Post by lordroel on Oct 27, 2017 8:41:40 GMT
Explaining the Timeline of the Terminator I to V
Lets unravel the (highly confusing, often contradictory) events of Terminators I to V starting with number I:
Terminator I (James Cameron, 1984)
In the first Terminator movie, things are simple enough. By “simple”, we mean mildly confusing and paradoxical, because that’s always the way with time travel – but there’s still a satisfying sort of logic to the way in which events play out.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator I
To recap: in 2029, the Future War, between the human race and machines (led by an AI system called Skynet) is ongoing. The machines aren’t too happy about the threat posed by the resistance’s leader, John Connor, and decide to go back in time to make sure that John is never born. A Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is consequently sent back to 1984 to kill John's mother, a young waitress named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).
Understandably, John isn’t thrilled by the idea of having his entire existence wiped out, and sends back a human resistance fighter named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to protect Sarah.
Why it's a little confusing
The big, mind-boggling twist? Reese, who sleeps with Sarah and causes her to become pregnant during the course of the film, is actually John’s father.
By sending back a Terminator – and causing John to send back Reese – Skynet therefore inadvertently causes the conception and birth of its greatest enemy.
Does this suggest a single, interlinked timeline, where everything was always going to play out exactly the way it did? Or, alternatively, was Sarah always destined to give birth to a future resistance leader named John Connor, regardless of who his father might be?
Can the past be changed, or is it set in stone once it happens? Do alternative universes exist? All these questions are severely headache-inducing – and, luckily for us, we’ve still got four more Terminator films to unpick. Time to stock up on Paracetamol.
Timeline of key dates:
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and the Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
Terminator II: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
In Cameron's second Terminator instalment, we learn more about the emergence of Skynet itself, and about a super-significant date known as “Judgment Day”: August 29 1997. This is the date when Skynet began its ascent to power, infiltrating nuclear weapons controls across the world and triggering a global nuclear holocaust.
The film opens in 1995. John Connor (Edward Furlong) is 10 years old and living with foster parents, while his mother, Sarah Connor, has spent the past decade on the run, before being locked up in a psychiatric institution.
A Terminator (Robert Patrick) arrives from the future, programmed to kill John – but another Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), reprogrammed to protect John, also arrives. This Terminator has been sent back in time by the now-adult John to save the life of his younger self.
Sarah Connor, rescued from incarceration by good Terminator Arnie, decides to prevent Judgment Day from ever occurring by tracking down and killing the man responsible for creating Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). She is ultimately unable to kill Dyson – but, by destroying his lab and research (which was itself inspired an arm and broken CPU recovered from the Terminator in the original film), the pair seem to ensure that Judgment Day never takes place.
In a final scene, deleted from the theatrical version of the film but included in its home video release, an elderly Sarah is seen during an unspecified future date, having grown old in a world in which Judgment Day never occurred.
Why it's (more than a little) confusing
The key message of T2 is that, if events in the past are altered, an already existing future (or present) can be changed.
However, if Judgment Day were prevented, as implied in the film, then there would be no Future War – and no Terminator sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor.
This means that Kyle Reese would also have never been sent back, and so John would never have been conceived in the first place. It also means that both of the Terminators featured in this movie (the one sent to kill John, and the one sent to protect him) would never have existed.
Image from Terminator II
In other words, almost everything we've seen in the Terminator timeline so far, between 1984 and 1997, doesn't actually happen anymore.
Arguably the only way in which this scenario makes sense is if we imagine the existence of a number of alternative, overlapping but contradictory timelines.
Side note: the broken Terminator arm and CPU from the first film are used to develop Skynet. So the creation of Skynet presupposes a Terminator travelling back in time from a future in which Skynet already exists. My head hurts...
Timeline of key dates
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 1986 – 1995 – Sarah is labelled a fugitive and lives on the run; John Connor is put into foster care
- 1995 – A Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to kill John Connor. Another Terminator, programmed to protect John, also arrives.
- August 29 1997 – Judgment Day. Nuclear weapons across the world are activated by Skynet.
