FAQ For New Fans #38: "Does The Endoarm Differ In Both Films?"

 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 part of a different type of FAQ section, for those less initiated in Cameronverse.

Let's continue with "Does The Endoarm Differ In Both Films?"

Yes. It's in fact, the only redesign done to the original endoskeleton. The knuckles and joints are different. With the advancement of technology, Stan Winston and his team redesign the knuckles because the original hand could not move realistically with the joints it had. And it did look a bit clunky and required a redesign. 

Stan Winston Cinefex Magazine, August 1991

Richard Landon from Stan Winston Studios, Fangoria #107, October 1991 Magazine, 

John Rosengrant of Stan Winston Studios, it's current chairman, in an interview with JamesCameronOnline 2009

We're all used to the fine tuned T2 endoarm because all those great (and some not so great) replicas and all the endoskeleton figures have the T2 arms (aside from one Japanese figure from 1985), but when put next to the original hand, which worked in the dark and quick or blurry cuts, it does make the original one look crude and it was definitely one and only area that needed fine tuning. Below, comparison of the original prop and the T2 redesign that's much more known to the world. The focus here are the knuckles and joints.

Terminator 2

The original

Again, aside from the cosmetic reasons, the scene where the Terminator pulls the flesh off its arm at the Dyson's residence would have been flat out impossible with the original hand design. The knuckles were too big, plus the levers and cables that were used to articulate the fingers in the first movie would have stuck out of the flesh. For T2, the endoskeleton arm was designed not only to fit better under flesh, but also to have substantially more articulation. In the first film, the fingers could only flex at the knuckles, in T2, the fingers are also able to spread apart.

Trivia: As an homage to the original Terminator films Chris Wolters, prop fabricator for Alita Battle Angel, built a hand that’s an almost exact replica of the original hand (sans finger tips which are T2’s) which makes an appearance twice in the film

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