The Terminator

This story offers us a lot of information that should allow us to date these events with some accuracy. We will have some issues working out the sequencing. By carefully reading the data given, and taking deleted scenes into consideration, we should be able to get an accurate accounting.

Events

It begins...	When the T-800 arrives we are told that it is 1:52 am and that it is 1984.
"What day is it? The date!"	Kyle arrives shortly after this. Within minutes of arriving, Kyle confronts a police officer and asks the date, the officer says "12th...May...Thursday".
Headed for Jeff's.	As Sarah is driving to work, we see medium long shadows indicating either mid-morning or mid‑afternoon.
"I'm late!"	When Sarah clocks in at work her time card says 'Pay period ending 5/19/84'.
"Who gets the Burly Beef?"	In the ice cream incident the customer's watch appears to read 4:00.
"You're gonna love this!"	When Sarah is on break at work, and hears about the first Sarah Connor killing, the clock says 5:08.
Kyle falls asleep.	It is just after sunset when Kyle falls asleep and dreams.
"Pugsley still loves me."	When Sarah gets stood up by her date that evening, Ginger says "It's Friday night, for Christ's sake!".
"What do you got?"	When Traxler first hears about the killings, the clock says 8:10. He refers to them as the "one day pattern killer".
"Call her again!"	In the police station scene, after Sarah goes out to the movies, the clock says 9:40.
"How do I look?"	Traxler wants to get on the news before 11:00.
At the pizza parlor.	"35-year-old Sarah Ann Connor was pronouned dead at the scene..."
What she was studying?	Sarah's college ID says 'Spring 1984'.
At Tech Noir	Sarah contacts Traxler, "I'll have a car there in a hot minute.", her watch reads 11:15
"So Reese is crazy?"	When Sarah is watching Kyle's interview tape, her watch appears to read 2:15.
"Stay here!"	After Sarah beds down at the police station, she is awakened by the arrival of the T‑800, the clock says 3:17.
"KFLB Newstime 4:36"	When Sarah and Kyle ditch the car before spending the night under the bridge, the radio tells us it's 4:36.
Deleted scene	After leaving the bridge, it is daytime. Kyle attempts to start a truck. Sarah calls her mother: "I want you to grab a few things and go to the cabin for a few days."
"Is this enough?"	When Sarah and Kyle get dropped off at the Tiki Motel it appears, by the length of shadows, to be either early morning or late afternoon.
Talking to the T-800.	While Kyle is out getting supplies, Sarah phones her mother who is now at the cabin in Big Bear.
"I'm in your world now."	In a deleted scene, while they are making the bombs, Kyle says they will leave at 0200 and that leaves 4 hours for Sarah to sleep.
Dog starts barking...	It is dark when they are preparing to leave the Tiki, are found and chased by the T‑800.
Poor kid...	It is light when Sarah is taken out of the factory.
Talking to John.	In the final scene, while making the tape for John, Sarah says "Tape 7, November 10th"

Notes

The display of the year 1984 and the police officer saying "12th...May...Thursday" seems definitive. The problem with this is that May 12th, 1984 fell on a Saturday not on a Thursday.

Therefore, at least part of this is incorrect. Either it is not 1984, it is not May, it is not the 12th and/or it is not Thursday.

Assuming that it is Friday and not the 12th, we have to explain how the officer thought it was Thursday the 12th. The confrontation with Kyle occurs sometime around 2:00 am, very early Friday morning. If the officer came on duty the evening before, that is, late Thursday evening, he might understandably think of it as Thursday even though it is after midnight, and therefore already Friday. To the officer, this is his Thursday shift.

If we assume that Sarah was on a two-week schedule this Friday would have to be either the 11th or the 18th. If we go with the 11th then the officer is only a single day off on the date, and this we don't find hard to believe, especially as he was staring down the barrel of his own gun.

Given all of this, we can state that the events in Terminator began on Friday, May 11th, 1984.

Working out the sequencing is a bit tricky and we need to look at several deleted scenes to understand exactly where events take place.

It would appear that the T‑800 and Kyle arrive early in the morning of the same day that we see Sarah going to work. There is no reason to think otherwise. Traxler's statement about a "one day pattern killer" tells us that both Sarah Connor killings happened on the same day. Therefore, Sarah's hearing about the second killing at the pizza parlor takes place the same day that she hears about the first killing while at work.

