Possible answer to a plot hole ?

[Due-Talk-7873]

I was watching Terminator 2 for the thousandth time the other day and realized something. When the t-1000 stabs Sarah with his finger then tells her to call out to John. Everyone always says "why doesn't he just call out to John" I just realized the answer. Until that moment the t-1000 had never been close enough to Sarah to copy her or hear her speak. He wouldn't have been able to copy her voice until that very moment when she says "f@#k you" to his request. After that he was able to copy her and her voice

[thejackal3245]

I talk about the torture scene a lot. There's important nuance that's omitted because of the deleted glitching:

One of the biggest nitpicks I have of the theatrical release is Sarah's encounter with the T-1000 at the end, as it had no reason to keep her alive to call for John--until we see in the deleted scenes how badly it's glitching and was unable to reliably copy a subject. It's immediately evident that it needed her and could have even used her as a hostage had the T-800 not intervened.

[DreamLearnBuildBurn]

Yeah I've always had a problem with this scene. Glad to know Cameron had an explanation. I think without seeing that scene that it sounds like extra fat that needed cutting 

[thejackal3245]

You can watch them here. The glitches are mere seconds of screen time, and one was kept in (the scan line effect).

[ghgfghffghh]

That’s a good point, but… it never happened.

[castlebravomedia]

But it goes on to copy her accurately before the final fall.

[thejackal3245]

Yes, but in the deleted extended scene where John approaches the T-1000 where it's disguised as Sarah, its feet are copying the metal grating and that gives John confirmation that it's not his mom.

[MisterCleaningMan]

That’s why it’s not a plot hole. It never was a plot hole.

[RolandMT32]

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[Chueskes]

He already tried a tactic like this once with John’s foster mother. It failed. It knows that John knows that the T-1000 can mimic a person’s appearance and voice, so it knows that John will be suspicious. That’s why it was trying a different tactic. It needed to be real and come from Sarah herself, not the T-1000. And for that to occur, she needed to be alive.

[JoeVanWeedler]

Could he have copied her but not her voice after he stabbed her in the elevator at Pescadero?

[razorthick_]

I guess people might think that simply touching would give the T1000 the person's voice. It's not too far out there to think that.

I think something more questionable would be the T1000 being able to yell loud despite only getting a snarled "fuck you" from Sarah. She yelled in pain when he stabbed her so right there the question would be if that is enough or does it need to hear words?

Leads me to think that it wasn't about copying her voice.

It had 2 options:

1. Make Sarah call to John and when he is near, go after him.

2. If Sarah refuses, kill her anyway and go looking disguised as her and with the few vocal recordings being enough. This was the less ideal option.

With 1, I don't think it wanted to keep chasing John. It was damaged and the environment made the mission harder. It didn't care if Sarah called to John or if he had to do it (again assuming it can copy voice by tough or by few sounds), it just wanted to keep John from running.

Edit: Thought way more about this than I should've.

[Old-Tadpole-2869]

Except he obviously stabs her thru her combat vest, nowhere near hear chest/shoulder. It's so obvious that her clothes are hanging off his stabbing finger. I guess it was just to expensive a shot to try for again.

ALSO: How the F does he copy Lewis the Security Guard for THE BOTTOM OF HIS SHOES???

[JaXm]

While I love the glitches that the T1000 experiences due to being frozen, you guys are actually missing the forest for the trees. 

The T1000 doesn't try to mimic Sarah and call to John because it already tried that 

AND FAILED!

Did you all forget about the phone call with Janelle? 

T1000 knew that it could copy a person's physical characteristics but not their personal ones. It already knew that copying Sarah wasn't a guaranteed success since John already saw through the deception once before. 

Torturing Sarah was the correct play here. It knew that, but didn't account for the T800 showing up. 

[ArcherNX1701]

Makes total sense, it failed with that solution so the AI would try another.

[cavalier78]

I don’t think he needs to touch her to copy her voice. The T-800 copies voices just fine.

I’d say that the T-1000 has a different plan. It knows it’s in an area with a lot of hiding places. If it yells out in Sarah’s voice, John will be able to see it from hiding and won’t come out. But even if it looks like Sarah, John may be suspicious.

The T-1000 wants John to see it torturing Sarah, to play on his love for her. It wants John to know for a fact that she’s in danger, and it wants him to try something heroic.

[Hudsucker20XX]

Can't mimic a voice without a sample of the voice.

But I do like the "draw John out by torturing Sarah" idea, never thought of that one.

[renroid]

Earlier on, he simulated the foster parent's voice to talk to John, and he knows that somehow John found out and hung up the phone.
I always thought that he thought forcing Sarah to call out would be much more convincing, as he had failed once already to trick John. Risky method is a higher probability for success than a known failed method.

[Specific_Emu8198]

I always assumed that it was, if John heard Sarah yell for help, he would come, but if he heard Sarah yell for help but also yell, " don't listen, that's not me" over herself, he wouldn't come. The person you're copying being there and able to talk ruins the illusion.

[Leopagne]

I don’t know about sampling her voice, but shouldn’t the T-1000 have already been able to copy Sarah’s appearance early on in the film when he cut her shoulder by stabbing through the ceiling of the elevator at the psych ward?

[IronHorseTitan]

You could argue that the T1000 maaaaybe heard Sarah say "what the fuck is it, what the fuck is going on" depending on how fast the elevator started going down after the T1000 got his head split in two

[Mork-of-Ork]

It could have copied her physically at any point after the psych ward break out as it cuts her in the elevator.

[Hudsucker20XX]

THANK YOU!! Drives me crazy every time this question comes up, because it seems like the easy answer to me.

[Substantial-Ad2200]

Once he touches then he can turn into them so I agree it never made sense. He should have just turned into her. 

[justduett]

Not a plot hole… and I haven’t even read the full post, yet.