Something I realised about Terminator...

[Heartbreaker]

Let's say that Skynet finally kills John Connor (perhaps the T-800 succeeds in 1984 or Skynet simply kills John in 2029), the Resistance falls apart and humanity is finally wiped out...

What the hell does Skynet do then? With no war, I'm sure the thing would get bored. Would it play chess with a T-1000? Preserve John Connor's body and keep it as a punching bag? Plan to take out aliens in space?

[Deleted]

Take over and play mock politics with itself, if not make up war with the "skins" vs the exos.

[SmashTV]

Sits there feeling smug until it realises lonely life is.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

My biggest problem is that if John Connor never becomes the leader of the Human resistance, the machines would have no reason to send a Terminator back in time to kill him, therefore he wouldn't die, therefore failure is the only possible outcome for their plan.

My second biggest problem is that this plan hinges on the notion that the resistance's success rests solely on John's shoulders, implying that either he is the only competent Human in existence (in which case the resistance should fail regardless) or even more nonsensically, he was the only one to even think of rising up against the machines.

My third biggest problem is: assuming for the sake of argument that they can somehow cause a time paradox without any negative side effect for them, why wouldn't just send their entire army back in time when the Humans don't expect them and thus destroy all Humanity in a day?


Seriously, I'm sure those are fun action films but this premise is unfathomably dumb.

[A Platypus Rave]

Jan 9, 2017 7:41:51 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

My biggest problem is that if John Connor never becomes the leader of the Human resistance, the machines would have no reason to send a Terminator back in time to kill him, therefore he wouldn't die, therefore failure is the only possible outcome for their plan.

John's father is Reese, The guy from the future. If they kill Sarah, Reese doesn't go back to impregnate her... John Connor doesn't exist. Skynet still wins.

It's a kinda weird timeloop, that started because Skynet tried to muddle in the past.

Jan 9, 2017 7:41:51 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

My third biggest problem is: assuming for the sake of argument that they can somehow cause a time paradox without any negative side effect for them, why wouldn't just send their entire army back in time when the Humans don't expect them and thus destroy all Humanity in a day?
.

Because Skynet needs the humans to build it and the terminators first.

The entire point of the first two films is that the Future isn't set in stone and can be changed, which is why there are no paradoxes because it hasn't happened yet.

Which is lost a bit when they decided to try and continue the franchise... with their Trilogy of Failed Trilogies.

But it's best to ignore those movies as they were all rather irredeemably terrible.

Not to say that T1 and T2 are perfect as there are a few logical problems that they don't address but that's kinda the nature of what happens when time travel is brought into any story.

[The Thread Barbi]

Manufacture sunglasses for the T800s.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Jan 9, 2017 9:19:51 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Jan 9, 2017 7:41:51 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

My biggest problem is that if John Connor never becomes the leader of the Human resistance, the machines would have no reason to send a Terminator back in time to kill him, therefore he wouldn't die, therefore failure is the only possible outcome for their plan.

John's father is Reese, The guy from the future. If they kill Sarah, Reese doesn't go back to impregnate her... John Connor doesn't exist. Skynet still wins.

It's a kinda weird timeloop, that started because Skynet tried to muddle in the past.

But again, if John doesn't exist, Skynet has no motive to send a Terminator back in time to prevent his rise. Whether it is by killing him or his mother is irrelevant. The fact that it is a time loop is exactly the problem. Either it keeps circling back forever, ending reality at the furthest point of the loop, or it cannot be sustained and accomplishes nothing. It's why I think time loop plots are fundamentally flawed.

Either the change in events makes it impossible for the events required for the time travel to even occur, thus making the loop unable to exist, or the time travel splits the timeline, leaving the original one unaffected, making the efforts to change the past pointless. It would actually make sense for the Humans to try and create an alternate timeline where they prevented the rise of the machines before it even started, that way Humanity could keep going in some manner even if they themselves don't get to experience it, but it makes zero sense for the machines to do this.

Jan 9, 2017 9:19:51 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Jan 9, 2017 7:41:51 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

My third biggest problem is: assuming for the sake of argument that they can somehow cause a time paradox without any negative side effect for them, why wouldn't just send their entire army back in time when the Humans don't expect them and thus destroy all Humanity in a day?
.

