Why terminators have to be naked when they travel back in time

Since 1984 The Terminator hit theaters, Viewers have wondered why the franchise’s Terminators, and other time jumpers, have to be naked when they travel back in time. The Terminator Franchise has an explanation for this time-travel rule, but that doesn’t make the trope any less jarring when it crops up in a film or TV show. In the opening of James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd’s original Terminator Film, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cybernetic assassin and resistance soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) are both tasked with stealing clothes and weapons before he can pursue his target, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).

of Terminator Genisys to the animated Terminator ZeroThe franchise’s bare time-travel rule is one that has never been broken. While the films and TV shows delve into several aspects of the franchise’s technology – Terminator Zero Finally explaining time travel rules in a digestible manner – The main line Terminator Stories don’t spend too much time dwelling on the details. However, spin-off entries, such as these Terminator: Enemy of my enemy Comic books, mine Terminator The unexplained happenings of movies and TV shows for content, and this includes the details of using time travel machines, especially where Skynet’s terminators are concerned.

Terminator’s time travel only works for things with a living texture

The time displacement equipment from the Terminator franchise needs to interact with living tissue in order to generate a bioelectric field

Although the silver endoskeleton of Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is incredibly intimidating, there is a very practical reason that Skynet, the hostile AI bent on eradicating humanity, dressed its cybernetic assassins in synthetic skin. in the Terminator universe, living tissue is needed to successfully travel to the past. As such, the T-800 models are composed of living tissue that is grafted over a metal endoskeleton. Not only the living tissue, also dubbed cyborg tissue, that coats Skynet’s Terminator models allow the assassin to infiltrate the resistance, but It gives them the ability to generate the bioelectric field necessary for time travel.

Although various entries in the ever-complicated Terminator Timelines have different beginning stories for living tissue, it’s always the same end product. The same as real human tissue, the synthetic flesh is able to bleed, sweat and breathe, and, sometimes, regenerate and age. This is the key to Skynet’s espionage schemes, but also a must for activating them Terminator Series Time Displacement Equipment (TDE). In order for a TDE to work, it needs to generate a bioelectric field by interacting with a living organism. That said, A TDE can only transmit a living organism, or a subject ensconced in living tissue.

Terminator’s time machine rule created a massive plot hole

Skynet could easily cover other weapons in living tissue pods

The Terminator The franchise’s time machine rules, and the way the time displacement equipment operates, opens up massive plot holes. If Skynet is able to transport Terminator units back in time by wrapping them in living tissue, the AI ​​could, theoretically, do the same with other non-living objects. Bent on killing the Connors, Malcolm Lee, and other figures who, eventually, represent a threat to Skynet’s dominance, the AI ​​sends many cybernetic assassins into its TDEs. however, To really gain an advantage, Skynet should (and could) wrap advanced weapons in living tissueSo equip its terminators with futuristic tech.