Rise of the Machines timeline (film)

The concept of timeline or continuity in the Terminator universe is complicated by the franchise's reliance on time travelling missions, as many events have been altered as to when and how they happened, such as the creation of Skynet, as well as Judgment Day. There have also been events undone or postponed due to interference from the time travels of both machines and Resistance, such as Miles Dyson's involvement in Skynet, or the identity of the developers of Skynet (changing from Cyberdyne Systems to Cyber Research Systems and back again.) Some events also seem to be part of a predestination paradox of sorts, where time travel seems to be required to maintain a timeline rather than to alter it.

In the Terminator franchise, there is no single canonical time theory. In fact, time theory is barely mentioned in the two original Terminator films by creator James Cameron. There are several time theories have been applied in various Terminator sources or discussed along fandom.

See also: Time theory

Note: This page contains spoilers

Alternate timelines

Main article: Alternate timeline

The theory of alternate timelines has been applied to various parts of Terminator lore, including Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles and Terminator Genisys. This theory affirms that changes made during time travels cause alternate timelines to be created. However, there are two major variations on this theory:

• A new timeline will be created once a critical event is decisively changed in the past. For example, in "Today Is The Day, Part 2", Jesse Flores did not know Resistance soldier Billy Wisher, as he does not exist in her timeline since Derek Reese has travelled back to 2007 and killed him. Another example: in Terminator Genisys, Kyle Reese arrived in an alternate 1984, caused by an attempt to assassinate Sarah Connor in 1973. The writers of Terminator Genisys explained that Alex (an incarnation Skynet) travelled from another timeline to ensure that the machines had a chance at victory.
• A new timeline will be created whenever a character is sent back chronologically due to the Butterfly effect. A possible example is seen in Terminator: Revolution: John Connor mentioned he was targeted by a T-850 sent from the future when he was a 12-year-old in 1996. However, after he travelled to the year 1996 with the T-Infinity, there was a full squad of T-850s trying to kill his younger self.

Single timeline

Main article: Single timeline

See also: Predestination paradox

The theory of single timeline applies to other parts of Terminator lore, including The Terminator and The Terminator: Tempest. It posits that there is only one timeline, and that time travelling events cause it to constantly shift.

Temporal mechanics

As we've seen, different parts of the Terminator franchise adhere to completely different theories of time travel, making it difficult to determine how time travel actually works. Though there is little in-universe explanation of the temporal mechanics of the space-time continuum in the Terminator universe, many contradictory bits and pieces have been picked up from the multiple alterations to the timeline that have occurred due to temporal interference by the Connors, the Resistance, Skynet's agents, or others:

