide the glowing eye. Here it appears to serve no purpose beyond appearance. Is there any other reason beyond this?

Answer: The real life answer is because the sunglasses are part of the Terminator's signature look. The in universe answer is because they are a clothing item that will augment his appearance. He also takes a leather jacket he doesn't need. He would look perfectly normal with just the gray T-shirt but since the biker was also wearing the jacket, he took that as well.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: By best guess, I believe it is because of the glow in the eyes. The mechanical eyes, as seen when the skin is gone, are glowing red lights and they aren't exactly dim. This could potentially shine through skin, or eye tissue, like when you hold a flashlight against your hand. In a dim lighting, like at night, it could be possible to see the glow of these mechanical parts behind the already thin tissue of the organic parts of the eye, and thus give him away.

Quantom X

That would make them very poor infiltration units, wouldn't it?

Jukka Nurmi

Question: Arnold said that when the T-1000 took the form of someone he would likely terminate the person being copied. Why didn't the T-1000 kill Sarah? He had been in physical contact and could mimic her voice. There was no reason to get her to call John at the end, he could have killed her immediately.

Answer: While the T-1000 can copy her appearance and her voice, he knows he can't quite copy the emotion and desperation conveyed in her real voice, at least not enough to be convincing to John. Of course, he tries anyway and almost succeeds until the real Sarah shows up.

Kyle G.

Answer: In addition, another deleted scene shows that the T-1000 was damaged by being frozen and thawed and was having difficulty maintaining form. He wanted to be sure he wouldn't mess it up.

LorgSkyegon

What's especially odd about the scene is that both examples we gave to help answer this question were actually deleted from the original release. When I first saw this movie in the theater when it was released I had the exact same question, it wasn't until I saw the Special Edition with the deleted scenes reinserted that it made sense.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: It comes down to the difficulty in impersonating someone John actually knows. The T-1000 had failed impersonating someone close to John when he got the name of the dog incorrect. A deleted scene (re-incorporated into the film in the Director's Cut) shows him checking the dog's tag afterwards, so he is aware exactly how he was outsmarted. Keeping Sarah alive is a way to avoid this sort of mistake. She is more useful to him at this point alive. He is not expecting her to endure his torture and he certainly isn't expecting her to be able to fight him afterwards.

BaconIsMyBFF

Question: One of the taglines for this film is "It's nothing personal". I have no idea what that has to do with the film and was hoping someone could explain it.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Two possibilities. 1: The Terminator is emotionless, so the killing isn't personal, but rather what it's programmed to do. 2: Sarah Connor's plan to kill Miles Dyson to stop Skynet's creation.

Captain Defenestrator

It's also a sly nod to another famous tagline, Jaws: The Revenge. "This time it's personal."

BaconIsMyBFF

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