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- This page is only about the Mainstream Timeline incarnation of the T-1000. Its Genisys Timeline incarnation can be found here: T-1000 (Genisys).
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| “ | Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic polyalloy. Liquid metal. | „ |
| ~ T-800 explaining about the T-1000 to John Connor. |
| “ | Have you seen John Connor? | „ |
| ~ The T-1000's most famous quote. |
The T-1000 is the titular main antagonist of the 1991 sci-fi action film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the final installment of the Mainstream Timeline of the Terminator franchise.
He is a liquid-metal Terminator whose main goal is to kill John Connor in the past so that his creator, Skynet, can win the war. Unlike the first T-800, the T-1000 can survive almost any injury and changes back to his original form almost instantly.
In both its default and endoskeleton forms, he was portrayed by Robert Patrick, who also played Lieter Greenbox in SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, Mr. Lisp in Spy Kids, Ray Schenkel in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Phil Billings in Ben 10, Rome in The Marine, Colonel Merton Bell in NCIS, The Skiptracer in Identity Thief, and White Dragon in Peacemaker. While disguised as Janelle Voight, Lewis, and Sarah Connor, it was portrayed by Jenette Goldstein, Don and Dan Stanton, and Leslie Hamilton Freas, respectively.
Biography[]
Origins[]
After the supercomputer Skynet became self-aware, it started mass-producing Terminators, in order to wipe out the humans from the face of earth. A human resistance was led by John Connor, who organized the survivors of Judgement Day to fight the machines. In a last-ditch effort to prevent its destruction, Skynet sent a T-800 to the past to kill Sarah Connor before she gave birth to John, but the Resistance sent Kyle Reese to protect her.
As the Terminator failed, Skynet sent the T-1000 prototype Terminator back to the year 1995 to kill John when he was still 10 years old. Shortly after Skynet's destruction, the future John Connor managed to capture a T-800 that has the same model of the one sent to kill his mother, reprogram it, and send it to the past as well to protect himself in the past.
Mainstream Timeline[]
Terminator 2: Judgment Day[]
Arrival in the Past[]
Upon arrival, the T-1000 murdered a police officer, mimicked his clothes, and took his gun and car in order to blend in like a normal human. He tracked down the foster home that Connor currently lived. His foster parents, Todd and Janelle Voight, were not surprised to see a police officer on their doorstep asking about John, due to his multiple run-ins with the law, but as John ran away earlier that morning, the T-1000 was unable to get to him. He was also told that someone else was looking for John, too. The T-1000 picked up right away that this person was someone sent back to protect John, but insisted to the Voights that he was of no concern. He managed to get information of where John is due to two girls who ratted out on him saying that he went to the galleria.
First meeting with John and the T-800[]
Both Terminators tracked down John at a mall, and this resulted in the two of them fighting each other while John escaped on his motorbike. The T-1000 started chasing after him, but on his motorbike, John proved to be too fast, so the T-1000 required a new mode of transportation. After chasing John on a busy street, he hijacked a tow truck and eventually caught up with him and almost ran him over. But, the T-800 saved John by shooting a tire on the truck, causing it to swerve out of control and crash. A leak from the gas tank made contact with a loose spark plug, triggering an explosion, allowing John and the T-800 to get away.
The T-1000's next idea was to return to Voights' house and wait for John to return. The T-800 warned John about this, so rather than return home, John decided to make a call from a public payphone to warn his foster parents. However, he became suspicious, because Janelle Voight sounded "too nice", and his dog was barking very loudly. The T-800, impersonating John's voice, tricked the T-1000 into revealing himself by giving John's dog a false name (Wolfie) and convincing him that was the real name. It was confirmed that the T-1000 was at John's house, and his foster parents had been killed. The T-800 tells John that his foster parents are dead. The T-800 then reveals to John that the T-1000 is a shape-shifter and can flawlessly impersonate any person it touches or makes contact with in any way.
In two deleted scenes, the T-1000 walks outside to the barking dog and kills him. He then rips off the dog's collar and sees his real name (Max) and walks away in frustration having realized he'd been tricked. He also looks in John's bedroom to look for clues as to where his next location might be. He finds a shoebox filled with letters from John's real mother, Sarah Connor, written from the Pescadero State Mental Hospital, and decides to go there next.
Second meeting with John[]
The T-1000 then drove to the mental hospital and decided to copy Sarah Connor and possibly kill her, as that is what he normally does to the people he transforms into, and wait for John to arrive. The T-800 warns John of this, but John insists they rescue her anyway.
