It could have easily killed him quickly with his stabbing arm, like it does anyone else who is an inconvenience to him. Is this the T-1000 being somewhat merciful?
shareBecause it was in the script. Simply a callback to a similar scene in the original film.
shareThat helicopter was an RP-57 by Gruman heli designs and modified for use by police, bringing its total GRMW to 3750lbs when loaded with gas. The terminator calculated the maximum efficiency weight needed to be able to maneuver the heli around chasing his prey, and the weight of an extra body would not have worked as well.
Additionally, had he just killed him and left the body in, pushed aside, it would have needed to be belted in to not hit the aleron and hover control, thus, messing up the flight ability and causing a crash.
When the T-1000 does it's morphing from one position to another, it also absorbs additional oxygen and condensation that needs to be bled out, during which time he is most vulnerable to the pilot possibly attacking him, thus preying upon the pilots fear of what was happening, getting him to leave.
Also the extra blood left on the terminator while stabbing him could have a corrosive effect that he didn't have time to bleed out with the oxygen and condensation, being that he was in mid air taking over a flying vehicle.
With the terminators mission objective in near by range, there was also the possibility that the pilot exiting the vehicle could land on John Connor, killing him, and completing the mission successfully.
The T-1000 features a Nerodyne 3500 CPU engine speed capable of 1.4 trilli-FLOPS per second, making his assessment of the various options into a chess style computation, leading to the most effective action at the time: Which was telling the pilot to get out.
I hope that explains it for you.
And I hope you realize I made up one hundred percent of all that.
Yes it does, thank you for your thorough answer. I would say the first point would have been enough and makes the most sense.
shareIts embedded in every Terminator that one time they give a pass to someone by simply saying "get out".
shareIt's tactically wise to give the guy the option to jump out. Forcing him out may cause damage to the aircraft and/or have him grappling the controls causing a crash, stabbing or cutting him would probably spray fluids onto controls and electronics and could involve a struggle or death-spasms, having his dead body in there adds weight to the aircraft which may make a disadvantageous difference in the pursuit of your target.
Much neater and smarter to just terrify him into leaving voluntarily. And of course apart from those logical points, it's cool.
Yes I suppose you're right. I kind of like the idea as well that by simply displaying its ability of morphing with its liquid metal, the pilot was stunned by it that he'd automatically do whatever the T-1000 tells him to and was probably just happy to oblige in taking himself out of the picture.
shareI always thought the guy died. Falling from such a height seems like it'd have killed him.
shareIt didn't seem so high to me that it'd have killed him. If you watch directly after he jumps, the helicopter is no more than about 15 foot off the ground, which isn't that far to fall. I suppose it might have depended on how he landed, but he was unlikely to have landed on his head from that height, so more likely a broken leg or something.
share