Judgement Day

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

Skynet Wants New John to Live

So you’re a super powerful machine intelligence. You’ve destroyed most of humanity, and now you’re mopping up the scraps. Then some do-gooder general starts wrecking your shit all over the skull-carpeted wasteland. What’s a machine to do? Well, you figure out time travel (because why the hell not?) and then you send a super subtle warbot back to kill the mother of the future leader. Time does a little wobble and dance after your actions flip the narrative, and suddenly you find yourself battling a much less effective leading man.

You know, from historic records, that your robot did in fact make it back. You also know, from genetic testing, that John Connor is NOT the man you once fought against. But so do the humans (somehow, just let me take you there). They’ve sent back a robot of their own, designed from magic metal, in order to kill John Connor. The thought process here is that, if annoying and whiny John dies, Sarah might still meet the love of her life and give birth to the REAL savior of humanity.

That’s why the T-1000 doesn’t kill Sarah at the end of the movie. In case you forgot, the T-1000 catches Sarah when she is separated from John. He punches a knife through her shoulder and asks for her to call to her son. Why? We know he can imitate her perfectly (he does it nine seconds later). Why is he asking her to do it? Not because he is sadistic, as machines don’t have that kind of emotional range. The T-1000 was programmed to go back and kill the fake John BY HUMANITY, so a new John can take his place. That means Sarah still needs to live. And she needs to see that John Connor/Reese was not the right offspring.

I’ll bet that, if Sarah had waited just a minute, the T-1000 would have given a little speech about the future of humanity, and how John Connor/Reese’s death would lead to a better future for all. But no, she had to shotgun humanity’s last hope in order to distract him long enough for grenade launcher-ex-machina to arrive.

I posit that the T-800 was sent back by the machines to keep new John alive. His new childhood, away from his loving parents and their concepts of honor and duty, turned him into a selfish and thoughtless adult. He thinks more about self preservation than the salvation of humanity. Sure, he’s a good soldier, but that’s just because his genes come from a better one. But remember, Kyle Reese wasn’t a leader. He was a follower. And what did his progeny become?

That’s the face of a kid who has no idea what he is doing. He has been told his whole life that he is the only hope for humanity, so much that he finally believes it. The only problem is that he is WOEFULLY under qualified for that role. John Connor/Reese just doesn’t have the “it” factor. He doesn’t have the leadership gene. He is good cannon fodder, but little else. So why would the machines waste precious Time Juice to send a T-800 back to protect this waste of space?