Despite being disguised as a cop, the T-1000 still raises the suspicious eyebrows of an office worker at the hospital, so he decides to copy and kill a night watchman to get easier access. He reaches Sarah's holding cell, but finds it empty, as Sarah escaped earlier. He later finds her with John and the T-800 and chases them into an elevator, leaving a slice wound on Sarah's shoulder in the process, and climbs onto the police car that the Connors and T-800 have stolen, almost succeeding in his mission to kill John, but shot off the car by the T-800. The car ultimately is too fast for him, so he gives up for now.
He returns to the hospital later where several other policemen have arrived, and meets up with one motorcycle cop. As he is disguised as that cop later on, and driving his motorcycle and wielding his gun as well, it is assumed that the T-1000 killed him (this is confirmed in the novelization of the film).
Attack at Cyberdyne[]
Cyberdyne Systems was currently working on the microchip that would eventually become Skynet, so Sarah decided to kill the man responsible, Miles Dyson. However, as she was never a killer, she found herself unable to do it. After talking with John, they decided to tell Dyson everything, and this convinced him to stop working on the microchip, but found out all his work on it had to be destroyed to prevent Skynet and Judgment Day. So they went down to the Cyberdyne headquarters to destroy everything.
The T-1000 was aware of this, so he decided to go to the Dyson home, only to find nobody was home. However, he received a call from the Police Department that the Connors were attacking the Cyberdyne building. When he arrived, the Connors and the T-800 had already taken off in a SWAT van, but then he hijacked a police helicopter, telling the pilot to "Get out." and proceeded to pursue them.
Highway Chase[]
He then proceeded to chase the Connors down the highway, and mortally wounds Sarah. The T-800 then slams on the brakes, causing the helicopter to crash into the van and blow up. However, the van crashes as well, so the Connors and the T-800 are forced to drive in a farmer's truck while the T-1000 steals a tanker transporting liquid nitrogen. He chases them into a steel plant, where, thanks to the T-800, the tanker crashes, and liquid nitrogen spills all over the T-1000, causing him to completely freeze on the spot. The T-800 then shoots the T-1000 with a pistol, causing him to shatter into pieces.
However, the intense heat from the molten steel caused the nitrogen pieces to completely melt, allowing the T-1000 to fully reform by now, due to the intense damage from cold exposure to liquid nitrogen and the intense heat allowing the reformation, the T-1000 had some glitches For example, when touching a black-and-yellow colored pole, this caused his hand to uncontrollably stick to it and change into that color, But that didn't matter too much. Also, when he was walking on the metal grating his boots also changed color to blend into that.
Fight in the Steel Plant[]
The T-1000 had managed to get to the Connors by ambushing the T-800 by surprise, as the fight intensifies, he was able to jam the T-800's hand in a giant gear, allowing him to look for the Connors once again.
He finds that Sarah put John on a conveyor belt and he was now out of sight. Sarah attempted to draw a shotgun at him, but wasn't fast enough, as the T-1000 stabs Sarah into her shoulder with a blade and demanded that she call John to help her, threatening to kill her if she refused. Before he could kill her, the T-800, now with just one arm, attacked the T-1000 from behind, forcing him to free Sarah.
He was, by now, extremely furious with the T-800 constantly ruining his plans so much that he repeatedly rammed a large steel beam into the T-800's head and jamming a long pole in his body, causing him to shut down before he could reach for his grenade launcher. Now with him out of the way, the T-1000 attempted to find John himself.
Destruction[]
As he had touched Sarah Connor earlier, he was now able to imitate her. He called John to come help him, which John did. He almost succeeded, as he fooled John into thinking that he was his mother, but then the real Sarah Connor showed up and shot a hole in his body, revealing him as an impostor (John also saw he glitched again). Sarah then shot him several times in the chest, almost causing him to fall off the ledge, but before she could, she ran out of bullets, allowing the T-1000 to reform and wave his finger at her with a "tsk-tsk" gesture. As John rushed to his mother's safety, the T-1000 started to move forward towards them, hell-bent on killing them once and for all.