Sarah's arrival at work, then, is most likely mid-afternoon which fits with the shadows as she is riding her scooter. She is probably working the dinner shift, say 3:00 to 7:00. She gets in late, around 3:15 pm. Shortly after this the T‑800 steals the car and gets the addresses of Sarah Connors.

At 4:00 pm Sarah has the ice cream episode and we then see the T‑800 buying guns. The owner of the shop states that he "might close early". The first Sarah Connor, Sarah Louis Connor, is killed very shortly after this as, an hour later at 5:08 pm, Sarah hears about this killing while on break.

(It is true that the gun shop owner's watch appears to say 6:00, but that simply won't work. If the Terminator is buying guns at 6:00 Sarah cannot hear about the first shooting while on break at 5:08. It is possible that the clock in the break room is incorrect but it seems more likely that the shop owner's watch is incorrect rather than the break room clock at the restaurant.)

The second Sarah Connor, Sarah Ann Connor, is killed sometime before 8:00 as Detective Vukovich tells Lieutenant Traxler about both kiilings at 8:10.

Sarah gets off work at 7:00 pm as she is able to go home and shower all before Traxler is told about the killings at 8:10 pm. Also around this time we see Kyle at the construction site getting a car, sleeping and dreaming. This occurs just after sunset which would be around 8:00 pm, sunset on May 11, 1984 occurred at 7:44 pm. Sarah finds out that she has been stood up for her date, changes clothes and says she's going to the movies leaving her apartment around 8:15 - 8:30 pm.

At 9:40 pm, Sarah gets out of the movie and goes to the pizza parlor. Traxler attempts to contact her. Matt and Ginger are busy and ignore the phone. Traxler decides to make a statement to reporters hoping to get on the tube before 11:00.

Around 10:00 pm while eating pizza Sarah hears the special announcement on the news.

This just in. Police have announced the name of the victim of the second of two execution style murders that took place today ...

Two hours ago 35-year-old Sarah Ann Connor was was pronounced dead at the scene ...

Sarah attempts to phone, leaves and walks, finally entering Tech Noir shortly after 10:00 pm. She calls Ginger and leaves a message, then attempts to contact the police - "they keep transferring me". She finally reaches Traxler around 11:15 pm.

While waiting for the police, the T-800 arrives, Kyle rescues Sarah and they escape. The T-800 chases them, as do the police, and it takes about 30 minutes until the police finally catch them, around 11:45 or so.

So, the timing of Day 1 works out. A more puzzling problem occurs with Day 2 after Sarah and Kyle leave the police station. They leave around 3:20 am and arrive under the bridge around 4:40 am. When they leave the bridge it is early morning. The next scene we see them in they are arriving at the Tiki Motel and it is either early morning or late afternoon by the shadows.

If they arrive at the Tiki in the early morning what do they do all day? Kyle goes out for supplies as soon as they arrive, they build bombs, make love and then prepare to leave. When they leave it is night time. We have no explanation of what transpired all day long. If they arrived at the Tiki in late afternoon or early evening, what were they doing all day after they left the bridge?

In a deleted scene Sarah is calling her mother urging her to go the cabin in Big Bear. This scene takes place either mid-morning or mid-afternoon. While Kyle is attempting to start a vehicle, Sarah gets Cyberdyne's address from a phone book. The address in the phonebook is Sunnyvale. Additionally, in the parking lot is a trash dumpster on which is a sticker that says "Santa Clara Disposal". Later, when Sarah is calling her mother from the Tiki Motel, she gives the area code as 408, this the area code for Santa Clara.

Therefore, in this scene Kyle and Sarah must be somewhere in Santa Clara county and fairly close to Sunnyvale and Cyberdyne. They must have spent the night outside of Los Angeles, gotten another vehicle, perhaps the grey truck Kyle is trying to fix in the deleted scene, and driven north to Santa Clara county. The deleted scene takes place in mid-afternoon. Sarah is arguing with Kyle that they should blow up Cyberdyne and prevent the war. (In another deleted scene we learn that the factory in which they crushed the T‑800 is indeed Cyberdyne. This tells us that Sarah is successful in convincing Kyle that they should try.)

Sarah tells Kyle she can get them a ride hitchhiking and when they arrive at the Tiki Motel they get out of a semi which must be one of the rides they got. Therefore they arrive at the Tiki in the early evening.

