Had a weird thought about the Terminator films.

[crabra comander]

What were the limitations on the time machine?
Wouldn't it be wiser to continually attempt a known point of contact to try and kill Connor in the past? Instead of going at different times? They could have just insured a nuke landed where Sarah Connor was...

 

[hankey01]

Maybe the original timeline with Kyle could have had him exist in the present, but the appearance of a Terminator somehow pulls him into the future..where he learns he must go back in time to save Sarah...but for some reason he lost all his memories of previously existing in that time...a side effect of traveling forward in time? I dunno..

Maybe Kyle worked at Skynet...experimenting with temporal energy that pulls him into the future by accident (before he met Sarah)...and he loses his memory and assumes he always existed in the future...

 

[wh0urdady]

What were the limitations on the time machine?
Wouldn't it be wiser to continually attempt a known point of contact to try and kill Connor in the past? Instead of going at different times? They could have just insured a nuke landed where Sarah Connor was...

If they kept sending them to the same point of contact, it would completely change their behavior in what/where they would go.

After T2, I believe that Sarah had John moved around a lot and kept a low profile, so there was no data in where they would have been.

 

[Vivek]

Without knowing it's coming he wouldn't be prepared and likely would have lost if the greatest military minds couldn't have won either. Further he'd be a completely different person because of the different father, so he wouldn't be the John Connor needed to lead the Resistance anyway.

Interesting. I didn't realize that it was always implied that he knowing the future is what made him the leader to win the war against the machines. I know that was hinted at in the sequels, but wasn't sure it was so in the first movie's future. That makes sense as to why Kyle being the father is really vital for John and the war.

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a nonlinear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff." - Ten

Ha..well then the Doctor is correct .

Maybe the original timeline with Kyle could have had him exist in the present, but the appearance of a Terminator somehow pulls him into the future..where he learns he must go back in time to save Sarah...but for some reason he lost all his memories of previously existing in that time...a side effect of traveling forward in time? I dunno..

Maybe Kyle worked at Skynet...experimenting with temporal energy that pulls him into the future by accident (before he met Sarah)...and he loses his memory and assumes he always existed in the future...

Nice, that's a good twist to having Kyle being from the present.

Your hypothesis kinda reminded me of the episodes from Sarah Connor Chronicles. I miss that show, took its time to put things in gear, but really expanded the universe in a unique way. But it had quite the massive cliffhanger series finale.

 

[wh0urdady]

Maybe the original timeline with Kyle could have had him exist in the present, but the appearance of a Terminator somehow pulls him into the future..where he learns he must go back in time to save Sarah...but for some reason he lost all his memories of previously existing in that time...a side effect of traveling forward in time? I dunno..

Maybe Kyle worked at Skynet...experimenting with temporal energy that pulls him into the future by accident (before he met Sarah)...and he loses his memory and assumes he always existed in the future...

What if Kyle was sent back in time as an agent for the "Machines" to help setup something that would be beneficial to the machines. However, after arriving he aborts his mission, meets up with Sarah, and gives her the down-low on what happens. They have a child together, he gets killed by the machines after tracking him down since he aborted his mission. Sarah prepares John for what is about to happen, and he becomes very beneficial to helping destroy the "Machines"

 

[SmilingOtter]

Somewhat on topic, yet not:

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Funny comic strip.

 

[Vivek]

Good one, I remember reading that strip. But here is why anybody shouldn't attempt to go back and kill Hitler. Elimination of Hitler indeed has some parallels to the destruction of Skynet, so as to prevent war and saving the lives of millions.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

They could have just insured a nuke landed where Sarah Connor was...

Yup... and nuking Cyberdyne Systems too. Good call.

Can't believe people still bring this up.

Interesting. I didn't realize that it was always implied that he knowing the future is what made him the leader to win the war against the machines. I know that was hinted at in the sequels, but wasn't sure it was so in the first movie's future. That makes sense as to why Kyle being the father is really vital for John and the war.

From the IMDB script - not entirely word for word what's in the movie.

SARAH
Well, at least I know what to name him. I don't suppose you'd know who the father is? So I don't tell him to get lost when I meet him.

REESE
John never said much about him. He dies. Even before the war...

SARAH
(interrupting)
Stop! I don't want to know. Hold still. So...it was John that ordered you here?

REESE
I volunteered.

SARAH
You volunteered?

REESE
It was an honor. A chance to meet the legend. Sarah Connor. Who taught her son to fight... organize, prepare. From when he was a kid. When you were in hiding, before the war.

