Chronology 1

The original unaltered timeline

• Sarah lives her life.
• Cyberdyne develops the technology that becomes Skynet.
• Judgment Day occurs.
• Sarah rises to leadership in the resistance.
• Skynet sends a T‑800 Terminator into the past to kill Sarah.

Notes on Chronology 1

Very little of this original unaltered timeline remains. One astounding fact is that there is no John Connor. As Kyle is John's father and Kyle has not yet been sent back, John is never conceived. This requires that Sarah is the one to rise to leadership of the resistance. We know this because a T‑800 is sent back to kill her. This is true even in Terminator, though the reason we are given is that it is trying to prevent the birth of John.

We do not know when Cyberdyne develops Skynet. In Judgment Day we see that Cyberdyne's work developing the technology results in Judgment Day occurring in 1997. However, this date is dependent upon Cyberdyne receiving the chip from the crushed Terminator. As Miles Dyson says

... it was scary stuff, radically advanced. It was shattered ... didn't work. But it gave us ideas, it took us in new directions ... things we would never have thought of. All my work is based on it.

Here they do not have the chip and so Skynet and Judgment Day must occur later than 1997.

In Rise of the Machines we see that CRS develops Skynet and Judgment Day happens in 2004. However, they are using Cyberdyne's patents, patents based upon research done on the chip. So, in this Chronology, Skynet's creation must certainly occur later than 2004.

It is interesting to note that the Sarah Connor we come to know at the beginning of Terminator becomes the leader of the human resistance without any external forces driving her: no Terminators trying to kill her, no Kyle telling her about her exploits in the future. It would be an interesting story to see how the waitress at Jeff's Big Burger develops into the leader of the human resistance.

As there is no John, Skynet's motive in sending the T‑800 back must be only to kill Sarah.

It has been suggested elsewhere that Sarah conceives John by a different father in this sequence. We reject this. It would require us to believe that this other John, without being given knowledge of his future as the leader of the resistence, without Sarah taking him underground and preparing him, without any knowledge of Terminators or the War, still rises to the exact same leadership role as the John Connor fathered by Kyle. Two entirely different men raised in completely different circumstance, with vastly different knowledge, both become the great John Connor. This is simply too difficult to accept.

However, looking at Sarah we can believe that she could rise to this role. Watching her in the deleted scene from Terminator where she is almost jumping with energy as she argues with Kyle that they should blow up Cyberdyne and end the war, this woman we believe could rise to the leadership role. In Terminator in less than 24 hours she has already accepted the reality presented to her, come up with an agressive solution, is giving orders to Kyle and, most importantly, destroys the T‑800 by herself even though she is wounded.

So we repeat, in these Chronologies before the arrival of Kyle, there is no John Connor, Sarah rises to leadership of the resistance and the T-800 is sent back to kill her.

 

Chronology 2

Events changed by the arrival of the T‑800

• Sarah lives her life.
• On Friday, May 11, 1984, a T‑800 Terminator arrives to kill her.
• The T‑800 fails.
• Cyberdyne develops Skynet.
• Judgment Day occurs.
• Sarah rises to leadership in the resistance.
• Skynet sends a T‑800 Terminator into the past to kill Sarah.
• On learning this, Sarah sends Kyle into the past.

Notes on Chronology 2

Let's look into this in more detail to see how the T‑800 failed to kill Sarah. Upon arrival, it gets the addresses of the three Sarah Connors from the phone book and begins killing them. Sarah hears about the first killing while at work. She goes out to the movies and afterward, while having pizza, hears about the second Sarah Connor killing. She goes to the phone, possibly to call Ginger, possibly to call the police, but the phone does not work. She leaves the pizza parlor

In Terminator, Sarah goes into Tech Noir. She does so in order to avoid Kyle, who is following her, suspecting he may be the one doing the killing. However, there is no Kyle, that hasn't happened. Therefore, Sarah does not go into Tech Noir.

