The Terminator

The Terminator (1984)

101 mistakes - chronological order

(19 votes)

Continuity mistake: At the very beginning of the film when we see the garbage man picking up the steel bin with his forks, if you watch closely you can see the shadow of the large forks pass the windscreen, yet in the following shots the forks are lower than the windscreen. (00:03:50)

The-Immortal

Audio problem: When the Terminator first arrives in 1984, the whole time displacement sequence (or whatever you want to call it) is witnessed by a garbage truck driver who mutters 'What the hell?'. His mouth however is obviously saying something else which has been dubbed over. (00:04:00)

Visible crew/equipment: After the Terminator arrives in 1984, he begins to walk over to a short concrete wall and looks at Los Angeles over it. A second before the shot ends, the shadow of a camera is visible to the left of screen. (00:05:05)

Casual Person

Audio problem: Early in the film, when the punks are at the park, one of them is looking through a telescope and the other one breaks an alcohol bottle over it and says "Hey, it's my turn." If we look more closely, he actually says "My fu***ing turn." (00:05:10)

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Two large railings can be seen curving around the building corners when the cops arrive at the alleyway to pursue Reese. Those railings weren't present in the shot preceding Reese's arrival; the cops pulling up was filmed in a separate alleyway. (00:06:15)

The Terminator mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: At the start of the film when we first see Reese arriving, the drunk homeless guy is holding a bottle in his left hand, then the camera continuously switches between Reese's arrival and the old guy, in these shots, the bottle keeps changing hands from left to right, then back to left. (00:06:40)

The-Immortal

Character mistake: When Kyle steals the police officer's gun and asks him what the date is, the officer replies "12th, May, Thursday". The film is set in 1984. May 12th, 1984 was a Saturday. (00:08:25)

Audio problem: When the terminator smashes the car window, the crash sound occurs before his fist actually makes contact. (00:12:35)

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Terminator punches through the car window, there's broken glass all around the window frame. When he closes the door, there's only a little glass around the top of the frame. (00:12:55)

Deadman63

Revealing mistake: When the Terminator goes into the Alamo Gun Store scene of the famous "Uzi 9 millimeter" quote, the man turns to get something off the shelf, and Arnold takes a shell out of the box on the counter. It is an already fired shell - you can tell by the dimple in the center of the primer. (00:13:50)

Deadlock

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the second 'future war' sequence where a female soldier is practically vaporised by a passing HK tank, watch her flaming remains. You can see the (exceptionally fake looking) head of the stand-in dummy tumble away from the body. (00:14:15)

Continuity mistake: When Reese and later the Terminator go through the phone book to locate Sarah Connor, the second Sarah is listed as Sarah Ann Connor. Later, when Traxler and Vukovich are discussing the death of the second Sarah, Traxler reads the name on the police file as Sarah Louise Connor. (00:14:45 - 00:25:30)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: A similar mistake was already corrected. When Vukovich says "girl number 2", he says she was killed earlier this afternoon, not that she was the 2nd victim. Sarah Louise Connor was shot first.

Bishop73

While Sarah is having pizza in a pizza place, the reporter confirms that "2 hours earlier" Sarah Ann Connor was the second victim.

The Terminator mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: Arnold looks up Sarah Connor's address in the telephone book. The telephone book address has 4 digits, but he goes to a house that has 5 digits on it. (00:15:00)

Factual error: When Kyle is hot wiring the car he touches 2 wires together and you can hear the starter trying to start the engine. This indicates the wire is controlling the starter. Then he takes the starter wire and twists it onto the other wire, keeping them together. If you really did this the starter would be permanently turned on and grinding on the flywheel. In reality, you would hold the 2 wires together until the engine starts, then disconnect them. (00:16:30)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: The second future war segment: During the wide shot where Kyle and the female soldier are following the HK Tank, most of the plasma shots fired from said tank seem to come from above the gun turrets and not out of the barrels. (00:18:45)

Revealing mistake: In the second future war sequence. At the end of the HK/car chase, the gunner in the car has been replaced by a very obvious dummy. (00:19:55)

Continuity mistake: Kyle loads a shell into his shotgun, then falls asleep and dreams of his past in the future. When he wakes up, he pumps the shotgun, so the first shell should eject, but doesn't. (00:20:05)

Kyle Reese: Listen! And understand. That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with, can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop. EVER! Until you are dead!

