In The Terminator film universe, the T-800 is one of the more durable and well-known models in a long line of them, with those unfortunate enough to come up against one often needing to utilize a variety of tactics to take it down for good. And in an original Terminator comic series from 2014, the very first version of these highly efficient killing machines is shown to have a unique weapon that can immobilize and potentially even destroy any T-800 it comes across!
An iconic movie villain introduced in 1984’s The Terminator and memorably played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, it has been shown more than once in franchise lore just how hard it is to disable, damage, outsmart, and outright kill one of these robot assassins — the T-800 model, T-1000 liquid Terminator, and more included. Having been crushed, blown up, melted, shot at, run over, and subject to a whole slew of other things across six films, one TV show, countless comics, and even a few video games, it usually takes a combination of these strategies to make a dent in these metal foes, with this particular comic book weapon — an electric harpoon — being one that works far better than most.
T-800s Wouldn't Survive Against The First Terminator Model
A Terminator-damaging tool introduced in the 2014 Dark Horse Comics miniseries titled The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy by Dan Jolley and Jamal Igle, this series follows Farrow Greene, an ex-CIA operative tasked with kidnapping Dr. Elise Fong, a scientist developing skin cells that can heal themselves, leading to Elise being targeted by a ruthless non-Arnie-looking T-800. Eventually needing to team up with this Terminator to save Elise, Farrow finds herself in the bowels of a secret facility that houses some of the first iterations of a killer robot that fans have come to know well, complete with a weapon that Terminators should be afraid of.
Electric Harpoons Are Highly Effective Against T-800s
Reverse-engineered from Arnold's partially recovered robot remains, this relatively crude machine is remote-controlled and built to defeat T-800s with an electric harpoon that instantly paralyzes all of their systems, rendering it inert and completely unable to function — a moment shown at the midway point of this comic series. Once used to short-circuit the Terminator in question, it can be reasonably assumed that this prototype — or anyone with a big enough gun or stockpile of explosives — could, at their leisure, then destroy the helpless T-800 machine in any way they pleased as it takes quite a while for the Terminator in this series to recover. Couple this with the idea that if an even stronger jolt of electricity is used with the harpoon, the resulting attack might be powerful enough to fry a Terminator entirely, with any models from the T-800 down essentially being able to be taken out with one well-placed shot.
Furthermore, it bears pointing out that due to the time travel rules of Terminator's universe — i.e. Arnie’s T-800 was sent back in time but was recovered in the past before any real Terminator was produced, thus allowing him to be his own blueprint for what he will eventually become — the very first thing one of these killing machines was made for was to combat and defeat better models of Terminator! So while this electric harpoon trick hasn’t been seen outside of comics just yet, The Terminator universe is always on the lookout for new ways to defeat these steely enemies, so any upcoming creators taking a crack at the franchise should take note!