Making All Terminator Movies (and Show) work together

Okay, I'm thinking of using some vacation time to watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles on IMDB, and as some of you may know, I've made it a little thought project to make all the movies (and show) work together in one continuity of some kind.

I've tried and tried to make them work as part of a single timeline that repeatedly becomes altered, but I think that's a futile effort. Instead, I'm not considering the time travel trope of parallel timelines, but wit the idea included that time is NEVER actually altered. It just seems to be from the characters' points of view. Instead, we as the audience are witnessing them travel through time while also unknowingly hopping onto a different timeline, or creating one without actually destroying the timeline they left. Does that make sense?

So the terminator sent back in terminator one doesn't actually kill the Sarah Connor who births the John Connor that leads the resistance in their timeline. Instead, that terminator attacks another Sarah Connor.

Gotta run to Christmas Eve service practice, but feel free to add on and continue the thought experiment! Will jump back in when I have time!

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I think the idea I'm working with is that any travel backward in time moves the traveler to a parallel timeline. (Though this isn't necessarily the case with forward travel. Still thinking about that.) So the time/place they leave is actually unaffected by their travel backward in an effort to change the past,regardless of what they themselves believe. They are actually interacting with a different timeline.

First, by way of overview, I'll suggest a viewing order for the franchise-
1. Terminator
2. Terminator 2
3. Terminator 3
4. Terminator Salvation
5. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
6. Terminator Genisys
7. Terminator: Dark Fate
The last two on the list would be the only ones I'd say you could swap with each other and still have them work with the framework I'm suggesting. (They essentially happen "simultaneously".)

If I were to try and create a "tree" of some sort, it might look like this(AND SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL TERMINATOR MOVIES & THE TV SHOW):

Skynet in T1 sends back a Terminator to kill Sarah while the resistance sends back Kyle Reese. Both arrive in the past of what is actually a different timeline from their own.

This timeline advances, creating a similar but different Skynet Future. In this timeline(which audiences do not actually see), Skynet sees the threat of John Connor, and is aware of a failed attempt from another timeline's Skynet (meaning Skynet alone is aware of the existence of parallel timelines). So this Skynet sends back the T-1000, while the resistance sends back the reprogrammed T-800, which both arrive in the new and previously unseen "T2 present day" timeline.

In this new timeline, Judgment Day is delayed, but still eventually arrives. And this timeline's Skynet sees the threat of John Connor, unsuccessfully stopped by attempts from two other Future timeline Skynets (in T1 & T2), and so it contributes its own efforts by sending back the female Terminator while the resistance again sends back a reprogrammed Arnie. Yet again, both arrive in a new timeline, that of "present day T3".

Is this starting to make sense?

The "Present Day T3" timeline continues, resulting in Judgment Day at the end of the movie. This same timeline is preserved and is featured in Terminator: Salvation.

Off-camera (in my mind) in Terminator Salvation, Skynet sees that John Connor is a threat, and so sends back the terminator(s) seen in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which now also brings the focus of the audience to this new "Chronicles Timeline".

At the end of the Chronicles series, John Connor and the "Irish T-1000" are sent to the future, while Sarah Connor stays in the present.


Okay, here's where the real work comes. Granted, I don't NEED to connect all the stories if I'm already committed to a multiple timeline premise. But if I CAN, I'd like to. And with as little mental story writing as possible.

My suggestion is that Off-Camera, following the final episode, John Connor is simply stuck in this future forever. He presumably charts his own path, dying in obscurity or perhaps becoming a leader and hero, while also having the chance to form a truly real romance with the woman that the "Cameron" terminator was apparently modeled after. As endings go, it's a bit dark and bittersweet, but I can still see some closure for John in it. Sarah doesn't get closure back in the present. But that also seems roughly fitting, as she is a character who is haunted and unable to find closure.

So my minimal mental writing efforts focus on the Irish T-1000, in the future, separated from John on her own mission, still determined to thwart Skynet. She evaluates the situation and sees this timeline as a dead end in pursuit of Skynet's destruction. So she makes the radical move of infiltrating Skynet and using future time tech to send back TWO Terminators.

The first is to kill John Connor, which we see play out in Terminator: Dark Fate. "Irish T" rightly calculates that killing John will fully unleash Sarah, who now gives her full attention to combating Skynet, rather than on protecting and training John. This is what actually prevents Skynet from becoming a reality. (Although we still get stuck with Legion in its place.)

The second Terminator sent by Irish T is to kill Sarah as a child(Terminator Genisys). Why would she do both? Linking to Skynet, she would have become aware of the existence of multiple timelines. Multiple opportunities to prevent or destroy Skynet. So she also targets another timeline, sending back a Terminator to kill Sarah as a child, knowingly tipping off the resistance at the same time, so that they could send back their own reprogrammed "Pops" terminator. Again, this is an effort to shake-up Sarah's timeline and keep her from being distracted with raising/protecting a child, so that she can fully commit to fighting Skynet. This plays out in the Terminator Genisys story. (We don't need to be concerned about what timeline the opening scenes of Genisys emerge from. This is just a "similar but different" timeline with no direct timeline continuity with previous stories.)

Now I have very little familiarity with the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I watched and loved it when it aired, but have only watched the last half of the final Ep since then. So I am likely missing some important details and motives related to "Irish T" and her "son" John Henry.

With that in mind I invite your help to correct or further flesh out what I'm working on here.

Otherwise, I hope you enjoy one hopeless nerd's efforts to do something that is completely inconsequential to real life while he begins to enjoy some vacation time!

Merry Christmas!

You don't make it easy, do you? Okay, let's get to it.

