Can someone explain the terminator series to me?

I have read the terminator wikipedia articles on time travel. Yes, it's still confusing.
terminator.wikia.com...
Someone help me understand the time travel concept better.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Apparently, you can go backward in time but you can't take your clothes with you.




TheAssoc.

reply to post by TheAssociate


Well i have been watching these movies non stop and studying about the series online. What confuses me is how nothing has a begging. like a loop.

In terms of paradox the Terminator series requires a severe suspension of disbelief.

There are so many flaws in the storyline that trying to analyze it will only cause you to miss out on the Arnolds epic, almost Shakespearian acting performance!

reply to post by Hefficide


I love the first two films. I never have seen the third and the fourth is o.k. Did you know they are going to have another squeal to the fourth and finally an animated terminator film.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


I didn't know that. I enjoyed the last film, Terminator Salvation, though a lot of people seemed not to. For what it was, a fiction film, I thought it met my benchmark for enjoyability. So I'll be looking forward to the next one.

I wonder if we'll actually get two movies in a row with the same actor playing John Conners?

[edit on 8/22/10 by Hefficide]

reply to post by Hefficide


Well they had plan for a squeal. I know the animated film has more of a chance.
Here's info for the animated film.
terminator.wikia.com...

Here's info for the squeal
terminator.wikia.com...

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Thanks for the links! After reading I agree that the fifth movie looks less likely than the cartoon film does.

reply to post by Hefficide


Yeah! All they need to do is get the o.k. to film and show the films.

Nearly every time travel story gets confusing, the "Terminator" movies don't even try to make sense. The website cracked.com explained these problems very well.

The whole premise is based on a seemingly impossible paradox (they used a chip from the future, to then make the robots in that future).

Of course, the easier out would be to say that the scientist (I think his name was Bryce or something) would have done it on his own anyhow, and the chip simply helped others carry on...but I don't recall any mention of this.

Still, like any time travel movie, you have to throw out the idea of an actual paradox to enjoy it... (personally, I think that the Universe "doesn't care" about paradoxes....and matter is matter, but what the heck do I know?).

The studios ruined the continuity of the story lines which doesnt make it easier to understand either..ie t-salvation ignores t3

Terminator at the core of the story, isnt a time travel story. There is time travel in it but it doesnt play a big part in the story. At the core it is a story about mankind destroying itself, how human brought on their own demise. The first movie introduces Sarah Conner, a young woman then. She is told of Judgement Day, the end of the world pretty much, by Kyle Reese (the ONLY human to have time traveled in the actual story canon.) She ends up having sex with him, thus John Conner is born. In the second one, it picks when John is just a boy, his mother was commited to Pescadaro Mental Institution. Sarah and John learn of a way to possibly stop Judgement Day from happening, they execute a plan of assault on a company called Cyberdyne, it was a success and the Judgement Day was stopped, or so they thought. T3 picks up with Sarah passed away from leukemia, and John as a young adult, constantly moving from place to place in the california area, he learns ultimatly Cyberdyne was just a small player in the development of SKYNET, an sutonomous military defense computer program, John tries once again to stop Judgement Day, but fails realizing that it cant be stopped, he is just meant to survive it. Its a good story if you care to actaully read up on it.

That's a pretty good summary.

Suffice to say, at least in the Terminator series, altering the past doesn't seem to affect the future scenario at all. There's a lot of paradox weirdness, but at it's core, it's a story about people, not time travel, and about why people are better than unfeeling machines. This is especially the theme in T2, but it's repeated throughout the series.

Originally posted by Gazrok
That's a pretty good summary.

Suffice to say, at least in the Terminator series, altering the past doesn't seem to affect the future scenario at all. There's a lot of paradox weirdness, but at it's core, it's a story about people, not time travel, and about why people are better than unfeeling machines. This is especially the theme in T2, but it's repeated throughout the series.

I believe in the movies they were successful in postponing "Judgment Day", so that would be an indication of changing the future. The weird thing is the "future" changing the "past", like Kyle Reese knocking up Sarah Connor, the Terminators being reverse engineered, etc. In the TV series (which I have been watching and is really good), the future was definitely affected by the past as Jesse has memories of Derek that didn't happen to him (because of the past altering the future).

Now if all of these paradoxes can occur, why wouldn't Skynet just send themselves back in time before the dawn of man to create themselves?

By its very nature, you really can't "reconcile" a paradox... Unless of course, you subscribe to the alternate time line theory, where every change would then create a whole new timeline, independent of the altered one, etc. Then we really get into some trippy what ifs....