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Why was the first Terminator rotting?


Through the first movie, The Terminator (1984), there are several allusion to the fact the cyborg was rotting over time. I found this particular scene in the script (I omitted some passage and replaced them with [...] to shorten it):



INT. TERMINATOR'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY 194


[...]


MEDIUM ON TERMINATOR


sitting on the edge of the bed. His appearance isn't improving.


A patch of SCALP is blown away, revealing CHROME underneath. A flap of skin dangles from his cheek, which exposes some of the DRIVE CABLES which move the lips.

[...]
his eyes tracking rapidly. His skin is waxy, WHITE, BRUISED, GANGRENOUS in places. He ignores the FEW FLIES crawling on his face.
[...]
A MIDDLE-AGED MAN with a torn T-shirt covering his paunch knocks on the door. He is wheeling a trash cart.



MAN
Hey, buddy, you got a
dead cat in there or what?





Why was it decaying like this? The others terminators, more particularly the ones based on the same model from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) didn't rot like that.



Answer



In Terminator 2: Judgement Day Sarah Connor is cleaning the wounds of the T-800 and has this conversation:



SARAH: Will these heal up?


Terminator nods. She reaches into the bloody wounds with pliers and finds the copper-jacketed bullets, flattening against the armored endoskeleton. Pulls them out. They CLINK one by one into a glass.


SARAH: That's good. Because if you can't pass for human, you won't be much good to us.



The key point I think here is that she is removing the bullets and cleaning the wounds. Given proper care the skin will repair itself (if it hasn't been too damaged). The Terminator in the first movie doesn't appear to be taking care of its outer appearance. Additionally, Terminators can't smell. The first Terminator may be completely oblivious to the state of its skin, being unable to detect the rotting odor. The first Terminator also sustained a lot of damage. Multiple shotgun rounds and car crashes. The second Terminator had only been pushed around a lot by the T-1000 and a number of 9mm rounds in the back.


The Terminator in the first movie also had a short term mission, find and eliminate Sarah Connor. The first Terminator didn't need to pass for human forever, because it wasn't expecting its mission to last very long. Its possible that had Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese escaped to parts unknown, it would have then taken action to maintain its appearance. The Terminator in the second movie had a potentially much longer mission, find and protect John Connor. Since this was open ended, it would need to pass for human for a much longer period.



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