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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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.
While Sarah is having pizza in a pizza place, the reporter confirms that "2 hours earlier" Sarah Ann Connor was the second victim.
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)
Continuity mistake: When the Terminator arrives at the first Sarah Connor's house, the address number is "14239", even though in the phonebook it is listed as "1823" (or "2816" or "309"). (00:15:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Terminator steps into the house to kill Sarah Connor he walks over the thresh-hold however in the next shot he is outside again. (00:16:15)
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)
Continuity mistake: After Kyle Reese hot-wires the car and has the nightmare, he drives off and the car is fine. Later, when Sarah's date cancels on her and she heads to the theatre, Reese tails her and the hot-wired car has damage on the driver-side front. (00:20:29 - 00:24:58)
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.
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)
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)
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)
