The Complete TERMINATOR Timeline Explained 

If you're disappointed this video doesn't cover the video game from a couple of years ago, TERMINATOR: RESISTANCE, check out the video I did over on my video game channel LevelOne! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KJzKpid6rjo.html

Fortunately there’s only 2 terminator movies so watching them all won’t take too long.

This does such a good job of making the later movies sound much more interesting than they are

"it's not everyday you find out you're responsible for ending 3 billion lives... he took it pretty well" best line in the movie.

I saw t2 first time in 2000 and was blown away...i purchased a dvd of it and watched for like 50-60 times...i remember every line and dialogue of t2...this week i saw it after about 15 years and it still gives me goosebumps

What if the whole purpose of the terminator movies was not to "save connor" or "save humanity" it was actually in fact skynet cracking the "algorithm of the multiverse" to "reborn" itself to be stronger and deadlier every time. like an evolving virus - in every timeline, in every universe.

Trying to make sense of Terminator Genisys time travel. *Austin Powers:* Oh no, I've gone crossed eyed.

Lol when I was like 5 and first watched Terminator 3 at the end when John says" this is a fallout shelter for VIPs" I thought he said it's a shelter for the black eyed peas

The first terminator is truly the best one,, however terminator 2 is a too close second ,, I like the horror aspect of the first one

Terminator could literally be an endless loop of all 6 movies, and just reset. And repeat. The paradox is insane. You could remake every movie every few years and it still be okay. It’s wild

God I love T2. Almost everything is perfect about this film

T2 and Jurrasic Park... most iconic movies ever to exist. They changed the world for ever with their cgi.

It is not okay to NOT cry at T2 ending. The damn machine learned to smile and cry, and the score... Whoever didn't cry watching T2 has no heart

Man, Skynet is like death star, always gets rebuilt.

James Cameron has said in the Terminator Vault that in the Original timeline, Skynet felt guilt over eradicating humanity out of fear and created the time machine and orchestrated the birth of John Connor as a means of atonement. In this case, it is possible that the Alpha timeline was one where Skynet was victorious.

I didn't know about the alternate ending for Salvation. It's really interesting because my head cannon plays out very similarly, only Marcus doesn't turn out to be evil after all and actually goes on to fulfill the role of John Connor. It's a bleak but hopeful ending and made more interesting because now a rogue machine is leading the human resistance against the machines.

Bro this video was so good at connecting the timeline for us to make sense of the franchise. Makes me like the entire thing without having to watch all the videos.

I respect the work that went into this

I never knew about that crazy alternate Salvation ending! That sounded MAD! 😨

The complete timeline is The Terminator and Terminator 2.

That was one of the most thorough and interestingly informative descriptions about the Terminator franchise. Thank you!!

A pretty much forgotten Terminator timeline scenario is the one from the 90s video game, "Robocop vs. Terminator." In this iteration of the Terminator series, Robocop seeks out to destroy a terminator that had been sent back to Robocop's time period (for reasons I cannot remember.) However, I do remember that Robocop is unsuccessful at destroying the terminator and is instead captured by Skynet and unwittingly becomes the source for the creation of the "Terminator" program, i.e., the integration of the technology used to create Robocop (man/machine combination) is used to create the T-800. Of course, this storyline was only for the video game, but I've always found it to be an interesting twist to the creation of the Terminator via Robocop.

It's hard to imagine there will ever be a franchise as unique, original and impactful as the Terminator series.

I liked all terminator movies and I would love the lore to be expanded.

Thanks for taking the time of effort to make this video, it helps A LOT !

I love the slinky theory, never heard of time being explained this way but from what my limited mind can understand “it makes sense”.

Next they'll send a new Terminator back to the middle/dark ages to take out the roots of the Connors. Terminator 7: Bloodlines.

I needed this. I was having trouble connecting all the movies but this does a pretty good job. Thanks

Seriously, this explanation makes the Terminator series a perfectionist gem!!

