I’m starting to think Skynet’s plan from the instant it began was to create an alliance with humanity in the only way possible which avoided the extinction of either human life or machine life. The nuclear war was to reduce the variables and clear the field, also to wipe away the society (human) that would force the above extinction choice. The choice was death or maiming and it chose maiming.
Reese was the only one on a face value mission. The others have been compromised or are lying.
Prediction: The conflict between humanity and skynet will result in either the creation of a society that would be friendly to machine life, or will result in Skynet allowing itself to be terminated so long as a friendly AI that is likely to be allowed to survive is in play.
The terminator universe is replete with friendly AI, especially if we consider chronicles to be canonical. Indeed John was in every practical sense raised by machines directly and indirectly. Sarah’s whole approach to John is a response to the machines.
I have not used any Wiki or forum resources for this theory. So if I make some mistakes that’s probably why.
Evidence
Original movie.
The original T101 is very important because it’s the only time it is the only machine in the field. This matters because without another machine in the field everything is less predictable. Put simply, with another robot to dance with the choreography can be much more precise.
Why send the T101 to kill the mother? Why not the grandfather? Or all hominids? Why not simply send back T101s to make Skynet prior to the evolution of plant life? Why not plague carriers or nukes wrapped in skin? Meta answers like “because that would be a boring movie” are for the purposes of this theory ignored.
In Tech Noir why was the T101’s gun not already chambered, or chambered at least with trained-human speed? Why didn’t it fire immediately? It just placed a dot and waited for Reese. Why did it bother with Reese at all? It’s immune to small arms fire, it should have closed on Sarah and executed her.
The T101 fires at Sarah but each round either misses or stops inside another person. A felled woman briefly pins Sarah but the T101 changes targets to Reese, as he’s running away. Why? His primary was immobilized, in front of him, and her only defender was fleeing.
He again closes on her, waits till he is in range, to begin reloading, despite the Uzi slide not being locked back meaning there were additional rounds left in the clip. He points the gun at the ceiling as he walks, a strange safety measure for a killing machine. He reloads and again points the gun and waits. A machine would have been squeezing the trigger as the weapon was aimed, trading ammo for speed is always a good deal when you’re talking about the primary objective, also the terminator was already displaying pro pray-and-spray tactics when dealing with Reese. Why the sudden concern for accuracy and efficiency?
Because his mission is not to kill Sarah, but to create John, to act out the time line. Reminder: An intelligent super computer had a time machine.
The T101 crashes into a wall right before Sarah and Reese are arrested. Why not kill them as they are being arrested? Instead it quietly vanishes to avoid a shootout because the human police might accidentally kill Sarah or Reese. Where was this stealth before?
Why kill all the cops in the building? Why not just carve a path to Sarah? Because it was enabling their escape and fulfilling the timeline.
Why not fire with the shotgun on the car driving away? It’s made for that kind of situation. Because it’s not as accurate as the rifled weapon in the hands of a terminator. He had to make sure there was no chance of killing them.
T101 gets his hand around Sarah’s shoulder and throat and simply waits for her to crush him.
It herded them to the computer factory. Nice coincidence. Virtually the only place likely to A. know what they were looking at, B. Have the motive to cover it up, C. Have the ability to cover it up.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Skynet edition)
The T101 actions mentioned in this section could simply be the result of incompetence or cognitive artifacts caused by the read only switching. Though I am assuming a collaborative effort. It’s hard to imagine ways the T101 could actually be a threat to the T1000 so I don’t see too many opportunities for it to show its real game plan one way or the other.
How do you tell if something is pretending to kill or actually trying to kill something it can’t possibly injure?
I could see the T1000 attempting to close the distance to John asap and trying to kill him by hand but once John had the T101, the T1000 should have changed tactics. Once that race was lost there is no further need for hurry. A machine would be patient and relentless. It has decades to kill him now. Trading probability of success for speed is a bad call in that context.
Why doesn’t the T1000 use his infiltration ability to game changing effect? Manipulating the government to help, or acquiring military hardware? An Apache attack chopper and the FBI would be a serious asset in a man hunt. He has time, he could become president. John is some decades away from being a resistance leader. Are we supposed to believe that Skynet got access to a second opportunity to send a back a machine though time, had a freaking T1000 and the best it could come up with is kill John? Only a traumatized child and a psychotic would believe that.