Suddenly, the T-800, working again because of an alternative power source he had, showed up and shot his last grenade into the T-1000's chest, causing him to blow apart. Before he could fully reform, though, he lost his balance and fell into the vat of molten steel below. The extreme heat rapidly-decimated his molecular structure, and he changed from shape to form, trying desperately to adapt to the deadly 1600°C environment, but this turned out to be capable of destroying him permanently. He proved futile, as the steel corrupted his design and melted his body. He shrieked in agony and loudly shape-shifted uncontrollably into all the people he had imitated previously (except Sarah for unknown reasons), as well as his default form, before completely dissolving into the steel and giving one last metallic scream of mindless terror as he literally turned himself inside out, vomiting forth his own face from within before dissolving into the steel and making his mission a failure, also avenging the deaths of the humans he had killed adding even further once again into Skynet's stupidity.
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time[]
The T-1000 made a return in the Universal movie/attraction which serves as a mini-sequel to Judgement Day where it again attempts to kill the Connors. It was shot by a reprogrammed T-800 and was possibly destroyed upon the destruction of Skynet.
Salvation Timeline[]
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle[]
The T-1000 returned once again in the sequel comic to Terminator Salvation. After sending a T-800 to kill Sarah in 1984, Dr. Serena Kogan sent the T-1000 to kill John in 1995. Shortly after, the Resistance was able to capture the Time Door and, after Kyle was sent to destroy the T-800, John was able to capture another T-800 that shares the same model of the one sent to kill his mother before he was born and had his soldiers reprogram it so it could be sent back in time to destroy the T-1000 and protect his younger self, so it had the same fate of its Mainstream Timeline counterpart.
Legacy[]
There are plenty of other Terminators similar in design to the T-1000:
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines features a T-X terminator, the first ever female terminator. This terminator has a metal endoskeleton mixed in with liquid metal and has built-in weapons. It was destroyed when a T-850 terminator blew it up using a hydrogen bomb/fuel cell.
- Terminator Genisys featured another T-1000 with the same shape-changing abilities, but it was destroyed when a T-800 named Pops melted it using hydrochloric acid. Pops was later turned into a T-1000 (on the good side) after he got thrown out of a magnetic force field and landed in a vat/tub of liquid metal.
- Terminator: Dark Fate features the more advanced Rev-9, similar in design to both T-1000 and T-X. This terminator has the same abilities as well as a human form like most of its predecessors. Unlike its predecessors though, it can separate its liquid metal form from its metal form, creating two autonomous units. Its liquid form was destroyed in a turbine explosion and its metallic form was disintegrated by an electromagnetic pulse.
Other Media[]
The T-1000 has appeared in other media, outside of the Terminator franchise. Both times he was portrayed by Robert Patrick like he did in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In an interview in 2014, Patrick claims that he is not willing to reprise his role as the T-1000 as he wanted his performance to stand-alone and he now has a bad hip.
Wayne's World[]
The T-1000 asked Wayne if he's seen the boy (John) in the photo, but Wayne just drove away screaming without answering.
Last Action Hero[]
Danny spotted the T-1000 walking out of the police station and he tried to tell Jack Slater about it, but Slater simply refused to listen.
Mortal Kombat 1[]
The T-1000 as it appears in Mortal Kombat 1.
The T-1000 is set to appear in the video game Mortal Kombat 1 as a DLC guest fighter (alongside Ghostface and Conan the Barbarian) as part of the Kombat Pack 2, with Robert Patrick reprising his role from Terminator 2: Judgment Day through voice and motion capture while the character's physical appearance is taken directly from its appearance in the film.
Personality[]
Although the T-1000 is a heartless machine, he shows some traces of cynicism and sarcasm and can act like a normal human being when in public. The T-1000 can also feign kindness, such as smiling or using opinion words such as calling John "honey" or a good-looking boy, but other than that he is overly relentless, being fixated on murder and genocide of the whole human race.
It's worth noting that, unusually for Terminators, he displays hints of sadism when he stabs Sarah's shoulder and demands she call for John even though he could easily mimic her voice. He also gives a "tsk tsk" sigh towards Sarah and slowly goes to her, relishing in her fear as opposed to immediately killing her.
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that the T-1000 had what many regard as an Ego-trip problem, somewhat like the other Terminators (though Skynet in the novelizations of the Terminator film franchises had not confirmed that their own creations would become self-aware in its own right) at times usually have. In those kind of instances, usually he was just inches away from terminating John Connor, and Sarah as not only part of the objective that he was sent to accomplish and perhaps Skynet wanted as well adding even further into his sadism, considering himself to be the perfect superior model than the other Terminators, the reprogrammed T-800 always stood as a formidable but inferior obstacle in his path, regarding his frustration despite the realization of been tricked and outsmarted earlier when his previous attempts to lure John to his death, and attempts to falter the T-800's mission had failed.
