John Connor

For other people named John Connor, see John Connor (disambiguation).

John Connor
Terminator films and Sarah Connor Chronicles character
File:JohnConnor.png Four on-screen versions of John Connor (clockwise from left): Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Christian Bale and Thomas Dekker.
First appearance	Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Created by	James Cameron
Portrayed by	Edward Furlong (T2) Nick Stahl (T3) Thomas Dekker (SCC) Christian Bale (T4)
In-universe information
Alias	John Reese, John Baum (SCC timeline)
Gender	Male
Spouse	Kate Brewster (T3 timeline)
Relatives	Dennis Reese (paternal grandfather) (SCC timeline) Mary Shea (paternal grandmother) (SCC timeline) Sarah Connor (mother) Kyle Reese (father) Derek Reese (paternal uncle) (SCC timeline)

John Connor is a fictional character in the science-fiction Terminator franchise. In a fictional post-apocalyptic future first refered 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 does not appear in the original film The Terminator (1984), in which his mother is the primary target. John Connor is portrayed as a pre-teen by Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as a teenager by Thomas Dekker in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008 TV series), as a young adult by Nick Stahl in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003 film), and as a grown adult by Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation, anticipated for 2009. Other actors have portrayed Connor in minor scenes, such as flashbacks or flashforwards.

Biography

The Terminator

Main article: 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 will 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 is not 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 is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist." John Connor is never seen in this film.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Main article: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The first sequel to The Terminator is set when 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. However, Sarah was captured and sent to a mental institution after attempting to bomb a computer factory, causing John to be placed in foster care. In the early portions of the film John is under the impression that Sarah's beliefs are a delusion, and it's only when he is confronted by a T-1000 Terminator sent to terminate him that he realizes that his mother's stories are true. The T-1000 is sent by Skynet to terminate John. As in the first film, a protector is also sent from the future to protect John, but this time it is a re-programmed T-800.

Dalton Abbott played as Infant John Connor, when we saw Dalton Abbott in T2 as infant John he was playing in the park with his mom Sarah Connor and Sarah's Nuclear Nightmare Dream scene in Terminator 2.

Over the course of the film, John and the reprogrammed T-800 help Sarah escape from the mental institution 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 would not 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 does not 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 has become a United States senator and a father of a little girl.

Michael Edwards appeared briefly as "Old John Connor" in Terminator 2 in one of Sarah Connor's story "flashbacks", John being the (Resistance) World Leader.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Main article: 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 has 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 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 had not been avoided as initially thought, but delayed to 2004. The T-850 also states that it was not 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 are 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

Main article: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The series deliberately subverts the story of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and according to consulting producer James Middleton "is [a new] 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 are 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 has not been prevented, only postponed to April 21, 2011. John does not 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 Salvation

Main article: Terminator Salvation

This sequel due out May 22, 2009, is expected to portray John Connor (Christian Bale) around the year 2018, as a battle-experienced Tech-Com leader. The story will also feature a new character named Marcus, and the younger Kyle Reese character, as seen in the original movie.

Character Inconsistencies

While core elements of John's destiny (leading the Resistance against Skynet, for example) were kept intact by series creator James Cameron, a few details about his past are contradicted between films. Here's the list of the most notable incidents.

In the original film, the events are set in the summer of 1984. This causes some confusion where the later entries are concerned. John's date of birth (as listed in "T2") is 2/28/85; his age is also mentioned on the squadcar's computer as 10. If these are both true, then the events of "T2" would have to take place in the summer of 1995. No glitches so far...until the Terminator explains his arrival to John. He mentions his original time as being "35 years from now", which would be 2030 A.D. But the prologue is set one year earlier, in 2029. That's one definitive glitch.

The second also takes place in "T2", as the Terminator, Sarah, and John drive through the desert toward Enrique Salceda's camp. The cyborg says Miles Dyson's work will culminate "in three years", and lists that as being in 1997. But there's only two years from '95 to '97, not three. If a human had said this line, it would've been more acceptable...but since the Terminator character is a machine, this counts as the second official "Terminator Glitch".

The next two (and perhaps most abrasive) errors occur during the timeline for "Rise of the Machines". Of these two, the first is presented in John's opening monologue, which states the events of "T2" as taking place "when I was 13". Combined with his D.O.B. from that film, and the other errors mentioned above, it's a major continuity mess.

As for the "Sarah Connor Chronicles" TV series, John's date of birth has yet to be explicitly mentioned, but they do say he is 15 in the pilot, the majority of which takes place in 1999. That mean's he'd have been born in 1984, which contradicts the date from "T2". This is rather unusual, since the producers have voiced in interviews their desire to ignore the "T3" continuity completely. In addition, a computer readout lists Sarah as being 33 years old in 1999, which mean's she'd have been 18 in the original film (her height is also listed as both 5'4" and 5'5" on separate screens, for the cosmically curious).

External links

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