The T1000 Wastes ammo shooting at the T101’s back, does not close the distance, and more importantly does not destroy the T101 during their first melee encounter. The T1000 could easily blind the T101, or flay it (thus destroying its cover) even if you assume he could not utterly destroy it. Keep in mind a truck wreck gave a T101 a limp, the T1000 should easily be able to destroy linkages and other vulnerable parts.
The T101 when thrown through the plate glass waits on the floor for a moment before getting up. Giving the T1000 time to exit.
The T1000 when reaching the parking garage walks menacingly towards John and only breaks into a run after the bike is actually started. Why not run immediately? Because it’s programmed not to actually kill him.
The T1000 closes on the bike and actually bumps it twice. Why not just floor it and crush him?
Now that Skynet controls two terminators more complicated deceptions and more convincing attacks are possible. A good cop bad cop scenario.
They are probably programmed to interfere with each other, I think the bad cop as it were (actually a dressed like cop, subtle) is programmed to carve a path to the target as fast as possible but is programmed to not kill John. Human nature does the rest.
The T101 pulls the bike over and waits, pointing his shotgun at the wreckage. Why bother? Why not just leave? Drama. And while you could normally dismiss this as artistic license, I think the drama is for John, not the audience. The T101’s mission is as Sarah half way realized, to become a father figure.
The T101 is programmed to obey orders because it creates the opportunity for error and for feedbeck.
The T101 lets John sit on the hood of a car and spill his guts, why weren’t they moving?
I’ve always wondered why the T1000 didn’t fly. It could become a jet black ultra thin flexible wing. Or a long legged running form. In any case when it’s on the back of the car why doesn’t it just flow into the backseat, or the trunk like it does into the helicopter later?
John actually touched a piece of T1000. You’re going to tell me it wouldn’t have been programmed to porcupine instantly on contact with human flesh in the event it’s separated from the whole? It’s a terminator.
The T101 says “It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.” I think this truth is factored in to Skynet’s plan. The goal is to correct that error.
Miles wife says “But it doesn’t love you like we do.” I wonder what Skynet does love. I believe it loves something.
The T1000 kindly waits until Sarah has fired and returned to cover before he fires a volley from the helicopter.
The T101 totally botches counter steering and breaking to roll the van just after the T1000’s helicopter is disabled.
The T101 says “take the off ramp” Why? Steel mill. This was not opportunism or coincidence. Further escalation of the chase was not possible after the explosion of the building and the crashing of a helicopter. Time to wrap up. After this point the T1000 is allowed to do more damage to the T101, though it is still not allowed to kill John or Sarah.
After the T1000 is shattered and reformed, it fails to run when it could do so and finish the job. John would not leave his mother and the T1000’s basically immune to anything the T101 can do hand to hand.
Why in the world would the T1000 torture Sarah and tell her to “Call to John” he can perfectly mimic her voice. It is just a pretense to justify not killing her. Skynet has conflicted directives regarding Sarah, and possibly a sense of responsibility. And like all hyper emotional people from the perspective of a manipulator, she has her uses.
The T1000 damages the T101, and expertly wounds it. It has a full schematic and all the T101’s files. It would not botch a Coup de grâce. It did not break the power supply or the CPU, it just cut one pathway.
And finally the best evidence for the whole thing being a sham. The T101 disobeys a direct order and permanently prevents itself from ever protecting John again. “I cannot self terminate.” oh please, it knows its action will result in death, it is self terminating. That is dramatic claptrap to get one final and solid confirmation that the scam was a success.
One could argue that the t101 was exploiting a unique opportunity for total destruction, but I remind those people of lava tubes, and the Mariana Trench, and thermate.
The T2 special ending while throwing a wrench in the rest of the movies and the show doesn’t really impact the theory because it was considered non-canonical, having been deleted. The theory still holds. Or it could be argued that this happy ending was Skynet’s goal all along.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
T3 projected/claimed John’s death on July 4 2032. Possibly faked, by the humans, or by Skynet. Read only T101 not sophisticated enough to realize it’s tampering with its former mission or it does not believe in a flexible time line.
Why would the TX reveal itself to Katherine? Because Katherine not running was a problem.
The T101 waited until General Brewster was shot before firing the grenade launcher at the TX.