- August 29 1997 – ALTERNATE TIMELINE Judgment Day is prevented, and never takes place.
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and the Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
- Unspecified future date - Skynet sends a Terminator back to kill 10-year-old John, while John himself sends another, re-programmed Terminator back to protect his younger self.
- Unspecified future date – ALTERNATE TIMELINE John has become a senator, and Sarah has grown old in a world in which Judgment Day never took place.
Terminator III: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, 2003)
Okay. We’ve got this far. We've built up our timeline(s). Now all we need to do is burn them.
In Rise of the Machines, it turns out that Judgment Day wasn’t prevented after all, but simply postponed.
Rather than taking place in 1997, it now happens in 2004.
A grown-up John Connor (Nick Stahl) and his future wife Kate (Claire Danes) do their best to prevent it, but, as the film draws to a close, it becomes clear that the happy ending shown in T2 was a bit of a con: Judgment Day, we're told, was always inevitable.
Terminator III: The Rise of The Machines
The film ends with John and Kate hiding out in an underground bunker, as nuclear warfare, orchestrated by Skynet, destroys the world above them.
The film also touches upon the issue of John's death. In Rise of the Machines, it's made clear that John dies in 2032, after being killed by a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Kate later reprogrammes this Terminator, and sends it back in time, to 2004, to protect herself and John from a deadly, new-style T-X Terminator, sent back by Skynet to kill future resistance leaders. (Unlike previous Terminators, this one, played by Kristanna Loken, is female in appearance.)
Why it's (fairly) confusing
We're now dealing with at least three different timelines/versions of events.
The original film was set in a universe in which Judgment Day took place in 1997. T2 was initially set in this universe, but then created a new, alternate timeline, in which Judgment Day never occurs, and in which everything, presumably, plays out completely differently.
Rise of the Machines, meanwhile, introduces a third timeline: one in which the 1997 Judgment Day is successfully prevented, but replaced by a 2004 Judgment Day.
Timeline of key dates:
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 1986 -1995 – Sarah is labelled a fugitive and lives on the run. John Connor is placed into foster care.
- 1995 – A Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to kill John Connor. Another Terminator, programmed to protect John, also arrives.
- August 29 1997 – The "original" Judgment Day is prevented, and never takes place.
- July 24 2004 – A T-X Terminator arrives from the future to kill John Connor, while a re-programmed Terminator arrives to save him
- July 25 2004 – Judgment Day begins, and the world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and a Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
- Unspecified future date – Skynet sends a Terminator back to kill 10-year-old John, while John himself sends another, re-programmed Terminator back to protect his younger self.
- 2032 – John is killed by a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger model).
- Unspecified future date – Skynet sends a T-X Terminator back to 2004 to kill John.
- 2033 – Kate Brewster later re-programs the Terminator that killed John, and sends it back in time to protect herself and John from the T-X.
Terminator IV Salvation (McG, 2009)
The good news is, there's absolutely no time travel in this movie. And because of that, there's no need to worry about any more alternate timelines. Or at least we hope there isn't.
Instead this film, which is set in 2018, follows on from the events of Rise of the Machines. In it John Connor (played in this movie by Christian Bale) is fighting for the resistance, planning an attack against Skynet's San Francisco base.
There's also a plot involving a former death row inmate, Marcus (Sam Worthington), who is transformed by Skynet into a part-human, part-machine cyborg. Skynet attempts to use Marcus to destroy John, but instead, the hybrid's humanity wins through, and he eventually ends up donating his still-human heart to John, saving the resistance leader's life.
All in all, thanks to the lack of time travel, this instalment isn't too confusing. Instead, it's essentially a continuation of the timeline established in Terminator III.
Timeline of key dates
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 1986 -1995 – Sarah is labelled a fugitive and lives on the run. Her son, John, is placed into foster care.
- 1995 – A Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to kill John Connor. Another Terminator, programmed to protect John, also arrives.
- August 29 1997 – The "original" Judgment Day is prevented, and never takes place.
