My websites were always targeted primarily for the hardcore fans who almost know it all. The purpose of my sites was too shine light on some very obscure interviews and facts that aren't accessible in well known books or extras that are still available for purchase. However, times change, and new generations and fans come along - and I realized that a lot of my audience consist of fans who aren't diehards who know every book and interview by memory for decades (like all the fans at the Terminator Files Forum years ago), or just never went outside the films. So this is the first part of a different type of FAQ section, for those less initiated in Cameronverse. James Cameron is one of those very few storytellers who leave the fans with more answers than any scifi fan would hope for, certainly much more than any other scifi storyteller. While movies are about the kinetic energy, emotions visual art and story, and they are certainly not obligated to explain or elaborate on every fictional aspect of it, Cameron, often praising the audiences as 'smart' and ones who 'get it', spread just enough clues and sprinkled bits of information that are enough for the viewers to draw they answers from, without a need to do it through dialogue, ruining the flow, pace and running time of the film. And he always goes extra miles unlike anyone else to give reason and logic behind everything, even fictional made up tech.
Novelizations used to be for fans who wanted that extra insight into the story, unburdened by the limited running time of a movie and it's pacing - they dwelled on character's thoughts and explained things that couldn't be visually or weren't absolutely necessary or crucial to explain in the film, and so they're often almost like the Bible of the film, along the script. Let me underline that none of the answers are my own opinions, they are an intent of the filmmakers and official sources will be quoted when necessary. And have in mind, this entire site is just about Cameronverse only.
Let's continue with Why Cyberdyne Only Has The Arm and The Chip?"
The answer is simply - that's all they could get. NONE of the remnants of the Terminator were theirs to take. First, let's see at the deleted scene of The Terminator. Two people, named in both Terminator novelizations as Greg Simmons (the older one) and Jack Kroll, are seen at the factory right after police came in. They are yelled at, told not to touch anything
“Hey look! I told you not to touch anything untill we’re done! You got that!?”
Simmons is showing Kroll the microchip he found around (it's the other way around in the novelization), popped by the immense pressure from the endoskull. That is shown in the deleted scene. A police officer passes by and they hide it.
In the novelization for the first film, Kroll has an extra bit of dialogue saying" I wasn't suppose to, but I crossed the police line, because this thing was - " he then stops when he sees a cop nearby. He then explains he found it "on the floor in the middle of a lot of strange looking debris".
The novelization for Terminator 2 has an almost entire chapter on the history of Cyberdyne, and it goes through this scene again but with more detail. The one who found the chip was let in as soon as they removed the body of Reese and took Sarah away, and managed to slip through the police lines before they started collecting evidence and go through the scene. He managed to take the chip and the hand before the police started their investigation.
The reason why the guy assumes it was an “explosion” even though he picks up from around the hydraulic press is because they were told by the police that a man and a woman broke in and “set something off”. And pieces of skull were laying all over the floor
So the rest of the debris was either confiscated by police or by the cleanup crew who perhaps took it for scrap not knowing what it is. Without the hand, with a mangled torso, skull and a fragment of leg, it didn't look like much.
Below, the original storyboard depicting the Terminator gettining crushed by the press and all the pressure spewing out the debris
Back to Terminator Trilogy