How Terminator 2's Endoskeleton Arm Worked!

[@tested]

Learn more about this prop and check out the full Propstore catalog at: bit.ly/propstore_tested2024

[@ArtCoolStudio7]

Thanks Adam I will definitely share the link with Arnold ❤

[@RodrigoPolo]

Have you ever thought that you can make your own by 3D printing?

[@typerightseesight]

I had the toy from that movie. lol

[@AmadonFaul]

That scene in T2 where he rips the skin off his hand was PIVOTAL in my childhood. I saw that and was TOTALLY into robots from that point on. My dad was a TV repairman and I grew up learning electronics. And eventually after retiring from the military as a communications tech, eventually went back to school, got a couple electronics degrees, and am now a particle accelerator technician. And I credit a lot of that to that one scene with the hand in T2. I never would have been so into all that stuff without that scene. I saw this video and couldn't click it fast enough!

[@Dee_Just_Dee]

Dang, you've done better for yourself than I have! My kid self swore that the arm effect must've been done with animatronics. When I studied electronics at the college level, that scene among a bunch of others in '80s and '90s film - _Robocop_ and _Ghost In The Shell_ come to mind - led me to pour everything into my third-year robotics course, earning a grade of over 90%... I forget if it was a solid 95, or in the ballpark of 92... whereas I was otherwise a lazy straight-C student. Ended up pursuing a career in general automation. 🤷‍♂ I will always be a "fan" of robotics. Mind you, using robotics in industry feels kinda stale. What really excites me is advancements in cybernetics and prosthetics, wouldn't it figure....

[@ScaryBodyHorror]

Impressive. Those particle accelerators are futuristic too.

[@simsnqta]

A particle accelerator technician? I can do that by just putting stuff in the microwave... 😂😂😂

[@AmadonFaul]

@@simsnqta Technically yes!

[@clearstream67]

You know Adam took a bazillion pictures for "archival" purposes. Can't wait to see the one he machines.

[@bluescoobywagon]

This was my first thought, too. How long until the episode where he makes his own terminator arm?

[@dukenukem8381]

This is just Arnolds real skeleton. He left this arm for production and grew another one later. What a dedication for the role!

[@g.r.bilyeu4226]

Arny is a giant fascist bully. In his own words, "screw your freedom!"

[@mikeuk666]

​@@g.r.bilyeu4226cringe

[@dukenukem8381]

@@g.r.bilyeu4226 He is Austrian and openly anti-fasist because he had fascist in the family . His comment was concerning silly antimaskers, antivaxers.

[@cpl.barbarusc4814]

This is a proof that his organism is literally "Pumping Iron".

[@sorokolu]

Agree

[@slipspectrum9253]

I saw T2 with my grandma who was born in 1933 and hadn’t set foot in a theatre in 30 years! A brand new, fully THX certified theater at that. LOL. I stayed the summer in Florida with my grandparents and couldn’t miss this movie, so she took me. She had the time of her life! Terminator and Terminator 2 were key in my path to a career in electronics and my grandma supported me and encouraged my curiosity of how things worked in so many ways. She bought me a TRS-80 and got me into computers too. Man what such good memories. I remember being in awe of this movie, but looking over and seeing her just completely riveted to the screen was something else. We mentioned it probably every time I saw her until she passed in 2017. I hope whoever ends up winning the bid for this arm prop knows how many lives it changed! Just amazing!

[@southlondon86]

Sir your grandma hadn’t been to the cinema in the 30 years before T2 was released!! I’m sure the whole experience of even seeing a (then) modern film was incredible but to have seen T2… WOW!

[@LightSnackProductions]

I can see it in Adam's eyes , he is thinking "I'm going to build one, oh yes , I'm going to build one"

[@nak3dxsnake]

You mean he is gonna adjust the arms on his a little bit.

[@Lumibear.]

It looks so simple close up but so awesome from just a few feet away, especially moving. Fantastic piece, thanks for showing us all it!

[@UnOc2]

I legit just (re-)watched Terminator 2 a few hours ago. That's one hell of a coincidence. Man, what a film - a true masterpiece.

[@sundaynightdrunk]

It holds up really well. I tend to watch it every couple of years, along with Predator. Arnold really chose some great roles.

[@MattExzy]

I remember watching it at a friend's house in 2003. His dad said jokingly 'why you guys watching that old movie!?' - of course then it was only 12 years old. And now... amazingly, 21 years *from then* it still more than stands up to modern day standards.

