Timeline

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The timeline in the Terminator universe is greatly complicated by time travel. Many events have been altered as to when, and/or how they happened, such as the creation of Skynet, as well as Judgment Day. There has also been a series of events that have been undone or postponed due to interference from the travels of the Machines and the Resistance back into the past, such as Miles Bennett Dyson's involvement in Skynet, or who constructed Skynet (From Cyberdyne Systems to Cyber Research Systems). Some events also seem to be a predestination paradox of sorts, where time travel seems to be required to maintain a timeline (rather than to alter it).

In Terminator series, there is no single time theory for each of Terminator fiction. In fact, the time theory is barely mentioned in the two original Terminator films by the creator James Cameron. By far, there are several time theories have been applied in Terminator fiction or discussed along fandom.

Note: Some contents of this page contains spoiler and may be extreme misinformation.

Alternate timeline

Main article: Alternate future

The theory of alternate timeline has been applied to various Terminator fiction, including Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Terminator Genisys. The basis of the theory is that if a character traveled back chronologically, a new, alternate timeline will be created. However, there are two major variations:

• A new timeline will be created once a thing is decisively changed (an critical event happens) in the past. For example, in "Today Is The Day, Part 2", Jesse Flores did not know the Resistance Member Billy Wisher as he does not exist in her timeline since Derek Reese has travelled back to 2007 and killed him, hence creating a timeline where Billy Wisher does not exist in Post-Judgment Day period. Another example, in Terminator Genisys, Kyle Reese arrived in an alternate 1984, which is created from an attempt to assassinate Sarah Connor in 1973.
  • The writers of Terminator Genisys explained that Alex (Skynet) travelled from another timeline to ensure that the machines had a chance at victory once they created a whole new chronology.
• A new timeline will be created once a character is sent back chronologically due to the Butterfly effect. A possible example is that 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 T-Infinity, there were multiple T-850 units trying to kill his younger self.

Single timeline

See also: Predestination paradox

In the "single timeline" theory, there is only one timeline despite of the time travelling event. If a thing is changed in the past, situation in future will be changed immediately. For example, this theory may be the basis of the final issue of comic The Terminator: Endgame, in which everything is changed once Jane Connor is born as she will destroy Skynet before it can use Time Displacement Equipment to send the T-800 to 1984.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Cybernetic Dawn and Nuclear Twilight seems also following this theory as the two story arcs can form a "loop".

In addition, it seems characters in Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle believe this theory as the Skynet and Tech-Com send Simon to terminate Thomas Parnell in 2003 in order to removed the intimate danger in 2029. Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle #08

Mechanics

Though there is little full explanation of the temporal mechanics of the space-time continuum in the Terminator universe and what effects and consequences will ensue when one travels backwards in time and/or alters the course of events, many 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, and others:

• Sometimes, travelling back in time will, instead of creating an alternate timeline, create a predestination paradox. Instead of altering the course of events from what they were in the time-traveller's timeline, it will cause, predestine and fulfill those events and bring about the timeline that the time-traveller comes from; essentially, the time-traveller's presence and actions and their consequences in the past create the future that the traveller comes from instead of changing it, which in turn places the time-traveller in 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)
• If and when a time-traveller (or, in John Connor's case, a person whose very existence was caused by time travel) successfully alters the course of events from what they previously were and creates an alternate timeline, their own memories and their existence from the point they arrived in the past onwards will remain the same and continue, allowing the time-traveller 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 a present or future were due to a time-traveller's presence in the past in a predestination paradox, if, in the future, one makes the decision not to send the time-traveller back to fulfil their role in the past, then the future reality can continue to exist without its own version of the time-traveller going back as the previous timeline's version did. ( Issue #5)
• When two or more time-travellers were sent back to different dates, if the course of events were altered from what they were in the time-travellers' future reality after the first time-traveller had arrived but before the second one had (but so that their time-travel into the past would still happen in the new timeline's future), then when the second time-traveller arrived in the present, it could be the new, altered future's version of them instead of the version that had originated in the first traveller's timeline. ( "Today Is The Day, Part 2")
• When one time-travelled into the future of a timeline, the time-traveller's resulting displacement in history could send them into an alternate future where their return to the past or present had not yet occurred and thus the time-traveler had been completely absent in the time gap between the present they'd come from and the future they'd arrived in. ( Terminator 3: The Redemption, "Born to Run")
• Although many alternate timelines have been created, across the majority of them, many certain events and/or the basis of history remain the same, or at least similar to, what they were in the original, pre-time travel timeline (i.e., Skynet's creation and Judgment Day finding a way to occur whenever its previous origin is derailed by temporal interference; John Connor rising to become leader of the Resistance; Skynet and the Resistance fighting a war between humanity and machines after Judgment Day which usually ultimately ends with the Resistance's victory over Skynet; many of Skynet's different models and series of machines existing and being virtually if not completely identical throughout multiple timelines, right down to their series designations). Skynet noted these temporally-recurring patterns when discussing the mechanics of time travel, and theorised that the nature of temporal divergence is that the 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)

