In T2, was the T-800's arm being left in the steel mill a plot hole?
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a key part of the story is that the "original" T-800's arm and CPU as well as the "new" T-800 must be destroyed to keep them from being reverse engineered and to stop Judgment Day from happening.
But when the "new" T-800 is lowered into the molten steel at the end of the film, part of it is missing: its arm. The T-1000 had trapped the arm in some machinery, and the T-800 tore most of it off to go after the T-1000. The movie never shows John or Sarah Connor retrieving the severed arm and destroying it. After such emphasis was placed on destroying the "original" arm, shouldn't it have been equally important to destroy the "new" one?
Was the arm being left behind in the steel mill a plot hole/oversight? ( And was this ever addressed in any of the sequels?)
Best Answer
This has been answered in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Frakes novel).
From IMDb:
What about the T-800's lost arm in the steel mill?
From the official novel:
As the chromed skeleton was dissolved into the same primal stew as the T-1000, Sarah and John watched [the] Terminator sink into the lava, the metal hand going last... At the last second it formed into a fist with the thumb extended... a final thumbs-up. Then it was really gone. Mother and son watched the molten metal for a while. Then John remembered [the] Terminator's other arm back down the row of smelters, and ran to get it. It was a pile of useless, twisted metal, but the metal was from the future and this time they weren't leaving anything to chance. When John tossed the pieces in, one by one, he and Sarah felt a shudder deep within the bowels of the earth. As if a massive pivot was turning. Of course, later, John would think back and assume it was merely the huge machines pounding away in the mill. He would be wrong. History had been reborn. [page 236]
This has been discussed in reddit too.
Maybe they just forgot to mention it in film and used novelization to fill the plot-hole.
Pictures about "In T2, was the T-800's arm being left in the steel mill a plot hole?"
What happened to the other arm in Terminator 2?
The Terminator loses its left arm during its final fight. This also happens to its predecessor, Guardian, and Carl. In the novelization of the film, Sarah and John went back to retrieve and throw the arm to the molten steel as well.Where did the arm come from in Terminator 2?
Terminator's crushed left forearm is still stuck in the chaindrive...a point addressed in Randall Frakes novelization of the film... by having John later retrieve it and toss it into the molten pit as well. Then John remembered Terminator's other arm back down the row of smelters, and ran to get it.What is the plot hole in Terminator 2?
Terminator 2 reveals that it was Cyberdyne discovering the arm that survived the first movie's battle between the evil T-800 and Sarah that led to Skynet's creation, in another example of a time loop.T-800 CSM 101 Arrival | Terminator 2: Judgment Day [Remastered]
More answers regarding in T2, was the T-800's arm being left in the steel mill a plot hole?
Answer 2
It was not mentioned in the sequels. The script also doesn't mention it. It is assumed John took it and threw it into the molten steel afterwards. This is also what is said in a throw away line in the novelization of the film.
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