Everything about John Connor totally explained
John Connor is a
fictional character in the science-fiction
Terminator franchise. In a fictional post-apocalyptic future first aluded to in
The Terminator, powerful, intelligent machines have dedicated themselves to the eradication of humanity, and John Connor is the leader of the human rebel group
Tech-Com that opposes them.
Skynet, the supercomputer mainframe of the machines, decides that John Connor is the focal point of the rebellion and his termination would end the opposition. After repeated failures at terminating John during the war,
Skynet decides to use a time dilation device to send android assassins called Terminators to various points in John Connor's past in an attempt to terminate him before the war ever begins.
John Connor doesn't appear in the original film
The Terminator (1984), in which his mother is the primary target. He is portrayed as a pre-teen by
Edward Furlong in (1991 film); as a teenager by
Thomas Dekker in (2008 TV series); and as a young adult by
Nick Stahl in (2003 film);.
Christian Bale is expected to play John Connor in
Terminator 4, anticipated for 2009. Other actors have portrayed Connor in minor scenes, such as flashbacks or flashforwards. In all flashforwards, adult John Connor is shown having a large scar on the left portion of his face, obviously a war injury.
Biography
The Terminator
The film is set in 1984. The premise is that a T-800 terminator is sent
back in time to 1:52 AM on
May 12,
1984 to kill Sarah Connor, knowing that she'll give birth to John Connor, the leader of the human resistance in the future war. In response, John Connor of the future sends a soldier,
Kyle Reese to 2:01 AM on the same day so that Reese can protect Sarah.
During this time, John is conceived when Reese and Sarah have a brief affair. John is born after the events of the film. Although John isn't seen on-screen, Reese relays a message to Sarah from John saying: "Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to say that the future isn't set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I'll never exist."
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The first sequel to
The Terminator is set in 1995, during which John is 10 years old. When the film opens, John is living with foster parents, but finds it difficult to settle to a suburban lifestyle and is a
juvenile delinquent. Through dialogue, John reveals that he spent the entirety of his early years being prepared by Sarah for his future role as the leader of the human rebellion during the machine war, learning about weapons, computer technology and espionage. In the early portions of the film John is under the impression that Sarah's beliefs are a delusion, and is only when he's confronted by a
T-1000 Terminator sent to terminate him does he realize that his mother's stories are true. The
T-1000 is sent by Skynet to 4:58 AM on June 8, 1995 to terminate John. As in the first film, a protector is also sent from the future to protect John, but this time it's a re-programmed
T-101, which is sent to 3:14 AM on
June 8,
1995.
Over the course of the film, John and the reprogrammed T-101 help Sarah escape from
Pescadero State Hospital-A Criminally Disordered Retention Facility and team up with Miles Dyson, the man whose research would lead to Skynet's creation, to destroy all of Cyberdyne's research. During their time together John bonds with the T-800, who becomes a friend and father figure to him. Once the T-1000 is destroyed along with all of Cyberdyne's research, the
T-800 asks that it be destroyed also so that its technology wouldn't be discovered and used by others.
According to the documentaries in the
Terminator 2 Extreme Edition DVD, director
James Cameron deliberately kept John "pure" by not allowing him to fire any weapons throughout the course of the film. He is shown to understand weapons, but doesn't use them in order to depict the character's respect for life. The character's dialogue with the protector Terminator, in which John attempts to teach the machine not to kill, substantiates this depiction.
In an
alternate ending included on the Extreme Edition and Ultimate Edition DVDs, an adult John is shown living in a future without Skynet, and he's become a United States senator and a father of a little girl.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
The third film of the series takes place in 2004, and features John Connor as an adult. When the film opens, he reveals in monologue that he's been living off the grid after the events of
T2, even as the original Judgment Day deadline of
August 29,
1997 came to pass without incident. His mother eventually developed terminal
leukemia and died.
In the film, John crosses paths with
Katherine Brewster, a former neighbor from when he was living with his foster parents. He is attacked by a
T-X Terminator, which was sent from the future to 1:14 AM on
July 24,
2004. Unlike its predecessors, the T-X's objective was to terminate Connor's future officers as secondary targets, but when the T-X finds John, it changes its priority to focus entirely on him.
A protector T-850 is also sent back in time from the future to protect John, and it explains that Judgment Day hadn't been avoided as initially thought, but delayed to 2004. The T-850 also states that it wasn't sent from the future by John, but by Katherine, who in the future is his wife and second-in-command. The reason for this is because John had actually been killed by that very Terminator on
July 4,
2032. In the
novelization however this is shown to be false as John is there giving the order to send the T-850. The reason for this difference is unknown.
Although John and Katherine spend a significant portion of the film trying to halt the launching of
Skynet, they're misled to believe Skynet's core is in an underground facility, only to find themselves locked and protected in a secure bunker as the first nuclear assault is launched on the United States as a result of Skynet's manipulations. It is via the working radios in this bunker that John starts his career as a military leader.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The series deliberately ignores the story of
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and according to consulting producer James Middleton "is [anew] version of T3."
At the beginning of the series in 1999, John and Sarah try to settle down to normal lives after the events of
T2, but they're in fear of being captured for blowing up Cyberdyne during the events of the second film. While at school, John is attacked by a Terminator posing as a teacher, and is protected by a reprogrammed Terminator named "
Cameron". John learns that Judgment Day hasn't been prevented, only postponed to
April 21,
2011. John doesn't want to run anymore and asks Sarah to stop Skynet from being created. Cameron uses time dilation technology (built by "The Engineer" from the future) to send all three of them to 2007, just before Skynet is created, so that they can stop it.
Settling down in 2007, John enrolls in high school under the name of John Baum, after author
L. Frank Baum who wrote
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a book that Sarah says was John's favorite when he was younger. He becomes acquainted with his father's older brother, Derek Reese, who is also a resistance fighter sent back in time to help them.
Terminator 4
This sequel due out
May 22,
2009, is expected to portray John Connor around the year 2018, as a battle-experienced Tech-Com leader.
Christian Bale has signed up to play him in the fourth movie. The story may also feature a new terminator named Marcus, and the younger Kyle Reese character, as seen in the original movie.
Further Information
Get more info on 'John Connor'.
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