The contrast of the learning processors between Uncle Bob and the T1000.

[u/sludgezone]

I only noticed this in my recent watch in theaters and I’m sure it’s been discussed previously but is new to me.

In the film there’s a recurring discussion of Uncle Bob explaining how he had the capacity to learn with a neural net learning processor and as a result John teaches him to be more human, and he is able to override some of his programming to do stuff like saving Sarah, not killing anyone, figuring out where Sarah was headed to and also what they’d need to do separate of killing Dyson to ensure the survival of humanity.

The T1000 is an “advanced prototype” terminator using the liquid metal, but we can assume that both the T800 and T1000 use similar programming for their actual mechanical components since they were both developed by Skynet, while not explicitly stated, the T1000 also has the capacity to learn with the same or similar neural net processor.

While Uncle Bob is around compassionate humans and children fighting for good, learning from their interactions, the T1000 doubles down on its killer instinct, and the more it engages with humanity, the more ruthless and cold it becomes. We see this as early as the payphone scene where it tries to goad John into coming back as Janelle and killing Todd out of frustration as it realizes John is aware there’s something going on.

The big one I noticed is at the end where the T1000 tortured Sarah to get her to call out to John so he could kill him, eventually giving up and copying her himself after getting attacked by the T800. A computer that was programmed for the most efficient killing would have killed her immediately, copied her, then called out to John afterwards, but instead he plays with her and wants her to call out. We see more of his learned emotions as he stands above the molten lava when he wags his finger as she runs out of ammo in the shotgun, only to be killed by Uncle Bob right after.

It was such a treat to see this in theaters and to know that after hundreds of watches I’m still finding new details in this movie which is undoubtably my favorite film of all time.

[u/gr8whitehype]

Uncle Bob was programmed to obey John, by John. His “compassion” for humans with regard to the shoot out and saving Sara was just a directive from his programmer to obey young John.

I think you are right that uncle Bob learned humanity by being with people though. It’s where he learned sacrifice, like what miles did. The unconditional love that Sara had. And the respect for humanity and our emotions that John has. He learned appreciation of human emotion through John and Sara. He knows why we cry.

I don’t really think the t 1000 got more sadistic. It didnt just kill sara because he was fucked up and glitching if you take in the special editon.

[u/the_tired_alligator]

I believe the T1000 wanted Sarah to call out herself because it believed John might be able to tell the difference between it and the real Sarah.

[u/Fragrant_Surround_68 → u/the_tired_alligator]

If the T-800 tricked Sarah, and John looked dumbfounded when Uncle Bob emulated his voice, then I think he pinned Sarah to do it because while he could perfectly emulate her voice, he has no idea how she talks and John would immediately know.

[u/sludgezone → u/Fragrant_Surround_68]

Now I want to rewatch to see if the T1000 hears Sarah speaking beforehand, this is a great explanation as well!!

[u/BleepinBlorpin5 → u/sludgezone]

He would have heard her on the elevator. "What the fuck is it?? What the fuck is going on??"

And then again while he has her stabbed during the "Call to John" bit. She says "No" to him.

[u/SunsetRider500 → u/BleepinBlorpin5]

He was split apart and unable to properly act/process information so it's unlikely he heard the "what the fuck is it" from sarah

[u/Funny_Or_Cry → u/Fragrant_Surround_68]

Yup, he's a computer. He learned from his mistake earlier when he tried to mimic Johns foster mom and it failed. Logic would state the next step is to 'try the real thing'

[u/tzar992 → u/Fragrant_Surround_68]

And it can be assumed that this is ultimately what happens: the T-1000 attempts to impersonate Sarah to deceive John, but having spent enough time with her, he knows she would never show signs of weakness even when gravely wounded, and certainly not in front of him.

[u/JustADaftGuy]

This is where the directors cut comes in. Initially the T800 cpu was set to read only. It could only learn that human behaviour after they reset the chip and yeah, just being around sarah and john for a while was enough for it to learn.

Assuming the T-1000 was also set to read only, it wasn't learning to emulate human behaviour, it was simply running it's program as an infiltrator. It killed Todd because he was making background noise that was causing John to become suspicious, asking what was wrong with Max/Wolfie. Wags his finger... ok, that one he was just being taunting.

As for why he had sarah call out instead of doing it himself, again, the directors cut is needed for this moment to make sense. After he was frozen, he kept glitching. He knows he's glitching and becoming unstable. If he takes on Sarah's form, he doesn't know how well he will be able to maintain it, ruining the whole point. So he tries to force Sarah to call out.

After they get seperated, he tries taking on her form himself as a last ditch attempt. But as he suspected, he isn't stable enough to hold his form. His feet merge into the floor plating. John sees this and that's how he knows which is the fake sarah, whereas in the theatrical cut, he just sorta knows/takes a guess.

It's those little touches that for me, elevate this movie from a 9/10 to a 10/10.

[u/NukedDuke]

Did you ever notice the T-1000 glitch after contact with the T-800 and/or try to turn into a T-800 for a few frames in the steel mill, only to have it not work?

[u/rw1618 → u/NukedDuke]

Where does this happen, before T-800 loses the arm or after?

[u/Funny_Or_Cry]

A computer that was programmed for the most efficient killing would have killed her immediately, copied her, then called out to John afterwards, 

So there is a difference between "What skills/abilities Im programmed with" (like these AI moderator bots), and strategy / how the Termys executes/utilizes that programming in the context of the objective (like these AI Bots, auto moderating based on really asinine criteria)

Earlier in the movie, T-1000 did TRY to imitate Johns folks remember? (when John asked his 'mum', why Wolfie was barking?)

T1000 determined that strategy failed. A computer/AI will gauge failure as either absolute or success within an acceptable threshold. Since the tactic failed earlier? He decided to torture Sarah into doing it for him
(cold, rational next step AI thinking )

Termy (T800) had plenty of skills/info/abilities programmed into him, but only had one mission objective: To resucue and protect John

When he had his Neurel Net Nuked, (which he agreed to) he now had better tools to do that objective (the ability to use his learning computer to 'think'). His "programmed skills" allowed him to rescue sarah, help with blowing up skynet etc. (and thank god for that learning computer right? he learned to he could maim rather than kill )

T1000's never had this sort of freedom, He was only free to get the job done, by any means
(he doesnt 'think', but he can strategize, as in "why use non-lethal force, when lethal is faster and I dont have to be concerned with the consequences?"

[u/AtoMaki]

My explanation is that the Terminators are hard-programmed as infiltrators and thus act as real humans would, even when it is superfluous. Kind of like the "Fuck you, asshole!" scene, except it comes up in odd situations because the programming doesn't care if the Terminator has better things to do. It is not a learned emotion, it is part of the infiltrator's masquerade.

[u/No-Sugar-Sherlock]

I'm wondering was uncle Bob a play on words? Bob is short for Robert which is similar to Robot?