This website sponsored by...
That's a good question. The problem is that there is much contradictory information. The problems fall into one of two categories: 1) external consistency problems (that is, how the dates in the films relate to the "real" world, and 2) internal consistency problems (that is, how the dates in the films relate to other dates in the films).
Some dates are made explicit in the films:
T2:
Because John is 10 years old in T2, most of T2 must take place in the summer of 1995. There are some problems with this conclusion, however.
The Terminator says, "In three years Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems." Thus we conclude that in three years, Skynet starts the war. But if T2 takes place in 1995, 1995 + 3 = 1998, not 1997. Considering the precision of the Terminator (e.g., "human casualties = 0.0"), it is unlikely that he is rounding the dates off.
The Terminator also says, "Thirty-five years from now you reprogrammed me to be your protector here, in this time." On the way to Dyson's house, John muses to the Terminator that he will send Kyle into the past "35 years from now." All this suggests that T2 takes place in 1994 (1994 + 35 = 2029). (Thanks to Nicholas J. Michalak <nick(at)michalak.org> for correcting an error in previous versions of this FAQ.)
In the alternate ending Future Coda (see section 1.2.2.1), Sarah refers to Judgment Day as August 29, 1997. In particular, she says that Michael Jackson turned forty. However, Michael Jackson turned forty on August 29, 1998.
T3:
Unfortunately, the dates in T3 only screw things up much worse. Although the novelization states that T3 takes place in 2003 and the Toyota Tundra driven in the film (available as the Special Edition T3 Tundra) is a 2003 model, there is direct evidence in the film that it is set in 2004. When the T-850 steals the truck outside the Desert Star bar, the watch he finds in the sunvisor helps him determine the date to be "07.24.2004" (it's also 10:50:20 p.m., if you're interested). This means Judgment Day must be July 25, 2004--the next day.
Further, in the film, John says that he was 13 when the events of T2 took place, and that T3 is "10 years later". This leads to conflicts with many other dates. First, it contradicts T2 directly, in that John was 10 according to T2. Second, if John was born in 1985, that would make him only 19 in 2004. Third, on the T3 DVD commentary, Jonathan Mostow mentions that John Connor was 22 in T3.
Also, according to her memorial, Sarah Connor was born in 1959 and died in 1997. John says that she was diagnosed with leukemia, but lived for another 3 years, meaning that she was diagnosed in 1994. This, too, conflicts with the dates of T2: Sarah was not diagnosed as having leukemia in T2. Note that Sarah's birth year does not fit with what is known about her age in T1 and T2, but it may be that "1959" was purposely chosen to be incorrect to disguise her identity. (Interestingly, Linda Hamilton was born in 1956.)
The Terminator in T3 notes that the events of T2 served merely to postpone Judgment Day. However, to an observer in the future, it is likely that the past would seem to be a continuous and consistent line, not rewritten and changed. Thus it is unclear how the Terminator would know how the events of T2 affected the timeline.
The "Skynet Database" on the T3 DVD gives some dates. It reaffirms that John Connor was 22 in T3, and places the events of T2 in 1995. It claims Kyle Reese was born in 2008. Sarah Connor is listed as being born in 1965, which contradicts the date on Sarah's memorial in T3, but agrees with the T1 script in that Sarah was 19 in 1984. Interestingly, according to this database, the destruction of the T-1000 caused a "disruption of [the] original timeline".
There is also a detailed "Terminator Timeline" on the T3 DVD:
More specific information is given in this Timeline that (unfortunately) directly contradicts with the film itself. For example, the T-850 is described as arriving at "02:33:59" (no date given; it is 2003). So it took him until the next night to reach the bar? (Remember that the watch the Terminator finds indicates the time is 10:50:20 p.m.) Nope--by that time the T-850 is destroyed. Clearly, the "Terminator Timeline" has a few kinks--even allowing for "change" in the timeline.
Another take on the convoluted Terminator timeline (which includes some of the Terminator comics) is The Terminator Narrative Chronology.
The bigger picture is that T3 implies there is a unitary timestream that is subject to change. It does not explicitly rule out the existence of parallel universes, however. See section 6.0 for more on time travel.
The T-1000 was transported to the Sixth Street Bridge in downtown LA at night and had access to a police vehicle and John Connor's address. Yet he only arrived at John's house in Reseda after the Terminator did! It seems like at least 4-6 hours between the T-1000 arriving and then getting to John's house. The greater LA area is big, but not that big.
The most likely explanation is that the T-1000 does not know its way around very well. In the Illustrated Screenplay, it is revealed that the T-1000 has to ask the little girls the location of the Galleria!
While talking to Dr. Silberman, Reese explains that most records were lost in the Skynet War (thus the T-800 had to kill every Sarah Connor listed). If city maps were also lost, the T-1000 would not have an accurate map of LA. The T-1000 would therefore not know the location of John's house even after finding it from the police computer.
It is possible that the T-1000 made itself thin enough to avoid being noticed. The T-1000 doesn't necessarily need to keep a consistent thickness while it is on the floor (i.e., it's not a "slab").
The Terminator told John that the T-1000 could replicate "anything it samples by physical contact." It appears that the T-1000 can use a medium to do this without actually touching the victim's skin. In scene where the T-1000 mimicked the guard at the Pescadero State Hospital, the only contact was when the guard walked on the floor, where the medium was the soles of the shoes the guard was wearing.
JC, in the T2 SE supplements, explains that the T-1000 has the ability to sample things that it touches at a "fantastic level." In a scene cut from the theatrical release, the T-1000, after killing John's foster parents, searches for clues to John's whereabouts. It touches the walls, and immediately determines that there is a cache (of tapes and letters from Sarah, as it turns out) behind a poster in John's room (see section 1.2.2).
