James Cameron started a cash avalanche in 1984 when he wrote and directed The Terminator, his big breakout hit. It would go on to cement his status as one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, and paved the way for such mega-hits as Aliens, the ever-quotable Titanic, and of course, Avatar.
However, Cameron's relative inexperience as a writer did creep up in more ways than one. The Terminator is loaded with plenty of things that simply don't make any sense, and here are ten of the most blatant examples in chronological order as they appear in the film.
Policeman Gets The Date Wrong
The first act of The Terminator finds both the titular assassin and Sarah Connor's human protector Kyle Reese arrive in 1984. Knowing that the Terminator won't waste any time hunting down his target, Kyle makes a series of fast moves including assaulting a police officer and taking his gun.
When he holds up the cop and asks him what the date is, he responds "Twelfth...May...Thursday." Unfortunately, May 12th was a Saturday, not a Thursday. Chances are this was a script flub that nobody thought deserved a fact-check before it was greenlit.
The Police Don't Bother Checking The Second Floor
After backup arrives, Kyle is forced to flee into a department store where he manages to steal some cool threads and a mean pair of velcro sneakers. He does so while evading the cops and their search pattern, which doesn't seem to be very thorough.
For one, the police pass right by an escalator that Kyle had just used to escape to the second floor. For some reason, they don't bother going up the escalator to investigate, which seems mighty out of character for police chasing a perp on the run.
Matt's Phone Sex Call
It shouldn't have come to Matt's surprise that his girlfriend Ginger lived with a roommate. Yet, when Sarah picks up the telephone, he goes straight into a seductive Friday night phone sex routine that ends up embarrassing him in the end.
This can't have been the first time Matt called up the house, so to assume that Ginger would automatically pick up instead of Sarah is either bad writing or one dumb guy. That, or he may have been trying to see how far he could push the whole roommate thing. It will remain a mystery.
The Terminator's Escape
Somehow, the Terminator managed to pull off a miraculous feat after crashing his car straight into a wall while chasing down Kyle and Sarah. Such an impact would have at least dazed the cyborg long enough for the pursuing police to pull up and notice him getting out of the vehicle.
However, it seems that nobody witnessed the Terminator making an escape on foot from the vehicle. Worse, the Terminator would not have given up his most valued target simply because of a handful of police officers, as evidenced in a later scene where he mows down an entire precinct.
The Time Displacement Device
James Cameron attempted to give some sort of explanation as to why the Terminator wasn't able to bring future weapons with him to complete his task, but it only goes so far. According to Kyle Reese, non-living material cannot be sent back through time, hence both arriving naked in 1984.
Reese explains that the field created by a living being works in tandem with the time displacement device, but the Terminator's outer living tissue shouldn't be enough to mask the mechanics underneath, especially given that there's no cardiovascular or cellular system to speak of. It's a very large plot hole that ranks among the highest in movies.
The Lobby Cop
With the police on alert following a phone book pattern serial killer and a shootout at a nightclub, it seems incomprehensible that the lobby cop at the precinct didn't think to question why the most ominous looking man in the world just waltzed in through the front door asking to see her.
Either nobody notified the cop of what was going on (which seems odd, since he knows she's giving a statement), or he clearly cannot read people. Nobody in their right mind would look at the Terminator and think he was harmless, and this policeman lived to regret it when he became one of the Terminator's most grisly kills.
Sarah's Phone Call
Having just experienced the most traumatic episode in her life (twice), Sarah would have been scared to death of the Terminator and taken appropriate steps to keep herself hidden. Yet for some reason, she decides to call up her mother to tell her how she's doing.
While this would be anyone's first instinct, it's doubtful that Kyle would have neglected to tell her not to dial-up anyone who might serve as a point of contact. Most people would have waited until long after the heat had died down before even thinking of contacting loved ones.
Needless Horn Honk
After the Terminator wipes out on his motorcycle on the freeway, a transport truck comes barreling down the road and fails to spot him despite the fact that the area is very well lit. While this seems implausible (especially with an overturned pickup nearby), it does get worse.
For some odd reason, the transport truck driver honks the horn before running the Terminator over and then looking surprised. It makes little common sense, but it's an excuse to amp up the drama with a big old transport truck horn.
Nobody Questions The Big Metal Arm
It's safe to assume that first responders would have arrived on the scene long before anyone from Cyberdyne Systems, which makes the final act all the more puzzling. The Terminator is crushed by a hydraulic press, leaving only its arm and hand reaching for her throat.
Did no one think to report this to their superiors, and why didn't Sarah say anything to them? Instead, she's carted off to the hospital, leaving industry suits to come and collect the arm and the broken CPU, which creates the temporal paradox later seen in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
No Jail Time
Sarah escapes relatively unscathed after taking out the Terminator, which begs the question as to why she wasn't hauled into court and made to testify about the mysterious events that took place in the robotics plant. There, she would have had something to say about her ordeal at the very least.
Worse, Reese's death would easily have been pinned on her, since there were no other humans around at the time. Of course, she might have blamed the entire thing on him before claiming she killed him in self-defense, but that's a hard sell given his shrapnel wounds and head trauma when the Terminator exploded. It's another reason why some 80s movies haven't aged well, regardless of how awesome they are.