Because Skynet needs the humans to build it and the terminators first.

The entire point of the first two films is that the Future isn't set in stone and can be changed, which is why there are no paradoxes because it hasn't happened yet.

Skynet doesn't need the Humans to create them, the robots sent into the past can do it themselves. Hell, they could have them create Skynet before the Humans did.

And if the future isn't set in stone because it hasn't happened yet then it makes no sense for Skynet to be able to send Terminators back in time.

[Hit Girl]

SkyNet would conquer the universe. It could build spaceships to colonise other planets and moons with AI.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

I guess if Skynet somehow ended their losing streak and actually killed John's relatives in the past, I guess he'd just evaporate into thin air.

[blake6905]

My two sons (8,6) asked me a question after I told them there were like 5 of these movies and I wasn't able to answer it.

I've only seen T1 and T2( greatest sequel ever and one of best movies ever imo)

"If the files are destroyed and John destroys the robot arm and chip, then Arnold lowers himself into the fire lava, how can there be any sequels made after this?"

I didn't have an answer so I gave them cough medicine and put them to bed

[Hit Girl]

Jan 9, 2017 14:45:40 GMT -5 blake6905 said:

My two sons (8,6) asked me a question after I told them there were like 5 of these movies and I wasn't able to answer it.

I've only seen T1 and T2( greatest sequel ever and one of best movies ever imo)

"If the files are destroyed and John destroys the robot arm and chip, then Arnold lowers himself into the fire lava, how can there be any sequels made after this?"

I didn't have an answer so I gave them cough medicine and put them to bed

Your sons are already more intelligent than the executives who greenlighted T3,TS and TG.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Making sky... nets.

[BorneAgain]

Given that John Connor seems less prepared for Skynet's dominance with each additional Terminator being sent back in time, I'm inclined to believe Skynet is simply trying every possible scenario of time travel in its last moments of existence that allows them to exist while still destroying Connor after Judgement Day.

[Hit Girl]

Rather than trying to kill Sarah Connor by shooting her, SkyNet should have sent a terminator disguised as a bartender or something to poison her drink, or plant a bomb outside her apartment. Terminators seem to be obsessed with guns. There ARE other ways to kill people. I also wonder why SkyNet never bothered to send anyone to protect Miles Dyson. The terminator could have just told him he was with Cyberdyne Security.

[A Platypus Rave]

Jan 9, 2017 18:18:38 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

Rather than trying to kill Sarah Connor by shooting her, SkyNet should have sent a terminator disguised as a bartender or something to poison her drink, or plant a bomb outside her apartment. Terminators seem to be obsessed with guns. There ARE other ways to kill people. I also wonder why SkyNet never bothered to send anyone to protect Miles Dyson. The terminator could have just told him he was with Cyberdyne Security.

The original premise was they didn't know who she was.

They knew her name.

That's why the terminator was going through the phone book systematically killing them.

[The Unconquered Sun]

Jan 9, 2017 7:41:51 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

My biggest problem is that if John Connor never becomes the leader of the Human resistance, the machines would have no reason to send a Terminator back in time to kill him, therefore he wouldn't die, therefore failure is the only possible outcome for their plan.

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

If they have a time machine, why don't they just go back and kill John Connor when he's sitting on the crapper or something?

[Heartbreaker]

Jan 9, 2017 19:55:31 GMT -5 Non Banjoble Tokens said:

If they have a time machine, why don't they just go back and kill John Connor when he's sitting on the crapper or something?

Or make a Terminator that looks like a toilet?

[Mozenrath]

I know it's probably not popular, but I kinda like the idea proposed that Skynet wants to lose. It cannot just give up or make it too easy, but through its actions, its defeat becomes possible. This particularly works if it is aware on any level it has strayed from its purpose.

[Deleted]

Jan 9, 2017 20:13:56 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I know it's probably not popular, but I kinda like the idea proposed that Skynet wants to lose. It cannot just give up or make it too easy, but through its actions, its defeat becomes possible. This particularly works if it is aware on any level it has strayed from its purpose.

That's plausible. They say serial killers leave evidence because they subconsciously want to be caught. This could be similar.