What self-respecting geek hasn't seen the Terminator movies and admired the strength and speed of these near-unstoppable killing-machines? The sight of the first Terminator being hit by dozens of bullets and barely being slowed down left a lasting impression. Seeing the second Terminator, the T-1000, reassembling itself even after being literally shot to pieces made one wonder if it could be stopped at all. The third and last Terminator, however, put all its predecessors to shame.

This page is a very brief analysis of their capabilities.

The first and the most basic of the Terminators resembled a metal skeleton covered in living flesh to give it a human appearance. It is unclear how the Terminators provided the flesh with oxygen, nourishments, etc. to prevent it from dying and rotting away.

Armor:
The T-101 seemed to be virtually immune to hand-held projectile weapons. When it attacked a police station it sustained multiple hits from pistols, machineguns and heavy calibre rifles without any apparent injury, aside from its flesh cover. It only sustained heavy damage from a not insignificant amount of explosives packed inside a joint. The first T-101 was crushed by a machine in a factory. The second destroyed itself in order to stop Skynet by lowering itself into a vat of molten steel. The third self-destructed, destroying itself and its opponent.

Power Source:
The T-101 unit was powered by two hydrogen powercells, one probably acting as reserve. This explains why the second T-101 could reactivate itself, and why the third could function effectively on just one.

Limitations:
Apparently, its CPU and\or data buses are rather limited for a robot designed for combat. A lot of moving objects will 'confuse' it for a short time. It is possible that it has to analyse each individual object and determinate if it is a danger or not. Many moving objects will create a lag in the data stream, as it's struggling to process the information.

The T-101 has infrared vision and can therefore se better in the dark than any unaided human.

The T-1000 unit was more advanced than it processor, and easily the most notorious. It didn't seem to have any centralized parts, so hand weapons merely slowed it down while it 'healed.'

Armor:
This Terminator used a different approach than the T-101. Instead of being armored it had the ability to repair nearly any damage done to its body. The entire unit seemed to consist some sort of liquid matter that could assume any shape, color and texture. It was especially found of morphing its hands into edged weapons and other tools.

We don't know what this matter consisted of, but it was probably either nanotechnology (trillions upon trillions of microscopic machines) or so-called 'smart matter' - matter that can be programmed to alter shape. I'm tending toward the latter since the T-1000 was described as a 'mimetic polyalloy' by a T-101.

It is interesting to note that the T-1000 didn't begin to repair its body until after its opponents had stopped firing at it. Since its entire body acts as CPU and hardrive it is likely that the bullet impacts temporarily disrupted the dataflow and essentially confused it.

Power Source:
It is unknown how the T-1000 was powered.

Limitations:
While bullets didn't seem to cause it any permanent harm, it is woundable to extreme heat. Also, if caused enough damage it'll take several seconds for it to get its act together, as was the case when a T-1000 was nearly split in half. This time window can be exploited. It is also possible that the liquid nitrogen damaged it more than we are aware, but that's pure speculation. The T-1000 was destroyed when it fell into a vat of molten steel.

The last and most advanced of the Terminators was as beautiful as it was deadly. Incorporating the best from both of it predecessors, it was the only Terminator to be given a female appearance.

Its right arm could be reconfigured into several types of weapons, two of which was an energy pulse weapon and a flamethrower. The left arm could be reconfigured into a circle saw. Also, it had the capability to infiltrate and assume control over other devices, including cars and other Terminators. In fact, it seemed to have been especially designed to fight other Terminators.

Armor:
The T-X was armored very much like the T-101, but it also had an outer layer of the 'liquid metal' from the T-1000. This didn't seem to have any other purpose than to give it a human appearance.

This unit also incorporated autorepair systems for its metal frame. When hit by a missile launcher that dislodged its right shoulder, the damage was repaired in seconds.

Power Source:
The T-X was powered by a 'plasma reactor'. This may be slang for a nuclear fusionreactor, which has a working temperature of over ten million degrees Celsius. At such temperatures all reactionmass is turned into plasma.

Limitations:
The T-X unit didn't seem to have any particular weaknesses or limitations. It was destroyed by an exploding fuelcell from a T-101, after having lost its legs in a helicopter crash.