Continuity mistake: Early in the movie, prior to heading out to the bar where she first sees the Terminator, Sarah Connor is holding her iguana at her apartment while talking to her roommate. In the first shot, she is holding it with her left hand under the lizard's chest. The film cuts to a different angle, and now the lizard is resting against her shoulder, with Sarah's left hand on its upper back. It cuts back to the original angle and again her hand is supporting the chest. (00:23:25)
Continuity mistake: The telephone message left by Sarah's roommate changes the two times we hear it. The second time, there is no delay between "Hi there" and "ha ha ha fooled you", while the first time has a delay of over a second. Not only that, but Ginger knocks the phone over when she is initially shot, so it could not have rung while the terminator was there. (00:25:55 - 00:32:05)
Continuity mistake: When Ginger is rooting through the fridge while her boyfriend fends off The Terminator in the bedroom, Pugsley the iguana scares her by knocking some food off the top of the fridge. We then see a close up shot of Pugsley knocking some more food over. In this shot we see him knock over a box of "Harvest Wheats" onto its front and a box of "Honey Grahams" placed on its side and at an angle. We then cut back to Ginger telling him to shoo and then back to Pugsley. In this second shot, the box of "Honey Grahams" is now standing upright and facing the camera and the box of "Harvest Wheats" has completely disappeared. (00:30:40)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah is sitting in the bar after talking with the police, there is a drink in a glass on the table in front of her. The scene cuts away and when it cuts back, it is a small bottle, not a drink glass. (00:33:45)
Suggested correction: When she sits down, there's two empty mugs and two bottles, but she doesn't have her own drink. The scene cuts to the Terminator coming in, and then we see her with her drink (a bottle and the glass). But enough time for someone to bring it to her.
Revealing mistake: After Reese blasts the Terminator with his shotgun while at the Tech-Noir nightclub there should be huge holes in the Terminator's shirt and jacket, but there are none. (00:34:10)
Suggested correction: There are holes that appear in the Terminator's jacket and shirt. Most noticeable is when he is thrown through the glass out onto the street.
Continuity mistake: In the Tech-Noir bar scene, as Sarah is seated at the table and knocks the Canada Dry bottle to the floor, right when she leans down to pick it up, a guy sporting a white suit, white tie with three black tie clips and red pants begins passing behind her from the right side of the screen. In that exact same moment, while she's still bent over retrieving the bottle, the reverse-angle shot captures that same guy in white suit and tie, now dancing in front of her table as Arnold walks up scanning the area. (00:34:20)
Continuity mistake: In the Tech Noir Bar, the same woman - blonde with a pink or orange dress - must have come dancing with her twin, because while she's sitting behind Sarah Connor when the laser beam is pointed at her, she's also dancing near Arnie. The T-800 moves past her when he sees Sarah Connor and moves to shoot her. (00:35:05)
Other mistake: As the Terminator is approaching Sarah in the Tech Noir nightclub, several other patrons can be seen behind her sitting in booths. These same people are in front of Kyle (he pushes them out of the way to get to Sarah before the Terminator does), yet he's on the other side of the club by the bar. (00:35:10)
Factual error: Right after Kyle saws off the barrel of the shotgun in the alley, he pumps a shell into it, then again after his dream of the future in the car, then a 3rd time in the night club before he shoots the terminator. The 2nd and 3rd time he pumps it, shells should eject. They don't. (00:35:22)
Continuity mistake: When the Terminator goes to kill Sarah in Technoir, the camera does a POV shot of the Terminator looking down at Sarah, and Sarah looking directly up at him. The immediate next shot where Kyle Reese is about to shoot the Terminator shows the the position of the Terminator and Sarah is different to the POV shot we saw before. (00:35:30)
Continuity mistake: When Arnie gets shot in the club after he gets up again there's no bullet holes in his chest or blood on his shirt. (00:35:50)
Continuity mistake: In Tech Noir, as the Terminator starts firing the Uzi at Reese, a guy in a dress shirt and tie gets shot as Reese uses him for cover. He reacts to getting hit, the camera angle changes, and he reacts again. (00:35:50)
Visible crew/equipment: When Schwarzenegger rises to his feet after getting blasted out the Tech Noir window, a stage light can be seen behind him in the top right corner. (00:36:50)
Suggested correction: No production vehicle is visible and that definitely is not a stage light.
There is a stage light top right corner of the screen behind a black square light blocker.
I just watched Tampa Jay's filming locations video on this film. It's just a funny-looking street post across the street from the Tech Noir. Not a piece of filming equipment.
Continuity mistake: After Kyle saves Sara from the dance club and has her in the car she tries to get out. Kyle stops her by grabbing her. In one scene he's holding her by the back of her hair, and when it cuts back to him his hand is across her chest. It goes back and forth like that. (00:37:20)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Sarah and Kyle are escaping in the car they found in the alley after leaving the nightclub, Tech Noir, we see Arnie jump onto the hood of their car in flames. While he is in mid-air during the jump, he is on fire but as soon a he lands (the next shot) the flames are gone. (00:37:35)
Continuity mistake: When The Terminator's stolen police car is shown up close in the parking structure, the motto on the left side of it reads "to care and to protect." After the car crashes, you can see the motto on the left side again, but this time it reads "Dedicated to serve." The car's trim and position/orientation/color of the police emblem change as well. (00:45:50 - 00:50:20)
Continuity mistake: When The Terminator's stolen police car is shown up close in the parking structure, look at the police logo. After the car crashes, you can see the logo has flipped. (00:45:50 - 00:50:20)
Continuity mistake: After the shootout at the disco, there is a car chase. Towards the end of this chase, they turn a corner and Kyle smashes into the police car, veering it off to the right of the screen. If you look closely at Kyle's car as he hits, you can see FIVE shotgun holes in the side of the car. However, a few shots later, Arnie is firing at the same side, but there are only TWO shotgun holes in the side of the car, with Arnie just making the third hole with that shot. (00:47:10)
Revealing mistake: After the Terminator (in his police car) discovers Reese and Sarah in the car park, Reese hot-wires the car and starts to speed away. After that, there are several shots of Reese driving the car. It is easy to see that it's not Michael Biehn, but a stunt double who doesn't resemble Biehn at all, and who is seen in several other shots during the movie. (00:48:10)
Continuity mistake: Just before Kyle exits the car park, he rams the police car driven by the Terminator into a parked car, and you can see the front left corner of the police car is damaged. In the next shot when you see the police car exit the car park, the damage has gone. (00:48:30)
