Terminator (franchise): Difference between revisions

In the second film (''Terminator 2: Judgment Day''), SkyNet sends a more advanced Terminator -- the [[Nigh Invulnerability|nigh-invulnerable]], [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] T-1000 Model -- to the past. (The T-1000 was far beyond almost any other future technology depicted in any of the films, but at the time, the CGI was [[Rule of Cool|so mind-blowing, nobody really took the time to care]].) In response, Connor sends back a T-800 Model Terminator which is reprogrammed to protect his past self. Both Terminators arrive when John is ten years old and living with foster parents (Sarah was tossed into an asylum for trying to blow up a computer factory and talking about killer robots from the future). The T-1000 kills anyone it chooses to replicate, and when John figures out the T-1000 will attempt to replicate Sarah, he forces the T-800 to rescue his mother before the T-1000 can reach her. After being freed, Sarah -- now an [[Action Girl]] after [[Took a Level In Badass|taking a few levels in Badass]] -- learns details of SkyNet's history from the T-800 and attempts to assassinate Miles Dyson, the man who will go on to create SkyNet (though she falters when she sees Dyson's family). Sarah, John, and the T-800 pump Dyson for information, which is when they learn Cyberdyne -- the company Dyson works for and, as revealed in a deleted scene from the first film, the owners of the factory where the T-800 is destroyed -- will build SkyNet using components from the original T-800 (making SkyNet itself part of the [[Stable Time Loop]]). The Connors, the T-800, and Dyson infiltrate Cyberdyne and destroy all of the computers, then steal the T-800 remains to try and thwart the creation of SkyNet...but the T-1000 is not far behind them. After several running encounters, both Terminators -- and the T-800 remains -- are dissolved in a vat of molten steel.

 

 

* The original -- but deleted -- ending of ''Terminator 2'' sees a still-living Sarah Connor watching John (now a United States Senator) and her granddaughter play on a playground similar to the one she saw in her dreams. The ending takes place in 2029, when the war they successfully averted would have been won; an intact, futuristic Washington D.C. can be seen in the background. [[James Cameron]] felt this was too much of a definite, deterministic wrap-up for a film centered around the idea of "there is no fate but what we make for ourselves".

** ''Terminator Salvation'': This film takes place during the war with the machines and shares no ties to ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]''; its references to both ''Terminator 2'' and ''3'' are rather vague, with the first ''Terminator'' being more important to the movie's themes than the other two. Instead of repeating the story of someone going back in time, ''Salvation'' is primarily a [[Genre Shift|sci-fi war movie]]. John Connor is a respected officer within the human resistance, but he is not the leader, as several high-ranking officers question his claims of being [[The Chosen One]] by [[Time Travel]]. Connor sets out to end the war as quickly as possible (and locate a young Kyle Reese), but his quest reveals an awful truth: the [[Stable Time Loop]] is beginning to break apart. SkyNet's forces are showing sophistication and progress far ahead of schedule, and there are numerous other changes Connor never accounted for, all of which throw humanity's inevitable victory into question. One major anomaly is the appearance of Marcus Wright, a criminal who reportedly died before the war began, but turned up on his own in the present; Wright's role in the movie is practically an ''inverse'' of the series' central time-travel mechanic: instead of someone being sent from the future to the past, Wright comes from the past directly into the future.

* ''Terminator: [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'': This television series' story follows the first two films, but [[Alternate Universe|overrides the canon third]] by having John and Sarah time-skip seven years. It follows the adventures of Sarah Connor, John Connor, a re-programmed Terminator named Cameron, John's uncle Derek, and various other continuing characters.

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