The T‑800 arrives at Sarah's apartment and kills Matt and Ginger. In Terminator it thinks it has killed Sarah until she calls from Tech Noir and leaves a message on the machine, "Ginger, its Sarah!". As she has not gone to Tech Noir, she does not call Ginger and no message is left. The T‑800 leaves thinking it has completed its mission. It probably has instructions on what to do after its mission is over, go somewhere and shut down or go into standby mode. However, it would not pursue Sarah any further as it thinks she is dead.

After Sarah leaves the pizza parlor, she most likely returns to her apartment. Either the police had returned and found Ginger and Matt's bodies or Sarah found them.

One interesting fact is that Sarah never encounters the T‑800. Sarah continues her life unaware that a Terminator had arrived to kill her. All that she knows is that someone killed two Sarah Connors and then killed Ginger probably believing her to be the third. We can only guess how this affects Sarah.

When Sarah, as leader of the resistence, finds out that a Terminator has been sent into the past, to 1984, the events would now make sense. She must realize that the killing of the two Sarah Connors and of Ginger and Matt must have been this Terminator. Even though she survived that encounter, she cannot be certain what the results might be. Sarah has had no time to ponder the intricacies of time travel. She decides to send Kyle back to stop the Terminator.

We do not know what year Judgment Day occurs. As mentioned in the Notes on Chronology 1, it is almost certain that Judgment Day occurred after 2004. However, we can be absolutely certain that it does not occur in 1997. This means that when Kyle is sent back, he has some date other than 1997 for Judgment Day and will pass this other date on to Sarah.

One last fact, as there is no John Connor, Sarah sends Kyle back not knowing that he is going to be the father of her child. This is the last chronology in which this is true.

 

Chronology 3

Events changed by the arrival of Kyle

• Sarah lives her life.
• On Friday, May 11, 1984, a T‑800 Terminator arrives to kill her.
• Kyle arrives to protect her.
• Kyle shares with Sarah knowledge of Skynet, Judgment Day (after 2004), the War with the Machines and Sarah's role in leading the resistance.
• Kyle becomes John's father.
• The T‑800 fails to kill Sarah.
• Cyberdyne obtains parts from the T‑800 and begins to develop Skynet.
• Sarah gives birth to John on February 28, 1985.
• Knowing about the war, Sarah goes underground to prepare for Judgment Day and her role in the resistance.
• In 1993 Sarah is diagnosed with leukemia. She and John return to Los Angeles.
• Sarah attempts to blow up Cyberdyne to prevent the war.
• She fails and is incarcerated in Pescadero. John lives with foster parents and is enrolled in school.
• On Thursday, March 24, 1994 John meets Kate in Mike Kripke's basement.
• Sarah dies.
• Judgment Day happens on August 29, 1997
• John rises to leadership in the resistance along with Kate.
• Skynet sends a T‑800 Terminator back to kill Sarah.
• John sends Kyle back.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill Sarah must have failed and so sends a T‑1000 Terminator back to 1994 to kill John.

Notes on Chronology 3

We cannot be certain that Kyle becomes John's father at this point. One of the dynamics between Sarah and Kyle in Terminator is that Kyle was in love with Sarah before he volunteered to return to protect her. This love was for the legend... the great Sarah Connor and based in part on her photograph. Here it was Sarah herself sending Kyle back so we are not certain what the relationship between the two is. However, this is the earliest Chronology in which Kyle can become John's father, and so we include it here.

When Sarah was locked up in Pescadero, John was told she was insane. He no longer believed the stories she had told him about Kyle, the Terminator, Judgment Day and her role as the great military leader. He thought it was all "made up bullshit".

When Judgment Day occurred, John had to realize that his mother had been telling the truth. We do not know if Sarah managed to escape from Pescadero, but we can assume that she did not. In Judgment Day the police share with her the knowledge that a T‑800 is around, show her photographs from the encounter at the Mall, and tell her that her son's foster parents have been murdered. As this is Sarah's motivation for escaping and these events do not occur here, we can assume that Sarah does not escape, or at least not at this time. So, it is possible that Sarah is still in Pescadero when Judgment Day happens. Even if Sarah does escape, there is a possibility that she and John never get back together.

