Terminator Questions

[Prime]

Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum and I had some questions after watching the entire set of films recently. I hope you guys don't mind.

1) In part 1, Reese talks about Skynet had to wipe out it's entire existence? Does he mean like commit suicide? What significance does that have with him going back in time?

2) It's documented that John Connor leads the Resistence to victory, but Skynet still sends Terminators back in time. What, is the meaning of this? Victory as in destroying Skynet or a bunch of Terminators? It's mentioned in T3 so, why is Skynet able to send the Terminatorx back in time?

3) In Part 3 it's mentioned Connor wasn't able to locate, is this because he was working as a freelancer?

4) Finally in Salvation how does Skynet know already Reese is of importance to Connor or is his father? Perhaps it found out through in the Medical Records of Sarah Connor when she was a held captive and I recall she told Dr Sullivan everything so this was probably documented along with Reese's statement to the police in part 1?

 

[Dave]

Personally, I think it is best not to delve too deeply into these things because they won't hold any water. You do realise that there was never meant to be a 6-film franchise and TV series, but just a stand-alone film. You have watched the entire series, but I hazard a guess that some of the writers never did. They either forget that some things were said, or they change them to make a better story. Remember also that characters can say things that are lies or not the whole truth. And I think in the first film, you were meant to be not entirely sure if Reese was sane.

The goal of the Resistance must surely be to defeat Skynet, if in not in the future, then they must try in the past. However, I thought 'Judgement Day' clearly showed that Skynet was destined by fate to be created and to take over whatever happened. Just defeating Terminators would be futile, especially given the number sent back in the TV series.

It was never explained how Skynet discovered Time Travel. Clearly, the Time Travel ability was discovered/ devices invented by Skynet, since the Resistance had to steal the technology.

3/ No idea.

4/ Sounds like reasonable assumptions.

But maybe these things will be addressed yet.

 

[Prime]

Thanks.

Anyone else for their input?

 

[Lemmy]

Well, first of all, the tv-series ignore the third movie completely. It's horrible and almost single-handedly ruined the whole franchise.

As Dave said, you shouldn't think too much about it. The first movie is still awesome today, and the second... well, it's not that bad. It's nowhere near the first one, but it's not all bad. Salvation... that one I actually enjoyed. Not sure why, but I did. And finally there's the tv-series. I enjoyed the first season, but you can't really make a series based entirely around two people running away from killer robots from the future. It kinda gets old. I'll try to answer your questions, though.

1. Not sure how much you care about part 2 and onward, but in part 2, people recovered the T-800's hand and brain. That wasn't much, but it was enough to give them inspiration to create their own Terminator... and here we go again. I think what Reese talked about was that if even a single bit of the future remained in the past, it could be enough to make the future come true. They had already lost the war against Skynet in the future, so the only way to win was to destory it before it was built. This was only possible by destroying every single blueprint, idea, sketch etc that could lead to Skynet being built. Sadly it even meant killing Miles Dyson, the guy who built it. Sarah Connoer might have seen like a brutal assassin when she tried to kill him, but she was only trying to save the world. Too bad it didn't work.

2. John Connor leads the resistance, and although Skynet was winning, the resistance kept the war going. But Skynet realized that if it could somehow kill John Connor before the war started, the humans would never be able to build their resistance, and Skynet would win the war before it even started. And keep in mind Skynet at this point had won, and it was basically the internet. If you put the entire internet working towards a single goal, you will have an absurd amount of power. Anything will be possible, even time travel if you search hard enough. In theory, at least.

3. Probably because the movie was so bad even the tv-series ignored it. I suggest you do the same.

4. That's the fun thing about time travel. It's full of contradictions and paradoxes. If you go back in time and kill your own grandfather, does that mean you won't be born? And if so, what if you go back in time and stop yourself from killing your grandfather? If you do kill him, you won't be born, so you can't go back in time and kill him. But what if you then go back in time and stop yourself before time has a chance to catch up and erase you? Will you cease to exist and then come back to life? I think Skynet knew about Reese because the Terminator ahd alreayd fought him in the Terminator's past, even if it hadn't happened to Skynet yet. Or something.

 

[StrayFeral]

I think:

1) In part 1, Reese talks about Skynet had to wipe out it's entire existence? Does he mean like commit suicide? What significance does that have with him going back in time?

Both Skynet and Reese are folowing "future is what you make of it"

2) It's documented that John Connor leads the Resistence to victory, but Skynet still sends Terminators back in time. What, is the meaning of this? Victory as in destroying Skynet or a bunch of Terminators? It's mentioned in T3 so, why is Skynet able to send the Terminatorx back in time?

Same here in my opinion

3) In Part 3 it's mentioned Connor wasn't able to locate, is this because he was working as a freelancer?

No. Because he was not using computers and communications by any means, so no digital fingerprints from Connor.

4) Finally in Salvation how does Skynet know already Reese is of importance to Connor or is his father? Perhaps it found out through in the Medical Records of Sarah Connor when she was a held captive and I recall she told Dr Sullivan everything so this was probably documented along with Reese's statement to the police in part 1?

That's possible. I am not sure about it