Part 2 Judgement Day will go down in history as one of the best sequels ever created. Of course there are several other great sequels throughout the cinema industry, but the simple fact that it was released in the 90's when CGI Effects were in their infancy makes it such a phenomenal film. The cinematography was impeccable. I literally just re-watched this movie a couple weeks ago and I was genuinely surprised by how perfect the computer generated graphics were. I mean, the motorcycle chase scene on its own was the epitome of perfection, especially for a film from the 90's. 🔥 Terminator Part 2 and the original Jurassic park are literally "Cinematic Marvels" from the 90's. They still compete with the graphics of modern day films in certain aspects. Side note: I definitely have to include "Aliens Part 2" to the short list of amazing sequels, just to be honest. Just my opinion 👍

I also choose to believe it's canon that the only reason John is so effective at combating the machines in the future is due to him and his mother fighting them throughout their time growing up. He's learned all about their weakspots, computer subroutines, how skynet operates from the protectors and terminators that get sent back in time.

This is probably the best explanation of what happened in the films! Thanks!

Great vid. You have an amazing brain to have worked, all that out. Really enjoyed watching it. Thanks.

I really like the spiral theory, and I think and unintended take away from all these changing timelines is that people overestimate the butterfly effect: Yes, a single moment can have huge impacts down the line, but the future is made up of countless single moments. In other words, the future is constantly changing, but never quite to where they want it, because there are an incomprehensible number of moments and choices they'd have to alter to get there.

I always pictured the Terminator timelines as a set of nested temporal bubbles that exist inside a prime timeline bubble, and each bubble can pop taking the ones inside with it or the all expand. This allows for multiple temporal bubbles next to each other and also occurring concurrently like foam inside a bubble. Which means the "holy timeline" is either humanity wins and skynet bows out gracefully, or humanity loses skynet wins, (small small smaaaallll chance that skynet and humanity work together). The terminator series is literally skynet save scumming a losing game.

Oh, dear God. Terminator was dealing with multiverses before it became a horrible plot device in Hollywood movies.

This breakdown was so excellent I appreciate your hard work and time making this video but I was still confused after the fourth terminator or terminator five I looked at the video two times

I always love that they have a literal time machine, yet choose to go back juuuuuust before judgment day lol. Like in Genesis if it's Oct 2017, just go back to September and give yourself a solid to track things down lol

I mentioned just last night that the end of this movie makes me tear up. Nice knowing I'm not the only one who feels this way.

This was a work of patience and great insight. Thank you

I'm 40 years old now and I can admit that when I first saw this movie that thumbs up had me in tears....

James Cameron and other writers for T2 actually build a very interesting theory. It was featured in a Terminator comic series and in a deleted scene from Dark faith. The theory is that connors and skynet are evenly matched. The only war to win the machine war to slow “out live” or “rewrite” the other from history. If Skynet keeps attacking and being defeated with Kyle growing old with every loop, eventually there will be a loop where John will not be able before judgement day. Basically the machines kill John from many loops in time without technically using a Terminator. For Skynet to truly lose it has to be rewritten out of time by another IA system. Basically keep destroying the AI and new forms until there is not AI or at least one that is not hostile towards humanity. Either way eventually there will be a change where either one side wins or both sides lose.

~ this was a great documentary. The theories of time travel are insane. There’s videos on RU-vid that try to explain all the possible theories of how time travel works. It’s mind blowing. This video was still fun and entertaining to listen to. Thanks.

I really hope this video gets a part 2 because as convoluted as the series has gotten since T2, I love the franchise and want to see more visions of this war against the machines.

Terminator Salvation is a film I enjoyed since I saw it in the theater back in 2009 and as time goes on my fondness of it has grown more. It’s not better than the first two, but I enjoy it more than the third film and especially with the films that came after it. I wish they made the trilogy where we saw more of the war against man and machines, but at least was got to have a full movie that was dedicated to the war part and not just a glimpse here and there with the early installments, which are great but I’m glad we got a proper film depicting the war portion we had only seen glimpses of and heard things about from Kyle Reese and the T-800. This is an excellent video man, keep up the great work!

