Imagine you're relaxing at home one day when suddenly the power starts to fluctuate.
Your lights brighten and dim and you can taste electricity in the air, then suddenly what
looks like ball lighting starts to form in your backyard.
As the entire neighborhood experiences a blackout, the ball of lightning dissipates just as quickly
as it arrived, and you're shocked to find a fully nude and very muscular man kneeling
in its place.
In one fluid motion the bodybuilding nudists stands and locks eyes with you, with one word
escaping his lips: Terminate!
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show's You Versus series, today
we're putting you, the average joe, up against the deadly time-traveling cybernetic assassin,
the Terminator.
Throughout its history Cyberdine Systems has developed a wide repertoire of hunter-killer
robots in its war against the human resistance.
At first these bots were nothing more than killing machines, which proved effective in
the battlefield.
But in response to being overwhelmed by superior firepower, the human resistance fled underground
into fortified subterranean bases.
These bases were so heavily fortified and so deep underground that even deep-penetrating
munitions proved ineffective in their destruction, and their well constructed defenses proved
all but insurmountable without dedicating overwhelming amounts of resources to their
destruction.
Yet even when one base was taken, the protracted defense allowed most of its inhabitants to
flee to a secondary location, and Cyberdine would have to start the hunt all over again,
while having lost innumerable amounts of resources in the effort.
This strategy was ineffective, and combined with constant raids against its manufacturing
and mining operations, would ultimately have led to Cyberdine's defeat.
Cyberdine needed a new strategy, and very quickly into the war it came upon the idea
of sending humanoid infiltrator units to penetrate the defenders and eliminate them from within.
This resulted in the T600 series of infiltrator units, which were nothing more than a titanium
alloy skeleton with a rubber skin coating.
The rubber skin proved easy for resistance members to spot, so Cyberdine looked for a
solution, and found it with the formidable T800 series- the same hunter-killer that just
materialized in your backyard and is now out to Terminate you.
But just what are you up against exactly?
For starters the most obvious feature is the T800's realistic outer shell, which allows
it to easily infiltrate human strongholds.
The flesh sheath, as it is known, consists of living tissue, though unlike real living
tissue does not require food or nutrients to sustain itself.
Instead the tissue converts electrical energy from the Terminator's power core into chemical
energy via some unknown process- admittedly the resistance has been a bit too busy fighting
for its life to stop and study the chemistry of the terminators sent to destroy it.
The T800 also features several improvements over the T600 which it replaces, mostly in
the form of a more dense and durable endoskeleton made up of titanium and other unknown alloys.
This endoskeleton makes the Terminator all but invulnerable to most small arms fire,
and it has proven extremely resistant even to military-grade assault rifles in the 5.56
and 7.62mm calibers.
The endoskeleton is also extremely resistant to explosives, and is able to shrug off several
close proximity hits from 40mm grenades, albeit with the near total destruction of its flesh
sheath.
Tough, but not invulnerable, the T800's endoskeleton is vulnerable to explosives landing at or
placed inside critical joints in its infrastructure, although catastrophic damage that results
in loss of limbs or even decapitation is sometimes not enough to stop the unit.
The resistance has found great success though in using .50 caliber munitions such as Barret
.50 caliber anti-material rifles, .50 caliber machine guns, vehicle-mounted 25mm cannons,
and plasma weaponry of various caliber.
Depleted uranium munitions and thermyte have also proven very effective against T800s.
As if being all but invulnerable to most weapons wasn't bad enough, the T800 also sports impressive
physical abilities.
The unit is able to travel for short amounts of time at speeds up to 22 miles per hour
(35kmh), and its endurance is all but unlimited, with a power core that can last for up to
120 years- although when operating in a power save mode its lifetime is many times that,
though ultimately unknown.
The T800 is approximately 8 times stronger than the average human, able to punch into
solid concrete with no damage except to that of its flesh sheath.
It's vision system allows it to track multiple targets simultaneously, and its basic color
vision mode is supplemented with infra-red and night vision modes.
Lastly, the T800 sports a low power short-range radar system which it can use to triangulate
and locate the position of hidden snipers upon being hit- assuming it survives the initial
hit.
When in search mode it can use this radar system to track moving prey with decent, if
not perfect, accuracy.
So now we know about its strengths, but what are its weaknesses exactly- just how the hell
are you going to beat this thing?
Well for starters, it just doesn't have many weaknesses.
It doesn't get scared, tired, hungry, sad, doesn't feel pain, and is single-minded in
its focus, which is to kill you at all costs.
When you're running away from the Terminator, it's still coming for you.
When you stop to eat, it's still coming for you.
When you stop to sleep, it's still coming for you- we think you get the picture.
However, while it is extremely resistant to most weapon fire, it does have some weaknesses
that can be exploited.
As mentioned depleted uranium munitions do have some effectiveness in penetrating the
very dense endoskeleton, and a lucky hit from a very large caliber anti-material rifle with
a DU round can even blow one's head clean off.
Just beware, because the unit is still able to communicate with the chassis via wireless
link, and lead it to the location of its head so it can reattach it, which it can do with
some rudimentary effectiveness that leaves it still combat capable.
The power core is itself incredibly vulnerable, and very dangerous if penetrated, resulting
in a very powerful explosion.
Unfortunately it lies beneath triple-layered armor plating, and is the single most well
reinforced part of the Terminator's anatomy aside from its CPU.
The CPU is itself vulnerable to electronic attack, but only if set to read and write
mode which can only be accomplished by physically switching it from one mode to the other.
