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 and Michael Edwards (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 and TS 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 and the main protagonist of the Terminator science fiction franchise. In a fictional post-apocalyptic future first referred to in The Terminator, powerful, intelligent machines have dedicated themselves to the eradication of humanity, and John Connor is the leader of the human resistance movement known as Tech-Com that opposes them. Skynet, the supercomputer mainframe of the machines, decides that John Connor is the focal point of the rebellion and that 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 cyborg 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 man in his early thirties 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 by Skynet, a supercomputer which will destroy civilization and wage war on humanity with an army of highly armed robots in 1997. The Terminator's mission is 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 single sexual encounter. Reese is later killed by the Terminator, but Sarah Connor manages to destroy the machine in a hydraulic press. The film ends with a pregnant Sarah, setting off to ensure that John is born and will be able to perform his future role. John Connor is not seen in the film, but he is born after the events depicted in the movie. Although John never appears on-screen, Reese does relay 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."

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Main article: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The first sequel to The Terminator is set in 1995, when John is 10 years old. When the film opens, he has 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 reprogrammed T-800, presumably because another Terminator would have a much better chance at defending them from the T-1000 than a human would.

Dalton Abbott, Linda Hamilton's real-life son, played John as an infant during Sarah's Nuclear Nightmare Dream scene.

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, much to John's dismay and sadness.

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 Ultimate Edition DVD (though also available through a special feature on the Extreme Edition), an adult John is shown living in 2027, a future without Skynet; he is now a Senator and is the father of a little girl.

Michael Edwards appeared briefly as battle-scarred John Connor in the year 2029 in Terminator 2 in one of Sarah Connor's story "flashbacks", John being the resistance 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 his future officers as secondary targets, but when the T-X finds John, it changes its priority to focus entirely on him and Kate.

A protector T-800 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, also stating that Judgment Day is inevitable. The T-800 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, as Skynet believed it to be the most suitable for such a mission due to John's emotional attachment to its model number. In the novelization, however, this is shown to be false as John is there giving the order to send the T-800. 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 Campo de Cahuenga 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, where he is friends with his fellow students Morris and Riley. He becomes acquainted with his father's older brother, Derek Reese, who is also a resistance fighter sent back in time to help them.

This version of John is shown to be a highly skilled computer hacker, even being able to hack into a Terminator's CPU in order to read the information it contains, as well as easily hacking into the LAPD database. He is also proficient in chess playing, as part of his strategy training during his childhood. Also, in contrast to the father-son bond between himself and the T-800, it is shown in multiple episodes that he has romantic feelings towards Cameron, which, at times, seem to be at least partially mutual. He also develops an attraction to Riley, a high school classmate, who represents a chance for a normal life.

In the fourth episode of the second season (Allison from Palmdale), Sarah Connor reveals that John was born in a Central American jungle and that she gave birth to him while hiking through the mountains nine months after being impregnated by Reese. In the show's second season John is shown to becoming more withdrawn and troubled; after John has an accident while cleaning a gun Derek begins to suspect that John had attempted suicide but couldn't go through with it. These sentiments are echoed by a family therapist, Dr. Boyd Sherman, they visit who tells Sarah that John displays many characteristics of veteran soldiers he has treated. The root of John's newfound turmoil is revealed at the end of the episode when Sarah talks to the psychologist about the day her and John were attacked by Sarkissian and his men(from the first season finale and the second season premiere); when Sarah was being attacked John broke free and attacked Sarkissian and viciously snapped his neck. John is having difficulty with the memory and guilt of being victimized by thugs and then killing one of them in defense of his mother. Sarah is taking the blame of Sarkissian's death for John.

Terminator Salvation

Main article: Terminator Salvation

This sequel due out May 22, 2009, is expected to portray John (Christian Bale) around the year 2018, as a thirtysomething-year old battle-experienced Tech-Com leader married to Kate Brewster. The story will also feature a new character named Marcus, and the younger Kyle Reese character, as seen in the original movie. In the trailer for Terminator: Salvation, John Connor asserts that although he knew what was coming, it was not the future that his mother had warned him about. Connor expresses doubt that the war can be won. According to director McG, Rise of the Machines is not so much in canon with the route Salvation is taking, and the only thing that remains in continuity, aside from Kate being his wife, is the fact that Judgement Day could not be averted.

Age

John Connor's age and date of birth has varied between the films and the TV series. In the original film, the events are set in the summer of 1984. John's date of birth, as shown in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is February 28, 1985; his age is also mentioned on the squad car's computer as ten.

In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the events of Terminator 2 are instead presented as taking place when John Connor was 13.

In the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series, John's date of birth has yet to be explicitly mentioned, but it is stated he is 15 in the pilot (which begins in September 1999). That, with his later 16th birthday (which is in February) at the end of the first season, imply a birth year of 1984, which would be inconsistent with the timeline of the first two movies.

Terminator Salvation's setting of 2018 would have John around the age of 33-34.

External links

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