More quotes from The Terminator

Trivia: At the beginning of the film, Sarah listens to an answering machine recording of her boyfriend cancelling a date. The voice on the answering machine belongs to James Cameron.

Deidra Goins

More trivia for The Terminator

Question: How exactly do both the Terminator and Kyle find addresses? We are led to believe that is the reason for the phone books, but none of the addresses in the phone books match up to the addresses where either the first Sarah is killed, nor the apartment of our Sarah.

Answer: My two cents: The T-800 Terminator does indeed, rip out the page of a phonebook for the address, but remember, he was looking for any and all Sarah Connors, not a specific address. He did not know which Sarah would give birth to John Connor, so by process of elimination he began terminating any woman with the name Sarah Connor. He did plug the first Sarah Connor (a housewife), then went to kill the other Sarah Connors in the phone book.

Scott215

I already gave that answer, but apparently that's not what the question is asking.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Gonna be totally honest... that might just be nothing more than a simple continuity error. They accidentally made a phonebook prop that didn't match up with the locations where they shot, and assumed most people wouldn't notice or care. (And to be even more honest, I never noticed it until I saw this question today.)

TedStixon

Answer: Both the T-800 and Kyle look up Sarah's address in the phonebook and it's Kyle who rips out a page. Neither uses a police computer; that's the T-1000 in Terminator 2.

But that doesn't answer the question (and it's already been mentioned) since the information in the phonebook appears wrong.

Bishop73

Answer: Kyle, as we are shown, uses a police computer to find the addresses. The T800 just uses the phonebook as you mentioned. He rips the page out and takes it with him.

Ssiscool

Except 2 of the addresses in the phone book don't match. So how does the Terminator find them using the phonebook?

Bishop73

The Terminator is just blindly killing everyone in the phone book whose name is Sarah Connor (apparently a common name). Process of elimination. So, the day he arrives, unrelated women named Sarah Connor start dropping like flies, and the police believe it's the work of a serial killer. Our heroine Sarah Connor barely escapes this sweeping extermination by sheer luck and Kyle's intervention.

Charles Austin Miller

You just described the plot. Were you trying to answer the question? Because the question still stands. (As it is, it's either a mistake or plot hole in the film).

Bishop73

Perhaps I'm not getting the question. What is meant by "none of the addresses in the phone books match up"? Match up to what, the murder scene addresses? I wasn't aware that the murder scene addresses were prominently displayed.

Charles Austin Miller

Exactly. The addresses seen don't match. Specifically the first Sarah Connor's house number is "14239", but in the phonebook it is listed as "1823." And the real Sarah Connor lives in an apartment but the phonebook doesn't list an apartment number.

Bishop73

Perhaps though this all doesn't matter because phone books can quickly become outdated, the phone book he found could be over a year old. Someone moves but can still be listed in the phone book with their old address. He could have gone to the addresses but found someone else living there and then asked where the previous owner might be, and he was told (or he forced them). This might be how he found all the Sarah Connors.

lionhead

Are any of the Sarah's listed as living at 1823? I've not got access to the film right now to check.

Ssiscool

The first is listed as "1823." The second is "2816." The 3rd is "309." Although after reviewing the scene and thinking about it, for "309" (which is supposedly our Sarah J Connor), the full address isn't actually seen and the apartment number could have been listed.

Bishop73

Reese never uses a police computer; that's the T-1000 in Terminator 2. He rips out the page from the phonebook. The T800 also uses the phonebook but is never shown ripping out a page.

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