From: sarwate@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Sanjiv Sarwate)
Subject: Re: T2 is crap!
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 14:27:23 GMT

ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:

>In article <4766@krafla.rhi.hi.is> karlth@rhi.hi.is (Karl Thoroddsen) writes:

>>He didn't have to kill Sarah, it would have been pointless (see below).

>>>Much too civilized for a machine that hates humans, don't you think?

>>T-1000 didn't hate humans, he killed them if it served his objective
>>(Kill John).

>Wrong.  He killed people who didn't serve his objective:

>John's foster father.  What was the point?  He didn't need to pretend to be
>him.  The T1000 had obviously fooled the man into thinking he was his wife.

>There was no reason to kill him.

I think that the T1000 was more than willing to let him live, but he was     
blowing the T1000's chances of fooling John into divulging his location over
the phone.  Remember, John's foster father was commenting on "what the hell has
gotten into that dog?"  The T1000 was trying (as John's foster mother) to   
convince John that everything was alright and nothing was wrong, and why don't
you come home hon. The foster father was jeopardizing that tactic.  As it was,
it was too little, too late, since Arnold had already picked up (partly just
on general suspicion, and I suspect partially because of the dog barking) that
the T1000 was on the other end of the phone.
 
>The man driving the Liquid Nitrogen truck.  Again, why?  He could have taken
>the truck without killing the guy.

True.  The T1000 will kill anyone in his way, but would not go out of his
way to kill anyone else.  He needed the truck, the simplest way was to kill the
driver.  I don't think this is inconsistent at all.

>No reason.

>Sarah, at least, would protect John.  We've seen this enough.  Here, he
>had a real reason to want to kill her, and he didn't.


>And it wasn't because the other Terminator rescued her in time (if he
>hadn't been pussy-footing around trying to torture her, we would have
>had plenty of time to kill her).

Again, I think that the T1000 wanted that pained sound from Sarah.  Remember,
the T1000 is very bad at simulating emotion in voices (all Terminators are).
They can mimic any sound, but they can't be emotional.  If, on the other hand,
he had a real sample of Sarah calling John when Sarah was in pain, he would
be more likely to draw John to him.  Arnold did save her in time, since Sarah's
resistance made the T1000 think "This is more trouble than it's worth." and
was preparing to off her.

>And it wasn't because he needed Sarah to call John.  With her dead, and
>the 800 Series out of commision (supposedly), the T1000 could have taken
>out John simply because there's no one left to protect him.  It can be
>as patient as it needs - time means nothing to it.

It's a big mill.  The T1000 can't "sniff out" people, and if John was smart 
about it, he could probably elude the T1000 for a while.  The Terminators are
programmed, I think, to accomplish their task as efficiently as possible.  
Time constraints might not matter in a real sense, but the programming is for
the most efficient kill possible.  Why waste time trying to ferret John out 
when, with a little work, you can get him to come to you?

>The only reasons that the T1000 didn't kill Sarah are:

>'We can't kill off the star'
>'We have to leave her alive for the sequel'

Well, those are practical considerations in any movie. :-)


-- 
Sanjiv Sarwate		sarwate@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu	SANJIV@UIUCVMD
"We all thought one could treat history like one experiments in physics. The
difference is that in physics one can repeat the experiment a thousand times,
but in history, only once."  -Arthur Koestler, DARKNESS AT NOON
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