Terminator franchise timeline by jewelstaitefan

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Terminator franchise timeline

POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Sunday, March 16, 2008 05:24
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:26 PM

In other threads, there has been discussion of the timeline(s) in the Terminator series of films and TV.
The timeline seems to be complicated, and perhaps difficult to grasp. I will try to provide an expalnation or summary here of the overall timeline and/or "alternate" timelines. I do expect discussions of differing viewpoints.

Terminator. Until 1994, life is normal, as we know it, and James Cameron has not invaded our lives with Arnold's Terminator. Sent back in time from 2029 by Skynet, the Terminator's mission is to kill Sarah Connor. Also sent back (by the resistance, led by John Connor) is Kyle Reese, to protect Sarah. Kyle informs us that Judgement Day will be August 1997. Kyle becomes John's father, and the Terminator provides the metals and circuitry samples to create Skynet and cybernetic organisms, which he becomes a future model of.
From pre-1984 until 1995 we can refer to as Time Segment A.
The timeline that Kyle comes from, following 1984 until 2029, we can refer to as Time Segment B. For Kyle, Time Segment B is the past, and for the characters in Terminator, these events may not unfold exactly the same as they did in Kyle's past. The snippets of Time Segment B that we see are flashbacks from Kyle, which also show John Connor.
After the end of Terminator, Cyberdyne finds parts of the Terminator and begin to reverse-engineer it, Sarah begets John, and the future 2029 comes again and Skynet finds this mission failed.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day. In 1995, John is 10, and Skynet again sent back from 2029 (presumably right after John & resistance sent back Kyle) a newer generation T-1000 Terminator, and John also sends back another to protect himself (John) this time. Judgement Day is still August 1997.
The time period from 1995 to July 2004 we can refer to as Time Segment C. For the 2 Terminators sent back to 1995 here, this time period is in the past and is history for them.
The time period from July 2004 after T2 until 2032 we can refer to as Time Segment D. For the 2 terminators of T2, this is also the past.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Judgement Day has been delayed by the events of T2, and is now July 2004. Skynet sends back a Terminatrix, and another Terminator T-101 has killed John in 2032 and then was captured by Kate Brewster-Connor and reprogrammed and sent back to again protect both John and Kate.
The period from 2004 until 2027 we can refer to as Time Period E.

Terminator 4: Terminator Salvation. This explores the time after T3 after 2004 and before 2027 when John sends back Cameron to 1999 in TTSCC.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. In 1999, Cameron helps Sarah and John jump to 2007. Now Judgement Day is 2011. Keep in mind that 2029 has not happened yet, in Cameron's past with John.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:26 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Part 2.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:54 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Sorry, ran out of time. more tommorrow.

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008 3:52 AM

BLUESUNCOMPANYMAN

I think you meant to say "1984" at the start of your entry, in relation to Terminator (original film)

I used to like the T series of stories until the time BS started to twist and warp the logic. I think this started for me at the end of T2 when they "changed history". Honestly, as a scientist and a math major, I prefer stories of self-fulfilling histories. Twelve Monkeys is a perfect example of a movie with this theme. Everything Cole (Bruce Willis) did in his travels to the past did nothing more than ensure the future in which he lives. (With a great twist ending!)

The T franchise started off this way, but fell off the rails at the end of T2. I really wish they had written the story such that even though sarah and John destroyed cyberdyne with Miles Dyson, the work to build skynet continued unabated and that judgement day would still come as expected on Aug 29 1997. It would have been even cooler if they had ended T2 in the steel mill after the T1000 was destoyed, where the T800 reveals that the cyberdyne events were already known to him in the future but that they had to come about anyway to ensure an unbroken timeline.

Since T2 things for have become more convoulted and bizzare. I watched the T3 film. I also reciently watched each episode of the SCC and at least twice was stumped by some sort of logical mis-step. For the life of me I can't recall what those 2 things are right now, but that's probably because the T stories frustrate me enough nowdays that I just don't care about knowing details anymore.

