The Entire Terminator Franchise Explained

time travel stories are often full of crazy variables paradoxes and plot holes which is especially true for the terminator franchise from the origins of skynet to the endless cybernetic showdowns this is the complicated terminator franchise explained come with us if you want to understand in the world of the terminator humans create advanced super computers that eventually become self-aware enough to realize that they're being threatened when scientists realize this computer network has become sentient they attempt to shut their creation down seeing humans as an existential threat the ultra smart machines set about systematically wiping them out in 1997 the computers take control of the united states nuclear arsenal and use it to kill as much of the human population as possible the few surviving humans build an underground resistance hiding from weapons and robots built by the intelligent sky in that computer network to hunt down and exterminate them this resistance is led by one man john connor in the year 2029 he leads the most successful attack on the computer since their first strike effectively shutting down skynet by destroying their defense systems in what was once colorado skynet recognizes that conor will be the biggest threat to its continued existence post 2029 much in the same way that it launched the missiles on what came to be known as judgment day back in 97 the computer network makes moves to ensure its own survival it sends a killer cyborg back in time with the mission to kill conor's mother before jon can be born he'll find her that's what he does that's all he does the first film in the terminator series begins with the 2029 versions of john connor and skynet each sending back representatives using a time displacement device to prevent their own respective extinctions knowing that skynet has sent a terminator specifically a muscle-bound t-800 to kill his mother conor sends back one of his own soldiers kyle reese in a military action called operation chrono the two time travelers arrive in los angeles in 1984 with nothing but the skin or organic matter on their backs the two quickly set about acquiring clothes and weapons and needless to say the terminator shopping methods are a bit more murderous then in their search for jon's mother sarah connor the two hit upon the same idea consult the local phone book weapon in hand the t-800 begins systematically slaughtering every sarah connor in los angeles fortunately the mother of mankind's messiah is smart enough to realize she's on a hit list while working as a diner waitress sarah sees news reports that women with her name are being killed and eventually winds up hiding in a nightclub called technoir where she calls the cops but before the boys in blue can show up both the t-800 and kyle reese stumble into the club guns are blazing rhys rescue sarah come with me if you want to live but as they try to escape the terminator they run afoul of the police ultimately getting themselves arrested once the cops chased them down kyle reese is grilled by both the police and psychologists who question his story about being a time traveler from the future sent to save the last hope of human resistance against militant machines unfortunately while rhys is being detained the robotic serial killer tracks sauer down to the police station and after ramming his car through the front desk proceeds to take out every single police officer in the precinct forced to go on the run again kyle and sarah hide out in a hotel and at that point kyle shares that he's in love with sarah in fact he's been obsessing over her ever since jon first showed him her picture in the 2020s eventually they carve some time out of the fight for their lives and hook up but the terminator has no time for love and after killing sarah's mother and impersonating her voice over the phone he finds our heroes yet again leading to a final fight in the big showdown sarah and kyle battled the t800 with pipe bombs exposing his true cybernetic skeleton eventually the trio wind up in a factory where kyle dies from injuries sustained in the fight and sarah crushes the terminator to death with a hydraulic press even the tightest writing can avoid hitting a few paradoxes when dealing with time travel but the terminator franchise stakes its claim as the king of time travel movies by steering into the skid the paradoxes are baked into the films from the very beginning and the movies make no effort to hide it in short the whole thing is built upon the pre-destination paradox the idea that someone could travel to the past and affect the future in a way that necessitates them traveling to the past in the first place the entire terminator universe spawns from this one impossibility as laid out in the coda of the first film the terminator ends with a pregnant sarah connor driving through mexico via audio tapes that she's recording for her unborn son john we learned that kyle reese is the father when she stops for gas a child snaps her photo and sells the polaroid to her and it's the very same one that john connor gave to reese in the future in short john knew that reese was his father and sent him back in time so that he could protect his mother by sending him back john created the circumstances of his birth which would eventually lead to him helming the resistance however that fight against skynet would lead to them sending back the terminator and would produce the need to send rhys back and save his mother's life and so on and so forth for eternity to be a fan of james cameron's time traveling classic you have to try to not think about it too hard i'll be back the humans aren't the only ones locked in an eternal loop the spare parts of the terminator in the factory after sarah connor's brush with death are soon found by researchers from cyberdyne systems who are working on advanced computers and robotics in other words the building blocks of skynet are created by unwitting scientists using the technology left behind after skynet sent a killer robot from the future to protect itself as for sarah in between the first and second film she travels through latin america with her young son