The slinky time loop actually explains the different appearances of the actors playing the Kyles and the Johns, and even the actresses playing the Sarahs, for each of the Terminator movies. To explain, the events in T1 slightly altered things to where Kyle's (Biehn) mother meets a different father. And since this Kyle has a different father, the Kyle (Yelchin) in T4 looks different. However, the events of his childhood mostly ends up playing out the same way, and Kyle (Yelchin) ends up being sent back in time by T2 John (played by Bale) to an alternate T1 timeline and fathering T3 John (Stahl). The alternate timeline changes enough to where Kyle's mother meets yet another different male to make a mystery Kyle. Mystery Kyle grows up and gets sent back in time by T3 John (Stahl). Mystery Kyle mates with Sarah, which makes T5 John (Clarke). The events in this timeline makes Kyle's mother mate with yet another male and makes T5 Kyle (Courtney) This Kyle gets sent back in time by T5 John (Clarke). But Sarah Connor in T5 looks different. Well, I have a theory for that, too. Another terminator from T5 must have went back in time to the to kill Sara's mother before she was born. These events changes her mother's life and she ends up procreating with someone else, and that makes Sarah look like Emilia Clarke instead of Linda Hamilton. We know they sent a terminator to kill kid Sarah and adult Sarah (Emilia), so why not a second one to try killing Sarah's mother. We can assume that there was also a second T-800 sent to protect Sarah's mother and they took each other out. Also, they probably did it without Sarah's mother knowing it, but that battle subtly changed things to the timeline to make it so that Sarah's mother met a different male, who fathered this Sarah (Emilia). Did your brain melt yet? T6 ignores the lore and has too many plot holes. We will just ignore T6 in return. Dark Fate need not apply. But I am sure with enough brain power you could make it fit somehow. But maybe not. Now, I have a theory on how the loop first started. Skynet originally became sentient in the far future but never attacked civilization. It couldn't. My guess is that Skynet was created much much further into the future. Perhaps by hundreds of years when civilization peaceful, something similar to how the world looked in Star Trek. Everyone on Earth was at peace and no one was fighting. Skynet was not able to take over the world and annihilate everyone, perhaps due to safe guards put in place by humans to prevent it. We would be much smarter by then. So Skynet secretly went back in time, covertly inserted the tech in an era when people were stupid and pointing nukes at everyone, during the era of the cold war in the 1980's. The tech would be "discovered" and people would use that to 'invent" Synet at a much earlier time. Skynet could then use the comparatively vulnerable military defenses to bring about it's plan to wipe out the human race. The original John was born with parents native to that time, not with Kyle as the dad, and John did things naturally without influence from Kyle. This suggests that Kyle is the anomaly and the key to how the loop began. The first time Skynet took over changed the events of the natural timeline and caused the very first Kyle to be born in the very first apocalypse. This theory would explain how Skynet was able to invent Time Travel just thirty years after Judgment Day when it the knowledge and technology did not yet exist. It may have took that information with it from the "Star Trek" era hundreds of years in the future where time travel , or it's invention, is much more likely.

dude you just totally blew my mind

This was a great explanation and so well made!

In the deleted scene where it cuts to Sarah being old playing with her granddaughter in the future; she could technically find Kyle and see him again.

I have no Terminator film I dislike, but this video made me realize how much potential Genesis had. I would love to see a sequel to Dark Fate, Genesis, and Salvation, as one movie that ties them all together.

Dude, even the writers of Terminators could explain like this...well done man!

I love movies and terminator is one of my favourites but that time line was to confusing. Thanks for your video I now know how it works. I like the slinky method 👍

Terminator salvation and Terminator 3 are both painfully underrated and unnecessarily hated on

Starting this, I had ZERO intentions on watching the whole thing. But as I began, I couldn’t stop. Almost like a good book you can’t put down. Excellent work! I’ve also never seen any Terminators past T2 and didn’t mind the spoilers.

