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 T-800 grabs the shotgun off the bar keeper,he cocks it (fully), then in the next shot, you see him half-way through cocking it. (00:09:30)
Continuity mistake: About halfway through the aqueduct chase, the T-800 shoots the semi in its left door. The hole stays there until a little before the end of the chase. (00:36:30)
Continuity mistake: When the T-800, Sarah and John are escaping the mental hospital in the elevator the T-1000 stabs through the top and cuts Sarah in the back. Later when are driving away from the hospital in the police car Sarah hugs John. When the camera shows Sarah's back her shirt is torn but the wound itself is gone. (01:03:10 - 01:06:45)
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 computer that the T-1000 reads in the police car (at the beginning) reads that John is 10 years old and was born in February of 1985. Which means that the movie would have to take place in 1995 (2 years before Judgment Day). Yet Arnold claims in the car, (while driving towards Mexico) that Judgment Day would happen in 3 years, just after the Skynet funding bill is passed by congress. (01:14:20)
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: At the mall, after the Terminator has been thrown through a glass window shop, a man in grey pants approaches him from behind. When he stands up the guy has disappeared. (00:33:10)
Continuity mistake: In the shot where T-800 arrives in the time bubble, the bubble removes a clean cut chunk of the rear end of the truck. If you look at the very center of the wheel that is cut in half, there is part of the axle right at the tip of that wheel which is not cut. (00:06:25)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the T-1000 disguised as John's foster mother, stabs Todd (foster father) through the mouth, she is standing at the table facing it. When it transforms back into its default form, it has moved away from the table completely. This is so that it can walk forwards (out of the shot) without having to walk around the table. (00:41:55)
Continuity mistake: When the T-800 arrives between the tractor-trailers, you can see a bumper sticker (i.e. "Vehicle makes wide turns") on the back of the trailer when the sparking begins. When Arnie arrives in the bubble it "melts" out the back corner of the trailer, and the sticker is no longer there. (00:05:50)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Terminator is nude in the biker bar, one biker stabs him. The Terminator then grabs the knife with his left hand and twists the biker's arm. Then the Terminator uses his right hand to hold the biker's arm down on the pool table while still holding on to the knife with his left. Immediately in the next shot, the Terminator right arm is in the air with the knife in his right hand and stabs the biker. (00:08:05)
Continuity mistake: When the Terminator pulls John off the dirt bike during the drainage ditch chase, the dirt bike falls onto its left side and the gas tank is about to be crushed by the tow truck. The next shot from another angle shows the dirt bike laying on its right side, with the rear tire the first thing to be crushed under the truck. (00:37:30)
Continuity mistake: When Sarah Connor hits the guy with the broom handle in a bid to escape, after the first hit, we see a close-up shot of him on the ground clutching his face. In the background we see her swing back and start bringing it down again. We then cut to a wider shot, and she repeats the motion. (00:52:40)
Continuity mistake: When the T-800 and Connors are leaving the hospital in the car driving backwards, the car jumps off a grassy embankment and lands hard on the asphalt, knocking the rear bumper loose to a hanging position. A few shots later the bumper is back on snug again. (01:04:50)
Continuity mistake: At the Galleria, the T-1000 fires rounds into the Terminator's back, but the damage to his jacket disappears when he is thrown through the window. (Director James Cameron said the scripting of this sequence at the time of filming was different). (00:32:10 - 00:32:55)
Continuity mistake: In the hospital scene where Arnie is rescuing Sarah, he throws a black man against a glass wall. In the next shot the man is sliding down the wall and he's now white. (00:55:20)
Continuity mistake: In the desert when John says "bad example", he turns round and his hair has changed. It goes from in his eyes to neat and by the side of his face. (01:12:30)
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: Immediately after the Terminator shoots the gate guard at the mental institute, there is blood on the guard shack wall. A few seconds later, the blood has vanished. (00:57:30)
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 ★