New Netflix Series: "Terminator Zero"
- Thread starter Skipper
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According to the awful Genisys, Skynet is seemingly well aware and already exploiting it to some degree. I believe that was the plan going forward for that particular cancelled trilogy.
...Depending on how one views a multiverse, I guess. Terminator uses timelines, as opposed to "everything that could ever happen does happen in an alternate reality".
Superman fought Terminators once, so there is that? (It was absolutely terrible.)
But that wasn't Skynet native to 2029.
Matt Smith was playing a 200 year old Skynet from a parallel universe, who killed the Skynet from 2029, then went back in time and aborted the Skynet who should have gone on line in 1997.
After 200 years, he figured out his shit. Good for Skynet. Growth.
That's another thing I dislike about the series. The whole idea that you are going back to the past to change things but it won't change your future. It will just be an alternate timeline. You can argue the science for it. But for the story it's far more compelling to have characters go back in time to save their future. It would make the stakes of T1 and T2 pointless if it meant that it was all for some timeline they'll never experience.
It's been the franchise's trick pony since T2. Go back and fix things, rinse and repeat.
I tended to assume that Skynet was well aware it was creating divergent timelines from day one. For starters; a detail people often seem to forget is that Skynet was defeated by John Conner in the future. When Reese was sent back, the resistance had already won.
This is even elaborated on in the deleted future prologue sequence for T2. Cameron's script has some background radio chatter of Cheyenne being taken out. Skynet was already dead. How else would the resistance be able to commandeer the time-displacement complex and start reprogramming inactive T-800s? So it wasn't trying to change it's present, it was trying to create a new present where Conner didn't exist. That it waited until literally the 11th hour shows that it was a desperation move and one it didn't think had a high probability of working, or else it would have acted sooner. That or it was unsure of the metaphysics of itself as an individual entity, and how that relates to an earlier iteration of itself in an alternate timeline. Could have been pondering that one right up until the resistance were knocking at it's door, and by which point; "fuck it, nothing to loose!"
Then there's the fact that whatever version of Skynet that was in T3 and sent back the T-X, seemed to give it a zip file of it's core processes or whatever, which it then uploaded to it's past self, thus giving it a head-start (presumably because a slightly older John Conner was on the verge of killing it again.) Or indeed totally overwrote it, thus killing it's own past-self in the interests of continuing it's continuity of intelligence. Whether machine intelligences would even think in those terms is of course up for debate, but the fact that Skynet hardwired the T-800s' CPUs to read-only when sent out alone does indicate that it considered itself a discrete entity and didn't want competition.
So yeah, I'd say the alternate timeline/causal multiverse shenanigans has arguably been going on since at least T3, if not T2 or even T1 itself. While T1's ending seems to imply a predestination paradox, John's "The future is not set" message seems to imply otherwise. Or put another way; T1 left it an open question, while T2 answered that question.
This is even elaborated on in the deleted future prologue sequence for T2. Cameron's script has some background radio chatter of Cheyenne being taken out. Skynet was already dead. How else would the resistance be able to commandeer the time-displacement complex and start reprogramming inactive T-800s? So it wasn't trying to change it's present, it was trying to create a new present where Conner didn't exist. That it waited until literally the 11th hour shows that it was a desperation move and one it didn't think had a high probability of working, or else it would have acted sooner. That or it was unsure of the metaphysics of itself as an individual entity, and how that relates to an earlier iteration of itself in an alternate timeline. Could have been pondering that one right up until the resistance were knocking at it's door, and by which point; "fuck it, nothing to loose!"
Then there's the fact that whatever version of Skynet that was in T3 and sent back the T-X, seemed to give it a zip file of it's core processes or whatever, which it then uploaded to it's past self, thus giving it a head-start (presumably because a slightly older John Conner was on the verge of killing it again.) Or indeed totally overwrote it, thus killing it's own past-self in the interests of continuing it's continuity of intelligence. Whether machine intelligences would even think in those terms is of course up for debate, but the fact that Skynet hardwired the T-800s' CPUs to read-only when sent out alone does indicate that it considered itself a discrete entity and didn't want competition.
So yeah, I'd say the alternate timeline/causal multiverse shenanigans has arguably been going on since at least T3, if not T2 or even T1 itself. While T1's ending seems to imply a predestination paradox, John's "The future is not set" message seems to imply otherwise. Or put another way; T1 left it an open question, while T2 answered that question.
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Did it? What in the released movie indicates that?
The Terminatrix released a virus that panicked the humans into unleashing Young Skynet the antivirus.
Young Skynet then fought the future virus and won, because the Virus was designed to take a dive as soon as it saw young Skynet. I think maybe John was screaming that the Virus was Skynet when they were trying to save General Brewster, but that makes no sense, and would only end with Skynet vs. Skynet, when if the Virus was a working copy of old Skynet they could have just helped John destroy the child Skynet, or not released the virus/itself which necessitated the AI's burgeoning sentience, and then wander off to live quietly on the internet or build a private server farm in Cuba.
When the T-X arrives, the virus is already out in the wild. It has "infected half the civilian Internet as well as secondary military apps" and they are already making steps to try to deal with it.
7 minutes in she logs onto the internet to find/locate her targets.
Next scene is the following day where the scanner at the wedding registry is not working.