[@HazelS71]

Adam bringing his childhood glee to these props really makes me appreciate growing up in the 90s with such incredibly talented people like stan winston who made these movies REAL! Godbless you Adam

[@morlamweb]

Awesome find! And they are bicycle brake cables. Brakes use a spiral-wound outer cable and a thicker inner cable, vs liner outer cable and a thin inner cable for bicycle shifters.

[@chazzmccloud36]

For as much of Adam's KZbin material as I've gleefully watched, i still feel as though his reaction to this prop is completely genuine. There's a reason he's been working in this industry for so long!

[@rigues]

Adam's unbounded joy handling these props is contagious

[@bobbressi5414]

One of the most fascinating scenes.

[@beinghappy1312]

It still looks a million times better than any CGI ever could. I miss the days of using practical effects as much as possible

[@mrbuttons1243]

The late 80's and early 90's were peak analog for film and music. I hope there's rebellion against digital.

[@innerlightfilms]

@@mrbuttons1243 yea I think our eyes are just too good when it comes to certain things. We can make out what's practical and what's not most of the time. Not sure if that will ever change.

[@DRRCreations]

100%! Modern CGI takes me out of the film so much! All of a sudden you aren't absorbed in the story, you are back in the room cos your brain goes......'wow that looks fake' 🤪 One of the worst I think for CGI are the Jurassic World trilogy. The original Jurassic Park and Lost World physical dinosaurs are so much more realistic than the odd looking, overly matt rendered CGI dinosaurs.......................the morale of the story is I agree with you 😄👍

[@BruceKenobi]

Good CGI these days is so perfect people don't realize they are looking at visual effects.....

[@glennac]

@@BruceKenobi I tend to agree. Good CGI doesn’t announce itself and often goes unnoticed. And we all can identify bad CGI because filmmakers place it front and center and our suspension of disbelief collapses at that moment. I’d be interested in your opinion of examples of good CGI in recent movies.

[@steprockmedia]

Nice! Looks like bike cables. Thanks so much for sharing - I love your joy at seeing these props!

[@Blueeyes2584A]

I've been waiting for this upload since you showed a picture of yourself with the arm. Thank you so much!!! Watching as I type and love it! ❤

[@JounLord1]

The joy is what makes these videos so entertaining. Adam had been seeing these sort of amazing props for years, even built some himself originally or as reproductions, including another endo arm last year. Yet still just as filled with joy and wonder see these props.

[@omicron0mega]

This was initially supposed to be used with the thumbs up sequence at the end of T2, but they opted for a gloved hand as it was less robotic / more human, hence the same reason why we never had friendly reprogrammed T800 without skin.

[@justanotherdreamer2323]

Where do you get that knowledge from?-very cool input❤

[@omicron0mega]

@@justanotherdreamer2323 Stan Winston, at a convention, in 95.

[@dpsamu2000]

I made articulated hands for a giant Grim Reaper costume. Basically the same but the control rigs are smaller so a single hand can work the fingers, and it is made of wood with 1/4" copper tubes for the pull cables. The rings aren't direct pull. They are loop pull leveraging the pull so they're easier for the fingers to pull. The hands are hollow molded plastic bone hands. The "face" of the joints cut out in a wedge with the back side of the fingers as the hinge, and return spring. Light weight, and works well. The fingers follow my hand's finger movements. Index finger point, and come here. Hook 'em horns, and the bird.

[@jaywhy3178]

Seriously, why did they make the control for the fingers SO big???

[@andychristou6403]

A fantastic artifact and expertly presented by Tim

[@potassiumrichfoods]

Could this arm possibly be from the future war opening scene from T2? There is a damage T-800 manipulating its arm in the intro.

[@Bionicjedi]

This man is the Mr. Rogers of Geekdom/Sci Fi. I officially make him "KEEPER of the LORE" Please give him more titles.

[@Bob-b7x6v]

One of my favorite practical FX of all time...

[@86LukeM]

Adam is taking mental notes as he's holding it to add to the cave.

[@SWRaptor1]

One of the most iconic, non-facial props in history.

[@bobagorof]

And looks so good on-screen!

[@0megacron]

Adam Savage has one of the coolest jobs in the world.

[@keithjasperson9152]

I love that Adam's reactions are perfect. You took what my brain was doing and acted them out in real time. 😅🍻

[@matt47110815]

It is always such a joy to see Adam's excitement. 😄👍 👍

[@cannibalbananas]

May you always be a child at heart, Adam. I love watching your glee 😄

[@WheeledHamster]

I used to be fascinated with that skeleton everytime I saw it. I drew them over and over.

[@DecanFrost]

Fun fact, some shots like the hand shot, sometimes gets flipped, the director might change their mind for different reasons, like light, shadows, right or left hand. So this could very well be the Left shot we saw.

