Why Terminators Have To Be Naked When They Travel Back In Time

Since 1984’s The Terminator hit theaters, viewers have been wondering why the franchise’s Terminators, and other time jumpers, have to be naked when they travel back in time. The Terminator franchise does have an explanation for this time-travel rule, but that doesn’t make the trope 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).
From Terminator Genisys to the animated Terminator Zero, the franchise’s naked time-travel rule is one that’s never broken. While the films and TV shows delve into some aspects of the franchise’s technology — Terminator Zero finally explains time travel rules in a digestible manner — the mainline Terminator stories don’t spend too much time dwelling on the details. However, spin-off entries, like the Terminator: Enemy of my Enemy comic books, mine the Terminator movies and TV shows’ unexplained happenings for content, and that includes the particulars of using time-travel machines, especially where Skynet’s Terminators are concerned.
Terminator’s Time Travel Only Works For Things With A Living Tissue
The Terminator Franchise’s Time Displacement Equipment Needs To Interact With Living Tissue In Order To Generate A Bioelectric Field
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While the silver endoskeleton of Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is incredibly intimidating, there’s 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’s grafted over a metal endoskeleton. Not only does the living tissue, also dubbed cyborg tissue, that coats Skynet’s Terminator models allow the assassins to infiltrate the Resistance, but it grants them the ability to generate the bioelectric field necessary for time travel.
The same as real human tissue, Skynet’s synthetic flesh is able to bleed, sweat, and breathe, and, sometimes, regenerate and age.
Although various entries in the ever-complicated Terminator timeline have different origin 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 key for Skynet’s espionage schemes, but also a must for activating the Terminator series’ Time Displacement Equipment (TDE). In order for a TDE to operate, it needs to generate a bioelectric field by interacting with a living organism. That said, a TDE can only transport a living organism, or a subject ensconced in living tissue.
Related Terminator Just Did The Story I’ve Been Waiting To See Since The First Movie Netflix’s Terminator anime brings a lot of new ideas to the franchise, including a storyline that I’ve always wanted to see in the movies.
Terminator’s Time Machine Rule Created A Massive Plot Hole
Skynet Could Easily Cover Other Weapons In Living Tissue Pods
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The Terminator 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 will, eventually, present a threat to Skynet’s dominance, the AI sends plenty of cybernetic assassins into its TDEs. However, to really gain an advantage, Skynet should (and could) wrap advanced weaponry in living tissue, thus equipping its Terminators with futuristic tech.