Terminator

"I'll be back."

- The Terminator's famous quote.

The Terminator is the titular main antagonist in the 1984 film The Terminator. This specific model 101 was sent back through time by the super computer Skynet, which had touched off nuclear war and took over the world in its aftermath. Its mission was to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of resistance leader John Connor, before her son could be born.

In the first film he is the antagonist, but is one of the protagonists in the two sequels, having been reprogrammed to protect John Connor from other Terminators. He did make a appearance in the fourth film as T-RIP.

The T-800 is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Origins
The initial series of terminators, the 600, had rubber faces and were easy to spot. Their programming was to infiltrate and exterminate human settlements. In order to further this goal, Skynet replaced this series with the 800, which had living human tissue over a metal endoskeleton. The terminator was part of this series.

When John Connor and the resistance smashed Skynet's defense grid, Skynet had this model 101 sent back through time using time displacement equipment. The resistance managed to send a human soldier, Kyle Reese, back through time to protect Sarah Connor. He knew how to recognize her because John Connor had once given him a picture of her.

Phone Book Killer
As most of the records were lost in the nuclear war, The terminator didn't know Sarah Connor's middle name, and looked her up in the phone book. There were three Sarah Connors living in Los Angeles, and the terminator went down the list alphabetically. Luckily for the future, the Sarah Connor was the last on the list. this method led the police to investigate the "phone book killer," as the press called it.

The terminator and Reese both caught up with Sarah Connor in a night club, where Sarah had called the police when she noticed Reese following her. Reese and Sarah escaped and hid in a parking garage, where he explained everything that had happened in the future and his purpose to her. They were spotted by the terminator, but the police got to them first. The terminator backed off, not wanting to create a scene and to treat its injuries in a safe location.

Police Massacre
After the terminator had stripped the wounded flesh from his skeleton and disguised the gaps in his disguise, it proceeded to the police station where Reese and Sarah were being held. It massacred many police officers in its attempt to reach Sarah Connor, but Reese and Sarah managed to escape. They made their way to a motel, where Reese cooked up some pipe bombs in the room's kitchen. The terminator then found Sarah's mother at her place by using her address book.

It killed her, then waited for Sarah to call. Sarah eventually called from the motel room, and the terminator mimiced her mother's voice, convincing Sarah to give it the motels phone number, which the terminator promptly called, asking for the address. That night, Sarah and Reese made love, conceiving John Connor.

Final Chase
The terminator caught up with Sarah and Reese at the motel, pursuing them on a motorcycle while they were in a pickup truck. Reese threw a pipebomb at the terminator, which knocked it off its motorcycle. The truck had turned over, and Sarah and Reese began to run on foot. A tanker truck ran over the terminator, which got up, took over the truck, and continued its pursuit. Reese managed to throw a pipe bomb into a tube on the side of the truck which blew it up. The terminator emerged from the flames with all of its flesh gone.

Sarah and Reese fled into a factory, later revealed to be Cyberdyne Systems in the second film. The terminator killed Reese, and pursued Sarah Connor as she crawled into a hydraulic press. When she climbed out the other side, Sarah turned on the press, crushing the terminator.

Legacy
"Hasta la vista, baby."

- The Terminator with his bike and shotgun.

In Terminator 2: Judgement Day, it is revealed that Cyberdyne Systems covered up the terminator's existence. Its arm and CPU survived the press, and were given to resident scientist Miles Bennet Dyson to work on, unaware of its origins. He used the CPU to create a new neuro-net processor, which formed the basis for Skynet.