What's the end goal here? To make a cohesive story. The way the meta story is structured, it begins with the end and works backward. Skynet instigates T1 because it is losing the war. Therefore that movie begins in the middle of the overall story. Since the premise for the entire series is that Skynet is time-traveling in order to prevent its own destruction, that makes Skynet the proactive force in the story, it also means the series - focusing on the human effort - is told entirely from the antagonist's point of view.

First we establish the threat:

Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles
-Sarah and John already know about Skynet and the threat of the Terminators. The series details John's training and establishes him as a credible threat to Skynet. It ends with John catapulted past a potentially fatal Judgement Day and plunged into the thick of the fight against Skynet.

Terminator: Salvation
-John beats up the machines and the war continues. This makes John (SCC) and John (Sal) the same character.

Terminator: Genisys
-John (SCC/Sal) launches the final assault. Skynet tries to kill Sarah but loses the fight but its core survives. So John (SCC/Sal/Gen) is all the same character.

Terminator: Dark Fate
-Another attempt to get John, this one successful. In this timeline, Sarah (Gen) is the same character as Sarah (DF). The end of the movie still allows for Skynet to continue the war and it still knows about John.

Terminator / T2 / T3
-An attempt to get Sarah, because Skynet knows that Sarah will train whoever the future leader will be. All new human characters and Skynet both ensures Judgement Day and averts the events of Genisys that prevent its assassination attempt in that film.

The machines win. Huzzah!

Oh interesting!

So am I right in thinking that this is a suggested viewing order? Also, are you assuming multiple timelines in the sense that I described them (each instance of travel backward indicates a new timeline being explored by the audience) or are you attempting to create a viewing order in which a single timeline is the focus, but it is a timeline that is changeable as the result of characters' actions?

I knew I could count on you to weigh in! Thanks for your ideas!

Sorry, I was dashing off thoughts as the wife was trying to hustle the family out the door.

I'm working with just the primary media and not going in for recutting scenes or fanedits. That makes this a suggested viewing order that will allow the different movies to make a single cohesive story. The central conceit is that the meta story is a causality paradox. Sarah is awakened to the threat of Skynet by Skynet itself, whose actions cause John to be created, whose existence precipitates Skynet's actions that cause John to be created.....

I'm not trying to explore deviant time lines or alternate realities. I'm going into this Back to the Future style - changing the past alters the future, which I think is also the intent of the films.

So what are the problem points in marrying the films?

Legend in release order:
The Terminator (T1)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (T2)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (T3)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (SCC)
Terminator: Salvation (SAL)
Terminator: Genisys (GEN)
Terminator: Dark Fate (DF)

T1 can follow GEN or DF.

T2 can only reasonably follow T1.

T3 can follow T1, T2 or GEN.

SCC can only reasonably follow T2.

SAL can reasonably follow T2, T3, or SCC.

GEN can reasonably follow T1, T2, T3, or SAL.

DF can reasonably follow T1, or T2.

I think it is less desirable to use DF as the closing act because we spend so much time with John throughout the story. Having him killed in the opening act robs the viewer of that investment. Unfortunately, literally every other film references John as the reason Skynet is time traveling, Sarah is targeted as a means to an end. Also, because John is killed the movie requires a time travel reset, T1 is literally the only film that can follow DF as it needs to get rid of Sarah before she can start training John and become a threat herself. DF must exclude T3, SCC, SAL, and GEN. This movie must either open or close the story. If it opens, it means that Legion actually instigates the other movies, erasing itself in its attempt to preserve itself.

GEN references T1 directly, but immediately negates the events of that film. This means that T1 is a more desirable outcome for the machines than GEN. Also, because GEN displaces the main characters, T1 is literally the only film that could reasonably follow GEN as the movie requires a time travel reset. It could reasonably close the series, though.

SAL is an unsatisfactory ending to me. The war simply continues. Therefore I want to lock SAL-GEN as a unit as GEN is the only movie that can easily follow SAL.

T2 could be an opener as it introduces John. I think it is unsatisfactory as either opener or closer. I want to lock T1-T2 as a unit.

T3 must either open the story or follow T1-T2. It excludes SCC. I think it is a good opener but also a good closer, as the machines essentially win this one.

SCC is a good opener but not a good closer. It can only reasonably be followed by SAL-GEN or DF and must exclude T3.

So if we fudge the dates a bit, we could have a viewing order of:

Dark Fate
Terminator
Judgement Day
Sarah Connor Chronicles
Salvation
Genisys
Rise of the Machines

In which Legion attempts to preserve itself by successfully killing John but actually results in erasing its own existence by subsequent attempts to kill Sarah. It lends context to Weaver's actions (the T1001 from SCC). It also ends in an ultimately tragic fate as Skynet destroys all threats to its existence, including Legion, Turk, and Weaver. It preserves the longest continual character chain (T1-T2-SCC-SAL-GEN) and provides an in-movie explanation for events being altered (GEN). It preserves the viewer's investment in John for as long as possible.

Of course, all of this will be undone with the next Terminator sequel. Perhaps its best to just machete DF from the viewing entirely and let it stand on its own.

If we did that we would have several alt-universe Terminator stories:

1. T1-T2-T3-SAL-GEN (all these were intended to continue the same story)
2. SCC
3. DF

Nice. Thanks for your thoughts on this!

It vaguely reminds me of a conversation I had with someone years ago comparing arminianism and calvanism (before I eventually landed in the "not quite either" camp). It occurred to me that both views had to be content with a "point of mystery", but which fell in different places depending on the view. Similarly here, a viewer ultimately has to figure out which parts they're okay with not reconciling, or where they're content to "fudge" things a bit.

I like your ideas as a sort of prioritization of narrative flow or dramatic satisfaction. Thanks again!