Additionally, John must realize that the date for Judgment Day that Kyle told Sarah, almost certainly after 2004, was incorrect. It actually occurred in 1997. This causes John to understand that changes are being made to the past, that by visitors arriving from the future, events are changing. Not only are they changing, but they are changing for the worse, Judgment Day happened years earlier than it otherwise would have. This causes John to realize the power he - and Skynet - have to change the past.

Also, we see that Kate and John meet in 1994, but we have no idea how they eventually get together to form the resistance. Because John's foster parents are not killed in this sequence, John and Kate may have become a couple at this time and continued on until after Judgment Day, or they may have lost touch and then reunited at some point.

There is a hint in Rise of the Machines when the T‑800 says that through Kate's father John makes contact with members of the military and John says that if he had not disappeared, because of the T‑1000 and the murder of his foster parents, he and Kate would have gotten together back in 1994 and he would have met her father then. So we can assume that is what happens here. John and Kate become a couple, John meets Robert Brewster and, through him, makes contacts with the military that he uses after Judgment Day to build the resistance.

One shocking point is that Sarah dies in this sequence. Again, as with Kyle fathering John, we do not know that this occurs in this Chronology, but it eventually occurs and this is the earliest point at which it can and so we include it.

One of the ways you can get leukemia is through exposure to radiation. The only exposure we know of is when Sarah crushes the T‑800. We learn in Rise of the Machines that the T‑800 is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. In crushing it, Sarah gets exposed which leads to her leukemia and death. We do not know if she dies in 1997. In Rise of the Machines we learn that she "held on" for three years to ensure that Judgment Day didn't occur. Here, though, she does not expect Judgment Day to occur in 1997 and she has lost contact with John.

This also explains a troubling quote from Terminator. Kyle is talking to Sarah at the Tiki Motel about the photograph John had given him. "You were young, like you are now". If Sarah dies in 1997, at age of 32, where and when did Kyle see her when she was not young? In Judgment Day, just three years before her death, Sarah does not look that much older than she does in the photograph. However, with Sarah developing leukemia, she may have gone through chemotherapy and there must have been a photograph taken of her when she did indeed look older.

The only other explanation would be that Kyle saw her when she was actually old. As he was not born until after Judgment Day in 1997 and Sarah dies in 1997, she must not have died. This would require some very convoluted logic and so, by Occam's Razor, we discard it as possibility. Note that this "aging" via chemo may also be why Sarah's friends put the birth date of 1959 on the plaque on her crypt, not knowing her age, they simply guessed.

We do not know if John and Sarah have any contact after her incarceration so it is possible that John does not even know of her death. In fact, he may not know of her leukemia. When John joins the resistance, Sarah is not around. He sees again that Kyle's report of the future is wrong or that events have changed by visitors from the future.

Another interesting note is Kyle tells the police that after he had been sent through the time-displacement device, it was going to be blown up.

Connor sent me to intercept and they blew the place ... nobody goes home. No one else comes through. It's just me and him

Obviously others do come through so the question is, did Kyle know this and was lying, or was Kyle lied to, or did Skynet build another device?

Finally, let's ponder for a moment the major changes wrought by Kyle's arrival. John comes into existence for the first time. Kyle dies and Sarah dies. This future will be very different than those before. The Terminator succeeded in its mission, it killed Sarah, but not before a replacement leader was born and trained - the great John Connor.

 