- July 24 2004 – A T-X Terminator arrives from the future to kill John Connor, while a re-programmed Terminator arrives to save him
- July 25 2004 – Judgment Day begins.
- 2004-2018 – The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocausts, as nations attack each other, triggered by Skynet's initial assault. Skynet grows in power, while small groups of human survivors band together, forming a resistance.
- 2018 - The events of Terminator Salvation take place.
- 2018-2029 The remaining human resistance continues to wage war against the robots
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and a Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
- Unspecified future date – Skynet send a Terminator back to kill 10-year-old John, while John himself sends another, re-programmed Terminator back to protect his younger self.
- 2032 – John is killed by a Terminator.
- Unspecified future date – Skynet sends a T-X Terminator back to 2004 to kill John.
- 2033 – Kate Brewster re-programs the Terminator that killed John, and sends it back in time to protect herself and John from the T-X.
Terminator V Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015)
Feel like you're just about on track with everything that's happened so far in the Terminator franchise? Great. Now prepare to forget everything you've learnt.
Alan Taylor's sequel/reboot imagines an alternative version of the first film. In it, a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) programmed to protect Sarah Connor was sent back in time to 1973, when Sarah was eight, and has raised her ever since. She calls him “Pops”.
This movie's Sarah (Emilia Clarke) is a tough, street-smart fighter, who already knows about Judgment Day, Skynet, Terminators, and the fact that Kyle Reese will be heading back in time to save and impregnate her.
Understandably enough, she isn’t too happy about the latter point, because, despite the fact that she’s living in a Terminator movie and has been told exactly what will happen to her in the future, she still believes in free will and self-determination.
Back in 2029 (ahead in 2029?), Reese and a Terminator get sent back to 1984, as per the first film – but because this is a Whole New Timeline, the Terminator sent back to kill Sarah (a CGI-young Arnold Schwarzenegger) ends up getting dispatched by her Guardian Terminator, in an epic Arnie-on-Arnie fight.
Just to ensure things stay exciting, with lots of robot fighting, there’s also another killer Terminator kicking about: a more up-to-date T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee). This one eventually gets an acid bath.
More importantly, we’re not entirely sure what's going on with Judgment Day in this movie. It doesn't seem to take place in 1997 anymore, or in 2004. Instead, 2017 seems to be the significant date.
Back in 2029 (ahead in 2029?), Reese and a Terminator get sent back to 1984, as per the first film – but because this is a Whole New Timeline, the Terminator sent back to kill Sarah (a CGI-young Arnold Schwarzenegger) ends up getting dispatched by her Guardian Terminator, in an epic Arnie-on-Arnie fight.
Just to ensure things stay exciting, with lots of robot fighting, there’s also another killer Terminator kicking about: a more up-to-date T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee). This one eventually gets an acid bath.
More importantly, we’re not entirely sure what's going on with Judgment Day in this movie. It doesn't seem to take place in 1997 anymore, or in 2004. Instead, 2017 seems to be the significant date.
Timeline of key dates
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- 1973 - A "Guardian" Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to protect Sarah Connor.
- May 12 1984 – A new Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor. Sarah's Guardian Terminator kills the assassin Terminator.
- 1984 – Sarah and Kyle use a time machine to travel forwards to 2017, while Sarah’s Guardian Terminator patiently waits for them
- 2017 – John Connor, who has been transformed into a Terminator-human hybrid, arrives from the future, to try and ensure the rise of Skynet. Kyle and Sarah manage to prevent Skynet (which is hiding under the name “Genisys”) from rising to power
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and a Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time to 1984.
- Unspecified future date – A reprogrammed Guardian Terminator is sent back to protect Sarah Connor
- Unspecified future date – a deadly T-1000 Terminator is sent back to kill Sarah Connor
- Unspecified future date (presumably 2029?) – Rebel leader John Connor is transformed into a T-3000 Terminator hybrid, and sent back to 2017 to ensure the rise of Genisys/Skynet.
