During the original Terminator, the hairstyle worn by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s titular android assassin changes suddenly - so why do most viewers miss this detail? Released in 1984, The Terminator was an intense mash-up of slasher horror and time-traveling sci-fi action that saw Schwarzenegger play a cyborg sent back from the future to assassinate an unborn human resistance leader. The original may have been hard-edged horror, but James Cameron’s original vision for The Terminator was even more scary and violent than what viewers got.
As is often the case for the ambitious filmmaker, Cameron’s ideas for The Terminator had to be revised to keep the movie achievable within a limited budget. However, despite this economy, the original Terminator nonetheless managed to display a level of continuity few viewers would even notice on first viewing. For example, few could name the only time in the franchise when the Terminator changes his hairstyle during the story.
This moment occurs when the Terminator breaks into an apartment in the self-repair sequences, and keen-eyed viewers can see his hairstyle has changed from the one he sported earlier in the action. During the alley chase that follows the Tech-Noir shootout, Kyle Reese shoots a car, making it explode so he can buy himself and Sarah Connor some time to escape from the Terminator. Not one to be deterred so easily, Arnie’s cyborg jumps through the raging fire, which singes off his eyebrows and some of his hair and he can be seen smoking as he attacks the fleeing car. Since the scene is quite dark and the movie doesn't linger on this detail, a lot of viewers can miss it.
It speaks to the attention to detail that Cameron and his crew put into The Terminator that interesting little details like this are littered through the movie. Another that's easy to miss involves the scene where the title killer pulls up to the address of the first Sarah Connor he assassinates. He's seen running over a toy truck as he pulls up, and in an ironic piece of foreshadowing, he's later run over by the same make of truck in the finale.
The Terminator’s missing eyebrows and signed-off hair are part of the gradual stripping away of the machine's human facade throughout the story. By the end of the movie, he's been reduced to the metallic exoskeleton that James Cameron originally envisioned in the fever dream that inspired the entire Terminator franchise. His changing hairstyle may not be a major detail in the overall movie, but it speaks to its endlessly rewatchability that details like this are often only discovered on later viewings.
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