Follow

    Terminator

    Character » Terminator appears in 197 issues.

    The Terminator is a cybernetic military infiltration unit. Expert in all types of weapons has a large amount of strength. It can speak naturally and copy human voices, as well as other abilities. The Terminator comes in many forms; however, the T-800 seems to be the most iconic design.

    Time Travel Theories: The Terminator

    Avatar image for the_impersonator
    The Impersonator

    10209

    Forum Posts

    23956

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 31

    User Lists: 50

    #1  Edited By The Impersonator
    Ever wonder how time travel actually works? Sometimes it can be confusing for viewers and readers to understand the whole concept of time travel.  I'll give some theories on how it actually works. Let's go with the example, The Terminator here.

    The Terminator

    Intro: Kyle Reese is sent back to 1984 where he has to save Sarah Connor from the killer cyborg known as the Terminator. The cyborg came back to kill Sarah in order to erase the existence of the future resistance hero, John Connor.

    Since you have watched the movie, I know what you're thinking like how Kyle Reese was John's father. Well, it's not actually true if you think about it. People can't seem to know how's that possible. Let's go back to the point where it all began. I'll make it simple just to explain two timelines of the movie series since there's actually four of them. 

    Timeline A (Original Timeline)

    In this timeline, there was no Kyle Reese who came back in time yet. Sarah Connor have met someone in the past. We don't even know who that person would be. It could be anyone for all we know. But it's not Kyle Reese because he hasn't come back in time. Later, Sarah has a child named John. After Skynet launches its destruction, the humans were pulled back and form a group with their own leader, John Connor. How did John became the leader? Well, it's not Kyle Reese or it's not Sarah Connor who told him that there was a time traveler who protected her and it was his father, Kyle Reese. Since John's father is someone else, it wouldn't matter how John became the leader. There are different ways to become that leader. Once John became the leader, he sends Kyle Reese back in time and gave him the photo of Sarah Connor. This photo made Kyle Reese fall in love with Sarah. Kyle Reese makes his first jump to Timeline A which would later become Timeline B.

    Timeline B

    Kyle Reese comes back in time and changes the events in Timeline A which became Timeline B. Kyle protects Sarah and made love with her. As result, Kyle Reese is the temporal replacement of John's first father. A temporal replacement would mean that a switch or filling the shoes of another person. For example, someone is asking you for his or her work shift. You agree with that time shift and takes over your co-worker's place. Thus, you are that co-worker's replacement. Now we don't know how John actually look like when he was someone's first father. Because Kyle Reese became John's second father. For all we know that we're dealing with a different John Connor here. The only same thing about John Connor is that he will grow up to become the leader of the human resistance. But what about his looks? We know how the John Connor character plays out in comics, movies, and TV series. But we don't even know for sure how he looks like in real life. Maybe John Connor does have the same appearance but it wouldn't be possible because John had an original father besides Kyle Reese. Based on their genes, John Connor can look different even though he's the same person and character wise.

    So the Timeline B continues in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Since this timeline has been visited by the advanced T-1000 and the repgrogrammed T-800. I guess you could say that it's Timeline C. When someone is making a jump to a certain timeline, he or she is making changes to that timeline. For example, if you fail a class test, you go back and study and then retake it and find that it's the same test with different questions. Since the test was been asked in the same multiple choice format, the teacher knows that the test taker will know all the answers if being asked the same questions. Which means the test taker would have passed the test in the first place rather than taking a retest. So Timeline A shouldn't have been visited by Kyle Reese but he had to come back to prevent the destruction of humanity. If Skynet hadn't created the problem, then we'll only find ourselves in Timeline A, the original timeline. 

    Timeline D also occurs in the Terminator 3 movie but I wouldn't want to explain it further than that.

    So there you have it. You have four timelines that takes place in three Terminator movies. Timeline A which occurs before the first Terminator movie. Timeline B occurs itself in the first movie. You also have Timeline C in the second movie and Timeline D in the third one. We'll ignore the fourth movie since there was no time travel involved in it. But we're not even sure which timeline is occuring in the fourth movie. It could either be Timeline B, C or D for all that matter. But it couldn't be Timeline A because Skynet have detected that the young Kyle Reese is the father of John Connor.

    What do you think? What are your thoughts about these theories? Does it make sense? We wouldn't want to see more Terminator movies since there are so many timelines involved here. It's safe to say that a time traveler shouldn't interfere with the past. Instead of going back in time, John Connor should just focus on destroying the Skynet in the future. No matter how many times you try to change the past, a bigger problem still exists.        
     
    Look forward to Time Travel Theories: Dragonball Z.
    Avatar image for deadpoolvironfist
    DeadpoolvIronFist

    2577

    Forum Posts

    102

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #2  Edited By DeadpoolvIronFist

    Do Harry Potter if you will

    Avatar image for the_impersonator
    The Impersonator

    10209

    Forum Posts

    23956

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 31

    User Lists: 50

    #3  Edited By The Impersonator
    @deadpoolvironfist: I haven't seen Harry Potter yet. But I'll do it when I have the chance to watch it. 
    Avatar image for deadpoolvironfist
    DeadpoolvIronFist

    2577

    Forum Posts

    102

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 1

    #4  Edited By DeadpoolvIronFist
    @The Impersonator said:
    @deadpoolvironfist: I haven't seen Harry Potter yet. But I'll do it when I have the chance to watch it. 
    Alright cool.
    Time Travel is involved in Prisoner of Azkaban only though.
    Avatar image for the_impersonator
    The Impersonator

    10209

    Forum Posts

    23956

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 31

    User Lists: 50

    #5  Edited By The Impersonator
    @deadpoolvironfist: I see. Thanks!
    Avatar image for aachermann
    aachermann

    1

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Can someone help me understand this? I may be missing something but:

    How does John Conner time travel when he's this magnetic Terminator that apparently gets destroyed at the end of the movie?

    This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.