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Terminator T-800 [Source]

The out-of-universe explanation is obvious:

English is not Arnold Schwarzenegger's first language


But given James Cameron's reputation as a perfectionist I wonder if he ever gave an in-universe explanation for why an artificially intelligent machine would talk with an accent.


My Question:

  • Is there an in-universe explanation for why the T-800 model talks with an accent?
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2 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

It is explained in a deleted scene, although not all might agree on considering it canon, from Terminator 3 Trivia:

The "Sgt. Candy" scene, which was included in early prints of the film, explains why all the Terminators look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold's character (Sgt. Candy) has a Southern US accent. When one of the scientists questions it, another scientist replies (in an Arnold voice over), "We can fix it." The actor portraying this scientist is Jack Noseworthy. This scene is available as a special feature on the DVD version.

You can see the deleted scene on Youtube.

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+1 Wow, nice find. Didn't know about this obscure oddity. A definite answer to what seemed to be a pretty stupid question at first, even if it wasn't Cameron who was responsible for this. – Christian Rau Sep 16 '12 at 1:12
@ChristianRau My personal speculation could be that Terminators might be produced with several accents. After all, they were supposed to look like real people in order to infiltrate human camps (remember the first Terminator), so why not rely on that too? But at the end of the day, it's still my speculation. :D On the Imdb faq there are other explanations but the one in my answer seems to be the most accredited. – Alenanno Sep 16 '12 at 9:24
By the way, oddly, in the deleted scene Arnold does not have his own voice, but the scientist yes. In my opinion what happens is that the scientist "fixes it" (i.e. the Terminator voice) by using his own voice which we all know belongs to Arnold. :D – Alenanno Sep 16 '12 at 9:26
Yes, of course that's what the scene implies, what else should it mean? – Christian Rau Sep 16 '12 at 10:58
@ChristianRau I guess nothing else. :) – Alenanno Sep 16 '12 at 11:01
up vote 3 down vote

James Cameron once said:

"Somehow, even his accent worked. It had a strange synthesized quality, like they hadn't gotten the voice thing quite worked out."

The Sgt. Candy scene (see @Alenanno's answer):

enter image description here

In the Making of the Video Game from the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines DVD, it is implied that this scene was filmed to be used as a cut scene, and not actually intended to be used in the theatrical release.

This would explain why:

This contradicts information from the first film, where Kyle Reese refers to the [Arnold model] as "new", replacing the older rubber-skinned 600 series, also seen in Terminator Salvation.

In the novel T2: Infiltrator a different origin for the physical and vocal templates was provided:

Dieter von Rossbach was a former counter-terrorist, who meets and joins forces with the Connors in the present.

The reason stated for copying Dieter was that Skynet was looking in the old military files for someone whose body could effectively conceal the Terminator's massive endoskeleton.

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