Chronology 4

Events changed by the arrival of the T‑1000

• Sarah lives her life.
• On Friday, May 11, 1984, a T‑800 Terminator arrives to kill her.
• Kyle arrives to protect her.
• Kyle shares with Sarah knowledge of Skynet, Judgment Day (1997), the War with the Machines, Sarah's unborn son's role in leading the resistance and the legend of the great Sarah Connor.
• Kyle becomes John's father.
• The T‑800 fails to kill Sarah.
• Cyberdyne obtains parts from the T‑800 and begins to develop Skynet.
• Sarah gives birth to John on February 28, 1985.
• Knowing about the war, Sarah goes underground and raises John to be the leader of the resistance.
• In 1993 Sarah is diagnosed with leukemia. She and John return to Los Angeles.
• Sarah attempts to blow up Cyberdyne to prevent the war.
• She fails and is incarcerated in Pescadero. John lives with foster parents and is enrolled in school.
• On Thursday, March 24, 1994 John meets Kate in Mike Kripke's basement.
• On Friday, March 25, 1994 a T‑1000 Terminator arrives to kill John.
• The T‑1000 fails.
• Sarah dies.
• Judgment Day happens on August 29, 1997.
• John rises to leadership in the resistance along with Kate.
• Skynet sends a T‑800 Terminator back to kill Sarah.
• John sends Kyle back.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill Sarah must have failed and sends a T‑1000 Terminator to 1994 to kill John.
• John reprograms a T‑800 Terminator with detailed files on Myles Dyson and Cyberdyne, and sends it to 1994.

Notes on Chronology 4

We must find a way to explain how the T‑1000 failed in its mission to kill John considering that there was no T‑800 there to help.

Keeping as close to the stories as possible we know that John has gone off with his friend to the Galleria. The T‑1000 finds John in the arcade and John runs off. In Judgment Day John is getting away from the T‑1000 when he encounters the reprogrammed T‑800. This causes him to stop, turn around and run back the way he had come. At that point, the T‑1000 shows up.

However, in this chronology no reprogrammed T‑800 is going to arrive. So we have to conclude that John manages to successfully run from the T‑1000. Failing to catch John, the T‑1000 then goes to the foster parents' house, kills the mother and awaits John's return.

We must also realize that John does not know this is a Terminator. All he knows is the police are looking for him, probably because of his stealing money from the ATM's. At some point in the evening John probably calls his foster parents, perhaps to see if the police had been there or are still there. His foster mother's behavior on the phone is odd and he becomes suspicious. He may only be suspicious that the police are there waiting for him and she is just lying. However, he does hear the dog barking in the background.

Eventually John returns home most likely sneaking into the backyard to see what might be happening and notices that the dog is dead. This must make him really wonder what the hell is going on. Obviously if the police were after him, they wouldn't kill his dog. At this point the memory of dogs and Terminators may come to mind.

He sneaks up to the house and looks inside. He sees his foster father dead. He also sees his foster mother.

We do not know what happens at this point. Does John see something that makes him realize that a Terminator has arrived? This is unlikely as Sarah's descriptions of the Terminator would not include their ability to mimic the physical appearance of other people. Does he just think that his foster mother has gone mad? Does he try to go and see Sarah? All that we can really be certain of is that John leaves and manages to evade the T‑1000. Perhaps he goes to be with Enrique or returns to Mexico.

When Judgment Day occurs in 1997, John would go through the same revelations we outlined in the Notes to Chronology 3 regarding his loss of faith in his mother.

Now let's look at what might have been going through John's mind at the point he decides to reprogram a T‑800 and send it back to 1994. We do not know whether or not John ever found out or figured out that the events that had taken place back in 1994 were due to a Terminator. Regardless, finding out now that Skynet has sent a Terminator back to 1994 to kill him makes all of those events make sense.

John realizes that he has no idea what effect on the past Skynet's actions might have. He could have been killed back in 1994 and never even known it was Skynet. John decides to end this once and for all. He reprograms a T‑800 and sends it back with "detailed files" on Myles Dyson and Cyberdyne. Obviously in an attempt to prevent Judgment Day.

We must note, Kyle told Sarah that Judgment Day would happen in 1997 and it does, John does not know that events have already been changed. All he knows is that Skynet is attempting to change the past and, uncertain of the effects this might have, he makes the decision to terminate Skynet.