• Sometimes, traveling back in time will cause a predestination paradox. Instead of altering the course of events, it will cause those events and bring about the timeline that the time traveler comes from; essentially, the time traveler's presence and actions their consequences in the past create the future that the traveler comes from, causing a never-ending loop where they're destined to travel back in time to cause the chain of events that lead to them going back in the first place. The Terminator
• When a time traveler (or, in John Connor's case, a person whose very existence was caused by time travel) successfully alters the course of events, their own memories and their existence from the point they arrived in the past onwards will remain the same and continue, allowing the time traveler originating from the previous timeline to continue to exist in the new timeline as an anomaly. Terminator 2: Judgment Day "Gnothi Seauton" "Today Is The Day, Part 2"
• When the course of events leading up to an event were due to a predestination paradox and the causality loop is broken (for example, by deciding not to send the time traveler back to fulfill their role in the past), the future reality can continue to exist without its own version of the time traveler going back as the previous timeline's version did. Revolution issue 5
• When two or more time travelers are sent back to different dates, the second time traveler may come from the new, altered future instead of the version that had originated in the first traveler's timeline. "Today Is The Day, Part 2"
• When a time traveler travels into the future of a timeline, they may arrive in an alternate future where their return to their origin date has not yet occurred and thus the time traveler has been completely absent for the time between the origin date and the future they'd arrived in. Terminator 3: The Redemption, "Born to Run"
• Even if many alternate timelines (or iterations of the single timeline) have been created, certain key events tend to remain the same (i.e., Skynet's creation; Judgment Day happening; John Connor rising to become leader of the Resistance; Skynet and the Resistance fighting a war which ultimately ends with the Resistance's victory; or many of Skynet machines being virtually if not completely identical down to their series designations). In T2: Rising Storm, Skynet noted these recurring patterns when discussing the mechanics of time travel, and theorized that timelines have an elasticity to them: time travel can cause events to bend off into an alternate direction, but the new course of events will seek to "spring back" towards the original timeline's history, in an attempt by the spacetime continuum to force the alternate timelines' divergent histories back into the original version of events. T2: Rising Storm
• Finally, The Terminator RPG tries to look at the whole franchise and give a holistic look at temporal mechanics. According to this approach, time travel is both dangerous and unpredictable. Changes to the timestream happen in waves, as multidirectional echoes that affect the past, present, and future. Although the timeline tries to correct itself, there's no way to know whether time travel will end in a predestination paradox or an actual change in history. It’s impossible to tell whether the time traveler will remain unaffected by this ripple effect or if they will be altered or even erased from existence. There's also no way to know if the manipulation of time is affecting one single timeline or actually creating multiple alternate branches, or even whether it's possible to collapse all these alternate timelines into a single dominant one. And, to make things even worse, there's no way to know if excessive tampering with the timestream won't eventually unravel time itself. The T2 RPG Sourcebook

The Kyle Reese paradox

Since the release of The Terminator, the best known and most highly-debated paradox is the predestination paradox of John Connor sending Kyle Reese back in time to become John Connor’s father. If we consider the timeline of The Terminator to be single and linear, it is possible that the causality loop began long before the film and that there were numerous timelines before the movie. Points of contention include whether Kyle was always John Connor's father (perhaps requiring someone else to send Kyle back in time), or whether in that theoretical alpha timeline John Connor had a different father. Kyle Reese knows that Skynet sent back a T-800, so it’s possible that a timeline was created before he went back in time. Similarly, there must be a reason why the Sarah Connor snapshot he carries with him was taken, as without the events of The Terminator the boy would not take a picture of her.

See also

• Year index through the Terminator franchise

External links

• Timestream on Wikipedia
• Continuity (setting) on Wikipedia
• Parallel universe (fiction) at Wikipedia
• TerminatorFiles.com - Timelines
• TerminatorFiles.com - Chronology
• M.J. Young's theories on time-traveling
• M.J. Young's analysis of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• M.J. Young's analysis of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
• Terminator Genisys: The franchise timeline, explained | EW.com

YouTube videos regarding Terminator timelines

• Terminator Timeline EXPLAINED (Terminator Genisys Erased History?) - YouTube
• Terminator Timeline Explained - YouTube
• The Terminator Timeline Explained - YouTube
• TERMINATOR Full Timeline Explained! (Dark Fate Update) - YouTube
• Terminator Timeline Explained : How To Watch Terminator Movies in Chronological Order - YouTube

Due to the latest development in the Terminator franchise, this page offers a timeline having conflicts with the previous film Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

• In the opening narration of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, John Connor says that he was attacked by the T-1000 when he was 13 years old. This is an inconsistency. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Connor was only 10 years old, as shown on the police computer when the T-1000 accesses it. So either the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day happened later than 1995 (which isn't possible as John states that these events happened 10 years ago as of T3) or the events of The Terminator occurred in 1981 to make John 13 as of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

• In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Sarah Connor's coffin states she was born in 1959. In previous movies, her birth year had been given as 1965.

• The writers of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles confirm it is considered as an alternate timeline to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

The timeline established by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The story continued from Terminator 2: Judgment Day timeline in 1995.

