
Continuity mistake: When the T-1000 walks past the deactivated T-800 just after being shot at by Kyle Reese, you can see that the T-800 has taken a lot of damage to the face and the nose is missing. Once the T-800 gets up after being reactivated you can see that the nose is back with a lot less damage to the face with a close up shot.
Answer: The T-800 "Pops" was working with Sarah Connor, and they were trying to eliminate any Terminator sent back in time. The punks were incidental and the aim was not necessarily to save them, but Sarah probably also wanted to minimise the collateral deaths as much as possible by destroying the machines as soon as they emerged.
Sierra1 ★