Theories

Understanding the theory of multiple timelines and time-travel

To understand the timelines, one needs to have a basic understanding of timelines and time-travel. A good source is M.J. Young's analysis of the Terminator movies and his theories on time-traveling. Keep in mind that there are many theories when it comes to time-travel. When it comes to understanding the timelines of the Terminator saga, some fans of the series base their conclusions on current theoretical physics, while others just let the Terminator films speak for themselves or even use theories from other time travel themed movies to explain it.

One very fundamental understanding of the theory of multiple timelines is that something cannot happen before it happens (though this is not necessarily true). For example, in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the viewer learns that the adult John Connor sends back a terminator to 1995 to protect his younger self. It follows that John must first live out his life, without meeting this terminator, to the very point in the future where he sends back the terminator (again, complicated, but not necessarily true). From this point, when the terminator arrives in 1995, a new timeline is created, a new future is set, and the previous timeline–from 1995 into the future–ceases to exist. However, the "future artifact(s)" (the reprogrammed terminator and anything else sent back from its time) still exists because its/their own past has not been changed.

This means that, if we assume the existence of multiple timelines, events evolving in time occur on two axis: by the actual date and by timeline. Time move forward in a axis from left to right. If someone arrives from the future to the past, the timeline is shifted down, and the time starts moving from that point in the past, forward again, but on a different track.

When does a timeline start?

When referring to the different timelines, like the Terminator 2: Judgment Day timeline, some may think it starts and stops at the same time as the movie does. It doesn't. A specific timeline starts from the point where something arrives from the future. It's also important to know that all information from the robot about events belongs to the previous timeline, not the current timeline, in this case The Terminator-timeline. All actual events occurring after its arrival (which you see in the movies) belongs to a new timeline, the Terminator 2: Judgment Day-timeline.

The terminators or Kyle from the future know only what happened in the future from the previous timeline, they don't know what's going to happen in the current timeline. Information in a source may go back several timelines. Like in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines it is revealed that Kate and John, as children met and kissed the day before the T-800 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day arrived. So this is actually events going back to The Terminator-timeline.

It's not enough to know when something is sent from the future, you also have to know in which specific timeline it was sent from. In some cases a hidden timeline can exist between two timelines:

Let's use five mythical, apples that never rot or grow stale. Say "Person A" on 01/01/1950 sees the 5 apples and he eats one apple. This event occurs in 01/01/1950 until 01/01/2000 this action belongs to Timeline 1. Then, on 01/01/2000 (we assume he comes from Timeline 1) "Person B" goes back to 01/01/1960 and says to "Person A": "You ate one apple on 01/01/1950." Now, "Person B" also say that "Person C" was sent from 01/01/2000 to 01/01/1940. If "Person C" ate one of the five apples, his actions changed realities for "Person A" as well as "Person B." Before "Person B" says "Person C" ate an apple, we correctly assumed he came from Timeline 2a. Once he says "Person C" ate the apple, this statement becomes incorrect; he actually comes from Timeline 2b because "Person C" changed history for both "Person A" and "Person B." However, if "Person C" did not eat the apple on 01/01/1940, then it created Timeline 2a, in which case "Person A" saw the five apples on 01/01/1950 and ate one. We can resolve the timelines like this:

