In the Terminator 2 storyline, the T-1000 is made of a "mimetic poly-alloy". Schwarzenegger's character explains how the T-1000 is a more advanced terminator, composed entirely of a mimetic metal alloy, rendering it capable of rapid shapeshifting, near-perfect mimicry and rapid recovery from damage. Furthermore, it can use its ability to quickly liquify and assume forms in innovative and surprising ways, including fitting through narrow openings, morphing its arms into solid metal tools or bladed weapons, walking through prison bars, and flattening itself on the ground to hide or ambush targets.[1] The T-1000 also had the ability to extrude small, simple items from itself. For example, it created a motorcycle helmet and a pair of sunglasses when these items were necessary for its disguise. The T-1000 can also change its color and texture to simulate flesh, clothing, and other nonmetallic materials. It is capable of accurately mimicking voices as well, including the ability to extrapolate a relatively small voice sample to generate any words or inflections it requires.
The T-1000 is effectively impervious to mechanical damage, such as being dismembered, shot with bullets, or attacked with explosive devices. Wounds close almost immediately, and any detached parts simply flow back into the T-1000's body. In T:2, this Terminator was even frozen using liquid nitrogen and shattered, but the pieces simply flowed back together after thawing. Temperature-based attacks are effective, however. Low temperatures can cause the liquid metal to freeze, which inhibits its ability to move or shapeshift. High temperatures degrade its ability to maintain a disguise; after emerging from a burning truck, the T-1000 appeared in its default liquid-metal state and was only able to reestablish its policeman disguise after cooling for several seconds. Only extremely high temperatures, such as molten steel used in the climax of T:2, are capable of disassociating its molecular structure and permanently destroying it. Interestingly, the T-1000 seemed to lose control of its shapeshifting ability as its temperature approached the fatal level.
The Special Edition DVD release contains additional scenes in the steel foundry showing that the effects of being frozen and shattered caused the T-1000 to glitch, causing its extremities to morph and match into its surroundings against the T-1000's will (such as its hand latching on and taking on the metallic texture and caution striping of a guardrail). In the Special Edition, this glitch is what enabled John Connor to see through its ruse when it impersonated his mother. The DVD also contains a Deleted Scene where the T-1000 uses its hands to "scan" John Connor's bedroom for genetic and psychological information, including DNA, an ability it may have in common with the T-X.
The T-1000 and T-1001 often attempt to accomplish their goals by subterfuge instead of brute force. For example, in Terminator 2, it disguises itself as a police officer to gain trust, access information, and provide a benign appearance. It also imitates family members of its human target to gain that person's confidence.
The T-1000 is able to pass as human, possessing a larger repertoire of emotional expression and interpersonal skills than earlier Terminator models.[4] In one scene in Terminator 2, disguised as a police officer, it holds a conversation with John Connor's foster parents in an attempt to learn Connor's location.[1] It is also capable of exploiting the emotions of its targets, attempting to get Sarah Connor to call out for her son, knowing that he would respond accordingly.[1]
[edit] Film
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the T-1000 is sent by Skynet back in time to kill a young John Connor (Edward Furlong), the future leader of the Human Resistance against the machines. The T-1000 ambushes a police officer on arrival and takes on his identity, tracking down John Connor through the police cruiser's on-board computer and eventually confronting him in a shopping mall, where it meets a T-800 Model 101 like the one from the first Terminator film. The audience is misdirected up to this point. In the first film, two men appear from the future, a Terminator sent by Skynet, and a human protector sent by the Resistance. In the second film, two men appear from the future, a Terminator model like the one from the first film, and a second man. The audience is initially left to assume that the second man is the new human protector sent by the Resistance. But when the two men finally meet, there is a plot twist, and the second man is also a Terminator. Schwarzenegger's Terminator - the model from the initial film of the franchise - is the new protector sent by the Resistance, while Patrick's Terminator is the new Terminator sent by Skynet, a reversal of the roles from the first Terminator film.
The T-1000 confronts the protagonists at the psychiatric institution where Sarah Connor is being held, demonstrating impressive abilities, such as flattening itself into a thin 'carpet' of metal or oozing through prison-style bars while maintaining the shape of a walking man. It then predicts that the Connors will try to prevent Skynet from being invented, and confronts them at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation headquarters. It hijacks a helicopter and gives chase. While flying, it sprouts two more hands, two to fly the helicopter and two to reload and fire the submachine gun. The chase ends when it crashes a liquid nitrogen truck into a steel mill.
When it exits the truck, the T-1000 is frozen solid by liquid nitrogen. The T-800 shatters the T-1000 with a gunshot, but it reforms itself due to high temperatures of spilled molten steel. After a short hunt, it tracks down John, who is confronted by two seemingly identical versions of his mother – one of which is the T-1000 in disguise. Finally, The T-800 fires a grenade at the T-1000, causing enough damage to disrupt it significantly. Although it attempts to reform itself, it stumbles and falls backwards into a vat of molten steel, and the T-1000, unable to stand the high temperature of the steel corrupting its alloy and design, screams before finally being dissolved away into the molten steel.
Despite failing to eliminate John Connor, it is later revealed in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines that the T-1000 inadvertably interferred the development of his relationships with Kate Brewster (Claire Danes/Bryce Dallas Howard), whom he attended school with, and her father, Robert (David Andrews), who was the true creator of Skynet by using Cyberdyne Systems' research.
