The Terminator
The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Terminator says "I'll be back" he walks out of the police station. The cop inside the building looks out of the window, looks very surprised, and you can see the headlights from the car shining on the cop's face. When we see the car just before it comes crashing through the building the headlights aren't on. In the next shot of the cop the headlights are still shining on him. (00:57:25)

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Continuity mistake: In the Tech Noir Bar, the same woman - blonde with a pink or orange dress - must have come dancing with her twin, because while she's sitting behind Sarah Connor when the laser beam is pointed at her, she's also dancing near Arnie. The T-800 moves past her when he sees Sarah Connor and moves to shoot her. (00:35:05)

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Continuity mistake: When The Terminator's stolen police car is shown up close in the parking structure, the motto on the left side of it reads "to care and to protect." After the car crashes, you can see the motto on the left side again, but this time it reads "Dedicated to serve." The car's trim and position/orientation/color of the police emblem change as well. (00:45:50 - 00:50:20)

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the Terminator enters the police department and he bends over to say "I'll be back" you can see through his shades and he has both of his eyes, despite cutting one out in an earlier scene. (00:59:35)

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Suggested correction: I have literally just watched this scene, you can't see his eyes at all. Even with the brightness turned right up. You can see the outline of his eye sockets but no eyes. Yes, we should be able to see the red of the missing eye, but we don't know if the Terminator has the ability to turn this on or off at will. With the technology available at the time of the films release, one definitely wouldn't have been able to tell any difference.

Sorry to disappoint you, but both his eyes are visible under the shades. So yes, it IS a continuity mistake after all.

The Terminator mistake picture Video

Continuity mistake: Arnold looks up Sarah Connor's address in the telephone book. The telephone book address has 4 digits, but he goes to a house that has 5 digits on it. (00:15:00)

The Terminator mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When the Terminator is blown up inside the gas truck and you think it is destroyed, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn begin to hug. In the shot where the Terminator begins to rise from the destroyed truck, look just a little to the right of Linda's head and you'll see a mans head pop up and his hands pull down on a lever that makes the Terminator rise up. (01:30:50)

The Terminator mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When Sarah and Kyle have run into the factory, the Terminator is breaking through the armour plated door. As the Terminator comes through you can clearly see the two operator guys crouching behind the model. (01:32:45)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When the Terminator's flesh is burning off in the burning tanker wreckage, you can see the wire moving the Terminator puppet around. (01:29:45)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: After Reese finishes battering the Terminator with the pipe, the Terminator strikes back at him. Just before the camera angle changes to show us the pipe dropping on the floor, we get a close up of Reese's face. It is a stunt double, not Michael Biehn. (01:35:10)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Arnie drives through the police station, the cop is just sitting there. Not only that, his skin is a lot paler. It is too easy to see that it is a dummy. (01:00:00)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: During the final chase scene, Sarah loses control of the pickup and it rolls over, as it rolls you can plainly see that it has no engine. (01:26:05)

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the tanker explodes near the end, the Terminator gets out of the truck, then falls to the ground face-first, in an open area. Then he rolls over onto his back, lying prone, and stops moving. When the endoskeleton rises a minute or so later, however, it gets up as if it had been hunched over, face down - and several pieces of the truck's wreckage fall off of it as it rises, as if it had been covered by falling metal. (01:28:45 - 01:31:00)

Phil C.

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Kyle saves Sara from the dance club and has her in the car she tries to get out. Kyle stops her by grabbing her. In one scene he's holding her by the back of her hair, and when it cuts back to him his hand is across her chest. It goes back and forth like that. (00:37:20)

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the Endoskeleton emerges from the diesel fire look at his teeth. They're clearly metallic when he stands up and chases after Sarah and Kyle, then when he enters the factory his teeth are white enamel. Then when he's fighting with Kyle they're metal again and finally they turn white after he's blown apart. (01:31:05 - 01:34:20)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: The second future war segment: During the wide shot where Kyle and the female soldier are following the HK Tank, most of the plasma shots fired from said tank seem to come from above the gun turrets and not out of the barrels. (00:18:45)

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Continuity mistake: At the start of the film when we first see Reese arriving, the drunk homeless guy is holding a bottle in his left hand, then the camera continuously switches between Reese's arrival and the old guy, in these shots, the bottle keeps changing hands from left to right, then back to left. (00:06:40)

