Revealing mistake: Just after the Terminator breaks into the police station, he is firing his gun, when he fires it repeatedly he makes a policeman jump who is lying dead on the floor, look closely.
Suggested correction: Just because someone is shot by a gun doesn't necessarily mean they die instantly. The cop is likely still alive, albeit severely wounded.
Other mistake: At the gun store, the Terminator asks for "The .45 long slide, with laser sighting." He then acquires the gun and indeed uses the laser sighting more than once. The Terminator should have no need for the laser sighting, since it basically has built-in laser sighting.
Revealing mistake: The T-800 can be seen wincing when Traxler shoots him. Apparently, the detonating squibs were painful for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Arnold is turning off the power in the police station he gets shot by a cop and jerks forward. But every other time he is shot he does not even twitch. (01:00:55)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where the tanker explodes, we see the cabin of the truck getting blown up. Then in the next shot, we see no flames have even reached the cabin, and it explodes again, this time with flames.
Suggested correction: This is one of those incidences where they intentionally show the scene multiple times. We in fact watch the semi blow up three times.
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: When the Terminator is washing his face in the motel room after he was wounded during the chase, the tap's valve is showed in different positions between two shots.
Continuity mistake: As the T-800 starts chasing Reese and Sarah in the garage, there are a few shots of the Cadillac's windshield getting a hole blown in the upper right corner a few times, but there is only ever one hole.
Revealing mistake: When Kyle gets to the past and hits the floor his body changes - even his hair and the sweat on it, showing the stuntman.
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 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)
Revealing mistake: Just before the tanker blows up near the end, there is a scene of it turning to hit a vehicle. The cable pulling the truck is visible.
Continuity mistake: When Reese and Sarah are fleeing from the Tech-Noir nightclub, right when the Terminator jumps on the car they're driving away in his hairstyle magically changes.
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: The number 1874 is on supposedly different patrol cars driven by the T-800 and the police officers.
Continuity mistake: When Arnold exits his motel room to kill Sarah's mom at the cabin he has on what looks like a pair of Sperry boat shoes. After he kills and impersonates the mother and heads for the Tiki Motel on his bike he has the black motorcycle boots back on. (01:14:40 - 01:17:40)
Continuity mistake: As Kyle and Sarah hijack the black pick-up truck, the bandage on Kyle's hand is missing.
Suggested correction: No, the bandage is still on his right hand the whole time. There's a few moments you can see it when he's pulling the man out of the truck. There's no camera cut when he starts to back up and you can see a little bit of the white bandage. But with the shadow and the way he's holding his hand, it could look like it's not there.
Revealing mistake: When the inner workings of the T-800's damaged arm are shown, he uses a vise grip to pull one of the finger control rods. As he does, the finger uncurls a split second before the rod is pushed back.
Continuity mistake: We see the Terminator remove his left eye in the hotel room and it leaves a wound about the size of the sunglasses lens, in most face shots after that while he is wearing the sunglasses the wound has disappeared and the skin around the eye is perfect when we see that side of the face.
Plot hole: When Kyle Reese first enters the picture, the police immediately start chasing him (which ultimately works to the Terminator's advantage, as he is able to use the radio chatter to track his target). But why are the police after Kyle in the first place? All he did was steal a homeless guy's pants. There's no way that would generate that big of a response from the LAPD.
Suggested correction: Hardly a plot hole to have him be chased by the police. But they saw a half-naked guy in an alley at night; that's suspicious. He stole a man's pants and ran. Then he assaulted a police officer and took his gun. It escalated pretty quickly.