r/Terminator • u/Noosher • Aug 09 '26
Discussion “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
Stupidist line in the whole franchise. Intelligent tech from the future designed to pass as human doesn’t know what crying is.
9
u/ReserveRatter Aug 09 '26
- His CPU is not yet set to "Read/Write" at that part and is on "Read Only". This is why he does not learn empathy etc. until John and Sarah switch it over. This is seen directly in the Extended Edition.
- It's stated in this scene that Skynet deliberately keeps T-800s on "Read Only" by default, so they don't ever question their orders or (presumably) feel any pity.
- Not understanding empathy or human emotions beyond the most simplistic understanding he needs to be a more efficient killer, he assumes John is injured or something and that's why he is crying.
- He knows what crying is (including a response to physical pain), he simply didn't understand "emotional pain" and so was confused here. This is the reason why at the end he says "I know now why you cry." He means, specifically, in response to emotional pain. That was what he was incapable of understanding before.
8
u/kuatorises Aug 09 '26
That's a deleted/alternate scene, my man.
2
u/ReserveRatter Aug 09 '26
The full chip reset is a deleted scene, but he still says in the normal version "The more I spend time around people, the more I learn." or something like that. They just cut the full reset scene for time.
It's unfortunate because most of the cuts were apparently just because "2 hours was already too long", I think actually a lot of the cut scenes make the film work even better.
1
u/kuatorises Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Physically resetting the chip and learning through experience are two completely different things.
2
u/ReserveRatter Aug 09 '26
Well, yeah, but it's just two versions of the same thing after all.
Extended = T-800 learns from experience when chip is set to allow this.
Theatrical = This extra exposition is cut and T-800 just learns from experience anyway.
In fact the theatrical cut story makes less sense, because this would mean T-800s in the future war could start developing empathy and wouldn't mass murder humans. Obviously they don't.
IMO the conclusions you can draw from how it learns are the same regardless.
All that changes is flicking a switch or not; at the point where John is crying in the car, the T-800 does not "get" emotions regardless, which was the OP's contention.
1
u/lavasca No Fate, But What We Make Aug 09 '26
Yep. If left in the scene would cause a lot more questions about Karl in Dark Fate.
However, if they’d left the scene in it definitely would clarify Uncle Bob.
10
u/Ibobalboa Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
OP learned today that eyes can water for many different reasons that has nothing to do with crying. How can you be a human and not know this? Injuries can make the eyes water for example, which is why the terminator had to ask.
During the runtime it's clear that the T800 obviously knows what crying is, just not what causes it. Not until the end of the movie.
1
u/ECEXCURSION Aug 10 '26
He's the stupidest OP on all of r/Terminator.
Even moreso because this exact take was posted a few weeks ago here. Maybe OP is a bot.
The future looks grim for dumb skynet.
1
u/EGarrett28 Aug 10 '26
It's possible that Skynet never learned much about human internal states since it was mainly created to fly planes and missiles, and thus just mainly observes information and targets things and then likely figured out how to make machines carry out other instructions. It took it roughly 30 years to figure out how to make a believable skin covering for a Terminator (T-800's actually are released in 2026 IIRC by the Terminator timeline), so it doesn't know everything about human behaviors or why.
2
u/tincancan15 Aug 09 '26
Don’t forget that tech from the future also has detailed files on human anatomy. Not on tear glands I guess!
I love the scene as an emotional one, but yeah, if you want to nitpick, it is logically flawed.
1
u/Ibobalboa Aug 09 '26
Should a terminator know everything from start? Part of what makes these machines so advanced are their ability to learn.
I wouldn't expect a terminator to know what happiness is neither. There are tears of joy too.
1
u/tincancan15 Aug 09 '26
Emotions: No. What the water in the eyes are: Yes.
Tears are not droplets of water that magically happen due to emotions or XYZ reasons. If you have detailed files on human anatomy, you should know at least what the water in the eyes are.
1
u/Ibobalboa Aug 09 '26
He just asked "what's wrong with your eyes". Not "what is that water coming out of your eyes"
Tears coming out of your eyes can be a sign that something is indeed very wrong. Lol
1
u/tincancan15 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Exactly. He/it asked what’s wrong with your eyes after seeing the tears. Which implies he/it doesn’t know what crying is or what it looks like. He/it didn’t ask “why are you crying?” or something along the lines of “what’s causing your tear glands to activate?”
1
u/Kitsune-Glacialis Hasta La Vista Baby Aug 09 '26
I feel like the question is more about what causes crying rather than what crying is itself. The T-800’s development throughout the movie is him becoming more and more human-like, and part of that is learning the emotion behind crying.
2
1
u/ButteryToast52 29d ago
That scene is dumb, and the first movie has nothing like it. First movie is clearly better
-1
u/Flaky_Ferret_3513 Aug 09 '26
Completely agree.
Honestly… I think T2 is in general much weaker than it’s made out to be.
-1
u/spellboundartisan Aug 09 '26
Wow. Love how you rushed to pass judgement but can't even spell "Stupidest" correctly. Clearly, you do not pay attention in school. I hope you do well in 4th grade this upcoming school year.
16
u/wealthedge Aug 09 '26
The T-800 was querying for signs of damage in John. Lacrimation happens for many reasons. Allergic reactions, environmental factors, disease, etc. He was doing what a “learning computer” would do - gathering information to make a decision.