Anyone who has seen any of the series of Terminator movies knows that these resilient robots are terribly difficult to eliminate. Even in my dreams, it takes sheer luck and a nonexistent gun to survive a terminator programmed to kill me. This writeup is intended to aid those whose lives have been or will be plagued by these tenacious cybernetic-organisms.

Terminator anatomy, while complex and more technologically advanced than anything this world has encountered thus far, is organised in ridiculously predictable and vulnerable ways. The team responsible for the creation of the terminators suffered obviously from functional fixedness, which most likely ruined many of their camping trips. A terminator's sensory organs are uncreatively located in its head, thus making it a logical candidate for the location of your attack. The power cells are located mid-torso, and ideally should be victimized only after the destruction of the head.

A large quantity of homemade napalm, a sticky incendiary which burns at over 5000F, is a possible solution to your problem, perhaps even on those tricky liquid metal models. Napalm can be made in many different ways with many varying degrees of complexity and respective efficiency. For the hardcore chemists who are frantically reading this while their families are being murdered by metallic assassins, it is not necessary to locate any aluminum naphthenate or aluminum palmitate. The 15-year old pyro's version will suffice. This method involves feeding styrofoam into gasoline until the mixture is thick and unable to hold anymore dissolved styrofoam. A moment of silence for the innocent Vietnamese who were burned to death by your crude, yet lethal concoction, and you are just about ready to take on a terminator. Your gelatinous weapon is not too easy to ignite, and it is up to you to figure out how you plan to accomplish this without getting "terminated" by the future's most advanced AI. Now don't get too cocky just because you have some napalm, we're still dealing with terminators. Divine intervention may be necessary for successful placement and ignition of the malicious death goo. Provided the unlikely situation that the terminator is thoroughly saturated by the napalm AND you ignite it before a frustrating robotic death, the surreal flame should confuse and torture the poor digital creature while it is reduced to a useless puddle which you've earned the right to keep on display in a jar.

An electromagnetic pulse is a fail-proof method of terminator disengagement, and less stressful if one can be obtained, as face-to-face encounters with a terminator rarely work out in favor of the human. I admit to knowing next-to-nothing about the creation of an EMP and really don't feel like doing the research, but due to its ease of use and successrate, i would recommend reading up on it in case you ever need to. You remember what the giant magnet did to the T-X, don't you? I would still run, I don't know if any of you saw Arnold's power cell explode in T3, but it looked something like the detonation of a small nuclear weapon.

Many people suggest the use of nuclear weaponry. Ignoring the obvious fact that you will never obtain a nuke in your life (yes, there are ways, but let's be practical, not that killing terminators is practical), you must remember that there is no point in killing the terminator if you don't live through the ordeal to have a wife and kids. I'm assuming few of you are Pentagon officials or highly ranked military officers, so i would stick to the napalm or the EMP.

Early-model terminators can be crushed, but only with an unreliable amount of luck. Again, please stick to the napalm or EMP.

Thermite could work, but napalm has the advantage of its gluelike consistency, and I don't think you're going to be able to throw volatile powders with any hope of survival.

Godspeed my friends.

Although Apocalite's ideas are interesting, they fail to take into account several crucial factors which must be addressed before you even consider engaging your metallic foe in righteous combat.

Design Considerations
First of all, let us assume we are fighting the garden variety T-800 model. Super-badass liquid metal versions, while interesting to consider in an academic sense, are beyond the capabilities of a mere human. In the event that you are being chased down by a liquid metal killing machine, do what the professionals do: run.

Despite Apocalite's assertions, placing the sensory units in the head is actually an ideal location. Several million years of human evolution have demonstrated that having visual receptors at the highest possible location is important for early detection of threats. Chances are very likely our ancestors would have been rendered extinct had their eyes been at ass level, for example.

In terms of power cell placement, the central torso is also the ideal location as it is the most heavily armored. The lack of moving parts in that location (as opposed to say, the ass) allows for extensive armor plating over the most critical part of the machine.

Finally, this is not The Matrix. Electronics can easily be hardened to withstand EMP, particularly for units that are designed to operate in zones prone to nuclear combat. Since the T-800 is designed with those parameters in mind (Skynet loves nukes), it is safe to assume an EMP would affect it about as much as a spork would.

One of the other benefits of the T-800 design is the psychological effect it has on the (human) opposition. Targeting is far easier when your opponent is too busy crapping his pants to run.

Tactical Considerations
Your opponent is a lethal killing machine, with hardened metal for skin and pistons for muscles. So what does this mean for you, the target? Well, aside from the obvious, it means you should not shoot at it with small arms. Small arms are designed for organic targets, as they rely on the transfer of momentum into hydrostatic shock to kill the opponent. Terminators are not the soft meatbags that humans are, and most small-arms fire would simply bounce off their armor. Worse yet, firing at your opponent reveals your position. Given your situation, this is bad.

It should be noted that armor piercing rounds would be ideal for use against a terminator, but unless you're carrying a Barrett .50 Cal this is not an likely option. Unless the weapon is capable of shooting through a car engine block, it simply isn't going to do enough damage.

It was suggested that one consider using homemade napalm to engage the Terminator, given that homemade napalm burns at a hypothetical 5000 degrees. Regretfully this is not true; thermite (which can burn through steel) burns at roughly 3000 degrees Kelvin. Napalm burns at a much cooler temperature, and would only piss the terminator off.

So what's left? Explosives.

How to kill a Terminator
Your situation is extremely grim, but there is hope. You need to rely on what few weaknesses the Terminator has to kill it: sensory limitations, mobility requirements, and a lack of imagination.

Sensory Limitation: What little evidence we possess seems to indicate that the T-800 has little in the way of olfactory sensors.
Mobility Requirements: Bipedal locomation provides a relatively unstable platform, and provides opportunity to trip the target.
Lack of Imagination: All evidence we possess seems to indicate the terminator is relatively naive, and tends to walk directly towards its target. This may not be true of seasoned units that have learned a great deal, but most Terminators seem to have a very direct approach that involves walking towards the target and blowing up everything in its way.

So what can we do? Use booby traps. Lure the terminator into a prepared location, using smoke and camouflage to obscure your position once inside. The trap should target the machine's mobility, and be in a location that is most likely to recieve machine foot traffic. Trap examples include explosive traps that target the legs, pit traps, or ball-bearings. Other trap concepts are also likely to work, but your main goal must be to disable the machines mobility. Once that is done, apply additional explosives or thermite until the target is destroyed.

Obviously this method is only to be used as a last resort, when you cannot run any more and you know you will face the machine in mortal combat. Your chances are slim, but this is the kind of situation heros are made for!

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