Durability of T-800

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The T-800, reboot after suffering from a tank lorry explosion.

The durability of the T-800 Terminator varies across different timelines. Basically, unlike its T-600 or T-700 cousins that could be easily dispatched via a well-aimed gunshot or burst of firepower, the T-800 is more resistant to certain forms of attacks. The exact extent of what they can endure is subject to their specific circumstances, but the general consensus is that most have displayed remarkable resilience to both conventional and unconventional combat engagements that would leave its predecessors as a pile of scrap metal.

The T-800, while vulnerable to most plasma weaponry, was at least partially resistant to the weaker plasma weapons used by HK-Flying Mini Hunters.

While T-800s are extremely resistant to small arms fire up to and including 5.56mm NATO assault rifle rounds, .50 BMG sniper rifle bullets are sufficient to penetrate their armored Combat chassis, capable of disabling or even decapitating a T-800 with a single perfectly-aimed shot.

The Terminator

• The T-800 was shot five times by Kyle Reese with an Ithaca 37 with enough force to blast it out a window, but was merely momentarily disabled by the attacks and appeared to suffer only superficial damage.
• While escaping from Tech Noir with Sarah Connor on foot, Kyle used a shotgun blast to detonate a car's fuel tank as the T-800 approached, yet this only slightly damaged it, merely singeing its hair shorter and burning away its eyebrows.
• When mounting a vehicular escape from Tech Noir, Reese swerved the car so that the T-800 was thrown from the hood and crashed across the top of another vehicle and onto the floor; this also caused little to zero permanent damage.
• During the chase in the car lot, Kyle scored a lucky hit to the T-800's face, a shard piercing its left eye, the T-800 eventually had to remove the gelatinous covering. Its optical receptor nonetheless remained intact.
• In the same chase, the T-800 collided with a wall at high speed and damaged its right arm. The damage appeared to be confined to a single part that had become jammed in a fixed position, but the machine was able to re-adjust the part, replacing it in its original position without any further problems.
• During the police station shootout, the T-800 incurs multiple gunshot hits from various calibers, ranging from .38 special to 5.56x45mm NATO rounds. This merely resulted in superficial damage to its flesh sheath but likely caused the rotting of its flesh sheath.
• Shortly after the T-800 barges into the Tiki Motel room where Sarah and Kyle had been hiding, the T-800 is knocked over by a stolen pickup truck operated by Kyle and Sarah. It was merely delayed and the machine proceeded to chase the two with its motorcycle.
• While chasing Sarah and Kyle across the highway on a motorcycle, the T-800 was crushed against the divider and had its vehicle destroyed. Shortly after, a truck hits the machine head on and the machine was dragged beneath it. It eventually suffered damage to a piston on its left leg and head that resulted in a permanent limp and optical damage.
• Kyle placed a pipe bomb inside the exhaust of the T-800's stolen fuel truck, resulting in a massive explosion that engulfed the entire vehicle and machine in flames. It is unknown what kind of damage the cyborg received from this, though it did climb out of the wreckage with its entire flesh sheath burning away and appeared to collapse into a state of shutdown for a short period before rebooting.
• Inside the factory, Kyle swung a metallic pipe at the T-800 numerous times, but it was unfazed and disarmed Reese shortly after receiving a few strikes.
• Mortally wounded, Kyle stuck his last pipe-bomb between the T-800's spine and right hip piston, the resultant explosion proving to be devastating to the machine due to its yield and close proximity, as well as the significant damage which it has experienced at this point. The T-800 was blown in half, its left hand being obliterated as well when it tried to remove the bomb at the time of the explosion. Despite being in a seemingly critical state, however, the machine was still able to reboot and continue with its mission.
• Finally, the T-800 was caught in a hydraulic press and crushed. Its endoskeleton was unable to withstand the pressure of the press and gave beneath it, resulting in its entire structure being flattened beyond any possible repair, the central processor damaged as well.