However, it was later confirmed according to both James Cameron and the novels, mentioning that Skynet stopped producing the T-1000 prototypes almost immediately after creating it, as it was aware of the T-1000's highly advanced intelligence and learning capabilities compared to other Terminator models and feared they might go rogue in the first place, until Marcus Wright succeeded in going rogue against Skynet in the Salvation Timeline.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Mimetic Polyalloy Body: The T-1000 is built from mimetic polyalloy, a type of liquid metal developed by Skynet. This substance forms a mass that assumes a default humanoid shape, but is highly flexible and adaptive, granting it a powerful arsenal of abilities.
- Shapeshifting: The T-1000's most significant feature is its ability to shapeshift. After sampling a human or object through touch, it is able to transform its body into a duplicate. It can also grow extra arms if needed, and duplicate basic items such as sunglasses or a helmet if needed for its disguise. However, it is limited by complexity or mass; it cannot become a machine with moving parts, and if it assumes the guise of a human with a larger build than its default form, it must hollow itself out, changing its center of gravity. Its most typical transformation is turning its arms into stabbing weapons and similar tools. Additionally, if the T-1000 suffers severe enough damage, this ability can begin to malfunction, causing it to start uncontrollably assuming the texture of objects it touches.
- Superhuman Strength: Despite its slender frame, the T-1000 possesses superhuman strength at least equal to the T-800's. It is able to throw the far bulkier T-800 around in combat with little effort.
- Tactile Learning: The T-1000 is able to learn about objects by touching them.
- Voice Mimicry: After sampling a person by touching them, the T-1000 can imitate their voice.
- Liquefaction: The T-1000 can melt into a puddle of liquid as a method of concealing itself or passing through narrow openings. If it is blown apart, the individual pieces will liquefy and flow back together, allowing it to resume its full shape.
- Accelerated Healing Factor: If damaged, the T-1000 can heal by reforming its liquid metal into its original shape. Any pieces that are lost can be reabsorbed by the T-1000 entering into their proximity.
- Superhuman Durability: The T-1000 is highly durable, albeit not as sturdy as the T-800. However, it is harder to permanently damage, given its ability to regenerate.
- Camouflage: Through the use of its shapeshifting ability, the T-1000 can assume the texture and coloring of any surface, allowing it to blend in and avoid detection.
Abilities[]
- Firearms Expertise: The T-1000 is skilled in the use of a variety of firearms, including handguns and rifles.
- Marksmanship: The T-1000 is capable of accurately firing guns even in difficult environments, such as while piloting a helicopter.
- Expert Driver: The T-1000 is an exceptionally skilled driver, capable of carrying out actions with its vehicles that would be too dangerous for a human to perform.
- Expert Pilot: The T-1000 is a proficient helicopter pilot. During the chase at the end of the film, it is able to pursue Sarah, John and the T-800's truck, even flying under overpasses, while also firing and reloading its gun using extra arms it formed for this purpose.
Reception[]
The T-1000 is considered one of the greatest fictional villains ever created in American cinema and is praised by Terminator fans as having helped define Terminator 2: Judgment Day as an improvement over the original film. He is considered the best fictional character created by director/writer James Cameron. In Wizard Magazine it was ranked #29 on its "Top 100 Greatest Villains" list.
