The Terminator (1984) - Quotes

Misattributed Quote from The Terminator Explained

Misattributed: [[Terminator 2: Judgment Day; http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Terminator.html some script drafts] * Although John Connor recalls this as part of the message his future self had given to Kyle Reese to pass along to Sarah Connor in ], and a version of this line appears in , Kyle Reese never actually recites this line in the film.

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Creating Our Own Destiny

Misattributed: There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.

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Your Future Is Controlled by Machines

Taglines: Your future is in its hands.

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Endless Nightmare of an Undying Threat

Taglines: The thing that won't die, in the nightmare that won't end.

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The Creation of the Terminator Explained

Taglines: In the Year of Darkness, 2029, the rulers of this planet devised the ultimate plan. They would reshape the Future by changing the Past. The plan required something that felt no pity. No pain. No fear. Something unstoppable. They created the Terminator.

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The Final Battle Against Machines Begins Tonight

Taglines: The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged for decades, but the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present. Tonight...

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A Time Traveler's Mission to Protect the Past

Taglines: It came from a war-torn future to destroy the past. Its target: an ordinary woman - Sarah Connor. Her only ally: another traveler through time.

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The Indomitable Nature of The Terminator

Taglines: In the 21st century, a weapon will be invented like no other. This weapon will be powerful, versatile and indestructible. It can't be reasoned with. It can't be bargained with. It will feel no pity. No remorse. No pain. No fear. It will have only one purpose: to return to the present and prevent the future. This weapon will be called...The Terminator.

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Struggling to Communicate with the Future

Sarah: Tape 7, November 10...Where was I? What's 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.

Sarah: ¿Gasolina, por favor?

Gas Station Clerk: ¿Cuánto?

Sarah: Llena el tanque.

Gas Station Clerk: Fill er up! ¡Sí!

Sarah: [recording; stops recording because a boy has just taken a Polaroid picture of her] 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 we had together, we loved a lifetime's worth.

Boy: Usted es muy hermosa, señora, y tengo apena decirle que me dé cinco dólares americanos, pero si no, mi padre me va a pegar.

Sarah: [to clerk] What did he just say?

Gas Station Clerk: He says you're very beautiful, señora, and he's ashamed to ask you for five American dollars for his picture - but if he doesn't, his father will beat him.

Sarah: [raises four fingers] Pretty good hustle, kid. Cuatro.

Boy: [accepts two two-dollar bills; leaves, but calls back a warning] ¡Sí, sí! Gracias. ¡Miren, miren! ¡Allá! ¡Viene una tormenta!

Sarah: [to clerk] What did he just say?

Gas Station Clerk: He said there's a storm coming in.

Sarah: [contemplatively] I know.

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A Conversation About Family and Connection

Sarah: Would you talk about something?

Kyle: What?

Sarah: I don't know. Anything. Just talk. Tell me about my son.

Kyle: He's about my height. He has your eyes.

Sarah: What's he like?

Kyle: You trust him. He's got a strength. I'd die for John Connor.

Sarah: Well, at least now I know what to name him. I don't suppose you know who the father is so I won't tell him to get lost when I meet him.

Kyle: John never said much about him. I know he dies before the war-

Sarah: Wait! I don't want to know. So, was it John that sent you here?

Kyle: I volunteered.

Sarah: Why?

Kyle: It was a chance to meet the legend... Sarah Connor. Taught her son to fight, organize, prepare from when he was a kid. When you were in hiding before the war.

Sarah: 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?

Kyle: I'm sure.

Sarah: [angry, irritated] Oh, 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!

Kyle: [reciting; examines the bandage Sarah has put on his hand] Your son gave me a message to give to you. He 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 that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist." That is all. It's a good field dressing.

Sarah: [bitterly] You like it? It's my first.

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Seeking Sarah Connor at the Police Station

Terminator: I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told she was here. Could I see her please?

Desk Sergeant: No, you can't see her. She's making a statement.

Terminator: Where is she?

Desk Sergeant: [points to bench] Look, it may take a while. Want to wait? There's a bench over there.

Terminator: [looks around, examining the structural integrity of the room, then looks back at him] {{W|I'll be back}}!

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Discussion of Time Travel Limitations

Dr. Silberman: Why didn't you bring any weapons, something more advanced? Don't you have, uh, ray guns? Show me a piece of future technology.

Kyle: You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.

Dr. Silberman: Why?

