I don't think he was aware of Reese and his agenda. More like one ton of muscle with a one-track mind.

If you're to take the movie absolutely literally, then the machine shows no outward recognition of Reese throughout the course of the film, and none seems to be implied. As such, one would assume that he had no real recognition of him.

Aside from a direct, literal interpretation, you could assume that he might have become aware of who Reese truly was upon their first clash in the night club, but showed no outward signs of it, due largely to Arnie being a machine, and therefore having no real emotion by which he would reveal such an understanding. Other than recognizing Reese in the club, I don't see how he would have known about Reese in his programming, prior to seeing him. IIRC, Reese was sent back in answer to Arnie having been sent back, so there's no reason Arnie would have known Reese was or would be there. Unless you consider that he would have a contingency program in case 'somebody' was sent back to fight him.

Good, thought provoking thread. Ellison Havelock was very thorough in the answer, but it seems once Sarah Connor was fully aware of her role, and the importance of her son in teh future, she made sure to keep it under wraps...well, except for maybe that tape recording she made to future John...lol. Good thing Skynet never got a hold of it right? That information would've been decisive in the war!

Very thought provoking indeed. I've always had one question about this film. I love it, and have owned it on DVD for years, but basically Kyle Reese volunteered to go back to help Sarah.....and impregnate John Connor's mom? It doesn't make sense for John Connor to even exist beforehand if Reese is his father. Sarah even says how confusing it is at the end of the film in her soliloquy as she's recording the tape.

Time travel always invites paradoxes. I stopped discussing "how to solve X paradox" a long time ago, because there isn't an answer. At least not right now. If time travel ever is solved (which I don't think it can or will be) then we may have an answer, and resolving these movie paradoxes will become a simple scholastic matter of saying, "oh, silly movie, you just had to do X!"