Pretty obvious there is only one timeline and John's past is Sarah's future and Reese is the one setting it in motion. Always and forever.

 

[Vivek]

REESE
It was an honor. A chance to meet the legend. Sarah Connor. Who taught her son to fight... organize, prepare. From when he was a kid. When you were in hiding, before the war.

Pretty obvious there is only one timeline and John's past is Sarah's future and Reese is the one setting it in motion. Always and forever.

Thanks for sharing that, been a while since I saw the first film. And that last line of dialogue really confirms it.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Yeah, + the picture that gets taken at the end of the movie, that Reese talks about too... memorizing every line, every curve and wondering what she was thinking of at that moment, as she seemed just a little sad. Well, we certainly learn who she was thinking of. .)

 

[3jack]

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but here we go anway. I can understand John sending Kyle back to protect his mum once the terminator is sent back but how is John already IN the future if Kyle is his dad. Surely John can't exist UNTIL Kyle is sent back. Am I just missing something obvious in the movies?

 

[Too Much Garlic]

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but here we go anway. I can understand John sending Kyle back to protect his mum once the terminator is sent back but how is John already IN the future if Kyle is his dad. Surely John can't exist UNTIL Kyle is sent back. Am I just missing something obvious in the movies?

You are not thinking about it fourth dimensionally.

Reese exists in time prior to his birth - he exists in 1984 as a young man, saving a young woman from getting killed, and he dies in that year. Later, Reese is born, grows up, gets to know John Connor, not knowing it's his future son (future in HIS life, in the PAST for everyone else), falls in love with the woman in the picture that John gives him (the picture of Sarah), he volunteers to go through time... and from that moment forward, Reese no longer exists in time. His life in time isn't chronological - he dies before he is born.

 

[Contec]

Kyle Reese has Sarah Connor as a MILF

 

[wraslor]

One thing to consider as well to those saying why didn't they go back to xxx time and do this instead etc. It never goes into great detail about time travel, it could be linked between certain times eg, maybe you can only go to a certain time when a certain set of circumstances line up, maybe it costs a great deal of energy, and then with them being machines maybe those times had the best odds of success.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

One thing to consider as well to those saying why didn't they go back to xxx time and do this instead etc. It never goes into great detail about time travel, it could be linked between certain times eg, maybe you can only go to a certain time when a certain set of circumstances line up, maybe it costs a great deal of energy, and then with them being machines maybe those times had the best odds of success.

Interesting, but seems like overthinking it a bit. But definitely an interesting take on explaining the sequels.

For T1 it doesn't matter, as that is the only time: paraphrasing - "no one else comes through, it's just him and me". Pretty much negates all the sequels right there.

 

[wh0urdady]

Interesting, but seems like overthinking it a bit. But definitely an interesting take on explaining the sequels.

For T1 it doesn't matter, as that is the only time: paraphrasing - "no one else comes through, it's just him and me". Pretty much negates all the sequels right there.

He means at that time that he knows of. After Skynet finds out they that failed on that attempt, they try again at a later date.

I like the Idea of Kyle being sent back by the machines to set something up for them, and be betrays them, setting off the events of the Terminator series.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

He means at that time that he knows of. After Skynet finds out they that failed on that attempt, they try again at a later date.

Which Reese should know about, as John knows about it, because it happened to him in his past, when he sends Reese back to 1984.

Again, people keep forgetting to look at this chronologically from the perspective of time, not the characters.

All the sequels take place in a period PRIOR to Reese volunteering to go back to save Sarah, so everything that has happened, John experienced, and why wouldn't he tell his champion father, so he could warn Sarah and himself about it in the past - if for anything... it's pretty idiotic not to attempt to warn yourself, when you know what happened to you growing up.

 

[wh0urdady]

Which Reese should know about, as John knows about it, because it happened to him in his past, when he sends Reese back to 1984.

Again, people keep forgetting to look at this chronologically from the perspective of time, not the characters.

All the sequels take place in a period PRIOR to Reese volunteering to go back to save Sarah, so everything that has happened, John experienced, and why wouldn't he tell his champion father, so he could warn Sarah and himself about it in the past - if for anything... it's pretty idiotic not to attempt to warn yourself, when you know what happened to you growing up.

Maybe John felt that telling Kyle everything would change the course of events. Also remember, that John thinks his mother is crazy, and actually doesn't believe the story about the machines.

 

[Death Grin]

Kyle Reese has Sarah Connor as a MILF

Classy.