Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Terminator Paradoxes

created by mkb

(idea) by mkb (2.3 hr) (print)   ?   I like it! Fri Nov 17 2000 at 20:11:43

While watching the two Terminator movies, one might notice a few time paradoxes. If you don't want to read the spoiler, stop right here!!
  1. Kyle Reese is John Connor's dad. He is from the future. Picture this:
    1. War happens.
    2. John saves humanity.
    3. John finds out a Terminator has gone back to wipe out his mother.
    4. John sends Kyle back to save Sarah.
    Now hold on! In order for Kyle to get back to 1984, John needs to send him. In order for John to exist, Kyle must have already gone back to the past.
  2. At the end of Terminator 2, it is revealed that Cyberdyne's design of Skynet came from the remnants of the first Terminator. These pieces are destroyed at the end of the movie, which means Skynet will never be created. First, this never could have happened because if the pieces didn't exist in the first place, Cyberdyne could not have designed Skynet. Ever. No war, no nuclear holocaust. Second, this means that Skynet will never create the Terminators. So there's never a reason to send Kyle back in the first place. So John is never born.
Thank goodness they're just movies!

(idea) by WyldWynd (1.2 mon) (print)   ?   I like it! Fri Nov 17 2000 at 20:29:36

I think the whole point of the Terminator films is those paradoxes. Unlike in the Back to the Future films, where temporal changes are immediately resolved, the Terminator films are based around the twin facts that the good and bad guys both rely on time paradoxes to exist.

Both were created as a result of a war in the future which they come back to stop from ever happening, thus meaning they would never exist...... To stop the war which would therefore happen and they'd be... etc.

All a bit weird I know, but I think it's pretty obviously deliberate that these issues aren't addressed.


(idea) by agoodmixture (6.3 mon) (print)   ?   I like it! Thu Oct 11 2001 at 11:31:22

It's actually possible to solve for the second paradox mentioned above. Although Schwartzenegger's T-800 character does destroy the chip and bionic arm kept at Cyberdyne, there is one additional detail:

About five minutes previous to that scene, Arnold's arm gets ripped up and torn off his body in between two gears!

Now, assuming that John and Sarah don't catch this on the way out (ya figure that defeating a liquid-metal badguy from the future would wear you down a bit), couldn't that arm be used to recreate Skynet?

printable version
chaos

models of fictional time travel physics Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Inherent impossibility in science fiction time travel Terminator 2: Judgement Day
T-800 Skynet The Golden Arm Time paradox
How to know if you will ever experience time travel Back to the Future C-3P0 Terminator
Quantum entanglement Kumquat The speed of light vs. time travel The Terminator
When time travel in science fiction just doesn't make any sense Time Travel and the Knowledge Paradox time machine Inverse Cost and Quality Law
Amalgam Comics Teen Titans Everything2 Time travel
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Just another sprinkling of indeterminacy
Everything Radio
Knights Templar
Delight in Disorder
Robot is to follow the sun
Civil defense for your refrigerator
Getting an apartment in New York City versus getting an apartment elsewhere
Sunset Boulevard
Peanuts
Theodore Roethke
Green Lantern
Only Slightly a Geek Girl
Alfred Nobel
A boy, a girl, a big fat dead old lady
New Writeups
jjen
Sorrier than I ever thought I would be(personal)
locke baron
Moskva class antisubmarine cruiser(thing)
Wuukiee
May 15, 2008(idea)
locke baron
Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier(thing)
_lesra
for abby(thing)
Adaptive Child
Annie's garden salsa(recipe)
Simulacron3
Zig-Zag(thing)
Ouzo
Special Grilled Cheese(fiction)
Noung
Tiananmen Square Massacre(idea)
aneurin
Lord St Clair(person)
artman2003
Assholes and Douchebags: A Comparison(person)
locke baron
Tyan Thunder K8WE(thing)
locke baron
Udaloy class destroyer(thing)
Scaevola
Same-sex marriage(idea)
SteveMurrayFromNZ
British Standard Handful(idea)
E2 is a by-product of the existence of The Everything Development Company