Continuity mistake: As the Terminator and the rest are escaping from Cyberdyne Systems in the police van, the helicopter explodes about five feet before it hits the van. (01:59:00)
Continuity mistake: The gas that the Terminator shoots at the SWAT members while inside the foyer of the Cyberdyne building, is nowhere near the front door when compared to when the Terminator exits the building. The Terminator has to walk through a gas haze as he opens the front door. (01:59:45)
Continuity mistake: When the Terminator drives the police van into the Cyberdyne building to rescue Sarah and John, one of the van's mirrors becomes crushed in on the side. Once the van is onto the freeway the mirror is intact again. (02:00:30)
Continuity mistake: When the SWAT van crashes through Cyberdyne's front doors into the lobby, it comes to rest with the rear doors closed. When Sarah and John Connor enter it, it's in a different position and the rear doors are fully open. (02:00:35)
Continuity mistake: When the T-1000 is chasing Sarah, John, and the Terminator in the nitrogen truck, just before Arnie fires the first grenade, a blue car comes between them forming a diagonal line across the road (the Terminator, blue car, truck). After a brief close-up on the Terminator shooting, we cut back to a wide shot, the blue car's disappeared, and the truck's now directly behind him, Sarah, and John; not enough time for them to move like that. (02:01:40)
Continuity mistake: In the car chase just before the final encounter in the foundry, the T-800 slams on the SWAT van's brakes and the helicopter slams into it, crushing the choppers front. A second later it is in reasonably good shape. (02:04:00)
Continuity mistake: When the SWAT van flips over you can see the many bullets holes on top of the Van. However a few frames later the bullet holes change from many to just a few. (02:04:30)
Continuity mistake: The tanker truck is shown having two headlight lenses on each side on the front. During most of the chase the inside lamp is lit, but when Arnold shoots it with the grenade launcher the outside lens is lit. The next shot shows the inside lens lit again, but then when Arnold climbs on the hood of the tanker to fire through the windshield the outside lamp is again lit. (02:06:20)
Continuity mistake: In the Steel Mill scene, Sara has 8 shells. She shoots the T-1000 once (7 left), then she drops an unused shell (6 left), then reloads (5 left in theory, but there are now 6 on top of the gun). Later she loads the shotgun with the other 5 shells (one's disappeared, but it's back to what there should be) and recocks the gun, ejecting the other good shell. Later, she nearly kills the T-1000 by shooting him with 7 shells. (02:10:20)
Continuity mistake: When the nitrogen truck's grille is destroyed by a grenade, the damage is primarily in the upper right corner. In subsequent shots, the damage is more extensive.
Continuity mistake: The T-1000 arrives at the steel mill and grabs a striped coloured handlebar. The place he places his hand differs between the wide and close-up angles.
Continuity mistake: In the Pescadero hallway, the T-1000 passes by Dr. Silberman twice, the second time while firing his pistol.
Continuity mistake: At Cyberdine, Gibbons' chair position differs between the shot when the second guard arrives and after he finds him laying on the floor.
Continuity mistake: While in the police car, escaping from the T-1000, when Sarah says "John, it was stupid of you to go there", her ponytail is either brushed and neat, or messy and all over her shoulder, depending on whether the shot is from behind or the front respectively.
Continuity mistake: When the T-1000 throws the driver off the truck and chases John's bike, the buildings on the right are a brown parking lot and a modern white building. In a couple seconds, the truck keeps swapping from being by the middle of the white building or way behind, next to the brown parking lot approaching the white building. The position is inconsistent many times.
Continuity mistake: Arnie shoots the truck's tyre right before it smashes against the pillar. From the truck's point of view Arnie and the kid disappear, only to reappear one second afterwards.
Continuity mistake: After the first fight in the steel mill, as the T-800's arm ends up in the gear the black glove on his left hand is torn in many places, revealing parts of the endo-skeleton hand. However, later when the T-800 frees himself from the gear, he is wearing a black glove with no tears on his left hand.
Continuity mistake: When the cop by the vending machine is killed, his head is tilted to the left in the front shot, but straight in the side angle following.
Continuity mistake: When Sarah spits out the paperclip to start her escape, the paperclip is unfolded too quickly between shots.
Continuity mistake: Dyson is shot at and falls on the floor, an instant later he is lying several meters to the right over a carpet.
Answer: He didn't steal his clothes, but copied them. He can only copy things that he physically touches. He had to touch the cop to take on his look. Also since the cop was a witness to this ruthless killing machine, it needed to kill him to protect itself from being discovered too soon. The Terminator is an infiltration unit on an assassination mission to kill John Connor. As advanced as it is, it needs as little attention drawn to it as possible. Having the entire police force chasing him down would not be ideal for his goal to get Connor and would inevitably slow him down and risk allowing Connor a better chance of escape. The T 1000 also is an emotionless machine programmed by other machines that are intent on killing off all humans in the future. It doesn't value human life, and if anything has been programmed to regard them as a pest to be dealt with. The cop was a means to an ends and an obstacle to take out. As well, the cop did also posses a weapon, and was the T-1000's quickest way to get his hands on a gun.
Quantom X ★