[@concretebubble5405]

another example for T2 was the truck crashing down into the spillway, that was definitely flipped, I remember seeing stills of that in Cinefex magazine.

[@NickyMabbs]

Very true, although it’s not often done on shots where the actor’s face is visible, as it is in this scene , as the audience usually has such a burned-in mental image of how the actor looks, especially someone as distinctive & mainstream as Arnold, so any shot in which their face is flopped / mirrored immediately stands out.

[@Thomas_Esson]

​@@NickyMabbs I imagine you're right that it's not often done in that circumstance, though ironically, the one instance I'm most familiar with happens to be one of those. In 2009's Moon, there's a close-up of Sam Rockwell's face through his helmet visor just after crashing the rover. I own that visor, and initially got confused in screen-matching it because a pattern of scratches was in the right place but the lines were at the wrong angles. Finally it occurred to me to flip the screenshot. Granted, it was a low-budget film and Sam Rockwell isn't Arnold, but still.

[@thirdeyenz]

I just checked that scene out and the design of the hand is quite different to this one so I don't think it was flipped.. The cabling is hidden for the most part and the articulation seems to be better. This might even be a prototype as the cabling is very obvious.

[@Thomas_Esson]

@@thirdeyenz Several commenters over the past few weeks have suggested potential alternatives: a damaged future war endo at the beginning, or the 1990 teaser.

[@cpl.barbarusc4814]

Beautiful prop, if only prostethic arms looked this cool. I know they have to be build on a light material but when you think of having a robotic arm, you can't stop but to think on the T-800 endoskeleton arm or at the very least on the Big Boss prosthetic in Phantom Pain.

[@levibabbage3964]

in t2 during the future war scene there is a damaged one-armed t-800 laying in a pile of rubble with the head and right arm moving, this could be that arm as its body is arranged in a way that the way the arm is connected is obscured and there is room for production crew members under the ruin pile, the wrist movement is right for that T-800's arm its literally the only one that has is fingers and wrist move in the whole scene

[@thaduke7242]

I think you might be right. It's only really the fingers showing but they flip about randomly in the way I would expect to see from this prop because the endo is damaged, which is why I would suspect they used such a simple control mechanism. All it had to really do is move in some way, it didn't need to be controlled or coordinated..

[@levibabbage3964]

@@thaduke7242 it's also the only time you see a right hand animated in the film

[@DrVenture45]

Arnold ripping the skin off really sold this prop, but the craftsmanship poured into it can't be overstated.

[@amfwelsh]

It’s a real privilege to be anywhere near these iconic pieces, let alone handling them. So so awesome

[@garrettsteele1174]

T2 is still one of my favorite films. It is one of those films that inspired me to study animatronics, just because of how real everything seemed.

[@wesshort7202]

Adam, could you do a video of some of the actual movie props you own and the ones you have yet to acquire or replicate on your own?

[@Thomas_Esson]

There are a bunch of videos on the channel showing original props and costumes he owns.

[@tested]

Here is a playlist that includes props and costumes of Adam's own! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHq3hKl3lLVgrck

[@wesshort7202]

Thanks! Looking forward to catching up.

[@bryondevine4224]

@@testedgreat link thx

[@David_Goostav]

I wish I could’ve been like this man, Adam would’ve had such a brilliant life

[@Witchlord]

I still feel like T2 was the pinnacle of special effects. The mix between practical and computerized 3d effects continues to be unparalleled in most movies. I honestly only think the Lord of the Rings trilogy lived up to T2 Standards

[@chrispbaconator]

Starship Troopers has entered the chat

[@Witchlord]

@@chrispbaconator that movie was enjoyable, but nothing on the level of T2 or LOTR

[@BreandanAnraoi]

Jurassic Park says hi

[@southlondon86]

Inception?

[@MetalT-800Skull]

I still need to finish the fingers on my metal endo arm! This has inspired me

[@steveman1982]

I'm not envious, you're envious! Man, that arm is sooo cool.

[@pauldudeuk]

I've worked with Tim he's a lovely bloke!

[@marvhollingworth663]

James Cameron is my idol & Stan Winston's a legend! I love seeing stuff they used together. Adam's a lucky bloke. He worked in special effects & still gets giddy about them, I think I'd be bouncing round the room like Yoda does while fighting Palpatine if I got to play with a real Terminator arm.

[@kenzboard]

epic. i can genuinely say that T2 (and The Matrix 8 years later) blew me away as a kid growing up in the 90s. 🌟

[@JeremiahDunmyer]

Love the shirt Adam was wearing too. My fave film of all time Captain Dallas.