Dark Horse Comics

2029 to 1984

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Enemy of My Enemy

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Sector War

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• In its first confrontation with the prototype T-1000, the reprogrammed T-800 took several shots to its back from a Beretta 9mm automatic pistol. The bullets had no effect whatsoever on the machine other than minimal damage to its skin. The same applies to when the T-1000 shot it with a Browning Hi-Power pistol in Pescadero and the MP5 submachine gun fire it received to its face from the SWAT team at the Cyberdyne Systems building.
• When the machine slammed on the brakes during the highway chase to crash the T-1000's pursuit 'copter, the SWAT van it was driving toppled onto its side from a burst tire. The T-800 emerged from the van with no damage besides that to its flesh sheath.
• As the coolant truck crashed into the steel mill, the T-800 threw itself from the truck and rolled forward into a stack of metal piping. The momentum and velocity upon which it hit the floor and then the machinery resulted in a slight loss of motor control, mostly in the form of a limp in its left leg.
• During its second hand-to-hand confrontation with the T-1000, the T-800 was pushed into a giant gear mechanism, resulting in its left arm being trapped by the wheel. The gears ground to a halt, but being unable to move it, the T-800 was forced to use a steel rod to split its own arm and tear itself away from the remains.
• In its final fight with the T-1000, it received heavy abuse from the superior machine, including repetitive blunt trauma to the head, exposing its skull and eye, as well as causing enough hydrostatic shock to render the machine in an immobile state for a short time. It fell to the floor and was unable (or unwilling) to exert the energy required to get back up, instead reaching for its grenade launcher. The T-1000 then drove the same metal rod into its back, twisting and bending the back plating to allow it to drive the rod into its primary power cell, disabling it. The T-800 was later able to use heat sinks from the intense heat in the mill to revive itself, however; and absorbed enough thermal power to remove the rod, grab its weapon, and crawl onto an upward conveyor belt. It was later able to get back to its feet and walk with assistance from John Connor.
• The T-800 was lowered into a vat of molten steel whereupon the extreme heat proved too much for the endoskeleton to endure, resulting in the machine being melted and consumed by the lethal environment. It nonetheless survived the intense temperature long enough to give John a "thumbs up" when almost completely submerged.

Cybernetic Dawn

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Terminator: Resistance

In the 2019 video game Terminator: Resistance, the T-800 infiltrator's extraordinary durability is explained by its more advanced "hyper alloy" endoskeleton. The game also explains that most Terminators(specifically humanoid varieties, such as T-600s) are resistant to conventional gunfire but still very vulnerable to explosives and plasma weaponry. The T-800 represented a new and improved generation of Terminators.

The New John Connor Chronicles

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T2 Saga

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Terminator Salvation

Main article: T-800/Terminator Salvation§Durability

Terminator Genisys

The T-800 endoskeleton featured in Genisys seems to be far more durable compared to the original T-800.

