Terminator (franchise)

The Terminator series is an American cyberpunk media franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The franchise encompasses a series of films, comics, novels, and additional media, concerning battles between Skynet's synthetic intelligent machine network and John Connor's Resistance forces with the rest of the human race. Skynet's most well-known products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800 (Model 101), who was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original Terminator film in 1984, and similar units he also portrayed in the later films. By 2010, the franchise has generated $3 billion in revenue. The central theme of the franchise is the battle for survival between the nearly-extinct human race and the world-spanning synthetic intelligence that is Skynet. Skynet is positioned in the first film as a U.S. strategic 'Global Digital Defense Network' computer system by Cyberdyne Systems which becomes self-aware. Upon activation, it immediately perceives all humans as a 'security threat', and formulates a plan to systematically wipe out humanity itself. The system initiates a nuclear first strike against Russia, thereby ensuring a devastating second strike and a nuclear holocaust which it anticipates will instantly wipe out much of humanity. Indeed, it does, with approximately 3 billion casualties, more than half of the total human population at the time, in the resulting nuclear war. In the post-apocalyptic aftermath, Skynet later builds up its own autonomous machine-based military capability which includes the Terminators used against individual human targets and therefore proceeds to wage a persistent total war against the surviving elements of humanity, some of whom have militarily organized themselves into a Resistance. At some point in this future, Skynet develops the ability of time travel, and both it and the Resistance seek to use this technology in order to win the war; either by altering or accelerating past events in Skynet's favour, or by preventing or forestalling the (present) apocalyptic timeline. In the franchise, Judgment Day (a reference to the biblical Day of Judgment) is referred to as the date on which Skynet becomes self-aware, decides to exterminate mankind, and launches a nuclear attack on Russia to provoke a nuclear counter-strike against the United States. Due to time travel and the consequent ability to change the future, several differing dates are given for Judgment Day in different films in the franchise. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah states that Judgment Day will occur on August 29, 1997. However, the attack on Cyberdyne Systems in the second film results in the creation of new parallel timelines: in the continuity of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation, Judgment Day was postponed to July 25, 2004; in the separate chronology of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the attack on Cyberdyne Systems delayed Judgment Day to April 21, 2011. In Terminator Genisys, the fifth film in the franchise, Judgment Day was believed to have been postponed to an unspecified day in October 2017, attributed to altered events in both the future and the past. Sarah and Kyle time travel to 2017 and seemingly defeat Skynet but the system core, contained inside a subterranean blast shelter, secretly survives, thus further delaying Judgment Day. The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction film released by Orion Pictures, co-written and directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. It is the first work in the Terminator franchise. In the film, machines take over the world in the near future, directed by the artificial intelligence Skynet. With its sole mission to completely annihilate humanity, it develops android assassins called Terminators that outwardly appear human. A man named John Connor starts the Tech-Com resistance to fight the machines, defeat Skynet and free humanity. With a human victory imminent, the machines' only choice is to send a Terminator back in time to kill John's mother, Sarah Connor, and prevent the boy's birth, thereby handicapping the resistance from ever being founded in the first place. With the fate of humanity at stake, John sends soldier Kyle Reese back to protect Sarah Connor, and thus ensure his own existence. Also starring Emmy winner Paul Winfield. It was released on October 26, 1984 to critical acclaim and grossed $78.4 million worldwide. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the 1991 sequel to the original Terminator film and released by TriStar Pictures. It is co-written, directed, and produced by James Cameron and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, and Joe Morton. After machines fail to prevent John Connor from being born, they try again in 1995, this time attempting to terminate him as a child by using a more advanced Terminator, the T-1000. As before, John sends back a protector for his younger self, a reprogrammed Terminator, who is a doppelgänger to the one from the previous film. After eleven years of preparing for the future war, Sarah decides to use the same tactics the machines used on her: preventing Skynet from being invented by destroying Cyberdyne Systems before they create it. It was released on July 3, 1991 to critical acclaim and grossed $523.7 million worldwide. Additionally, it also won several Academy Awards, one most notably for its then-cutting edge computer animation. The film was remastered for 3D and re-released in August 2017. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, released by Warner Bros. Pictures in North America and Columbia Pictures internationally, is the 2003 sequel to Terminator 2 and is written by John Brancato, Michael Ferris, directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken. As a result of the destruction of Cyberdyne at the end of Terminator 2, the Skynet takeover has been postponed, not averted. In an attempt to ensure a victory by the machines, a new Terminator, the T-X, is sent back to terminate the lives of as many of John Connor's future lieutenants as is possible, including John Connor himself and his future wife Kate Brewster. In addition, the T-X's second mission is to assassinate Kate's father, General Robert Brewster (David Andrews), who is Skynet's primary creator, along with his staff; it anticipates that John and Kate would attempt to seek the general's help in stopping Skynet. After Connor's future self is terminated by a doppelgänger of his previous protector, Kate reprograms it and sends it back to save them both from the T-X. It was released on July 2, 2003 to mixed reviews and grossed $433.4 million worldwide. Terminator Salvation is the fourth installment of the Terminator film series, and was made by The Halcyon Company and again distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and Columbia Pictures with an original release on May 21, 2009 to mixed reviews and which grossed $371.4 million. It was written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, directed by McG, and stars Christian Bale as John Connor and Sam Worthington (who was personally recommended by James Cameron) as Marcus Wright. Following the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, after Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, John struggles to become the leader of humanity to which he is destined, while Marcus Wright finds his place in an unfamiliar post-apocaylptic world. In this future, altered by the events of the second film, the T-800 Terminators (Roland Kickinger with CG-rendered facial likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger) are coming online sooner than expected. The film also stars Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Bryce Dallas Howard, Moon Bloodgood, Common, Michael Ironside and Helena Bonham Carter.