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. 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 "How Is The Flesh Kept Alive?"
Doesn't human body and tissue need blood circulation and all the organs to be alive? How is the flesh alive on the terminators then?
The answer is in the first version of the script, the script treatment for The Terminator from 1982. In it, Reese originally had much more to say about the world and how Terminators work, but truthfully, only superfans and geeks like myself really want to know this stuff while the general audiences does not care and accepts technical questions as answered by the fact they are science fiction after all. So a lot if it did not make the cut, but the explanation was still there.
Terminators don't just grow a regular human flesh like human do. It's a special type of flesh that was genetically designed for Terminators, not a copy of what's on us. It's alive, yes, but requires much less and is structurally different underneath. It still does need blood circulation, and it's explained hat Terminator have special pumps to take care of that, and miniaturized version of organs tucked in a small compartment. Below, an excerpt from the July 1982 Treatment
The flesh does require nutrition, and Terminator do need to eat, although much less than normal humans do. There was a scene, right after the Terminator killed the first Sarah Connor, in which he gets to the car and eats a candy bar with a wrapper
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