Los Angeles, California (also called "LA") is a key location in the Terminator series.
- The Terminator is set mainly in Los Angeles, save for the ending, which takes place at a gas station in Mexico.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day is set mostly in Los Angeles. However, a significant portion of the story is set on Enrique Salceda's compound some miles south of the city.
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines begins in Los Angeles, but also moves out of the city to the town of Victorville, California. The conclusion of the third film is set at Crystal Peak, a fictional mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
- In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Los Angeles is the main point where Skynet will be born and where many future Resistance members will come.
- In Terminator Salvation, Marcus Wright encounters Kyle Reese and Star in Los Angeles. Kyle states he and Star are the members of the Resistance's LA branch.
- In the future, some of the Skynet Work Camps are located in the ruins of Los Angeles.[citation needed]
- In Terminator Genisys, the T-800 goes back in time to Los Angeles, May 12, 1984 to terminate Sarah Connor. Instead, it finds her waiting with her Guardian and they easily terminate the T-800. Kyle Reese later arrives to come under attack by a T-1000 only to be saved by Sarah. The three eliminate the T-1000 and the reactivated T-800 and then Kyle and Sarah travel forward in time to San Francisco in 2017 to stop Genisys from coming online and bringing about Judgment Day while Guardian remains behind.