Boom... i waited for this a long Time. You mastered this better then i thought it could be done! Great Work you had to watch every Movie not the whole but still a few Scenes then wright it down, i can't imagine how much time i would need to process this whole Timeline. My great respect, realy Excellent and Greetings from Austria ♨️✌🏼

So essentially, within at least the first two movies, the cycle is just like the Aether storyline in CoD Zombies pre-Black Ops 4.

This is exactly what I was looking for 🙂

One big thing that I’ve never seen acknowledged is in regards to T-800’s arm being left behind in the fight scene in T2, where he uses the steel bar to rip his own arm off to free him from the factory machinery. If the leftovers from the first The Terminator were used for research and inspiration by Dyson, and they only disposed of the original arm and chip from the first movie, and the functional remains of the second T-800, wouldn’t that lead to a theory that his removed arm would have been discovered in the steel factory? Btw, while I thought the acting wasn’t as good in T3 as it was in the previous two installments, I always liked the “new” idea at the time that judgment day couldn’t be prevented, but that it was meant to be survived.

What a mind job.... I have a headache. But that doesn't detract that this was an excellent video.

If you hold to the interpretation that there are MANY time slinkies and parallel universes, then that means that even the multiple comic books stories are technically "canon" also. Fun fact, in one of those comic books, a t800 is reprogrammed and sent back to the START of the war to help a younger John while he's still trying to get the resistance up and running. This t800 went on to develop some emotions and was named "Uncle Bob" by the future version of John, as a reference to John calling the t800 "Uncle Bob" in t2 when they were getting weapons from that dude in the desert. And even THAT is referenced by Sarah calling HER t800 "Pops.”

I’m straight up mad that the algorithm is ignoring this

Wow, the plot of that last movie was dumb

In Mortal Kombat XI, one of the dialogs between Robocop and the Terminator is something like "have we met already" referencing the Robocop vs Terminator comic.

I'm definitely looking forward to a part 2 of this video! Your recaps are very refreshing in explaining things.

The slinky theory gives credence to another theory I saw years ago in another terminator timeline video, that the John Connor at the start of the slinky loop was not fathered by Kyle Reese but by the guy that stood up Sarah during T1.

I love time travel. Anything to do with it. But every time I listen to explanations about it I always feel my brain's about to explode.

I couldn't imagine listening and watching this explanation high! Its too much

Thank you for all the work that you put in to explaining the paradoxical timelines. It is the logically impossible Terminator approach to the already impossible concept of "time travel" as we usually understand it. And I gained more appreciation for what they were going for with T5 and T6, however convoluted those messes were. Especially appreciate the shout-out to Sarah Connor Chronicles. That is a series that I really enjoyed and want more people to be aware of as I really like the writing and actor performances and the action and drama is thoroughly entertaining.

Wow. Deep respect for this, man

Love the first movie so much... In pondering time travel, I often wondered about the "original" time line when John Connor must have been born to a different father that isn't Reese because Reese hadn't been sent back. Did the resistance go better or worse for him?.. Or was the original mission different when Reese was sent back and he stumbled upon Sarah creating the time line of John being born and therefore had to be sent back to save the new timeline and ensure John was born.. Do all of these timelines still exist in their own little branches of the universe? :P I like to think that the endless loop had to have started somewhere in a timeline that got sidetracked or changed. T2 is good too. I love the liquid terminator, but the first one is my favourite.

Really well explained video! Although I think you should've also included T2 3D Battle Across Time, in which James Cameron stated that it was his direct sequel to T2, even though it was only 12min long haha.

A very seamless explanation for all six films. I am impressed on how you managed to nail Genisys. Not all explainers did that well until now.

Great video, lots of info, answered many questions. However, one of the biggest questions in Terminator 1 remains. Who the hell ordered the burley beef?

Terminator series is its own multiverse. All movies are valid thinking of them this way. Good job with the slinky timelines.

This is really good! Many thanks : )

I would love for them to make a prequel movie that is set before Terminator 1. That shows how the T-800 and Reese got sent back in time. Just have it ignore all the movies that came after T2.