The physical switch proved vital for Cyberdine to protect its Terminator units from remote
hacking by resistance operatives, as it requires someone to physically change it from read,
to read and write mode- something which given their incredible combat capabilities is, to
put it bluntly, not an easy task at all.
In read and write mode though a Terminator is just as vulnerable to being hacked as most
other computers, although still sports formidable security measures.
At first the resistance was puzzled why Cyberdine would create units capable of read and write
mode, and thus potentially vulnerable to being seized, yet these special units 'learn' from
their experience in combat, and can transmit that experience to Cyberdine which uploads
the new data to all current models, making each unit a hardened combat veteran.
As with any electronic system, Terminators are also vulnerable to electromagnetic energy,
which can overload and burn out circuits.
However the T800 series features military-grade hardening to ground its vulnerable hardware,
but this is not completely foolproof.
A very near proximity burst of electromagnetic energy can still severely, if temporarily
damage or degrade a unit's combat abilities.
Ok, it's time for the fight.
You have the future of humanity to secure, so how are you going to overcome this unstoppable
juggernaut?
First, you need to run.
Forget about fighting back, and forget about whatever Billy Bad Ass 'Freedom Arsenal' you've
built up for yourself out of fear the guv'ment was coming for your guns- nothing you have
on hand is going to put a dent in this thing, and if you try to fight back at this point,
the T800 is simply going to politely thank you for the hardware as it pries it out of
your very cold, dead hands.
You need to seriously upgrade your firepower, but first, you need to fight smarter, not
harder- and this time we mean it literally.
The T800's endoskeleton is a futuristic blend of titanium and other artificial alloys.
It is extremely dense and resistant to all forms of damage, in effect making each Terminator
a walking tank.
Yet in the end, it's still metal, and like any metal, it is woefully vulnerable to chemistry.
If you've watched our past videos you know that we've often touted chemistry as the ultimate
weapon in mankind's fight against all forms of evil, and today it's our weapon against
futuristic robot assassins from a timeline we can't avoid.
If you've followed our advice you ran for your life, and now it's time as usual to set
up your battlefield.
Metal, even futuristic titanium alloys, is very vulnerable to sudden changes in temperature.
If given time to adjust, some metals can tolerate extreme heat and cold just fine, but sudden
drops or spikes in temperature can attack metal at the molecular level, severely weakening
it.
For our T800, we think that it's time this nudist time traveler had a bath- ideally a
bath in pure liquid nitrogen.
A quick call to a local materials supply company can set you up with delivery of a 6 ton liquid
nitrogen tanker truck for about five figures- that's a hefty price tag, but the future of
the human race is literally on your shoulders, this is no time to cheap out on us.
The key is going to be to lure your Terminator to the vicinity of this truck full of liquid
nitrogen pressurized at 6,000 pounds per square inch and a temperature of -320 degrees Fahrenheit
(-196 C).
The added benefit of such low temperature chemicals is that the cooling of the ambient
temperature will weaken the effectiveness of the Terminator's heat vision mode, forcing
it to rely on night vision or true color.
You don't want to be easily seen, so to defeat the Terminator's night vision mode simply
set up large infrared spotlights around your battleground- infrared light is invisible
to the naked eye, yet visible to night vision and so bright, that it will overpower any
electronics operating in night vision and completely white out the image.
This means you can set up a battleground full of shadowy places to hide and force the Terminator
to rely on its normal color vision.
Unfortunately this leaves its onboard radar, but if you choose an area with plenty of cover
you can block outgoing radar beams and leave the Terminator confused on your exact location.
Now that you've hidden from the Terminator and avoided being killed in one shot, it's
time to spring your diabolical trap.
With the Terminator in proximity to your tanker-truck delivery of liquid nitrogen, you're going
to remote detonate a simple IED explosive attached to the rear delivery valves of the
nitrogen tank itself.
We're not going to tell you exactly how to do this, but we're sure you're smart enough
to do the simple google search it takes to gain the knowledge to make a very easy, remote-detonated
IED- just don't blame us when the FBI comes knocking on your door.
Making sure that your IED is low yield will create a small explosion which will release
the pressurized liquid nitrogen in a concentrated steam, dousing the Terminator unit in super-chilled
liquid nitrogen.
Metal can become extremely brittle at such low temperatures, so we're pretty sure you
know what's coming next.
A fan favorite, and a favorite of the US military, the Browning .50 caliber machine gun has been
affectionately named the Ma 'Deuce by US service members.
For you, old ma 'deuce is going to be coming to your rescue as you light up your popsicle
T800 with several hundred rounds of armor piercing incendiary overkill.
Under regular conditions the T800's endoskeleton would do a pretty good job of stopping even
this high caliber fire, at least a good enough job to let it get to safety, but having superchilled
its metallic endoskeleton, you've left the normally tank-like inner shell very vulnerable
to the dense penetrator of a .50 caliber armor piercing round.
At this point, the incendiary part is just adding insult to injury, but you've got to
teach those time traveling Terminators a lesson or they'll never stop coming.
As you're firing though make sure you're careful of penetrating the very volatile power core,
because if you're standing at a range closer than 100 meters, well the resulting explosion
will have done the Terminator's job for it.
But let's assume you're safely out of range after all- congratulations, you've killed
your time-traveling assassin!
Hope you're up for the task, because Cyberdine is definitely going to be sending another,
much sexier, model after you very, very soon- and ultimately, if you defeat that one you
can rest assured that Judgment Day is still coming, the future is inevitable, and ultimately
all of your fighting is for absolutely nothing, because the future can't be changed.
How would you defeat the Terminator?
Is Judgment Day truly inevitable?
Make sure you check out our other You vs videos!
Go ahead, I’ll wait until you click.
It’s right there on the screen!