Lets unravel the (highly confusing, often contradictory) events of Terminators I to V starting with number I:
Terminator I (James Cameron, 1984)
In the first Terminator movie, things are simple enough. By “simple”, we mean mildly confusing and paradoxical, because that’s always the way with time travel – but there’s still a satisfying sort of logic to the way in which events play out.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator I
To recap: in 2029, the Future War, between the human race and machines (led by an AI system called Skynet) is ongoing. The machines aren’t too happy about the threat posed by the resistance’s leader, John Connor, and decide to go back in time to make sure that John is never born. A Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is consequently sent back to 1984 to kill John's mother, a young waitress named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).
Understandably, John isn’t thrilled by the idea of having his entire existence wiped out, and sends back a human resistance fighter named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to protect Sarah.
Why it's a little confusing
The big, mind-boggling twist? Reese, who sleeps with Sarah and causes her to become pregnant during the course of the film, is actually John’s father.
By sending back a Terminator – and causing John to send back Reese – Skynet therefore inadvertently causes the conception and birth of its greatest enemy.
Does this suggest a single, interlinked timeline, where everything was always going to play out exactly the way it did? Or, alternatively, was Sarah always destined to give birth to a future resistance leader named John Connor, regardless of who his father might be?
Can the past be changed, or is it set in stone once it happens? Do alternative universes exist? All these questions are severely headache-inducing – and, luckily for us, we’ve still got four more Terminator films to unpick. Time to stock up on Paracetamol.
Timeline of key dates:
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and the Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
Terminator II: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
In Cameron's second Terminator instalment, we learn more about the emergence of Skynet itself, and about a super-significant date known as “Judgment Day”: August 29 1997. This is the date when Skynet began its ascent to power, infiltrating nuclear weapons controls across the world and triggering a global nuclear holocaust.
The film opens in 1995. John Connor (Edward Furlong) is 10 years old and living with foster parents, while his mother, Sarah Connor, has spent the past decade on the run, before being locked up in a psychiatric institution.
A Terminator (Robert Patrick) arrives from the future, programmed to kill John – but another Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), reprogrammed to protect John, also arrives. This Terminator has been sent back in time by the now-adult John to save the life of his younger self.
Sarah Connor, rescued from incarceration by good Terminator Arnie, decides to prevent Judgment Day from ever occurring by tracking down and killing the man responsible for creating Skynet, Miles Dyson (Joe Morton). She is ultimately unable to kill Dyson – but, by destroying his lab and research (which was itself inspired an arm and broken CPU recovered from the Terminator in the original film), the pair seem to ensure that Judgment Day never takes place.
In a final scene, deleted from the theatrical version of the film but included in its home video release, an elderly Sarah is seen during an unspecified future date, having grown old in a world in which Judgment Day never occurred.
Why it's (more than a little) confusing
The key message of T2 is that, if events in the past are altered, an already existing future (or present) can be changed.
However, if Judgment Day were prevented, as implied in the film, then there would be no Future War – and no Terminator sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor.
This means that Kyle Reese would also have never been sent back, and so John would never have been conceived in the first place. It also means that both of the Terminators featured in this movie (the one sent to kill John, and the one sent to protect him) would never have existed.
Image from Terminator II
In other words, almost everything we've seen in the Terminator timeline so far, between 1984 and 1997, doesn't actually happen anymore.
Arguably the only way in which this scenario makes sense is if we imagine the existence of a number of alternative, overlapping but contradictory timelines.
Side note: the broken Terminator arm and CPU from the first film are used to develop Skynet. So the creation of Skynet presupposes a Terminator travelling back in time from a future in which Skynet already exists. My head hurts...
Timeline of key dates
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 1986 – 1995 – Sarah is labelled a fugitive and lives on the run; John Connor is put into foster care
- 1995 – A Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to kill John Connor. Another Terminator, programmed to protect John, also arrives.
- August 29 1997 – Judgment Day. Nuclear weapons across the world are activated by Skynet.
- August 29 1997 – ALTERNATE TIMELINE Judgment Day is prevented, and never takes place.
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and the Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
- Unspecified future date - Skynet sends a Terminator back to kill 10-year-old John, while John himself sends another, re-programmed Terminator back to protect his younger self.