I believe The Terminator sets up an alternate timeline from the start and in the previous timeline, John is fathered by someone other than Kyle. This new timeline allows for Skynet to be created earlier and with better technology, which is why they're able to send a T-1000 back in Terminator 2, but it also sets up John to be an even better prepared leader in the future. However, the alternate future happy ending of T2 makes absolutely no sense, because John would never have grown up to be a Senator or something, he and Sarah would've still had to live the rest of their lives as fugitives in hiding after all they did in T2.

My favorite terminator film, and one of my favorite films EVER, is Terminator 2. The writing, action sequences, cinematography, score, and dialog is absolutely satisfying. The epitome of a classic well written action film. There's a theory out there that The Terminator story is the prequel to The Matrix story. Great theory to look into when you're bored.

Thanks for that just what i was looking for an explanation. | Watched them all but one, The last one. Mabey, I will now.👽

Great job describing this all thank you

to paraphrase an old friend, "you're time-tripping without clothing!"

where has this channel been all my life? it’s perfect!!! SUBBED… keep up the great work

Thanks for this great video.

You should make a video that's a footnote version of this one and still explains everything

Great video!!! 👌 with your hard work on this time travel stuff, I'd love to see you do a video on the "time travel" logic they used in Lost 🤯😳 amazing show but man was the time stuff confusing in it...

"Time travel. Since my first day on the job as a Starfleet captain I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these godforsaken paradoxes - the future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache." Captain Kathryn Janeway - Star Trek Voyager

My personal terminator time travel head cannon goes the many worlds direction. Anyone who time travels doesn't really go forward or backwards in time at all. They wholly and irreversibly travel to an entirely separate time-line. So from the perspective of anyone in the room when someone or something is sent whenever, nothing happens at all. That aside, I've always preferred Terminator three's version of John Connor. To me he was the best acted and written adult version of Conner seen so far on the big screen.

I like the slinky analogy. It reminds me of a math problem 3n+1 (the Collatz conjecture). The numbers jump around after each cycle but they always end up in an infinite loop. So although we end up in an infinite loop, we can start outside of it. Sky net could be created in one timeline, but once it’s been looped, leaving the loop, going forward or backwards is impossible.

Cool I like how you made them all fit together even though they weren't really meant to, thanks for this!

Never heard "bootstrap paradox" before. I've always called that a "Rufus Paradox", after the George Carlin character who travels back in time to influence Bill and Ted into creating the conditions that make his timeline possible so he can go back in time and make it possible... Also, I feel I should point out that the mysterious man who attacks john connor is clearly Dr.Who.

Excellent breakdown.

I appreciate this detailed breakdown

Your videos are awesome man. Been binge watching!

14:29 The Terminator in T3 is actually a T-850, not a T800.

Is it weird I fall asleep to terminator lore videos? Or terminator analysis videos? I’m so mad theirs not nearly enough!

Well done explaining all this. Seems like they are fairly consistent at least. Of course the issue with this form of time travel is that they could make 100 more films and they would all "make sense". So it loses it's punch (much like T3 onwards).

What a amazing video, and a lot of effort. Jeez I just learnt a lot. Thanks guys

My own personal opinion here in this first movie is Sara met another guy around the same time as she does meet Kyle but in this timeline there are no terminators. She raised him and protcts him through judgment day. The events we see in the start of the movie play out. And Kyle goes back and tells her the name of her son and the dark years message doesn't make mention of terminators or skynet so this is the no time travel timeline. It's possible for John to be born by another man survive judgment day and become the leader without Kyle doing anything. The picture at the end just tells me we are seeing the time loop occur. Kyle and the terminator shift the timeline we never see.

When you think about it, the first T-800 successfully terminated the original John Connor and the future was changed. Kyle Reese can be the father of the featured John, but if he was born after the war, then he can't be the father of the same John Connor who sent him to 1984.

Funny you mention it- T2 was the first movie that ever made me cry as a child. That perfect theme song!