she befriends various guerilla fighters and military men in order to train her son to be a resistance fighter in the future war against the machines she explains this to jon before going off to attack a factory building the computer components that will become skynet when she's arrested she reveals that the future attack by the machines is imminent and naturally she's promptly locked away in a mental institution this leads a 10 year old john to believe his mother is merely insane although he uses the skills he was taught to pull off minor scams and crimes under the noses of his foster parents after its first failed attempt to snuff out john connor skynet is ready for round two sending back another newer terminator to 1995 to kill the pre-teen john adeljon knows this is going to happen as he's already lived it so he sends back a reprogrammed version of the original terminator model to protect his younger self 35 years from now you reprogrammed me to be your protector here in this time this is deep terminator 2 judgment day largely consists of the duel between this newer shape-shifting terminator and the older model after saving young john from being run down by the liquid metal t-1000 the friendly t-800 helps break sarah connor out of her mental institution they come across sara in the midst of her own escape helping her outrun both the authorities and the robot sent back to wipe the connor clan off the planet sarah's first instinct is to head back to mexico where she stocks up on weaponry while hiding with some sympathetic friends when the t-800 reveals the name of a computer scientist who's credited with starting skynet engineer miles bennett dyson sarah sets off on her own to kill him horrified that his mother would kill a man in cold blood john connor gives chase with the t-800 and they find sarah inside dyson's home unable to kill dyson in front of his family instead the trio explained to the scientist that his work will lead to the end of the world as we know it having seen the robot components of the t-800 first hand dyson believes their story and goes along to help them destroy his research with dyson's help our heroes break into the cyberdyne labs and steal the original terminator components they set a bomb to destroy the entire lab but they're interrupted by the police the cops shoot and kill dyson as the terminator and his team escape but the engineer is able to detonate the bomb of course that doesn't mean the t-1000 is going to slow down and he keeps on chasing after his prey after an epic chase with the new and improved terminator sarah john and the t-800 ultimately square off against their enemy in a foundry however the older terminator is bested by the next century's model and the t-1000 impales the old protector robot and leaves him for dead after that the t-1000 nearly traps and kills jon by impersonating his mother but the connors with the help of their barely holding it together robobuddy are able to knock the killer terminator into a vat of molten steel happy ending right well not quite in one of the saddest final moments in movie history the t800 willingly dips into the boiling vat to destroy himself this way any parts of him that might be used to build skynet will be incinerated unfortunately the good times are no match for times in elasticity the events of the future have to happen for the past to play out the way it has skynet will happen judgment day will happen all that matters is that john connor is there to rally mankind and fight the machines there are some signs of hope but you don't find them in terminator 3 rise of the machines sure the initial date of judgement day has come and gone without the world turning to a cinder but john connor is living as a hermit hiding from machines in an off-the-grid home after his mother's died of cancer in fact john is steadily losing his mind by waiting for judgement day worse still skynet sends back a more advanced terminator hoping to kill key members of the human resistance so they won't become a thorn in skynet's shiny metal side a tx model terminator targets jon as well as his future wife and of course they're protected by yet another reprogrammed terminator however this friendly terminator comes bearing bad news but we stopped judgment day you only postponed it judgment day is inevitable he tells john that the end of the world is coming and he's been sent back into the past to carry conor and his future partner kate away from the blast after learning that judgment day is on the way john orders the terminator to take them to kate's father a high-ranking air force official but the terminator refuses only obeying when kate repeats the order you have to save my father we can reach cis in approximately one hour the terminator then reveals that in the future he killed jon and was then captured reprogrammed and sent to the past on kate's orders eventually our heroes try to stop the military from working on the technology that will become skynet but the computers begin to take over the weapon systems before jon and kate succeed tragically kate's father is killed after the tx activates the weapon systems in his lab but before he dies he reveals the location of skynet's core john and company then head towards crystal peak colorado in the hopes of destroying skynet as they make their way to the location the terminator repeatedly throws himself between a pursuing tx and the two would-be freedom fighters but when they finally reach crystal peak they realize it was all for naught kate's father wasn't telling them how to destroy skynet he knew judgment day was coming and wanted them to survive in the end skynet launches its attack on humanity unleashing nukes and murdering billions of people john takes command of a radio in the shelter and sets about becoming the resistance leader he was destined to be terminator the sarah connor chronicles is the first major deviation we see from the original trilogy setting the tone for a decade of alternate timelines and reimaginings this 2008 series jettisons the event of t3 and follows jon and sarah connor as they attempt to hide from dueling antagonists in the immediate wake of terminator 2 judgment day as john and sarah are believed