Quotes[]
| “ | T-1000: Are you the legal guardian of John Connor? Todd: That's right, Officer. What's he done now? T-1000: Could I speak with him please? Janelle: You could if he were here. He just took off on his bike. So, he could be anywhere. T-1000: Do you have a photograph of John? Janelle: Yeah, sure, hold on. Todd: Could you tell me what this is about? T-1000: Just need to ask him a few questions. He's a good looking boy. Do you mind if I keep this picture? Janelle: No, go on. There was a guy here this morning looking for him, too. Todd: Yeah, a big guy on a bike. Does that got something to do with this? T-1000: No! I wouldn't worry about him. Thanks for your cooperation. |
„ |
| ~ T-1000's first words as it speaks with the Voights about John Connor. |
| “ | T-1000: [answers the phone while disguised as Janelle] Hello? John: Hey, Janelle, it's me. T-1000: John? John: Yeah. Is everything alright? Are you guys okay? T-1000: Sure, honey, everything's okay. Are you alright? John: Yeah, I'm fine. T-1000: John, honey, it's late, I was beginning to worry about you. If you hurry home we can sit down and have dinner together, I'm making beef stew. John: [holds the phone] Something's wrong, she's never this nice. T-1000: John, where are you? Todd: [hears Max barking outside] What the hell is the goddamn dog barking at? HEY! SHUT-UP, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT! John: [to himself] The dog's really barking. Todd: I thought you told the kid to get rid of that fuckin' mutt. T-1000: [uses it's arm to kill Todd] John, honey, it's late. Please, don’t make me worry. John: Could he already be there? [T-800 takes the phone from him] T-1000: Honey, are you okay? T-800: [mimicks John's voice] I'm right here, I'm fine. T-1000: Are you sure? Are you sure you're alright? T-800: [holds the phone] What's the dog's name? John: Max. T-800: [mimicks John's voice] Hey, Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking. Is he okay? T-1000: Wolfie's fine, honey. Wolfie's just fine. Where are you? T-800: [hangs up the phone] Your foster parents are dead. |
„ |
| ~ T-1000 as Janelle talking with John and the T-800 through the phone. |
| “ | Police Officer: You okay? T-1000: Fine. Say... That's a nice bike... |
„ |
| ~ T-1000 before taking a motorcycle from a police officer. |
| “ | Get out. | „ |
| ~ T-1000 to a terrified police helicopter pilot. |
| “ | T-1000: [pierces Sarah's shoulder with his finger, in the shape of a metal spike] Call to John. Sarah: No. T-1000: [twists the spike in her shoulder] I know this hurts. Call John. [extends another spike towards her eye] Call to John now! Sarah: Fuck you. |
„ |
| ~ T-1000 threatening Sarah to call her son, also it's last words. |
Trivia[]
- The The New John Connor Chronicles Timeline is by far the only Terminator fiction and, by extension, timeline of the franchise to mention that a T-1000 Terminator can be reprogrammed.
- It's worth noting that the T-1000 is cool to touch as mentioned in the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Desert Cantos". What's interesting is that the machine is cool to the touch even when it's active — which may suggest either its power source is well heat-proofed, or its power source and general activity may not be generating any heat.
- Both the film's novelization and the text commentary from the DVD Extreme Edition explains that the T-1000 is wrapped in a cocoon made of living tissue that will allow an inorganic being such as the T-1000, which is completely made of mimetic polyalloy, to travel via Time Displacement Equipment.
- However, this would contradict the events shown at the end of the episode "Born to Run".
- Van Ling, creative supervisor for the film, suggests that in addition to the living tissue cocoon, another theory is that T-1000 could mimic the field generated by a living organism.
- The T2 Trilogy Timeline confirms that the helicopter pilot did die from the fall, while the The New John Connor Chronicles Timeline claims the driver of the liquid nitrogen truck survived.
- In Terminator: Resistance, T-1000's default appearance (model) is a Resistance soldier named Griffith (R826457), who was captured by Skynet forces and died of human experiments.
- The police car he takes is a 1987 Chevy caprice, in a deleted scene after the tow truck was set on fire, the T-1000 spots a bunch of emergency workers arriving and takes the opportunity to steal an 88’ Chevy caprice that an officer left unattended.
- Of the T-1000's 15 minutes of freakish and chillingly inhuman transformations onscreen, only six of them were achieved through the use of computers. The remaining nine were actually achieved through highly articulate, detailed and realistic puppets-and-prosthetics created by Stan Winston Studios, the same team responsible for the metal skeleton effects of the T-800.
- The handgun the T-1000 takes from the cop is a Beretta 92 FS 9mm, popular gun among law enforcement in 1995.
- In the film's script, the T-1000 walks back inside the house to John's room after killing Max. In doing so, it passes a bathroom where the real Janelle's legs can be seen through the half-open door and the sound of water coming from the shower can be heard, meaning that the T-1000 killed her while she was taking a shower, and Todd may have just come home from work, explaining why he didn't notice anything strange.
- In the storyboards for the original version of the script, the T-1000 would've arrived at the Salceda ranch and killed Henrique and his family before heading to Dyson's home. This was used for the Cybernetic Dawn Timeline.
External Links[]
- T-1000 on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- The Mainstream Timeline incarnation of the T-1000 on the Terminator Wiki
- The T2 3-D: Battle Across Time incarnation of the T-1000 on the Terminator Wiki
- The T-1000 Series on the Terminator Wiki
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