[@Smartzenegger]

It's time to shake hands with the Terminator!

[@dllt9668]

you can tell adam is going to machine his own

[@Ruostevuori]

I love how the ball joint socket for the wrist controller is clearly made of a failed/different cast metal piece for the wrist joint. They probably just used the closest ball joint they had kicking around.

[@bubblesculptor]

Find someone who looks at you the same way Adam Savage looks at Terminator arms! 😊

[@Dardrum]

I thought for sure at the end of the video, the arm would stand up and say "I'll Be Back"

[@Dracobyte]

One of the most iconic arms in fiction!

[@marcusansell9713]

Appreciate how much work went into special affects in early years fantastic to see the level of craftsmanship with Adam savage hosting this great video watched with my son after watching T2 film made a great educational experience

[@siegebristol]

Adams creating his bill of materials for his own version

[@Irlondris]

Adam, an idea for one day build weeks your own endo arm and display case for housing the motion activated servos to articulate the arm and fingers.

[@pabloestafez6830]

By the looks of it you could probably flip the wrist plat and replace the components to make the left arm

[@JustinMatulonis]

You know he's going to build one now

[@bloodlinefilms]

if he wasnt already. now that he held it hes probably back to the drawing board.

[@anhnhvn]

As brilliant as this prop is, in the movie they wisely avoided showing it in full detail, but instead always kept it slightly out of focus. The shots were always focused on the character's faces instead. The choice helped hide the imperfections (and the obvious cable movements), letting the audience's brain fill in the rest.

[@michaelc3977]

Next episode, Adam creates his own Terminator arm.

[@gaffyh1745]

He's totally thinking about recreating this prop!

[@LongBeard67]

Thanks Adam! I been trying to fish my arm out of that molten metal for decades! Appreciate it bud!

[@Felice_Enellen]

Finally! You've been teasing this for SO LONG! 😀

[@robhws]

You should make one of these Adam!

[@johnfinkerton]

andddd can't wait to see adam build his own terminator arm!

[@ukSMP74]

Adam - PLEASE when in the UK, come to the Retro Computer Museum!! I know you`ll LOVE it!

[@garnetice1236]

Now that you know the parts that make it, you now have no choice but to make one of your own.

[@frazercooper4873]

Could this be from the beginning of the movie, ‘the war against the machines’ where a damaged skeleton on the ground get its coup de grace from a soldier the his laser gun? Love the movie, green with jealousy over the prop!

[@Kris_A]

I commented elsewhere, but Im pretty certain that this is the thumbs up arm from the very end of the movie, but it's without costume elements (the leather jacket arm and glove). That was the right arm.

[@nathkrupa3463]

Great video sir 😊

[@egor102]

I would love to see a prosthetic arm being made using this as a template.

[@robertburgess6100]

It's so cool to see how they stuff like that for the moves.

[@Nick-qy3hu]

Bicycle brake cables. That's f'ing cool! 🙂

[@Njazmo]

That mechanic hand wasn't CGI, as they had badass computer generated graphics in 1991! That was a great movie of its time. 33 years ago!

[@pho3nix-]

A work of art

[@oftendead3228]

Good to see you in the uk Adam

[@splerg31]

This movie terrified me as a little kid, but it was still my favorite!

[@davidherron3136]

I worked in a sign makers full of alloy tubes , tons of alloy scraps rivets , cable, and welding stuff , saws everything. and for one day before being laid off i had free run of it. i made a terminator hand with moving fingers in this way in just one night . not as good as this but i made one! i had cyber punk perturbator playing to inspire. having access to what all these US youtubers have, just for 8 hours was one of my best memories. Id be so happy if i was born somewhere else , and had just a bit of space, room to shoot and work shop. but dam it i live in a room and it costs 50K in rent every 10 years lol

[@Dee_Just_Dee]

Oh neat, the finger articulation controls look kinda like the control on a "robot hand" toy a friend of mine had in the early-to-mid 1990s. Bet the toymaker had seen some behind-the-scenes photos to come up with the toy design. I think I can understand why the propmakers put such long controls on those fingers too - the movement of my friend's toy looked very toy-like because the mechanisms were all-plastic and 1:1. Longer controls with good linkages would've allowed the puppeteers to make much more fluid motions to really sell the shot. 2:13 "Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" - John Hurt as S.R. Hadden, _Contact_ (1997) 3:00 It blows my mind how that mechanism and control for wrist movement were brainstormed some 35 years ago and worked so well then, yet alone today. It feels less like mimicry and more like a proper machine translation. Given how complicated a real human arm is with how bones and tendons move between the elbow and fingertips, this prop feels like an absolute best kind of machine representation. 3:30 Yes! It's such a legitimate robot arm! You could just about imagine this freakin' _prop_ being adapted into a medical prosthesis or part of an android today, it's just so elegant.