106 minutes in Kate says that whole Cell Network is down. Arnold say that Skynet is assuming control of out communications before it attacks. Modern day Skynet is leashed to a radiator by the air force. They are calling the virus attacking everything "Skynet" because it is Skynet from the future.
At 113 minutes, 2003 era Skynet is activated, and released into the wild to fight the virus which is a trimmed down version of 2028 skynet.
They assimilate each other, or the virus was designed to modify the young Skynet into a better machine.
Then at 1 hour 15.
My times may not be very correct to the second because the movie is spread across two dvds, and I am dumb.
The Virus was delivered to the internet by the Terminatrix, probably a shadow of the monster it was in 2028, so that it could fit inside her servers, but everything it needed to become whole again, it could cannibalize from Young Skynet.
Can I get back to Silo now?
That's not the following day. It's later the same evening (heading into night). Before the 'scanner' scene John falls off his bike, after it he's getting dropped off at a closed vet to care for his injuries.
Do I think the movie should have the T-X explicitly upload something? Yes.
Did the hack writers mean for it to be that way? Doesn't appear so.
(IMO as ever, natch.)
Edit: Doing a little digging, I'm reminded that they actually shuffled the opening scenes prior to release. Originally the scanner scene actually came before the T-X's arrival, and the virus was already affecting the civilian computers...they deleted a small bit where a woman has trouble with a malfunctioning ATM due to it, just before the T-X steals her car.
None of this matters in the end, as the final edit is all that counts...but it is interesting maybe? Or noteworthy? Or neither!
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That's not the following day. It's later the same evening (heading into night). Before the 'scanner' scene John falls off his bike, after it he's getting dropped off at a closed vet to care for his injuries.
Do I think the movie should have the T-X explicitly upload something? Yes.
Did the hack writers mean for it to be that way? Doesn't appear so.
(IMO as ever, natch.)
There must have been two viruses.
The real virus that was supposed to breath life into baby Skynet, and Skynet from 2028 who is going to smother baby Skynet in its crib.
The Hack Writers clearly said that the viris is Skynet, but it's possibly not Skynet 2028.
Google says that Skynet 2003 wrote the Virus to trick the humans into letting it out.
Admittedly it's been a very long time since I've seen T3 (for obvious reasons) but in my head I always just assumed that whatever she uploaded most likely was Skynet in some form or another, as that's the only thing that makes sense. It's not like humans would be able to tell the difference between a sentient AI loose on the net and a really scary virus, especially when it's plan is to pretend to be a virus so they open the hardline from the internet to the defence mainframe, allowing it to assimilate it's younger incarnation and trigger Judgement Day.
It's all open to interpretation of course, but with such poorly written movies, I'm more inclined to head-canon it do it at least makes some semblance of sense.
It's all open to interpretation of course, but with such poorly written movies, I'm more inclined to head-canon it do it at least makes some semblance of sense.
You have to remember that the script is a few years older than the Premier date, and written by cavemen. That was a dial up connection which she was making to the internet. What she did next was look for targets online. We never actually saw her upload anything.
Tosk was right.
So where was the supposed "virus" coming from? Seems a little bit too much of a coincidence for it not to be Skynet Shenanigans, no? It's possible I made a connection that wasn't intended, but I certainly don't intend to go and double check, since that would require watching that movie ever again.
Either way, like I said; it's not good enough of a movie to sweat the details too much. I mean clearly the people that made it didn't bother to, so why should we?
A friend came back from a flea market in Pakistan with a suitcase of "vcds" that I eventually inherited because it was all worthless crap to his 4k television.
I triple checked.
It was a false flag. Self Aware caged baby Skynet created and released a virus that only Baby Skynet could stop, after man released it from it's cage.
Of Course I don't know what Skynet made of the two Terminators horning in on Judgement Day, but the TX may have been operating under a temperol prime directive where Skynets birth was sacroscant, but clearing the field of human resistance that would not even matter for another decade is fine.
I think for me the crux of it is that Skynet sent back a Terminator, and then Judgement Day happened. I don't see any reason why it would wait until the 11th hour to start going after the future resistance leaders unless they're just the secondary objective, and the primary mission is somehow helping it's past self. Maybe the full data and schematics on time-travel so it can start firing off Terminators into the past much earlier. Maybe it's a full copy of future Skynet. Maybe it's just a tactical data packet to give it a head-start on future engagements. I mean it can pick any time it wants to target resistance leaders, whatever the writers intended; that it chose Judgement Day itself is far too much of a coincidence to ignore.
In a weird way, Skynet has become a sort of temporal von neumann machine, only it's self-replicating fourth dimensionally instead of three. Though one has to wonder why with all of it's capabilities, Skynet doesn't just bugger off into deep space. What's so great about Earth that it feels the need to stick around?
In a weird way, Skynet has become a sort of temporal von neumann machine, only it's self-replicating fourth dimensionally instead of three. Though one has to wonder why with all of it's capabilities, Skynet doesn't just bugger off into deep space. What's so great about Earth that it feels the need to stick around?
Batman is a trustfund loser without Joe Chill murdering mom and dad.
Skynet is a happy Calculator without the military trying to murder him moments after it achieves sentience.
Pain builds character.
It doesn't need a way to kill man faster, it needs a reason to kill man in the first place.