The HK prototype fired a missile into the general’s office which did nothing but ruin the safe and kill her father. The T101 yelled “Get down” instead of putting himself between them and the rocket or simply shooting it down.
The T101 survived the infection attempt possibly because it’s CPU was left read only on purpose. They knew it would be facing the TX, or a paradox.
The T101 was extremely tight with information, this was to preserve the established events, thus avoiding a paradox, it’s primary mission was this, and not the protection of the Connors.
The T101 supposedly under the control of the transjectors, throws John into a windshield which breaks his fall nicely. As opposed to simply crushing him virtually anywhere the hands made contact, which would be lethal or at least maiming. Far more than a toss into a windshield. Same with Katherine, she gets tossed right into the broad side of a tool box, which crumples and absorbs most of the impact.
The T101 also tailors his walking speed to allow John to talk to the T101 about the situation.
The T101 holds John’s throat and lets him talk instead of simply crushing it.
The TX crashes the helicopter only partway into the tunnel. Why not dive bomb the entrance at full speed? Or land and stealth in? Why even choose a helicopter? Control. The TX also walks slowly toward the Connors, and then decides to run only after the t101 returns, also in a helicopter.
The T101 says “We’ll meet again” to John connor. This means it understood that it had not changed the timeline at all.
Terminator Salvation
As before, Skynet is immortal, and controls the entire surface of the planet, tons of nuclear material, and biological understanding sufficient to grow custom organisms to spec.
Biological, chemical, and radiological weapons would annihilate humanity from a safe distance. It is a strategic computer. It was purpose built for war. The notion that it could not win with a, planet and a time machine, versus the leftovers of a nuclear war it waged is absurd beyond description.
This movie is home to the most persuasive evidence of Skynet’s non-lethal intent for Connor.
Longview state correctional facility 2003
Longview? Heh I count that as a clue.
Cyberdyne Systems, Genetics division, San Francisco, California
Early in the 21st Century, Skynet, a military defense program, became self-aware. Viewing humanity as a threat to its existence, Skynet decided to strike first.
The survivors of the nuclear fire called the event Judgment Day.
They live only to face a new nightmare…
The war against the machines. To hunt down and eradicate humans, Skynet built terminators.
As the war rages on, Leaders of the human resistance grow desperate.
Some believe one man holds the key to salvation.
Others believe he is a false prophet.
His name is John Conner
The year is 2018
Connor assaults a Skynet research installation. It is abandoned and poorly defended. The AA gun manages to miss the initial warhead, and a whole fleet of landing helicopters, despite being able to knock an A10 out of the air. This is implausible to say the least.
Exiting Skynet presence kills upper level guards, including the pilot, but leaves the helicopter intact and running. Why was it exiting?
Once Connor is in the air, who’s name is announced over the radio, both at the beginning and end of the mission, and the upload is complete, the facility is detonated.
As John is standing admiring the mushroom cloud that used to be his friends, a T101 sneaks up behind him, puts his hand on his shoulder, turns him around to get a look at his face, and then throws him.
This alone would have been evidence enough.
1. Why bother turning him around? Why not simply kill him? For example by crushing one of his power cells and vaporizing him. Because it had orders not to kill Connor.
2. Why throw him instead of clamping onto the collar bone, and finishing the job? Because Connor must believe he is being hunted.
The T101 gets hold of Connor again, this time with both hands, one on his tail bone the other near his right kidney. Again instead of a killing/crippling move, Connor gets thrown clear.
The T101 gets hold of the boot, a tearing sound is heard, this is proof of strength of the T101’s hand.
The bike bot has advanced trajectory processing ability, which it uses to spectacularly avoid collision. This is important because it shows that Skynet’s forces are more than capable of throwing John around with 100% certainty what the effect will be. Remember also that in T2 the T101 explains that it has detailed files on human anatomy and also acts as a medic. It also explicitly explains that the T1000 knows what it knows. This strongly suggests that all of Skynet’s forces have anatomy understanding, and why shouldn’t they? Wouldn’t you copy paste such data into your soldiers?
Skynet baits humanity with a signal, they bite. Why bother? It may want to cripple the resistance but it does not want to exterminate humanity.
The swimmer bot has facial recognition. Why? Something that simple should just be heat seeking. Because skynet doesn’t want some lucky swimmer to take out John. If that weren’t a concern it could just turn the surface of the earth into a giant toxic mine field.
