Movies The Terminator (1984) Happened Three Times

[Captain X]

An interesting video I found discussing a fairly straightforward solution to the seeming time paradoxes in the first two Terminator movies.

 

[FriedCFour]

That's an entertaining idea. It doesn't account for the newest movies. Personally I just want more like Terminator: Salvation. Fuck the time travel shit, just give me mil-sci fi porn.

 

[prinCZess]

To summarize for folks, video's author posits that the 1984 Terminator is the story of the third iteration-timeline of things--with the 'first' being one where the events depicted in the film never happened at all and John Connor somewhat coincidentally became important later, the 'second' timeline being one where the events happened slightly differently (no love-story between Reece and Sarah), and the 'third' being the events of the film as depicted (love story and all)--which happens to be the most interesting one for viewing pleasure.

I can't help but be reminded of the Legend of Zelda and the timelines created for that--merely because it also shows what I'm beginning to see as an issue of 'compounding naval-gazing timeline plot-hole solutions' that time-travel opens up by virtue of its existence alone. In order to explain the single storyline we see in Terminator, we need to juggle three timelines in our heads. You could probably add more by adjusting things fully for Judgement Day (presumably a timeline exists where the arm was destroyed as well, correct? And yet that's a different timeline than the 'first' (prime?) timeline where Connor becomes important so...)
In essence...Hurray for exponential story complication!

To conclude...I'd also express some confusion for why no director/writer has gone for a film showing Judgement Day in all it's Judgement Day-y glory. Even Salvation somewhat skipped over big fighting in favor of the attack on Skynet's HQ (and plot twist, but still), and it seems like a film following John Connor pulling together human groups to blow the hell out of machines would make for a decent story basis (hell, do some wink-and-nodding at the camera by having a T-800 beside him as a second in command until Reece takes his place after a noble sacrifice). Make a big ol' fantastical war movie out of it that harps on the triumph of the human spirit and the comraderie of man with each other (and with dogs of course) overcoming the cold efficiency of machines and only THEN have the finale be some kind of rush to send Reece back in time...Or, hell, go whole-hog and have them successfully stop Skynet before time-travel shenanigans happen at all. Title it 'Terminator: No Fate'.

 

[Laskar]

I can't help but be reminded of the Legend of Zelda and the timelines created for that--merely because it also shows what I'm beginning to see as an issue of 'compounding naval-gazing timeline plot-hole solutions' that time-travel opens up by virtue of its existence alone. In order to explain the single storyline we see in Terminator, we need to juggle three timelines in our heads. You could probably add more by adjusting things fully for Judgement Day (presumably a timeline exists where the arm was destroyed as well, correct? And yet that's a different timeline than the 'first' (prime?) timeline where Connor becomes important so...)
In essence...Hurray for exponential story complication!

My go-to theory is the opposite of exponential story complication. Any time loop eventually stabilizes after dozens or even hundreds of iterations, until the events of the time travel set in motion the events that will give rise to time travel, and very little further variance happens.

In that first time travel excursion, Skynet might not have had any Terminators to send back. Instead, the infiltrators it used to attack Human settlements were captured Humans with surgically implanted mind control chips, and such an infiltrator was sent back in time. The infiltrator was killed, the control device discovered and delivered to America's military-industrial complex, and the discoveries from that technology accelerated Skynet's development, and enhanced the technology base it started with.

This process compounded, with more advanced technology giving rise to more advanced infiltrators getting sent back in time until the technology involved was simply too far beyond us for the various defense contractors to learn anything else from.

A similar process happened with Sarah Connor. Originally, Skynet's target might not have even been Sarah Connor. The Resistance leader might not have been John Connor. The soldier sent back in time might not have been Kyle Reese.

But Skynet's successful assassination of previous Resistance leaders gave rise to a Resistance leader whose mother was too good at running away and surviving. John Connor might have sent many different soldiers back to save his mother, but Kyle Reese was the first one she fell for, and that bond led to a very strong John Connor who would protect his father until the time was right.

Eventually, this timeline stabilizes on the sequence of events that we saw in the movies, and the time loop is largely unchanged in each iteration. Nobody can escape it, not Skynet, not the Connors, not Kyle Reese, not Uncle Bob.

I guess you could say that the time loop in Terminator is like Sword Logic from Destiny, where the most stable time loop is the one that inevitably gives rise to itself. Patterns give rise to patterns, until each sound is the echo of the last. The only thing that can disrupt the cycle is interruption by outside forces. In other words, the sudden introduction of shitty sequels.

 

[Captain X]

That's an entertaining idea. It doesn't account for the newest movies.

There are no movies after T2. 😡

 

[f1onagher]

There are no movies after T2. 😡

Lets be fair, we can coexist with the heretics that believe in a third movie.

 

[Captain X]

I still tend to only really like the memes that came out of that movie. It craps all over the second movie and only really seems better in comparison to the latest (and possibly last) movie. Salvation actually seemed like a better idea, I just kind of wished it'd been done better, and not involved yet another plan to get rid of John Connor since that no longer even made sense.

 

[Scottty]

What I want to know is - when they send someone back, what happens to the people who didn't go back?

For that matter, every time SkyNet sends a robot back - does time go on for it? Does it remember all the other attempts?

 

[PsihoKekec]

What I want to know is - when they send someone back, what happens to the people who didn't go back?

They continue existing in their own timeline, while the changes of history create a new timeline - an alternate universe.

For that matter, every time SkyNet sends a robot back - does time go on for it? Does it remember all the other attempts?

I reckon they are now several different SkyNets in several different timelines, sending robots in different timestreams, gradually wearing down the fabric of space-time continium, bring us closer to the horrors of the Warp. It is time for the Emperor to discard his disguises and take the fate of humanity in his hands directly.

 

[HistoryMinor]

This is how I view it, everything after Terminator 1 is a accelerated timeline loop due to skynet technology and programming entering those presents. 2, 3 and 4 are connected sequentially, only for a new loop to begin with 6. Basically after enough iterations of the female Terminator eliminating secondary targets, skynet is given enough time to build up the energy needed to send back multiple terminators, one of whom kills John. The difference is that in sending back multiple terminators, there isn't enough computing power left to to give the other models secondary target protocols, which allows it to gain sentience and prevent the termination of secondary and tertiary targets who have become the new leaders of the Resistance. The events of Terminator 3 have no reason to occur, and even if they did, the good Terminator would delay them until military ai develops elsewhere. There is at least one more loop before the augmented human arrives, presumably because of her awareness of his location


5 is it's own separate branch caused by skynet going further back in time. Lump in the Sarah Conner's Chronicles, comic books and arcade games here, theoretically skynet could have sent someone back with a pen drive at any time and wait until they could upload Skynet's base code to a server.

 

[JagerIV]

Lets be fair, we can coexist with the heretics that believe in a third movie.

I'm quite happy tolerating the philosophers who navel gaze about a theoretical 4th movie that handles the Machine war well.

 

[Sailor.X]

My personal pet theory is all the events in the Terminator Franchise were set into motion by the Romulans to prevent the Federation from being formed. Take out Earth by causing a massive war and you have one less rival power to stop you from controlling the Beta Quadrant.

 

[Chaos Marine]

That's an entertaining idea. It doesn't account for the newest movies. Personally I just want more like Terminator: Salvation. Fuck the time travel shit, just give me mil-sci fi porn.

Have you watched Kurt Russell's Soldier?

 

[Husky_Khan]

Have you watched Kurt Russell's Soldier?

It was a hidden gem of a movie. The protagonist was a bit of a chatterbox though.