An almost perfect film, but...

The Punks were probably also not of sound mind either.

The idea of any more sequels is terrifying

it would be threatening if arnie said "give me your clothes or i'll kill you", but he only said "your clothes, give them to me".
if a naked seemingly confused man walks up to you and asks for your clothes, you wouldn't take it seriously, would you?

naked people outside the adult industry in the real world are often crazies or psychos not to much of a stretch

Agreed. Those are punks, not guys you can have naked chit chat with. Even if the terminator didn't ask for their clothes, they would not let him just leave. If we were to be a regular man in the terminators place, and those guys saw us, there's no way we were walking away from that unharmed.

no, i grew up with stop motion fx. it has a certain charm for example in ray harryhausen movies, but it never looked realistic.

.. there are such things as bar fights, gang wars, etc. Who knows WHAT these punks have gone through in this possibly violent part of town they've just been touring, before taking a small rest in a scenic place?)

They were also NOT 'joking around', you have a lot to learn about psychology and behaviour. They were TAUNTING and MOCKING someone that clearly isn't right in the head - who walks around naked at night? Clearly a NUTCASE to be mocked, insulted, taunted, etc.

It's only when the nutcase suddenly shows he doesn't understand his rightful place, but start trying to dominate the pack, that they get angry - the nutcase went off script! He was supposed to be scared and timid, and then the punks could bully him properly, but he starts suddenly issuing commands and DEMANDING to get their clothes?!

HOW AGGRAVATING!!

So no, it didn't 'escalate to [sic] quickly' (how can you not know how to write 'too'??), it escalated EXACTLY as predicted by the behaviour and psychology that can be expected in that situation, sort of proving that even living people are basically instinctually and psychologically behaviour-programmed automatons to an extent (a poignant point in a 'sci-fi' movie)!

The stop-motion stuff is almost like 'artistical choice' that depicts how 'sense of time' changes when you're in an impossible, panicky situation with shock and horror all around you, trying to escape a super scary stalker - - it can start seeming as if time is jumping forward in small increments instead of flowing smoothly!

So, as 'psychological, artistical depiction of what's happening', the stop-motion can be even MORE realistic and a silky-smooth, fluid movement would be - it would RUIN THE EMOTIONAL EFFECT COMPLETELY.

For another movie that ACTUALLY even mentions something like this happening when you get upset, is 'Blue Thunder' - the protagonist 'checks his sense of time' with a special watch.. so please understand WHAT you are criticizing (and how to type english language correctly), before mocking something you don't understand or haven't ever thought about.

thanks for correcting my bad english. maybe i should write in my native language next time, let's see how you can keep up then ;)
lack of capitalization is intentional - i always use minuscule script when writing online, just a stylistic choice.

your other points are fair enough. sure it's all subjective, and i see what you mean that the stop motion has 'nightmare quality'. i loved the stop motion medusa in the original 'clash of the titans' movie for the same reason, but in terminator it didn't work for me.

Sarah Connor and Kyle Reece are supposed to be around 17-20 in this film, and yes, both actors look much older than the role intended.