The Terminator

Come with me if you wanna live.

Hi, there. Fooled you. You're talking to a machine. But don't be shy. It's OK. Machines need love, too. So talk to it and Ginger, that's me, or Sarah will get back to you. Wait for the beep.

— Would you just talk about something? I don't know. Anything. Just talk. Tell me about my son.
— He's about my height. He has your eyes. What's he like? You trust him. He's got a strength. I'd die for John Connor.
— Well, at least now I know what to name him. Don't suppose you know who the father is so I won't tell him to get lost?
— John never said much about him. I know he dies before the war...
— Wait. I don't wanna know. So was it John that sent you here?
— I volunteered. It was a chance to meet the legend. Sarah Connor, who taught her son to fight, organize, prepare from when he was a kid. When you were in hiding before the war.
— You're talking about things I haven't done yet in the past tense. It's driving me crazy. Are you sure you have the right person? Come on. Do I look like the mother of the future? I mean, am I tough? Organized? I can't even balance my checkbook. Look, Reese, I didn't ask for this honor and I don't want it. Any of it.
— Your son gave me a message to give to you. Made me memorize it. «Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to say the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive or I will never exist». That's all.

— Talk to me some more. Tell me about where you're from.
— All right. You stay down by day, but at night you can move around. You still have to be careful because the H-Ks use infrared. But they're not too bright. John taught us ways to dust them. That's when the infiltrators started to appear. The Terminators were the newest. The worst.
— I was dreaming about dogs.
— We use 'em to spot Terminators.
— Your world is pretty terrifying.

— He'll find us, won't he?
— Probably.
— It'll never be over, will it? Look at me. I'm shaking. Some legend. You must be pretty disappointed.
— No, I'm not.
— Kyle, the women in your time, what are they like?
— Good fighters.
— That's not what I meant. Was there someone special? Someone? A girl, you know.
— No. Never.
— Never? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. So much pain.
— Pain can be controlled. You just disconnect it.
— So you feel nothing?
— John Connor gave me a picture of you once. I didn't know why at the time. It was very old... torn, faded. You were young like you are now. You seemed just a little sad. I used to always wonder what you were thinking at that moment. I memorized every line... every curve. I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have. I shouldn't have said that.

(Tape seven. November 10.)
Where was I? What's most difficult is trying to decide what to tell you and what not to. But I guess I have a while before you're old enough to understand these tapes. They're more for me at this point just so that I can get it straight. Should I tell you about your father? Boy, that's a tough one. Will it affect your decision to send him here, knowing that he is your father? If you don't send Kyle, you can never be. God, a person could go crazy thinking about this. I suppose I will tell you. I owe him that. Maybe it'll help if... you know that in the few hours that we had together... we loved a lifetime's worth.

— I can't sleep.
— Try. Well, it may not look it, but that couch is very comfortable.

— There was a nuclear war. A few years from now... all this, this whole place, everything... it's gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here, there. Nobody even knew who started it. It was the machines, Sarah.
— I don't understand.
— Defense network computers. New, powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart... a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat. Not just the ones on the other side. It decided our fate in a microsecond. Extermination.

— Did you see this war?
— No. I grew up after. In the ruins. Starving. Hiding from the H-Ks. Hunter-killers. Patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal. This was burned in by laser scanner. Some of us were kept alive. To work. Loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps. To smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name was Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah. Your unborn son.

— So you're a soldier. Fighting for whom?
— With the 132-nd under Perry. From '21 to '27. Then I was assigned... under John Connor.
— Who was the enemy?
— A computer defense system built... built for SAC-NORAD by Cyberdyne Systems.
— I see. And this computer thinks it can win by killing the mother of its enemy. Killing him, in effect, before he's even conceived. A sort of retroactive abortion? Why didn't the computer
just kill Connor then? Why this elaborate scheme with the Terminator?
— It had no choice. Their defense grid was smashed. We'd won. Taking out Connor then would make no difference. Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence.
— Is that when you captured the lab complex and found... What is it called? The time displacement equipment?
— That's right. The Terminator had already gone through. Connor sent me to intercept, and they blew the whole place.
— Well, how are you supposed to get back?
— I can't. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him and me. It's just him and me.

— Hold on. Are you injured? Are you shot? Do exactly what I say. Exactly. Don't move unless I say. Don't make a sound unless I say. Do you understand? Do you understand?
— Yes! Please don't hurt me.
— I'm here to help you. I'm Reese. Sergeant Tech-Com. DN38416. Assigned to protect you. You've been targeted for termination.
— This is a mistake. I didn't do anything.
— No, but you will. It's very important that you live.
— This isn't true. How could that man just get up after you...
— It's not a man. A machine. A Terminator. Cyberdyne Systems model 101.
— A machine? Like a robot?
— Not a robot. A cyborg. Cybernetic organism.
— No. He was bleeding.
— The Terminator's an infiltration unit. Part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyper-alloy combat chassis. Microprocessor controlled. Fully armored, very tough. But outside it's living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair, blood... grown for the cyborgs. The 600-Series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new. They look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything.
Very hard to spot. Cyborgs don't feel pain. I do. Don't do that again. Listen and understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop... ever... until you are dead.

— Don't you have ray guns? Ray guns. Show me a piece of future technology.
— You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.
— Why?
— I didn't build the fucking thing.
— OK, OK. But this cyborg, if it's metal...?
— Surrounded by living tissue.
— Why were the other two women killed?
— Most records were lost in the war. Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. Her full name, where she lived. They just knew the city. The Terminator was
just being systematic. You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her. That's what he does. That's all he does. You can't stop him. He'll reach down her throat and pull her fucking heart out!

— What did he just say?
— He says you're very beautiful. He is ashamed to ask you for five American dollars for this picture. But if he doesn't, his father will beat him.
— Pretty good hustle, kid. Here are four dollars. What did he just say?
— He said there's a storm coming in.
— I know.