The-Immortal

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the shootout at the disco, there is a car chase. Towards the end of this chase, they turn a corner and Kyle smashes into the police car, veering it off to the right of the screen. If you look closely at Kyle's car as he hits, you can see FIVE shotgun holes in the side of the car. However, a few shots later, Arnie is firing at the same side, but there are only TWO shotgun holes in the side of the car, with Arnie just making the third hole with that shot. (00:47:10)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Arnie is being pulled under the semi-truck, his foot is caught and the green-colored dummy leg is revealed. It can't be a special effect sock since green screening was not in practice in the early 80s. (01:23:05)

The Terminator mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the second 'future war' sequence where a female soldier is practically vaporised by a passing HK tank, watch her flaming remains. You can see the (exceptionally fake looking) head of the stand-in dummy tumble away from the body. (00:14:15)

The Terminator mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Kyle is in the police station being interviewed by the psychiatrist, watch where he says the line: "It's just him... and me", it appears different later in the film when the psychiatrist is showing the tape to Sarah. The first time, Kyle has his head turned up and to his left and on the tape, his head is facing straight as he says the line. (00:54:25)

Audio problem: When the Terminator breaks into the police station, he has a Franchise SPAS 12 semi-automatic (or selectable pump action) shotgun in his left hand, and an Armalite AR 180 machine gun in his right. Before he kills the power in the building, he comes to the end of a hall, points his shotgun through a doorway, and shoots. A machine gun sound is used for the blast, instead of a shotgun sound. (01:00:28)

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Trivia: At the beginning of the film, Sarah listens to an answering machine recording of her boyfriend cancelling a date. The voice on the answering machine belongs to James Cameron.

Deidra Goins

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Question: How exactly do both the Terminator and Kyle find addresses? We are led to believe that is the reason for the phone books, but none of the addresses in the phone books match up to the addresses where either the first Sarah is killed, nor the apartment of our Sarah.

Answer: Gonna be totally honest... that might just be nothing more than a simple continuity error. They accidentally made a phonebook prop that didn't match up with the locations where they shot, and assumed most people wouldn't notice or care. (And to be even more honest, I never noticed it until I saw this question today.)

TedStixon

Answer: My two cents: The T-800 Terminator does indeed, rip out the page of a phonebook for the address, but remember, he was looking for any and all Sarah Connors, not a specific address. He did not know which Sarah would give birth to John Connor, so by process of elimination he began terminating any woman with the name Sarah Connor. He did plug the first Sarah Connor (a housewife), then went to kill the other Sarah Connors in the phone book.

Scott215

I already gave that answer, but apparently that's not what the question is asking.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Both the T-800 and Kyle look up Sarah's address in the phonebook and it's Kyle who rips out a page. Neither uses a police computer; that's the T-1000 in Terminator 2.

But that doesn't answer the question (and it's already been mentioned) since the information in the phonebook appears wrong.

Bishop73

Answer: Kyle, as we are shown, uses a police computer to find the addresses. The T800 just uses the phonebook as you mentioned. He rips the page out and takes it with him.

Ssiscool

Except 2 of the addresses in the phone book don't match. So how does the Terminator find them using the phonebook?

Bishop73

The Terminator is just blindly killing everyone in the phone book whose name is Sarah Connor (apparently a common name). Process of elimination. So, the day he arrives, unrelated women named Sarah Connor start dropping like flies, and the police believe it's the work of a serial killer. Our heroine Sarah Connor barely escapes this sweeping extermination by sheer luck and Kyle's intervention.

Charles Austin Miller

You just described the plot. Were you trying to answer the question? Because the question still stands. (As it is, it's either a mistake or plot hole in the film).

Bishop73

Perhaps I'm not getting the question. What is meant by "none of the addresses in the phone books match up"? Match up to what, the murder scene addresses? I wasn't aware that the murder scene addresses were prominently displayed.

Charles Austin Miller

Exactly. The addresses seen don't match. Specifically the first Sarah Connor's house number is "14239", but in the phonebook it is listed as "1823." And the real Sarah Connor lives in an apartment but the phonebook doesn't list an apartment number.

Bishop73

Perhaps though this all doesn't matter because phone books can quickly become outdated, the phone book he found could be over a year old. Someone moves but can still be listed in the phone book with their old address. He could have gone to the addresses but found someone else living there and then asked where the previous owner might be, and he was told (or he forced them). This might be how he found all the Sarah Connors.

lionhead

Are any of the Sarah's listed as living at 1823? I've not got access to the film right now to check.

Ssiscool

The first is listed as "1823." The second is "2816." The 3rd is "309." Although after reviewing the scene and thinking about it, for "309" (which is supposedly our Sarah J Connor), the full address isn't actually seen and the apartment number could have been listed.

Bishop73

Reese never uses a police computer; that's the T-1000 in Terminator 2. He rips out the page from the phonebook. The T800 also uses the phonebook but is never shown ripping out a page.

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