The Terminator Dog Names

Great writers and directors use various techniques to add layers to their films, and James Cameron is no stranger to that concept, including employing various animals to get across ideas that humans simply cannot. 

Although animals are not often central to movie’s overarching storyline, some of them do play significant roles, many of which have largely been overlooked. One of the most important, in fact, is a dog named Max, who is the German Shepherd that belongs to Sarah Conner. While he isn’t shown much in the first film, Max still plays a pivotal part in the transition from the first film to the second. Although his story is a bit cloudy, it is known that Sarah acquires him sometimes before acquiring the jeep that she drives down to Mexico towards the end of the original movie (when she’s pregnant). When she stops for gas, a young boy comes up and takes her picture, which happens to include Max, and then promptly sells it to her — though fans wouldn’t know it until the second film aired, this picture eventually became the property of John Connor, her son, who is the baby she is pregnant with in the photo. 

Outside of that role, Max (as well as a few other random dogs in the films) acts as the identifier for nearby Terminators, something that the average human being is unable to detect. When the Terminators are near, Max barks furiously to alert his owners and those around them that danger is looming — this theme plays out several times in the movies. 

More importantly, however, in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Max plays his most important part. When the young John Conner phones home to his foster family, he is quickly concerned that the woman on the other end of the phone is a Terminator imposter acting as his foster mother. In the background of the phone call, John hears Max barking wildly, indicating something is wrong. When the older “good” Terminator takes the phone to act as John and asks about the dog, he purposely inquires about the dog but calls him “Wolfie” instead of “Max” to see how the woman responds, she thinks nothing of it and says the dog is fine, the lie essentially telling him that John’s foster family is dead, preventing them from ever trusting the imposter.

Funnily enough, Wolfie was the dog’s actual name in real life and belonged to writer/director James Cameron, and the use of his name in the film was a tribute to Cameron’s canine companion.