 

Chronology 5

Events changed by the arrival of the reprogrammed T‑800

• Sarah lives her life.
• On Friday, May 11, 1984, a T‑800 Terminator arrives to kill her.
• Kyle arrives to protect her.
• Kyle shares with Sarah knowledge of Skynet, Judgment Day (1997), the War with the Machines and Sarah's unborn son's role in leading the resistance and the legend of the great Sarah Connor.
• Kyle becomes John's father.
• The T‑800 fails to kill Sarah.
• Cyberdyne obtains parts from the T‑800 and begins to develop Skynet.
• Sarah gives birth to John on February 28, 1985.
• Knowing about the war, Sarah goes underground and raises John to be the leader of the resistance.
• In 1993 Sarah is diagnosed with leukemia. She and John return to Los Angeles.
• Sarah attempts to blow up Cyberdyne to prevent the war.
• She fails and is incarcerated in Pescadero. John lives with foster parents and is enrolled in school.
• On Thursday, March 24, 1994 John meets Kate in Mike Kripke's basement.
• On Friday, March 25, 1994 a T‑1000 Terminator arrives to kill John.
• A reprogrammed T‑800 arrives to protect John.
• John succeeds in liberating Sarah and they successfully destroy Cyberdyne.
• CRS gets Cyberdyne's patents and continues work on Skynet.
• Sarah dies.
• John goes off the grid.
• John and Kate meet again at the veterinary hospital.
• Judgment Day happens Saturday, July 25th, 2004.
• John rises to leadership in the resistance along with Kate.
• Skynet sends a T‑800 Terminator back to kill Sarah.
• John sends Kyle back.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill Sarah must have failed and sends a T‑1000 Terminator to 1994 to kill John.
• John reprograms a T‑800 Terminator with detailed files on Myles Dyson and Cyberdyne, and sends it to 1994.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill John must have failed. It wants to send a Terminator to kill John just before Judgment Day but cannot find any record of his whereabouts. It sends one back to 2004 to kill John's lieutenants.

Notes on Chronology 5

When Judgment Day happens, John is probably not prepared for it. He believes they prevented Judgment Day. He may be haunted by a feeling, but he doesn't necessarily prepare and certainly not for 2004.

John realizes several things at this point. Kyle told Sarah that Judgment Day was going to happen in 1997. Given what Myles Dyson told John about the progress of Cyberdyne's development, the 1997 date makes sense. However, by destroying Cyberdyne they prevented the 1997 date. Yet Judgment Day happened anyway. What Kyle told Sarah and what actually happened do not match.

John knows that the only reason they were able to destroy Cyberdyne was because of the reprogrammed T‑800, without its information and help they probably would have failed. John also knows that he reprogrammed the T‑800 and sent it back. Once Judgment Day happens in 2004, John must understand that his actions in the future caused Cyberdyne to be destroyed and radically changed the past.

Because Judgment Day happened regardless of the destruction of Cyberdyne, John decides that he is no longer going to attempt major changes to the past as he has no confidence that his actions won't make things worse, and there appears to be a certain inevitability to the events he is attempting to prevent.

John then makes the decision that he is simply going to ensure that what has already happened happens again, and the only alterations will be to give Sarah, himself and the resistance the best chance of survival and success.

He will send Kyle back. However, he realizes that Kyle will have the 2004 date for Judgment Day and, in John's past, Kyle told Sarah it would be 1997. Also, Kyle had told Sarah that Cyberdyne was the company that built Skynet, but John knows that CRS did this.

Therefore he decides that he will have Kyle lie to Sarah. He does this for two reasons. The main reason is to not change what has already occurred, to leave the past as untouched as possible. The second reason is that, if Sarah thinks Judgment Day occurs in 2004, she will not be as prepared as she otherwise would be.

Next, in order to postpone Judgment Day from 1997 to 2004 he decides to reprogram the T‑800 with the information it will need to destroy Cyberdyne. If he has slipped up and missed something and Judgment Day occurs in 1997, Sarah and he will be prepared. If he did not miss anything and the past remains unchanged, Judgment Day will occur in 2004.

He was not prepared for the 2004 date so, in order to better prepare himself yet not alter the past if possible, he decides to have the reprogrammed T‑800 make no mention of the 2004 date. Rather, he will reprogram another T‑800 and send it back to 2004 to get he and Kate to a safe location.