Note:

• The section mainly contains events mentioned in the films The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, except for those with reference notes.
• The following events are mentioned in the film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, except for those with reference notes.
• Several dates conflicts with those given in the DVD of the third film.

Timeline G

Note:

• This is a timeline prior to the event in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
• This is an altered timeline due to the event in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Timeline "F2" and "G" are intermediate timelines to resolve the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Timeline J).

Timeline F2

Timeline G

Somewhere between 1964 - 1966 (regarding Sarah's birth)

• Sarah J. Connor is born.

1980

• Birth of Katherine Brewster

May 12, 1984

• 01:52:00
  • A Series 800 Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor.
• 02:01:00
  • Kyle Reese arrives from the future, to protect Sarah.
• Kyle Reese succeeds in destroying the Terminator, but dies himself.
• Some parts from the Terminator are left behind at the Cyberdyne Systems factory.

February 28, 1985

• John Connor is born.

Unknown

• Cyberdyne develops robots and Skynet with help from the parts of the Terminator.

1994

• Sarah was placed at a mental institution after trying to blow up a computer factory and telling about the soon to come the Judgment Day.
• John is taken care of by the foster family Todd and Janelle Voight.

June 7, 1995

• John Connor and Katherine Brewster kissed in a friend's basement, after which, from Katherine's perspective, he disappeared. She later becomes his wife and second-in-command of the Resistance.

June 8, 1995

• 03:14:00
  • A Series 800 Terminator arrives to protect John Connor.
• 04:58:00
  • A Series 1000 Terminator arrives to kill John Connor.
• Death of Miles Dyson, the Cyberdyne Systems scientist destined to become the creator of Skynet.
• The T-800 succeeds in protecting John Connor, destroys the T-1000 and releases Sarah Connor from the mental institution.
• Sarah and John destroy the remaining parts of the first Terminator and the second T-800.
  • Sarah and John hide from the government.^{[citation needed]}

Somewhere between August 29 - December 31, 1997

• Sarah was able to live past the date of the presumed Judgment Day. She dies of leukemia.
• John continues to live a lonely life, off the grid. Undetected by Skynet.

2002

• Kyle Reese is born.

2003

• The government and Cyber Research Systems take over what’s left of Cyberdyne Systems.
• Skynet are being developed by the United States Air Force and Cyber Research Systems, where Lieutenant General Robert Brewster is in charge.

Unknown

• John Connor reunites with Katherine Brewster.

July 24, 2004

July 25, 2004

• 17:18:00
  • Skynet is activated by Lieutenant General Robert Brewster. Skynet becomes self-aware.
• 18:18:00
  • First massive nuclear launch initiated.

Unknown

• John Connor begins to put together the Resistance.

2029

• Skynet decides to send a T-800 back in time to kill Sarah Connor.
• John Connor decides to send back Kyle Reese to protect Sarah Connor.
• Skynet decides to send a T-1000 back in time to kill John Connor.
• John Connor manages to reprogram a T-800 and decide to send it back to protect his younger self in 1995.

2032

• John Connor is killed by a Series 850 Terminator.
• Skynet sends back a Series X Terminator to 2004 to try killing several members of the Resistance.

October 28, 2033

• Kathrine Brewster reprograms the T-850 who killed John Connor and sends it back to 2004, before the Judgment day to protect the younger couple of herself and John Connor.

Timeline H

Note:

• The event of this timeline is shown in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
• Events marked with Wheat color are actual events in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
• Events marked with Grey color are time travels made in a previous timeline.

Timeline J

Somewhere between 1964 - 1966 (regarding Sarah's birth)

• Sarah J. Connor is born.

1980

• Birth of Katherine Brewster

May 12, 1984

• 01:52:00
  • A Series 800 Terminator arrives from the future to kill Sarah Connor.
• 02:01:00
  • Kyle Reese arrives from the future, to protect Sarah.
• Kyle Reese succeeds in destroying the Terminator, but dies himself.
• Some parts from the Terminator are left behind at the Cyberdyne Systems factory.