- Unspecified future date – ALTERNATE TIMELINE John has become a senator, and Sarah has grown old in a world in which Judgment Day never took place.
Terminator III: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, 2003)
Okay. We’ve got this far. We've built up our timeline(s). Now all we need to do is burn them.
In Rise of the Machines, it turns out that Judgment Day wasn’t prevented after all, but simply postponed.
Rather than taking place in 1997, it now happens in 2004.
A grown-up John Connor (Nick Stahl) and his future wife Kate (Claire Danes) do their best to prevent it, but, as the film draws to a close, it becomes clear that the happy ending shown in T2 was a bit of a con: Judgment Day, we're told, was always inevitable.
Terminator III: The Rise of The Machines
The film ends with John and Kate hiding out in an underground bunker, as nuclear warfare, orchestrated by Skynet, destroys the world above them.
The film also touches upon the issue of John's death. In Rise of the Machines, it's made clear that John dies in 2032, after being killed by a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Kate later reprogrammes this Terminator, and sends it back in time, to 2004, to protect herself and John from a deadly, new-style T-X Terminator, sent back by Skynet to kill future resistance leaders. (Unlike previous Terminators, this one, played by Kristanna Loken, is female in appearance.)
Why it's (fairly) confusing
We're now dealing with at least three different timelines/versions of events.
The original film was set in a universe in which Judgment Day took place in 1997. T2 was initially set in this universe, but then created a new, alternate timeline, in which Judgment Day never occurs, and in which everything, presumably, plays out completely differently.
Rise of the Machines, meanwhile, introduces a third timeline: one in which the 1997 Judgment Day is successfully prevented, but replaced by a 2004 Judgment Day.
Timeline of key dates:
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 1986 -1995 – Sarah is labelled a fugitive and lives on the run. John Connor is placed into foster care.
- 1995 – A Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to kill John Connor. Another Terminator, programmed to protect John, also arrives.
- August 29 1997 – The "original" Judgment Day is prevented, and never takes place.
- July 24 2004 – A T-X Terminator arrives from the future to kill John Connor, while a re-programmed Terminator arrives to save him
- July 25 2004 – Judgment Day begins, and the world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and a Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
- Unspecified future date – Skynet sends a Terminator back to kill 10-year-old John, while John himself sends another, re-programmed Terminator back to protect his younger self.
- 2032 – John is killed by a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger model).
- Unspecified future date – Skynet sends a T-X Terminator back to 2004 to kill John.
- 2033 – Kate Brewster later re-programs the Terminator that killed John, and sends it back in time to protect herself and John from the T-X.
Terminator IV Salvation (McG, 2009)
The good news is, there's absolutely no time travel in this movie. And because of that, there's no need to worry about any more alternate timelines. Or at least we hope there isn't.
Instead this film, which is set in 2018, follows on from the events of Rise of the Machines. In it John Connor (played in this movie by Christian Bale) is fighting for the resistance, planning an attack against Skynet's San Francisco base.
There's also a plot involving a former death row inmate, Marcus (Sam Worthington), who is transformed by Skynet into a part-human, part-machine cyborg. Skynet attempts to use Marcus to destroy John, but instead, the hybrid's humanity wins through, and he eventually ends up donating his still-human heart to John, saving the resistance leader's life.
All in all, thanks to the lack of time travel, this instalment isn't too confusing. Instead, it's essentially a continuation of the timeline established in Terminator III.
Timeline of key dates
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- May 12 1984 – A Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor.
- 1984 – Sarah Connor meets resistance fighter Kyle Reese, and becomes pregnant by him.
- February 28 1985 – Sarah’s son John Connor is born.
- 1986 -1995 – Sarah is labelled a fugitive and lives on the run. Her son, John, is placed into foster care.
- 1995 – A Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to kill John Connor. Another Terminator, programmed to protect John, also arrives.
- August 29 1997 – The "original" Judgment Day is prevented, and never takes place.
- July 24 2004 – A T-X Terminator arrives from the future to kill John Connor, while a re-programmed Terminator arrives to save him
- July 25 2004 – Judgment Day begins.