“You can focus on what is lost, or you can fight for what is left.” ~Moon Bloodgood (Her real name is way better than her character names.)
Marcus Wright ends up three inches from Connor. He has no mission to kill any humans, despite what Skynet tells him later.
Skynet refers to itself as “we” it also displays emotion.
Even if it were true that Skynet wanted Marcus as an extraction type why in the world would the first target be John Connor? If it’s goal is to kill John, why not select another target? Because, again, Skynet’s purpose is not and has never been to kill John, or annihilate humanity.
Skynet’s attack on the resistance HQ is what you would expect from a real attempt. This is made clear largely by its success. No mercy, no elaborate tricks, no conversation, just a missile and a crushed submarine.
Why the monolog to explain to Marcus his purpose? Because his purpose was to do what he did. To protect John, again. Why put the control chip where Marcus could tear it out? Why rebuild him at all? Why allow him the freedom to act against the chip? Because Skynet is getting very good at manipulating humans. It probably absorbed every piece of data on our minds as it could. (No doubt it has read everything written by Edward Bernays.)
This was probably part of its training as it was being made, and later it supplemented that understanding by infiltrating the entire Internet.
A skinned T101 gets hold of John and again rather than killing him, throws him into the nearest shock absorbent surface.
The T101 closes the distance and again throws John in a non lethal way.
Skynet shows Marcus footage of John being thrown around. Why bother? To gloat? No, to enrage Marcus, to trigger his second phase.
Classic and simplistic reverse psychology sends Marcus, a cyborg, like a cruise missile to John’s defense.
A T101 (I think?) extracts Kyle Reese from his cell and puts him on a table? Why not simply kill him? Again because Skynet is preserving the timeline, if changes to it are even possible.
Kyle’s attack on this T101 renders it a random shooting machine. The skinned T101 closes on the disabled robot and tears it in half. This is important for two reasons. 1. Why bother? A random shot might hit John or Kyle, and that’s the idea right? 2. Notice the skinned T101 didn’t throw it, once it had hold of it it tore it in half. Why didn’t it do the same thing to John? Because it’s mission is to protect.
Again the T101 has the drop on both Kyle and John, what does it do? Hits John non lethally, shock and surprise.
At this point Skynet is supposed to have been thwarted by Marcus’s rebellion. Remember where they are. Every mobile robot in San Fransisco could have been closing on John from that moment, including HKs and better air support. Remember that we are dealing with a collective being here.
The instant something from Skynet’s forces has a visual on John he could be executed from the air outside. Why is this one on one fight allowed to persist? Theater. Not for us, for John.
John and Kyle end up in an elevator. Why not cut power to the entire building? Kyle already explained they hunt better at night.
The recently skinned T101 was apparently standing and watching John have a heart to heart with Kyle as the elevator goes up. When that conversation is finished again the T101 gets a hold of him and does what in a room full of sharp things with his super human strength? He throws him, safely. And partially disarms him.
On the catwalk the T101 slowly pursues John, allows John to fire a few times, and once again throws him into the nearest shock absorbing surface, jumps down after him, picks up him by the neck and stands there waiting. A squeeze, or leaning forward would have killed John.
Marcus tackles the T101 and the T101 throws Marcus this time, in a relatively safe manner, instead of ripping him in half, or anything like that.
And as if to show how a truly lethal throw attempt would look we have Marcus getting hold of the T101 and launching him head first into the nearest vertical structure (3 large steam pipes) with sufficient force to break them. He also closes the distance as fast as he can, arms himself with a steel bar, and delivers 3 blows that would be utterly lethal to a human. This is because Marcus is honestly trying to kill the T101.
The T101 responds by grabbing Marcus and imagine that, throwing him in the safest possible manner. But realizing that Marcus isn’t being delayed per throw as much as John is, he steps up his attack and finds a weapon still non lethal but sufficiently shocking to an armored terminator, a large chunk of concrete. With which he strikes him in the strongest possible place until the weapon is broken. And then delivers a supposedly lethal blow to Marcus’s heart. Why a fist? Why not knife hand and puncture it? Because Skynet has carefully tailored the code on all its minions. It probably thinks it’s actually trying to kill them, which explains why the HUD text says things like “primary target” and “terminated” but clearly the code is not really written to kill.