• The original T-800 survived a rocket-propelled grenade round with no apparent damage except the destruction of its flesh sheath, the original version was blown apart by a home-made pipe bomb, though said bomb was actually placed into the waist of the previous T-800, which was likely a weak point. It also survived multiple shotgun blasts without slowing down; it is able to continue running against shotgun blasts with little to no loss of momentum unlike the original in where a shotgun blast was able to knock it back easily, and it survived direct hits to the head with a broken telescope with the only damage being to its flesh sheath. Kyle once again hits the T-800 with a metal pipe but rather than knocking the cyborg's head to the side like before, the pipe simply bent instead.
• This is the first movie to feature a T-800 being incapacitated and even destroyed with a firearm. The original T-800 was first incapacitated after being shot through the chest with a Barrett M82A1, a 50 caliber anti-material sniper rifle. This T-800 was later reactivated by a T-1000 and attempted to kill Kyle Reese. However, Kyle then managed to shoot the T-800 in the neck and decapitated the Terminator with the same weapon used to disable it earlier.
• Kyle Reese tried to electrocute the T-800 with a cut-off cord, but it only blurred the T-800's vision (though it is possible it may have destroyed the T-800 outright if prolonged exposure to electricity could be achieved). The T-800 therefore seems to be superior to the T-850 given that it resisted the electrical attack whereas the T-850 was stunned and immobilized.
• Guardian was able to survive being impaled through the shoulder with a solidified mimetic pollyalloy spear and holding his arm under concentrated hydrochloric acid that dissolved a T-1000 with no apparent damage except to his flesh sheath.
• The endoskeleton of the T-800 was shown to be vulnerable to acid to a certain extent, as the non-functioning endoskeleton of the original T-800 was destroyed in an acid bath to prevent the technology from being used to help build Skynet. Nonetheless, the T-800 endoskeleton is considerably more resistant to corrosion than the mimetic polyalloy of the T-1000, as Guardian was able to hold the T-1000 in an acid stream for several seconds with his arm in order to permanently dissolve it, suffering only damage to his clothes and organic outer sheath, though his endoskeleton was treated with a neutralizing agent immediately afterwards.
• Guardian jumped out of a helicopter from high in the air and crashed through another, causing the latter to crash. Despite damage to his flesh sheath, Guardian didn't seem seriously damaged or impaired.
• Guardian was able to survive attacks from a T-3000 and even stand its ground briefly against it (through magnetic gauntlets) showing more effectiveness against the advanced model than the T-850 did against a T-X. He was able to continue the fight even after his left arm was ripped off, despite the damage he had received and his failing body due to old age and lack of maintenance.
• Guardian entered the Quantum Field Generator, a prototype Time Displacement Device to destroy the T-3000, restraining the machine with his magnetic gauntlets. Guardian and the T-3000 both receive heavy damage from the energy field. Guardian’s flesh sheath crumbles as the machine begins to become unstable.
• Guardian eventually loses his strong grip on the T-3000 and is flung through the spinning equipment, bisecting him. His destroyed remains tumble into a pool of unprogrammed mimetic polyalloy where he shuts down before rebooting again.
• Guardian was sent back in 1973 and lasted until 2017 without proper maintenance, making him the longest lasting T-800 on screen. By 1984, the lack of maintenance has caused a mechanical glitch within his right hand, though this could have been an "injury" gained in the fight against the original T-800, and by 2017 Guardian also walks with a limp due to a problem with his knee, which he crudely repairs later on. The glitch in his hand also persists. Despite this, the Guardian is successfully able to combat and defeat the original T-800 and a T-1000 in 1984, as well as defeating a T-3000 in 2017 while being assisted by Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese.

Terminator: Dark Fate

• Carl is shot several times and wrestled by Sarah Connor, leaving a permanent scar to his face, however he simply throws Sarah aside and proceeds to terminate John Connor.
• Carl held his own against the Rev-9 in a free fall.
• Carl fought against the Rev-9 underwater, eventually forcing the Rev-9 to split apart and overpower Carl by breaking off his left hand.
• Carl and Grace try to push the Rev-9 into a spinning turbine. Carl eventually grabs the Rev-9 and forces it into a turbine but could not pull his arm out in time, causing a massive explosion that destroys the T-800’s ankle and knocks him offline.
• Carl manages to reboot and attacks the Rev-9, giving Dani enough time to stab the Rev-9 in the eye socket with Grace's removed thorium reactor. Carl shortly sacrifices himself afterward by letting himself fall into a hole with the Rev-9, impaling both of the machines to the floor. The Rev-9 tries to break free, ripping away at Carl's flesh sheath, but is unable to escape Carl's grip.
• Grace’s thorium reactor overloads and Carl is irreparably melted into the floor along with the Rev-9. The Rev-9 is destroyed instantly, though Carl takes one final look at Sarah and Dani before shutting down.