As a footnote, an element that drew me to Firefly in 2003 was the purity of the stories coupled with a logical world. For the T films I feel they held onto story purity but sacrificed logic. Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars serve as an example of the reverse where Lucas held true to the logic of his galaxy, but brutalized the story purity.

Do not fear me. Our's is a peaceful race and we must live in harmony.

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Saturday, March 15, 2008 1:29 AM

IMNOTHERE

Quote:
Originally posted by bluesuncompanyman:
I really wish they had written the story such that even though sarah and John destroyed cyberdyne with Miles Dyson, the work to build skynet continued unabated and that judgement day would still come as expected on Aug 29 1997.

Well, to be fair, the whole ethos of the T series seems to be that the future is inevitable - whatever you can do may change the details, but the outcome is the same. The fact that the date of "Judgement Day" keeps slipping is more to do with practicalities: E.g. they *could* have set the whole of The Sarah Connor Chronicles between 1997 and 2004 - but shooting a "historical drama" (even a decade or so in the past - possibly more so because more of your audience will recognise the anachronisms) is a major added expense.

One suspects that, if the original writers had known that there were going to be sequels and a spin-offs popping up over the next 25 years, they'd have set "Judgement Day" a bit later so that they didn't have to contrive some way of delaying it...

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Saturday, March 15, 2008 5:07 AM

EARLYWARNING

Once you introduce time travel the timeline becomes irrelevant. You can continually go back and change it.

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Saturday, March 15, 2008 8:13 AM

STORYMARK

I'll stick with the divergent/seperate timelines, thanks. That being the official timeline and all.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Saturday, March 15, 2008 11:36 AM

CYBERSNARK

Actually, the whole point of Cameron's franchise (ignored by the makers of T3, and respected by the makers of TSCC) is that "there is no destiny save that which we make for ourselves." That's why Skynet is fighting so hard --Sarah could wipe it out of existence.

As for divergent timelines, it's possible that Termiverse time-travel ignores quantum signatures (unlike Trekverse or the BttF model); when someone/thing from the future arrives in the past, they become temporal orphans. Rather than being a "foreign element" in the timestream, they are essentially a "modern" person, just with knowledge of a (possible) future. It would be as if they'd always existed, but had simply never had any effect on the world until that moment they "arrive."

They now essentially "belong" to whenever they land. Even if "their" future is erased, they'll still exist with all their memories intact. Any changes they make don't result in a paradox (any more than a change made by a "native" to the timeframe would make a paradox).

That's why Derek could kill Andy and not erase himself --his memories were "fixed" the moment he arrived. Even if that entire future unravels, Derek will still remember his experiences before jumping back in time (his personal timeline is linear, even if his chronology isn't).

Let's speculate that Sarah & John succeed in averting the apocalypse altogether; Cameron, future-Derek, and any extant Terminators or resistance fighters would still continue to exist, just in the "new" timeline.

Little Kyle and Derek Reese could grow up and never need to go back in time, never meet Sarah, never even know what a Terminator is, but it simply wouldn't matter. The Kyle Reese that arrived from the post-1997 apocalypse was essentially a different person.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Sunday, March 16, 2008 5:24 AM

IMNOTHERE

Quote:
Originally posted by Earlywarning:
Once you introduce time travel the timeline becomes irrelevant. You can continually go back and change it.

Quite - and if you want to pick at the plausibility of something, can someone please explain *again* why Skynet time machines should be able to transport humans, terminators (including skin jobs, liquid metal, and whatever the T3 Teminatrix was varieties) but not guns or clothes?

Hmm - bizarre, arbitrary and illogical rules about what you can carry? Aha! Skynet obviously evolved from the TSA's computer system!

SCC has played particularly fast and loose with this - in the first episode we see a T dig a gun out of its leg (the flesh wrapping presumably allowed it to bring the gun back) but then it's "unwrapped" head manages to get transported to 2007 with the gang.

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