to be responsible for the death of engineer miles dyson they live in fear of the fbi capturing them at the same time they're fully aware that more terminators could be sent back by skynet to finish the job they failed in the first two films in fact one of those villainous robots does eventually show up at this point a protective terminator named cameron appears at john's school to ward off any attacks and eventually our heroes learn they must travel through time from 1999 to 2007 if they want to stop judgment day what have you done you want to find skynet you want to stop sign it this is the way the sarah connor chronicles is the first terminator offering to deviate heavily from the ideas of pre-destination and causality loops when sarah and john do eventually travel through time in the series they don't find older versions of themselves in the years between their origin and their destination they didn't exist when john connor closes the series by jumping far in the future to stay alive he finds that the war with the machines is ongoing and the human resistance has formed without him the original terminator trilogy is grim but it's a nearly perfect closed loop everything had to happen because it's already happened in the future even if it all leads to the apocalypse and a bleak future of tooth and nail battles against super-powered killing machines it all had to happen to create jon connor still the idea of john connor's warriors was too good for hollywood to pass up and we return to the terminator universe with terminator salvation we are not machines and if we behave like them then what is the point in winning in this particular tale we meet a warhead and john connor as he leads an ultimately successful raid against skynet while the main point of the film is to show guerilla soldiers pulling off something cool against the big bad machines salvation does give us a glimpse of the creation of the t-800 in fact jon throws down against the hulking monster during his attack on skynet headquarters and he nearly dies in the process as the machines have intentionally guided him to the base in hopes of finally killing him they're almost successful but an android named marcus who is initially upon in skynet schemes sacrifices himself to keep john alive the terminator timeline really goes off the rails after salvation courtesy of 2015's terminator genesis with its bold departure from both franchise chronology and accepted english spellings this film reboots the original series by playing with the events of the very first film in genesis kyle reese is still sent back from the future by his commander john connor but when he shows up in 1984 he finds it's been deeply altered from the 84 that fans all know in this timeline sarah connor has been raised from childhood by a reprogrammed terminator come with me if you want to live the old terminator nickname pops has protected sarah from attacks by terminators after her parents were killed by an even earlier terminator sarah and pops have built a time machine and sarah wants to travel to the original era of judgement day to stop skynet kyle however convinces them to head to 2017 to avert a disaster he saw in visions from his childhood the movie jumps through causality hoops with the terminator version of john traveling to 2017 in an attempt to stop their plot to destroy skynet or a genesis the terminator john was created after skynet fused the real john with machine matter and they used him to ensure skynet's survival throughout time while the trio of kyle pops and sarah are successful in their attack on the genesis system a post-credits scene reveals that the core of genesis was unaffected setting the stage for more sequels that never happened given how jumbled the timeline was the team behind terminator dark fate decided to jettison the baggage of any movie not made by james cameron their answer to the franchise's gordian knot of timelines was to chop the parts they didn't need and to keep things moving however rather than having jon lead the resistance dark fate posited that jon was killed by yet another terminator while living with his mother in latin america in the year 1998. the movie focuses on sarah's attempts to protect the new human savior danny ramos together sarah and a cyborg super soldier named grace protect danny from an advanced terminator called rev9 on top of all that the trio finds themselves on a sci-fi side quest see sarah knew about dany because an unknown source was sending her messages detailing the mission of each terminator sent into the past hoping to find the source of the messages the heroes set out on their journey all while keeping dany alive through constant attacks from rev9 oh and just to make things even more complicated skynet doesn't exist in grace's future but an analog called legion is following the same path legion an ai built for cyber warfare when the heroes track down the message's origin point sarah is shocked to find the same t-800 that killed her son as it turns out he was stranded in the past when his alteration of time led to skynet no longer existing without a mission or superiors he worked to assimilate into human society and ultimately came to feel guilt over his actions against humanity those aforementioned messages were his way to clean his conscience eventually our band of misfits hatch a plan to destroy rev9 but it falls apart catastrophically in their final confrontation grace is killed in the fight and the guilt-ridden t800 drags the rev9 into an exploding machine destroying both robots dark fate ends with danny and sarah watching a young grace play on a playground hoping to avoid the situation that led to her death check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one

Channel: Looper

Views: 1,368,343

Keywords: looper, looper movies, terminator, terminator movies, sarah connor, john connor, linda hamilton, arnold schwarzenegger, paradoxes, dark fate, terminator dark fate, terminator paradoxes, terminator genisys, terminator 2, T2, sarah connor chronicles, t800, t1000, skynet, cyborg, judgement day, terminator 2 judgement day, terminator plot holes

Id: 2fWYnC2a35o

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020