The time machine is SkyNet’s tactical weapon in case the Resistance manages to outsmart the rogue artificial intelligence. And it was put into action.
We learn about this event in hindsight when an unsuspecting Sarah Connor is forced to endure attacks from two seemingly mentally unstable men.
One claims to be a soldier from the future. The other doesn’t make any claims but can withstand a point-blank shotgun blast and bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous Austrian bodybuilder.
Okay, we get these guys. They’ve traveled from the future to engage in a fierce battle on the night streets of 1980s Los Angeles. According to Kyle Reese, only the two of them survived, and there won’t be anyone else. And one more crucial phrase: “The field only allows living tissue.”
Fine, but how did the T-1000 (and the T-X as well) manage to travel to the past? Here are four theories to consider.
Living Tissue Shell
What if the T-1000 was in a living tissue shell at the time of travel? From the promotional video for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” we know that the Terminator production facility had a flesh-growing chamber.
A chamber for growing living tissue. Frame from the promotional video for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
What prevented the T-1000 from assuming a size-appropriate shape for the chamber, growing the flesh, and then casually making its way toward the time machine? After the journey, it could have shed its now unnecessary shell somewhere in the bushes and gone about its liquid metal business.
And So It Goes
Perhaps the level of simulation in the T-1000’s outer human shell was so advanced that it not only mimicked appearance but also all the properties of living tissue, such as warmth, bio-field, and maybe even the scent of unwashed armpits. This also explains why John Connor could easily evade it at Usain Bolt speed.
T-X arrives in the past without any incidents. Frame from the movie “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”
Furthermore, this theory applies to the T-X, whose external shell was also made of mimetic polyalloy. What if the mimetic polyalloy so perfectly imitates living tissue that no further manipulation is required for time travel?
T-1000 Isn’t Afraid
Kyle Reese said the field only allows living tissue. Or rather, a living organism generating a bio-energy field. Everything else doesn’t pass through the time displacement field. But what if someone decided to test it? Would an inanimate object entering the field simply be torn into pieces?
T-1000 isn’t afraid of being torn into tiny pieces. Frame from the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
If so, the T-1000 wouldn’t be concerned. In the second movie, there were moments when the liquid Terminator calmly reconstituted itself from shards and reabsorbed the detached parts.
Perhaps it would have been ripped apart upon arrival and scattered around the vicinity, but as we know from the lore, each particle of the T-1000 is programmed to rejoin the main mass within a radius of fourteen kilometers. So, for it, this would be child’s play.
Kyle Reese Was Wrong
And finally, where did Kyle Reese learn about the properties and technical capabilities of the time machine? According to his own words, he didn’t create it and didn’t have much knowledge about it. He was just an ordinary soldier, a sergeant in communications, whose job was to pull the trigger upon sighting iron sledgehammers and not think too much.
T-800 traveled to the past without any preparation or lubrication. Why did the Resistance technicians do it differently? Frame from the movie “Terminator: Genesis”
It’s entirely possible that the time displacement field can pass any matter. And the restrictions were just the fears of Resistance specialists who didn’t want to risk a soldier and sent him back empty-handed.
Maybe Kyle Reese simply overheard a few comments from the technicians when they were applying the conductive gel and didn’t quite understand:
Should we give him “Vestingauz” (the brand of conductive gel)?
Better not, what if it tears him to pieces!
So, he might have thought it was true. And when John Connor asked:
So, guys, did you send the cyborg back to ’84?
Yes, sir!
Did you give him “Vestingauz”?
No, sir!
Are you idiots?! How do you expect him to defeat the Terminator without it?! For a cyborg, any firearm is like a mosquito bite! Well… Now send Schwarzenegger, AND DON’T FORGET TO GIVE HIM THE DAMN “VESTINGAUZ”!!! I’ll go get some fresh air… When I come back, I’ll check if you’ve done everything properly! And I suggest your division gets a solid “A” on this one!
And he heads out to light up. Meanwhile, the technicians are standing there, scratching their heads, and one asks the other:
Did you understand what he said? Should we give Schwarzenegger “Vestingauz” or not?
When John Connor yells, I always turn my brain off… I think it’s better not to give him anything…
A joke, of course. But in reality, the technicians hadn’t had the chance to fully understand the time machine’s workings, limitations, and possibilities. And neither did Kyle Reese, who wasn’t well-versed in such technology, as he mentioned during police questioning.