In the section on Judgement Day, where we make a case that it took place in 1994, we partly rely on statements made by the T‑800 as to dates and here we make the claim that this T‑800 was reprogrammed by John to give false information. However, the information we used was the T‑800's claim that in 3 years it would be 1997 and in 35 years it would 2029. There are good reasons for John to have it lie about Cyberdyne / CRS and to lie about Judgement Day happening in 1997 instead of 2004, but there is no reason to have it claim that 1997 is 3 years in the future and 2029 is 35 years in the future unless this were true. If the year it claimed these was not 1994, no one would believe it.

We do not know for certain whether Skynet has sent back a T‑X or not. The T‑X is an anti-Terminator Terminator, although not exclusively. Skynet does not know that the T‑800 has been sent back to help Kate and John as that event had not occurred yet, however, it may know that a T‑800 was sent back to 1994 and so decides to send a T‑X in case the resistance is able to send a T‑800 to 2004. After all, in Rise of the Machines the T‑800 says "My presence in this timeline has been anticipated."

In conclusion, in order for the past to remain as unchanged as possible, John must convince Kyle to lie to Sarah. Kyle will tell her that Judgment Day happens in 1997, he will tell her Cyberdyne built Skynet, he will not tell her about the 2004 date, he will not tell her about the 1994 Terminator. Additionally, John reprograms the T‑800 he sends to 1994 to withhold certain information. It too will say that Cyberdyne develops Skynet and it will make no mention of the 2004 date.

 

Chronology 6

Events changed by the arrival of the T‑X

• Sarah lives her life.
• On Friday, May 11, 1984, a T-800 Terminator arrives to kill her.
• Kyle arrives to protect her.
• Kyle shares with Sarah knowledge of Skynet, Judgment Day (1997 - false), the War with the Machines and Sarah's unborn son's role in leading the resistance and the legend of the great Sarah Connor.
• Kyle becomes John's father.
• The T-800 fails to kill Sarah.
• Cyberdyne obtains parts from the T-800 and begins to develop Skynet.
• Sarah gives birth to John on February 28, 1985.
• Knowing about the war, Sarah goes underground and raises John to be the leader of the resistance.
• In 1993 Sarah is diagnosed with leukemia. She and John return to Los Angeles.
• Sarah attempts to blow up Cyberdyne to prevent the war.
• She fails and is incarcerated in Pescadero. John lives with foster parents and is enrolled in school.
• On Thursday, March 24, 1994 John meets Kate in Mike Kripke's basement.
• On Friday, March 25, 1994 a T‑1000 Terminator arrives to kill John.
• A reprogrammed T-800 arrives to protect John.
• John succeeds in liberating Sarah and they successfully destroy Cyberdyne.
• CRS gets Cyberdyne's patents and continues work on Skynet.
• Sarah dies of leukemia in 1997.
• John goes off the grid.
• On Friday, July 24th, 2004 a T-X arrives to kill John's lieutenants.
• John and Kate meet again at the veterinary hospital.
• Judgment Day happens Saturday, July 25th, 2004.
• John rises to leadership in the resistance along with Kate.
• Skynet sends a T-800 Terminator back to kill Sarah.
• John sends Kyle back to become his father.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill Sarah must have failed and sends a T-1000 Terminator to 1994 to kill John.
• John reprograms a T-800 Terminator with detailed files on Myles Dyson and Cyberdyne, and sends it to 1994.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill John must have failed. It wants to send a Terminator to kill John just before Judgment Day but cannot find any record of his whereabouts. It sends a T-X back to 2004 to kill John's lieutenants.
• Skynet kills John.
• Kate reprograms a T-800 and sends it back to 2004 to get she and John together and into a safe location.

Notes on Chronology 6

We can see the fruit of John's careful thinking about changing the past. This chronology is identical to the last except for the arrival of the T-X in 2004, an action taken by Skynet. John's actions resulted in exactly the same chronology as before.