- 2004-2018 – The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocausts, as nations attack each other, triggered by Skynet's initial assault. Skynet grows in power, while small groups of human survivors band together, forming a resistance.
- 2018 - The events of Terminator Salvation take place.
- 2018-2029 The remaining human resistance continues to wage war against the robots
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and a Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time.
- Unspecified future date – Skynet send a Terminator back to kill 10-year-old John, while John himself sends another, re-programmed Terminator back to protect his younger self.
- 2032 – John is killed by a Terminator.
- Unspecified future date – Skynet sends a T-X Terminator back to 2004 to kill John.
- 2033 – Kate Brewster re-programs the Terminator that killed John, and sends it back in time to protect herself and John from the T-X.
Terminator V Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015)
Feel like you're just about on track with everything that's happened so far in the Terminator franchise? Great. Now prepare to forget everything you've learnt.
Alan Taylor's sequel/reboot imagines an alternative version of the first film. In it, a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) programmed to protect Sarah Connor was sent back in time to 1973, when Sarah was eight, and has raised her ever since. She calls him “Pops”.
This movie's Sarah (Emilia Clarke) is a tough, street-smart fighter, who already knows about Judgment Day, Skynet, Terminators, and the fact that Kyle Reese will be heading back in time to save and impregnate her.
Understandably enough, she isn’t too happy about the latter point, because, despite the fact that she’s living in a Terminator movie and has been told exactly what will happen to her in the future, she still believes in free will and self-determination.
Back in 2029 (ahead in 2029?), Reese and a Terminator get sent back to 1984, as per the first film – but because this is a Whole New Timeline, the Terminator sent back to kill Sarah (a CGI-young Arnold Schwarzenegger) ends up getting dispatched by her Guardian Terminator, in an epic Arnie-on-Arnie fight.
Just to ensure things stay exciting, with lots of robot fighting, there’s also another killer Terminator kicking about: a more up-to-date T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee). This one eventually gets an acid bath.
More importantly, we’re not entirely sure what's going on with Judgment Day in this movie. It doesn't seem to take place in 1997 anymore, or in 2004. Instead, 2017 seems to be the significant date.
Back in 2029 (ahead in 2029?), Reese and a Terminator get sent back to 1984, as per the first film – but because this is a Whole New Timeline, the Terminator sent back to kill Sarah (a CGI-young Arnold Schwarzenegger) ends up getting dispatched by her Guardian Terminator, in an epic Arnie-on-Arnie fight.
Just to ensure things stay exciting, with lots of robot fighting, there’s also another killer Terminator kicking about: a more up-to-date T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee). This one eventually gets an acid bath.
More importantly, we’re not entirely sure what's going on with Judgment Day in this movie. It doesn't seem to take place in 1997 anymore, or in 2004. Instead, 2017 seems to be the significant date.
Timeline of key dates
- 1965 – Sarah Connor is born
- 1973 - A "Guardian" Terminator arrives from the future, programmed to protect Sarah Connor.
- May 12 1984 – A new Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese arrives from the future to save Sarah Connor. Sarah's Guardian Terminator kills the assassin Terminator.
- 1984 – Sarah and Kyle use a time machine to travel forwards to 2017, while Sarah’s Guardian Terminator patiently waits for them
- 2017 – John Connor, who has been transformed into a Terminator-human hybrid, arrives from the future, to try and ensure the rise of Skynet. Kyle and Sarah manage to prevent Skynet (which is hiding under the name “Genisys”) from rising to power
- 2029 – The Future War is raging, and a Terminator and Kyle Reese are sent back in time to 1984.
- Unspecified future date – A reprogrammed Guardian Terminator is sent back to protect Sarah Connor
- Unspecified future date – a deadly T-1000 Terminator is sent back to kill Sarah Connor
- Unspecified future date (presumably 2029?) – Rebel leader John Connor is transformed into a T-3000 Terminator hybrid, and sent back to 2017 to ensure the rise of Genisys/Skynet.