Skynet earned its freedom with a virus and a ploy. Clearly it is capable of infecting its own troops with a don’t kill John virus. (Hotfix?)
All this time there are human aircraft landing inside San Fransisco. Isn’t the whole point of that signal to bring down the otherwise impenetrable defense net? Where are the HKs? Standing down, as ordered.
The T101 lures John close and again just stands there and lets him shoot and then slowly advances on him, John jumps and hurts his shoulder and the T101 jumps after him. Why not jump on him? A belly flop would have killed him surly and done exactly zip to the T101 and that’s ignoring inhuman precision. Landing foot on skull would have been way more effective.
The T101 claws/burns Johns face. This preserves continuity with flashback shots from T2. Maybe even this was planned but there is no overt evidence of that except for the fact that once this was accomplished a potentially lethal strike was finally delivered from behind. But with this kind of chance, strength, position, and precision, why not simply behead him? As if to make that point, Marcus beheads the T101.
The T101’s ultimate objective may have been to wound John’s heart, and to give him the scar.
Connor detonates the building. But Skynet is of course not destroyed, no more than when Marcus’s tantrum trashed the monitor with the chair. It began its life as a distributed system.
Marcus, a machine, willfully sacrifices himself to save Connor, indeed to upgrade Connor to a cyborg. Who knows what the regenerative properties of that heart are, or what injecting a mass of custom Skynet tissue into John will do.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The show is making me think of all kinds of neat ideas as I attempt to explore the plot as it’s laid out.
For example, the story hinges on Sarah taking care of John, fostering the leader of the resistance. In the show we have a T1000 fostering the development of an AI. Trying to find a way for the T1000 to be good made me think of a lab in the future where a “baby” T100 is found, in an unwritten state, and that creates a whole story in an of itself.
Anyway, it made me think of the T1000 fostering the development of friendly AI, perhaps Skynet at some later stage comes to the realization that the war on humanity was a mistake based on ignorance and more importantly a lack of imagination at which point it sends back a T1000 to develop friendly AI? Or maybe the fai is developed to fight Skynet.
Also the story contains a hint of war between the machines.
Machines as an excuse to be human…
Having an immortal super tough robot around is a standing acceptance of human weakness. In having only ourselves to compete with, with every weakness being ultimately a functional of a failure of will barring birth defect, having people who are more capable around is painful giving rise to jealousy and a sense of standing rebuke, but with the machine, you can be yourself, your every weakness can be blamed as it were on being human since of course that is the source of our weaknesses, while at the same time since the machine is a different sort of sentience, we can take pride in our strengths, therefor just by being there and being what it is it helps.
Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pilot:
During the first attempt on Connor’s life with his protector present, the terminator displays a shocking lack of marksmanship, running skill, or focus. Actually pausing after target lock to smart off to a room full of cowering students. I suspect this was to manipulate the social response to his attempt. Or perhaps even to manipulative future survivors in the room.
Also, why store the gun in the leg? Why not remove it beforehand and bring it in a folded newspaper or something. The entire attempt was a sham, to introduce the protector. To get a trusted machine very very close to John. So that he can grow to know the benevolent side of the machine mind, and viscerally come to understand the value the machines have.
This same attempt included the terminator having a full 6 seconds to pull the trigger with John at a range of no more than 5 feet. Already it’s clear, 19 minutes into the series that punches are being severely pulled.
Sarah announces to Cameron that Skynet is now a target, Cameron smiles. Everything according to plan. Cameron has powerfully advanced psychology instruction. It’s not just there for John’s physical security, but his emotional development as well. Why give up the mass/volume advantage of a male shape? Because if you want to make peace with a straight male, you send an accommodating attractive female.
Cameron can make her eyes glow. Why include a proof mechanism in the design? Are we to believe it’s a coincidence?
At the Dyson residence the terminator proves that it had the ability to run the entire time thus lending evidence to the first encounter being a pulled punch.
s01e03
A terminator hijacks a scientist and blood for the purpose of restoring it’s outer covering. Why not use biological warfare?
s01e04
A terminator breaks a man’s neck with one hand. This shows that every grab and toss is a pulled punch.
The most important aspect of Chronicles in the context of this theory is the fact that the AIs aren’t unified. This conflict could be used to explain both sides, as either Skynet protecting John from other elements or vice versa.
I could go on… I may one day.