• Timeline 1: "Person A" saw the 5 apples on 01/01/1950 and ate one apple on the same date. On 01/01/2000, "Person C" goes back to 01/01/1940.
• Timeline 2a: "Person C" arrives from Timeline 1 and creates Timeline 2a by NOT eating an apple. On 01/01/1940, he sees the 5 apples and eats none. Thus, on 01/01/1950 "Person A" sees five apples and eats one. This timeline exists until the year 01/01/2000 when "Person B" goes back to 01/01/1960 to talk with "Person A."
• Timeline 2b: "Person C" arrives on 01/01/1940 from Timeline 1 and creates Timeline 2b. He sees the five apples and eats one; thus, "Person A" sees four apples and also eats one. When "Person B" arrives on 01/01/1960 to tell "Person A" he ate one apple on 01/01/1950 AND "Person C" ate one apple on 01/01/1940, it is the first mention "Person A" has ever heard of the apple eaten by "Person C." "Person A" now realizes there were originally five apples, not four. Also, "Person B" could have only heard of the fifth apple if he had been told of its existence by either "Person C" or another historical source; "Person A" could not have told him about it in this timeline.

Regarding the timelines below

To fully understand the story and the timelines in the Terminator saga, it is divided up in sections. It's not possible to combine and retain all information in one single timeline, because some events cease to exist in a later timeline. A new timeline for each source (in this case all movies and the TV series). In a given timeline, this is the only timeline that exist.

The sources we use, in this case movies, novels, comics, games, holds the information on when and the circumstances on the how a new timeline are created. Sometimes, like in the movies, it contains several time travels, like Kyle and the T-800 in The Terminator. This means there are actually two timelines in The Terminator, but on this page we try to make it simple, by letting it be one timeline.

Problems connecting the timelines

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Timeline Continuity

According to which theories and "truths" you accept by the creators of the whole Terminator saga there are certain timeline problems which occurs.

The plot in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines reveal dates which doesn't add up with the timeline in Terminator 2: Judgment day:

• We know Terminator 2: Judgment Day happened in 1995. 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.
• In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Sarah Connor's grave site says she was born in 1959. In previous movies, her birth year had been given as 1965. However, it is important to note that she and John were living "off the grid", routinely using false names, birthdates, inter alia; and that her grave site was really a weapons cache.

Prior to the release of the TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles, an interview with writer of the show, Josh Friedman were published.

• Josh Friedman states that the TV series is set in an alternate timeline, which means the timeline of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is not "ceasing" to exist, but it has never occurred from the TV series point of view. The pilot of the show begins four years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Terminator Salvation director and cast explain the timelines

After the release of Terminator Salvation, the film's director McG, as well as actors Christian Bale and Anton Yelchin, answered several Q&As submitted by the fans. A few of the questions address various aspects of the Terminator franchise's timelines, including the original timeline, the predestination paradox, and how multiple timelines work in the films.

• Anton Yelchin talks about his character, Kyle Reese's origins, and the original timeline he came from in The Terminator.

"When Connor sent Kyle back, that was a world in which Kyle wasn't Connor's father. So when he sent him back, it then started this chain of the Connor that you have in [all the sequels] where Kyle Reese is his father — it'll be interesting how they tackle that [in future sequels] if we ever get to a point we have to send [Kyle] back."

• Christian Bale discusses what John Connor knows about time travel during Terminator Salvation:

"Yes, it hasn't been invented in this movie, so it can't be utilized yet. He knows entirely that there's a bizarre situation where he knows Kyle Reese — who is a teenager but who is his father — and that he'll have to send him back in time. But Kyle Reese is not aware of that."