[@stuCameraman1]

Wow... What great history you are holding... Absolutely historic, if I had the money I would get an alien egg and a Terminator arm

[@MJPilote]

That is the hand nighmares are made from. And with this accelerating AI development we are heading towards those nighmares. What an amazing prop, endo arm. My favorite part if the movies!

[@ElQuesoGuapo]

1:50 They mention that this is a right arm, but the arm that Arnold cuts in T2 was his left arm. The original Terminator was crushed in the hydraulic press, and only the right arm survived. This arm may have been the one that was stolen from Cyberdyne Systems in T2. I wonder if it was made to articulate just because they used the same parts that they used for the left arm, or if there were plans for a scene where the original Terminator arm reactivated.

[@Lumibear.]

Oh, plot twist, I just went and watched the OG de-sleeving scene and the robotic arm on that is notably different in design, for one the cables are not externally visible. Interesting. So maybe this one was for the other terminators? The flashforward ones?

[@wolfreicherter748]

Man, I wish you d say something when you come to London. We havent hung out in forever. - Great video about the EndoArm

[@joermnyc]

Not sure if they still have it, but the museum next to the monorail station in Seattle (they've changed the name and I can't remember what it is now) had a complete Terminator endoskeleton on display.

[@Thomas_Esson]

Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop), previously the Experience Music Project (EMP).

[@xSavagepr]

Is it me or did Adam just broke one of the finger tips at 7:40 ?

[@Mojen_Marc_Music]

I want to see Adam make one 😁

[@tomhorsley6566]

Had to pause this and go look up the arm reveal scene on youtube 🙂

[@Nemesizzonline]

Absolutly awsome! Terminator 1 and 2 are still my favorite movies of today. I'd love to have a full size T-800 skeleton. Come to think of it, with modern robotics, I think it should be possible to actualy build a functional terminator? (looking at what they can make at Boston Dynamics). Something about those 'puppets' looks better than CGI at times. Modern movies (with loads of CGI) stuff tends to go over the top, jumping off buildings / planes etc, while things it T1 and T2 were way more plausible and 'down to earth' which I liked more.

[@Avaruusmurkku]

For me, part of the thing that makes terminators special to me is that they are such crude machines. Usually a sci-f robot is depicted as an incomprehensible mass of wires and weird fluids, depicted as being so complex nobody from "this time" could really understand it's workings properly. Not terminators. They're mass produced crude machines bolted together in an assembly line. No mess of wires, no sci-fi nonsense, just standard hydraulics and steel. Something you could actually imagine walking around back in the 90's as the frame itself is literally something that could be manufactured back then. Only sci-fi components are the power source and the CPU allowing this hunk of metal to move with enough grace and precisipn to fool people into thinking it's a human.

[@flyf3j]

hope this is a future build for you!!!

[@Bob-b7x6v]

Actuator arms from something small and industrial for sure.

[@hypnotican]

Been waiting for this one!

[@nitramdmij]

That is awesome! Would love to see that replicated with aluminum or titanium and some micro servos. You know, for Halloween purposes.

[@I-want-to-be-bored]

it looks simple and complex at same time , but it looks so true "this can be real" that makes the movie special to me. the inventor of this effect did a great work , simply T1/T2 is a masterpiece ... the reason is , ther is no movie who hit the seriousness of both movies. if Christopher Nolan does not exist , i would not watch movies anymore.

[@I-want-to-be-bored]

anti delet comment

[@KeyboardBuster]

Could it be possible that this right arm was made for the 1990 Terminator 2 trailer/teaser video? I recall in the teaser the right endo arm being lifted up and the hand squeezed into a fist.

[@Avliv_Satan]

Something tells me that Adam is probably going to try and make a mechanical replica of this, I'd love to watch that one day build, by the way

[@pkf4124]

Just having one of these static in a glass jar would be the bomb.

[@digitaldobbie]

That thing would make an awesome back scratcher

[@ChrisDornDorny]

Please do a video on those Red dwarf props !!!!

[@mrbuttons1243]

Build one Adam!!

[@HappyCynic]

If anyone is wondering where the red spaceship is from, it's Ace Rimmer's ship from Red Dwarf.

[@bebopblue]

I was playing with a Thanos infinity gauntlet toy the other day at a thrift store, and it had where you could put all five of your fingers into these rings to control each individual finger. I’d imagine the mechanism for controlling the fingers of the endoskeleton would had been something you’d be able use with one hand, while the other does the wrist.