Obviously, John must go through the same revelations and come to the same conclusions about the changes to the past he has made. This is one of the reason that sending Kyle back with the 1997 date is so crucial. It is the fact that Kyle told Sarah Judgment Day happens in 1997 and it actually happens in 2004 that starts John off in the process of thinking about the effects on the past.

We know that John and Kate somehow survive Judgment Day. They also manage to evade the Terminator sent back to kill John's lieutenants (Kate is on that list).

So, the T-X is working its way through the list of lieutenants when it comes across Kate's name. It seems likely that it would attempt to locate her at her apartment first rather than at the clinic. It would find her fiance and kill him and take his form. It may simply wait for Kate to show up, or it may decide that, since she is not home, she is probably at work and so goes to the clinic.

Now, Kate encounters John and locks him in the cage. Hercules, with a hairball, arrives. Kate lets John know that she remembers him. The Terminator does not show up at this point, being at Kate's apartment. So, Kate treats the cat and, after the customer leaves, she lets John out of the cage. Because it is possible that the Terminator comes to the clinic after not finding Kate at home, and we know that John and Kate survive, they must have left the clinic before the Terminator arrives. Possibly just to go to breakfast and reminisce about the good old days at West Hills Junior High.

Regardless, somehow John and Kate evade the T-X and remain together until the bombs fall.

 

Chronology 7

Events changed by the arrival of the reprogrammed T-800

Finally, we have arrived at a point where all of the events seen in the first three Terminator stories can take place in one timeline.

• Sarah lives her life.

• The Terminator

• On Friday, May 11, 1984, a T-800 Terminator arrives to kill her.
• Kyle arrives to protect her.
• Kyle shares with Sarah knowledge of Skynet, Judgment Day (1997 - false), the War with the Machines and Sarah's unborn son's role in leading the resistance and the legend of the great Sarah Connor.
• Kyle becomes John's father.
• The T-800 fails to kill Sarah.

• Cyberdyne obtains parts from the T-800 and begins to develop Skynet.
• Sarah gives birth to John on February 28, 1985.
• Knowing about the war, Sarah goes underground and raises John to be the leader of the resistance.
• In 1993 Sarah is diagnosed with leukemia. She and John return to Los Angeles.
• Sarah attempts to blow up Cyberdyne to prevent the war.
• She fails and is incarcerated in Pescadero. John lives with foster parents and is enrolled in school.
• On Thursday, March 24th 1994 John meets Kate in Mike Kripke's basement.

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• On Friday, March 25th 1994 a T-1000 Terminator arrives to kill John.
• A reprogrammed T-800 arrives to protect John.
• John succeeds in liberating Sarah and they successfully destroy Cyberdyne.

• CRS gets Cyberdyne's patents and continues work on Skynet.
• Sarah dies of leukemia in 1997.
• John goes off the grid.

• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

• On Friday, July 24th, 2004 a T-X arrives to kill John's lieutenants.
• A reprogrammed T-800 arrives to get John and Kate to safety.
• John and Kate meet again at the veterinary hospital.
• Judgment Day happens Saturday, July 25th, 2004.

• John rises to leadership in the resistance along with Kate.
• Skynet sends a T-800 Terminator back to kill Sarah.
• John sends Kyle back to become his father.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill Sarah must have failed and sends a T-1000 Terminator to 1994 to kill John.
• John reprograms a T-800 Terminator with detailed files on Myles Dyson and Cyberdyne, and sends it to 1994.
• Skynet concludes that its attempt to kill John must have failed. It wants to send a Terminator to kill John just before Judgment Day but cannot find any record of his whereabouts. It sends a T-X back to 2004 to kill John's lieutenants.
• Skynet kills John.
• Kate reprograms a T-800 and sends it back to 2004 to get she and John together and into a safe location.

Notes on Chronology 7

Although it was John's idea to change the past as little as possible, and so, rather than have the T-800 in 1994 warn him about the 2004 date for Judgement Day, send another back to 2004, he is killed before he can do this. Kate decides to continue John's idea of changing things as little as possible and she reprograms the T-800 and sends it back.