It may be that it requires more energy to mimic an object than to just keep the default form. When the T-1000 was transported to 1995, it had a default humanoid form, and that is the one it kept throughout the movie. It did not copy the form the unfortunate officer Austin who discovered it--it only copied the uniform, apparently.
The T2 Illustrated Screenplay notes that being a policeman gives the T-1000 a large degree of leeway, thus is a default; also, maintaining the same form allows the audience to recognize the character.
According to JC, this situation was presented to "dig a deeper hole that Sarah had to climb out of." A cut scene showed Dougie (the licker) and another orderly hitting Sarah before giving her drugs. Thus, Sarah is justified in beating Dougie later on. Any sexual abuse is only weakly implied.
Several possibilities have been discussed:
Sarah realizes that the future is not predetermined; she can change the future. (Remember Reese's words to her: "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.") The words show Sarah's rejection of determinism; the future is not "carved in stone." The fact that the words are carved is ironic.
When faced with killing someone, Sarah cannot do it. This scene is meant to show that she is not like the Terminators. She has something they don't have: feelings. (She also sees Dyson with his family--something machines don't have.) These feelings will not let her kill even one person. Note that it is not necessary that Dyson dies--there are other ways to alter the future.
It is clear that the T-1000 duplicates the officer's uniform, as evidenced after it walks out of the flaming wreckage of the semi.
When the T-1000 goes to Dyson's home, it is listening to reports on a police radio. Comments during this scene on the extended LD indicate that whereas the T-1000 "became" the uniform of the policeman, it took the radio so it could monitor police activity. The T-1000 is not listening to the radio on the motorcycle.
The point is made very clear that the T-1000 is also carrying a "real" gun at Pescadero, when the gun is the only item that gets caught in the bars of the door. However, when the T-1000 "pours" itself into the helicopter, everything morphs--including its helmet and the accessories on its belt. Obviously, these items were all replicated by the T-1000 as part of itself.
The T-1000 has one objective: to kill John Connor, not to preserve its own future.
Yes, if you look carefully when it is reloading after it flies beneath the overpass. Although the T-1000 is supposed to "mimic" shapes it comes in contact with, this seems to be an acceptable modification of its shape. Note that in the fight scene at the end of T2, the T-1000 is clearly capable of modifying its humanoid appearance--not to mention the many other myriad (partial) transformations, like "knives and stabbing weapons."
The "ripple" was a consequence of the liquid nitrogen experience--it damaged the T-1000 (see the August, 1991 issue of Cinefex).
The T-1000 could have taken either shape; since the T-1000 took the shape of the guard at Pescadero, it would seem that the T-1000 could have taken the Terminator's shape as well, or at least come close to resembling him. It may have thought it would have had a better chance of getting close to John if it took the shape of his mother. Don't forget that the T-1000 had no information on how John's relationship was progressing with the Terminator, so it would assume that Sarah would have been a better choice.
The Special Edition indicates that this behaviour resulted from the damage experienced by the T-1000 after being frozen and shattered.
Again, discussion has centred on several possible explanations. In order of plausibility:
Molten steel is a lot hotter than a gas explosion; notice that the truck did not melt when it blew up. According to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, the melting point of iron is 1535 degrees Celcius. A gasoline explosion burns at only 200-300 degrees C. Also, molten metal holds a lot more heat energy than burning gasoline.
The time travel of the Terminator movies is not the same as that of the Back to the Future series. Although no one is sure what would happen if you created a paradox, it is highly unlikely (and goes against the laws of physics for our universe) that matter would just disappear into thin air. Time-travel paradoxes are a lot more complex than that. (See section 6.0 for more on time travel.)
According to the novelization, Judgment Day is avoided; Sarah becomes a grandmother and John a Senator fighting the Skynet bill in Congress (see section 1.2.2.1). Also in the book, the Terminator jumps into the molten pit on its own--as was called for in an early script draft.
It was clear from Dyson that it was the CPU that spurred the technology for Skynet. In the novelization, Sarah and John took the parts left from the Terminator and threw them into the molten pit.
A deleted scene on the T3 DVD (see section 1.4.1) reveals that the military appropriated Skynet technology from Cyberdyne systems and contracted with Cyber Research Systems to continue Cyberdyne's artificial intelligence projects. And according to the T3 DVD "Skynet Database", General Brewster built on the work of Miles Dyson, using his "back-up notes."
Modern elevators have brakes that prevent them from free-falling to the bottom of the shaft; some shafts apparently also have "buffers" at the bottom.
Reese (in T1) and Arnold (in T2) both refer to the Terminator as a "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101". Reese adds "the 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new." Obviously there is more than one variation on the Model 101. In T2SE, after the chip-toggle scene, the Terminator reboots and the startup data is shown from his point of view. In the top left corner of the screen it says "Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Model 101 Version 2.4". Presumably, the metal endoskeleton is Model 101; the flesh-covered units are Series 800.
I leave it to Van Ling, former Creative Technical Supervisor of Lightstorm Entertainment, and annotator of the T2 Illustrated Screenplay (see section 7.1 for more details), to provide the definitive answer.
Several astute people have pointed out minor continuity discrepancies. These are not plot problems, they are simply byproducts of the complex endeavour of shooting a film. For example, the numbers on the house of the first "Sarah Connor" don't match the listing in the phone book. Also, in T2, the Terminator scans the cars in the parking lot, and mislabels a Ford as a Plymouth.
If you must, there are lists of "goofs" on the Internet Movie Database for The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Again, Van Ling has the final word.
To previous section | To next section 