• McG states that Terminator Salvation uses"... the spirit of parallel worlds, as theorized by Einstein. We try to pay attention to that approach to a fundamentally theoretical construct." This allows Skynet to be aware of the other attempts on the life of John Connor, and allows it make plans based on its past successes and failures.
• McG mentions how it is able to identify and target Kyle Reese while he is just a civilian in 2018.

"It's a function of their recon during the dark period, and a function of their awareness of the events that had happened since Kyle Reese traveled back. By virtue of John Connor being alive, that means Kyle Reese did meet Sarah Connor and impregnate her. That data exists, and was brought into the fold at Skynet."

• McG goes on to discuss what would happen if Kyle were killed in Terminator Salvation, and the repercussions it would have on the timeline.

"Will he be erased in the photograph, like in Back to the Future? That’s an excellent question that theorists have been bandying about for the ages. We play it more simply. Kyle Reese must be kept alive, so he can be sent back in time from 2029 to protect Sarah Connor, impregnate her and she’ll give birth to John Connor who will save us all. And the simplest way to understand that is to protect the triangle of Kyle, John, and Sarah. Any deconstruction of that leads to more headache than satisfaction."

Comments on Terminator Salvation Cast and Crew explanations

Concerning the possibility of Kyle Reese being killed after Judgment Day and before impregnating Sarah — It is unlikely that John Connor would seize to exist in his timeline if Kyle Reese were to be killed in front of him before being able to conceive him, it would result in the formation of an alternate limbo timeline where John Connor is an anomaly and shall continue on his own path while two parallel timelines, one where Kyle does not die and goes back in time, and two Kyle never goes back and john is never born, shall continue to exist simultaneously, whereas for John, he shall not experience any change in his anomalous timeline.

Similar situations have occurred in the TSCC timeline, Derek's action in the past result in the formation of another timeline in which he is tortured by Charles Fischer, yet neither he nor as such nor his original timeline suffer any changes, proven by his lack of recollection of the incident, but this could also be a result of the stress of the procedure itself.

Another interesting aspect explored in TSCC is the resultant time travel in an alternate timeline due change in the said timeline, Jesse from the timeline where Derek is tortured (timeline B) travels back in time to encounter Derek from timeline A (not tortured original timeline) whose actions result in the creation of timeline B and the scenario which Derek from timeline B must suffer, this timeline is further altered by the arrival and actions of Jesse creating timeline C. this means that timeline B was the hidden timeline and the entire(Derek will not be tortured, yet Cameron, Derek and Cromartie are sent back in time from timeline B's creation) show now happens in timeline C which in itself is an anomalous timeline since its very existence could be negated and is hence uncertain.

Timelines of the Terminator series

Since the release of The Terminator the most highly debated issue is the predestination paradox of Kyle from the future impregnating Sarah and then become his father. Some just overlook this fact while other try to find solution to this paradox. Most fans want Kyle to always be John Connor's father (this would require someone else to send Kyle back in time for some other purpose), but in the original timeline it is still possible that John Connor previously had another father, and later Kyle impregnated Sarah.

Regarding the original timeline

See also: The Terminator timeline

In order to understand and make the story and timeline from the start of The Terminator work, it is suggested that there are numerous timelines before the actual event of the first movie (though all exist in the same exact universe). We know Kyle Reese accounts for two key events/objects from the future - First: Skynet sends back a T-800. Second: Kyle has a picture of Sarah Connor.

1. There must be a reason why Skynet sends back a T-800. It's because of the future leader of the Resistance. Likewise, there must be a reason why John Connor in the future sends back Kyle Reese to protect Sarah. John Connor in the future, cannot send back Kyle Reese before the T-800 already been in the past.
2. The reason why Sarah Connor snapshot was taken is the cause and action of the T-800 and Kyle Reese in past. Without these two events, Sarah would not decide to go on this trip at the end of The Terminator, which leads up to a boy taking a picture of her. This means, there have to be a timeline where Kyle Reese is going back, without a knowledge of a photo. Simply, because it doesn't exist yet.

See also

• Year index through the Terminator franchise

External sources

• 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