Plot synopsis
John Connor captures a Terminator robot, reprograms it and sends it back through time on a mission to protect his younger self. Another cybernetic organism soon follows: a T-1000 advanced prototype made from liquid metal. It’s mission is to kill the young John, so the first Terminator helps John to escape from the T1000.
Meanwhile, Sarah Connor is a patient in a high-security hospital for the criminally insane. In her dreams, she is constantly meeting her dead lover, Kyle, who tells her that John is in danger. He reminds her of his message from before, “The future is not set, there is no fate, but what we make for ourselves.”
John and the Terminator help his mother to escape from the hospital. The Terminator tells them that a man called Dyson was the creator of Skynet. They figure if they can stop him, they can stop ‘Judgment Day’. This is the day when Skynet launches the nuclear missiles that destroy most of the human population.
They find Dyson and with his help, go to the factory that was going to create the self-aware machines. On the way to the factory, Sarah narrates the following, “The future, so clear to me, had become like a black highway at night. We were in unchartered territory now, making up history as we went along.”
They destroy the factory and the remains of the first Terminator, which was there. The surviving Terminator allows them to terminate him to remove all evidence that might allow that possible future to regenerate.
My comments
John and Sarah believe the changes they are making are recreating the timeline’s future as they go. What is really happening with the timeline will be revealed 12 years later in the next film of the series, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). However, the timeline of this film is what they believe it to be.
Summary of time travel
The changes John and Sarah are making are creating a new future, which is replacing the old one. There is no proof that this is happening, but this is what they all believe. So, the model of time used has an open past and future with a timeline that diverges.
Category of time travel
Science fiction: time-travel transporter.
Model of time
Open past, open future with a diverging timeline.
