Sarah and Kyle Reese travel through time to the year 2017 and seemingly defeat Skynet but the system core, contained inside a subterranean blast shelter, survives unknown to them, thus further delaying, rather than preventing, Judgment Day. In Terminator Genisys (2015), the fifth film in the franchise, Judgment Day was postponed to an unspecified day in October 2017, attributed to altered events in both the future and the past. In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009), the attack on Cyberdyne Systems in the second film delayed Judgment Day to April 21, 2011.

In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Terminator Salvation (2009), Judgment Day was postponed to July 2003. Judgment Day has various different dates in different timelines of the subsequent films, as well as the television series, creating a multiverse of temporal phenomena. At some point in this future, Skynet develops the ability of time travel, and both it and the Resistance seek to use this technology in order to win the war either by altering or accelerating past events, or by preventing the apocalyptic timeline.Īn infographic illustrating the continuity between the various timelines in the Terminator franchise. In the post-apocalyptic aftermath, Skynet later builds up its own autonomous machine-based military capability which includes the Terminators used against individual human targets and therefore proceeds to wage a persistent total war against the surviving elements of humanity, some of whom have militarily organized themselves into a Resistance. The system initiates a nuclear first strike against Russia, thereby ensuring a devastating second strike and a nuclear holocaust which wipes out much of humanity in the resulting nuclear war. Shortly after activation, Skynet perceives all humans as a threat to its existence and formulates a plan to systematically wipe out humanity itself. strategic 'Global Digital Defense Network' computer system by Cyberdyne Systems which becomes self-aware.

Skynet is positioned in the first film, The Terminator (1984), as a U.S. The central theme of the franchise is the battle for survival between the nearly-extinct human race and the world-spanning synthetic intelligence that is Skynet. 10.3 Terminator Genisys-connected television seriesĬoncept art illustrating the conflicts between Skynet and the Resistance in a post-apocalyptic, futuristic setting, envisioned by creator James Cameron for the 1984 film The Terminator.5.2 Terminator Genisys: The YouTube Chronicles (2015).5.1 Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series (2009).4.1 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009).3.3 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).

Terminator 3 full movie cast