The Terminator and the sequels are confusing due to time travel, causality, and the probable never occurring in another universe.
Let us start with the first one, "The Terminator" 1984. Aside from it ripping off Harlin Ellison, the film is about a super cyborg from a future war in 2029, sent back in time to 1984 to kill John Conner's parents before they mate, stopping him from being the resistance. In the future, the big bad scary is a computer machine AI essentially called Skynet that has caused World War III using nukes, as in the 1980s, the cold war made America worried about that. The film was a product of the time. It was also no coincidence they cast a young Arnie as the mysterious robot. Eventually, Kyle Reese has been sent back to 1984 to stop the Terminator and mate with Sarah Conner, so that the future will happen.
Let's call this timeline A because clearly once the robot is destroyed in the first film, the judgment day never occurs, and there is no possible sequel. The people in 1984 do not have the tech to create the cyborgs. Kyle has died though and Sarah has already become pregnant apparently.
Then we come to "Terminator 2" 1991. Due to the fall of the wall, and the end of the cold war, they were not able to use that plot in the sequel, instead implying that SkyNet would come online and destroy the world in 1997. Then in 2026, John Conner sends a new Terminator back to stop the T 1000, a liquid metal transformer. Then in 1997, the new Terminator befriends Sarah Conner's son, young John, who should actually only be 13. He acts like he's much older, perhaps 16. The Terminator defeats the newer one, despite some obvious wrinkles in the story, and it being kind of a reboot. Computers were newly becoming more connected so it's implied in the 1991 film that the sky net is the Internet. They also stop the creator of Sky Net, who is a totally different guy than in the other films. It was the better movie. The first movie was okay, but the second was more action packed and kinetic. It also was less like Ellison and more like a roadie movie with a robot and a series of stunts. (I know it was Cameron). They also called it Cyberdyne.
Let's call this timeline B. How the liquid Terminator got created at all is never explained. If the timeline ended, then there would be no reason to create him. Also how? They never explain this, or how the time machine is so accurate being nearly wrecked.
Then came "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" 2003. The film was nearly 8 years following the others, so the timeline was moved up. John Conner and his wife are to be killed by the female T X, a new machine sent back into time to the then present. The judgment day has been moved to 2011, due to it being later literally, not plot wise. The young man Conner must stop the machines before they can start the war, but in this one it happens anyway, about in 2004.
Timeline C is a mess as there doesn't seem to be much point in the future machines trying to bag John Conner if they could just as easily continue in any timeline, for any reason. All they need to do is move up the date. It begs the question, why would they even bother? They are also god like and can tell other timelines, or something, so what does that make them? Also why make a dominatrix terminator? Yeah sure, eye candy, but that's dumb. Really. At least it was trying not to reboot the other ones though. It was more like
And then came the most confusing one, "Terminator Salvation" 2009, thus far. The war has started and it is the early 2020s, and the machines have won. Most of the film is spent preventing the future Cyberdyne from making the AI that they already had, to build the Terminators, to go back into time, for some reason. The story also has a ridiculous love angle where the hero lady immediately dumps the love of her life, when he is killed, for the cute rebel hard body guy, like immediately. Uhg. The studio didn't learn their lesson from McG's other films. Don't let this guy direct.
"The Sarah Conner Chronicles" with young John Conner and the Summer Terminator are considered yet another parallel timeline! We'll call it timeline D. It seems canon with T2 but not the others. In there, judgment day is in 2011.
At last thus far, we come to "Terminator Genesys", a form reboot of the T1 and T2 films where it essentially is the time of the original timeline, and we'll pretend those last two movies never happened! In the film, in 2029, Conner sends Kyle Reese back to 1984 to find Sarah, and hopefully to mate with her, so he can be born. Also there is this pesky Terminator waiting there for them. In the altered timeline though, a newer Terminator has appeared at the time machine and injected Conner's face before he transforms or something.Then it is 1984 and the timeline has been radically changed, so that a much older Terminator, the one from 1991, has gone back to 1984 to befriend Sarah and protect her from the liquid Terminator, who is now Asian looking. (He was originally white looking). But it's not 1997, it's 1984, and they use the machine the old Terminator has built, calling himself Pops, to take the two to 2017, but he will wait around and make plans.
In 2017, a few years from our time, the Genesys Internet skype game thing will activate and destroy the world using AI. Okay, this is the fifth time that a movie has done this plot this last 5 years! Really guys. Come on. Is this the new judgment day?
If they mate in the future, because they seem trapped there, John will never be born, because in the messed up future, John has been turned into an evil nanobot infected robot Terminator thing. Aslo, Pops gets an upgrade in the liquid metal pool they happen to have at Genesys just lying around. Yes,and they have a time machine too, but that has to be stopped too. Now if John is born he will only be 11.
This is the E timeline. It makes no sense at all. If the Old T800 went back, there is no judgment day. They can go back. They can prevent even that from happening. The time machine at the complex wasn't ready, but they could have rebuilt it before they decided to destroy it, again, and again. The blast would likely cause an incident rippling through time. San Francisco is featured in it but it doesn't look right. Sarah doesn't act like that yet. It's like 1997 is fused with 1984. Why doesn't Cyberdyne just go back to before all of them are born and kill them? Why should it need to? Cyberdyne can go into other timelines where it happened that it won. Having the infected John try to explain it away as he cheated is just sloppy. And there is no way old Arnie's robot survived all that!
So the timeline is a mess and ther is likely no way to consolidate it to make sense.
They could have just said it is an alternate future and it still is 1997, or have not done that at all.
The sequels are baffling and the dialog is improbable, next to flaky, and the new ones just make light of the first two. The latest one makes it seem like the first were brilliant, when they really were just very good compared to them. Genesys is not the dumbest one. That was probably the Salvation one.
I have seen all of them. I just chose not to review only Genesys.
We do not have cybernetic warrior robots in 2015, so it is not likely we will have them in only 2 years.
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