18 More Things You Didn't Know About The Terminator
3. Clever Foreshadowing With The Truck
One thing that is crucial to build suspense in a story is foreshadowing. It's a difficult technique to utilise subtly but James Cameron is a master of inserting seemingly insignificant moments in his movies that pay off much later.
When we see a dog barking at the Terminator, it shows that dogs can instinctively tell he isn't human. When Kyle Reese talks about his time with The Resistance, we cut to a scene where his soldiers are in a base with several dogs. When the Terminators approach the base, the mutts begin barking. When Sarah and Kyle hear barking while staying at a motel, it alerts them that the Terminator is nearby.
When The Terminator hears Sarah Connor's voice on the answering machine, he doesn't realise at first he is listening to a machine. When The Terminator disguises his voice to sound like Sarah's mother when she rings her on the phone, Sarah doesn't realise she is speaking to a machine.
Probably the best example of foreshadowing occurs in one of the first scenes. As the android pulls up to the first Sarah Connor's address, his car crushes a toy semi-truck.This same model truck crushes the Terminator during the climax.