7 The Terminator Mistakes You’ll Never Be Able to Unsee

The Terminator is widely regarded as one of the greatest action films of all time, and for good reason. The fight choreography is on point; the scope of the action is epic; and even though the film was released more than 40 years ago, the special effects still hold up remarkably well. Not surprisingly, this is the film that put director James Cameron on the map. The picture’s popularity has also since put Cameron on blast, thanks to eagle-eyed fans who have spotted minor continuity errors throughout. Goofs are inevitable, but given the film’s staying power, dedicated fans are still discovering and discussing some of the finer points Cameron missed after all these years.

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With a nostalgic eye to detail, we are looking back on this iconic effort and calling out a handful of blunders and continuity mistakes. More specifically, we’ve uncovered seven oversights that you won’t be able to unsee.

1) The Guy in the Alley Has a Magic Drink

When Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) successfully arrives in 1984 after traveling back in time from 2029, there is a transient fellow in the alley with a brown bag-wrapped bottle in his hand, witnessing Reese’s epic arrival. However, between cuts, the bottle moves back and forth between the gentleman’s left and right hands multiple times. Since his drink isn’t the focal point of the scene, this goof is rather be easy to miss, yet eagle-eyed viewers have pointed out this continuity mistake on both Reddit and IMDb. It turns out that they are right. If you advance in slow motion, it’s easy enough to verify that the bottle changes hands several times.

2) What Day Is It?!

After Kyle arrives in the alley alongside the unhoused man with the bottle prone to transfer between hands, the police arrive on the scene and give chase. Kyle eventually overtakes a cop and commandeers his service weapon. From there, a disoriented Kyle asks for the date. The lawman tells Kyle that it’s Thursday, May 12. The only problem with that statement is that May 12 fell on a Saturday in 1984 when the film is set. That’s a fairly innocuous inaccuracy, but still one that astute fans have picked up on in the years since the film’s release.

3) What Is Sarah Connor’s Actual Address?!

When the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) rolls up on Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), he first looks her up in something called a phone book and sees a total of three listings. One lists the house number as 1823, the next is 2816, and the third is 309. Yet, when the cybernetic organism arrives at the home of the first Sarah Connor in the very next scene, the house number is 14239. It seems surprising that the script supervisor didn’t pick up on that fairly noticeable continuity error. Even still, it gives us something to talk about all these years later.

4) Did That Shotgun Handle Just Grow Back?

After Kyle escapes the police officers who chased him following his arrival in the 1984 timeline, he steals a second weapon from one of their vehicles, a shotgun. Shortly thereafter, Kyle saws off the handle to give the weapon a lower profile, allowing it to go unnoticed under his jacket. Yet, in the sequence where he and Sarah find themselves creeping through a parking structure with the police in hot pursuit, the handle of the shotgun has mysteriously returned to full length. Is this some sort of futuristic magic trick, or perhaps just another continuity error?

5) Wait, Aren’t You Supposed to be Missing an Eye?

Following a major dustup, the Terminator removes his organic eye, revealing the underlying endoskeleton. This exposes a glowing, red eye. Yet, when the Terminator puts on a pair of sunglasses, and heads to the police station, we can see through his glasses and he has two organic eyes. Whoops. This is a fairly minor detail that you’ll have to look closely to observe. However, if you pause the frame at just the right moment and inspect closely, you will see exactly what we’re talking about.

6) The Inconsistent Headlights at the Police Station

Right after the Terminator appears at the police station and reveals that he has not one, but two functional organic eyes, he drives through the front door of the station. As he is approaching the front desk, the officer sitting behind it looks up in bewildered surprise. When he does, we can see the car’s headlights reflected on his face, but when the perspective cuts back to the Terminator behind the wheel of the car, the headlights are conspicuously turned off.

7) “To Care and Protect” or “Dedicated to Serve?”

During the second act, the Terminator absconds with a police car in pursuit of Kyle and Sarah. When the indestructible antagonist catches up with them in a parking garage, the stolen cruiser is adorned with a decal that says, “To Care and Protect.” However, when Sarah and Kyle catch up with the Terminator moments later, the slogan reads, “Dedicated to Serve.” This suggests that the production used more than one vehicle to film this scene, and this slight difference in continuity somehow managed to slip through the cracks.

Now that we’ve pointed out a series of inconsistencies in one of the greatest action films of all time, we’d like to hear from you. Did we miss any errors that you’ve previously picked up on? Be sure to give us the lowdown in the comments section.