For a dream sequence, the script required a shot of Sarah Connor (portrayed by Linda Hamilton) who stands at the chain-link fence of a playground and bursts into flame, her charred skeleton still clinging to the fence as she lets out an anguished cry. The sequence would require three 'Sarah' puppets for three stages of disintegration. Rather than lifecast Hamilton in the screaming facial position - which would be impossible for the actress to hold for the length of time it took the material to set - Winston took advantage of a relatively new technology called cyber scanning, in which Hamilton's head was scanned in a matter of seconds as she held the scream position. Data from the scan was output as a styrofoam bust, which served as the foundation for the puppet sculptures. For the sequence in which Sarah is disintegrated in a nuclear blast, the puppets built by Stan Winston Studio had to match live-action footage of Hamilton performing the scene. The third and final puppet, an ashen form that blows away in the wind, exposing the charred skeleton beneath, was the most difficult, requiring much research and development. To create the effect, Shannon Shea reinforced a medical demonstration skeleton with a steel armature and then positioned it to match the ending pose of the stage two puppet. To create the ashen material, Shea laid tissue paper and tempera paint into the mold of the initial screaming Sarah form. When it dried, he pulled that 'skin' out of the mold and carefully laid it on the skeleton-like paper-mâché. Additional floating ash was simulated with gray and black paper napkins, shredded in a kitchen blender, and stuffed into the form. Just prior to cameras rolling, Winston's crew scored the form with an X-Acto knife. When the special effects crew blasted it with air mortars, all the delicate skin and shredded napkin material blew off the skeleton-like ash.

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