February 28, 1985

• John Connor is born.

Unknown

• Cyberdyne develops robots and Skynet with help from the parts of the Terminator.

1994

• Sarah was placed at a mental institution after trying to blow up a computer factory and telling about the soon to come the Judgment Day.
• John is taken care of by the foster family Todd and Janelle Voight.

June 7, 1995

• John Connor and Katherine Brewster kissed in a friend's basement, after which, from Katherine's perspective, he disappeared. She later becomes his wife and second-in-command of the Resistance.

June 8, 1995

• 03:14:00
  • A Series 800 Terminator arrives to protect John Connor.
• 04:58:00
  • A Series 1000 Terminator arrives to kill John Connor.
• Death of Miles Dyson, the Cyberdyne Systems scientist destined to become the creator of Skynet.
• The T-800 succeeds in protecting John Connor, destroys the T-1000 and releases Sarah Connor from the mental institution.
• Sarah and John destroy the remaining parts of the first Terminator and the second T-800.
  • Sarah and John hide from the government.^{[citation needed]}

Unknown

• Sarah starts to collect weapons.

Somewhere between August 29 - December 31, 1997

• Sarah was able to live past the date of the presumed Judgment Day. She dies of leukemia.
• John continues to live a lonely life, off the grid. Undetected by Skynet.

2002

• Kyle Reese is born.

2003

• The government and Cyber Research Systems take over what’s left of Cyberdyne Systems.
• Skynet are being developed by the United States Air Force and Cyber Research Systems, where Lieutenant General Robert Brewster is in charge.

July 24, 2004

• After being hurt in a motorbike accident, John and Katherine Brewster meet each other for the first time since their kiss in 1995.
• A Series X Terminator arrives to find and kill the future members of the Resistance. It succeeds in killing several members.
• A computer virus is unleashed and starts to break down all kinds of civilian and military communication networks.
• A reprogrammed T-850 arrives to protect Katherine Brewster and John Connor.

July 25, 2004

• 17:18:00
  • Skynet is activated by Lieutenant General Robert Brewster. Skynet becomes self-aware.
• 18:18:00
  • First massive nuclear launch initiated.
• Katherine Brewster, John Connor, and the T-850 go to Crystal Peak in hope of stopping Skynet and preventing the nuclear attack, only to find out that Skynet is not there. Instead, the T-850 brought them there to be safe from the nuclear attack.
• The T-850 succeeds in destroying the T-X along with itself.

Unknown

• John Connor begins to put together the Resistance.

• John Connor leading the human race to victory against the machines.

Continuity

At least two timelines begin after the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine:

• Terminator 3: The Redemption timeline
• Infinity / Revolution timeline
• Terminator Salvation timeline

Timeline up to Terminator Salvation

2002

• Kyle Reese is born.

2003

• Marcus Wright is on death row and approached by Doctor Serena Kogan from Cyberdyne System Genetics Division to donote his body for Project Angel.
• The government takes over Cyberdyne System's research and United States Air Force continues researching robot technology.
• Skynet is being developed.

2004

• Skynet is activated and becomes self-aware before launching nuclear attack.

Unknown

• General Hugh Ashdown called a global secret summit of surviving military leaders across the world at the Gallapogos, dispatching and summoning any and all remaining professional officers, including those who were on leave, retire, on in-active service, stationed in low-priority areas, with Ashdown believing and insisting these Resistance leaders were mankind's last hope.
• The remain military from worldwide organized into the Resistance.
• Marcus Wright is converted into a Hybrid as an Infiltration Prototype with a mission to get John Connor and Kyle Reese to Skynet. He is then placed in the Skynet VLA.

The story continues in the next timeline in 2018 on Terminator Salvation-timeline.

References

• Terminator 3 Blu-ray Release