Kyle: [frustrated] I didn't build the fucking thing!

Dr. Silberman: Okay, okay. But this cyborg, if it's metal...

Kyle: Surrounded by living tissue!

Dr. Silberman: [pauses the interrogation tape; resumes the interrogation tape] Oh, right, right. This is great stuff! I could make a career out of this guy. You see how clever this part is, how it doesn't require a shred of proof? And most paranoid delusions are intricate, but this is brilliant! Why were the other two women killed?

Kyle: Most of the records were lost in the war. Skynet knew almost nothing about Connor's mother. Her full name, where she lives. They just knew the city. The Terminator was just being systematic.

Dr. Silberman: Uh-huh. Well, let's go back to where I was...

Kyle: [interrupts] Look! You have heard enough! I have answered your questions! Now I have to see Sarah Connor!

Dr. Silberman: I'm afraid that's not up to me.

Kyle: Then why am I talking to you?

Dr. Silberman: Because I can help...

Kyle: Who is in authority here?!

Dr. Silberman: Please, I...

Kyle: [interrupts again; glares at the camera] SHUT UP!!! 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 WADE THROUGH YOU, REACH DOWN HER THROAT, AND PULL HER FUCKING HEART OUT!!!

Ed Traxler: Doc?

Kyle: Aagh! LET GO OF ME--!

Dr. Silberman: [pauses the interrogation tape] Sorry.

Sarah: So is Reese crazy?

Dr. Silberman: In technical terminology, he's a loon.

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The Rise of Machine Intelligence

Sarah: [she and Reese have just snuck into a Cadillac] Reese. Why me? Why does it want me?

Kyle: 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.

Sarah: I don't understand.

Kyle: 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. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.

Sarah: Did you see this war?

Kyle: No. I grew up after. In the ruins... starving... hiding from H-K's.

Sarah: H-K's?

Kyle: [pulls up his right sleeve, exposing a mark; Sarah gapes in amazement] Hunter-Killers: patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put into camps for orderly disposal. This is burned in by laser scan. 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 is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah... your unborn son.

Understanding the Terminator's Infiltration Unit

Kyle: All right, listen. The Terminator's an infiltration unit: part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled. Fully armored, very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue: flesh, skin, hair, blood - grown for the cyborgs.

Sarah: Look, Reese. I don't know what you want from...

Kyle: [parks car] Pay attention! I gotta ditch this car. 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. I had to wait till he moved on you before I could zero him.

Sarah: Look, I am not stupid, you know. They cannot make things like that yet.

Kyle: Not yet, not for about 40 years.

Sarah: [disbelieving] Are you saying it's from the future?

Kyle: One possible future. From your point of view. I don't know tech stuff.

Sarah: Then you're from the future too - is that right?

Kyle: Right.

Sarah: [sarcastically] Right.

Kyle: [coldly] Cyborgs don't feel pain. I do. Don't do that again.

Sarah: [weakly] Just let me go!

Kyle: 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!

Sarah: [gasps and quivers as Reese's warning sinks in] Can you stop it?

Kyle: [tiredly] I don't know. With these weapons...I don't know.

Police Dispatcher: [The Terminator glances at the dispatcher, then makes a U-turn and drives back the way he came] All units, all units. Gray Ford, suspect's vehicle, has been found at a parking structure at 4th and Beaudry.

Gun Discussion at the Pawn Shop

Terminator: [[W:Franchi SPAS-12|The 12-gauge auto-loader] ].

Pawn clerk: That's Italian. You can go pump or auto.

Terminator: [[W:AMT Hardballer|.45 long slide] The ] with laser sighting.

Pawn clerk: These are brand new; we just got them in. That's a good gun. Just touch the trigger, the beam comes on and you put the red dot where you want the bullet to go. You can't miss. Anything else?

Terminator: [[w:plasma weapon|plasma rifle] Phased ] in the 40-watt range.

Pawn clerk: Hey, just what you see, pal.

Terminator: [looks around; [W:Uzi|Uzi 9mm] The ].

Pawn clerk: You know your weapons, buddy. Any one of these is ideal for home defense. So uh, which will it be?

Terminator: [pointing shotgun towards the door] All.

Pawn clerk: [takes out forms; sees the Terminator loading a shell into the shotgun] I may close early today. There's a... 15-day wait on the handguns, but the rifles you can take right now. You can't do that.

Terminator: [shoots and kills the clerk] Wrong.