Now the sequencing makes sense. They leave the police station around 3:30 am and drive for a little over an hour, ditching the car at 4:36 am. They spend the rest of the night under a bridge. When they leave the bridge they commandeer a vehicle and drive north. The vehicle finally quits somewhere in Santa Clara county. This is where Sarah calls her mother and where they fight over whether to attempt to blow up Cyberdyne, finally decide to do so, and hitchhike to Sunnyvale. They arrive at the Tiki Motel early in the evening.

Kyle goes out for supplies, Sarah showers and calls her mother who has had time since the afternoon call to actually get to the cabin in Big Bear. Kyle returns and they spend a couple of hours building bombs up to around 10:00 pm.

Another troubling fact now makes sense. Sarah calls her mother from the Tiki Motel sometime around 7:00 pm. Although she doesn't realize it, she is actually talking to the T‑800. The T‑800 doesn't arrive until around 2:00 am, 7 hours later. It would take the T‑800 about this long to drive from Big Bear to Santa Clara.

So, now we have the sequencing for Day 2 - Saturday, May 12th 1984. This means that the chase scene and the factory fight take place on Sunday, May 13th 1984 very early in the morning.

Timeline

Friday, May 11th, 1984
1:52 am	T‑800 arrives
2:00 am	Kyle arrives, confronts officer
3:15 pm	Sarah goes to work, T‑800 steals car and gets addresses
4:00 pm	The ice cream incident, T-800 buys guns
4:30 pm	Sarah Louise Connor shot
5:08 pm	Sarah hears about the first killing
7:00 pm	Sarah gets off work
7:30 pm	Sarah Ann Connor shot
8:10 pm	Traxler learns about killings
8:30 pm	Sarah gets stood up and goes to movies
9:40 pm	Traxler and Vukovich attempt to contact Sarah. Sarah gets out of movie, goes to get pizza.
9:45 pm	Traxler decides to tell media about second Sarah Connor
10:00 pm	Sarah hears about second killing, goes to Tech Noir, calls Ginger just after Ginger and Matt are killed.
11:15 pm	Sarah finally talks to Traxler. Terminator arrives, fight and flight.
Saturday, May 12th 1984
12:00 am	Kyle and Sarah at the police station
Before 2:30 am	Kyle interviewed, Sarah interviewed, Sarah sees Kyle's tape, Sarah beds down in Traxler's office
3:17 am	T‑800 arrives at station, Kyle and Sarah escape
4:36 am	Kyle and Sarah ditch car and spend night under bridge
Day	They get a vehicle and drive north to Santa Clara
Mid afternoon	Kyle tries to get a vehicle, Sarah calls her mother, they decide to try to blow up Cyberdyne
7:00 pm	They arrive at the Tiki Motel, Kyle out for supplies, Sarah showers, calls mother at Big Bear
10:00 pm	Building bombs, Sarah tries to sleep
Sunday, May 13th, 1984
Before 2:00 am	Sarah and Kyle talk, make love
2:00 am	Terminator arrives at Tiki Motel, chase to factory, Terminator crushed, Kyle killed
After dawn	Sarah wheeled out of factory

 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Judgment Day is absolutely the worst of the three stories with regards to dates and times. This is one of our big complaints about this story. However, we will attempt to sort it all out, but we will have to discard a lot of information that is given to us.

Events

"I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle."	When the T-800 arrives it is dark and the bar is still open.
Why doesn't he take on the appearance of the cop?	When the T-1000 arrives it is dark.
Police computer	John was born in 1985 and is 10 years old.
"She's not my mother, Todd!"	When John leaves his foster parents for the mall his watch states 9:30.
"...you got to be good..."	After Silberman leaves Sarah Doug tells her that she has a review "this afternoon"
"Big guy on a bike."	When the T-1000 visits John's foster parents their clock reads 1:10 and they say the T‑800 was there "this morning"
Looking for John.	When the T‑1000 confronts John at the mall it is daytime.
"You are a Terminator, right?"	When John and the T-800 talk in the alley his watch reads 5:20..
"You got a quarter?"	When John calls his foster parents to warn them his watch reads 7:00 and it is dark.
"Hey, I got a full house!"	When the T-1000 arrives at Pescadero it is 11:50 pm..
Head south."	John, Sarah and the T‑800 leave the gas station around dawn, about 6:00 am.
Pit stop on the way to Enrique's.	When they stop for gas on the way to Enrique's the station's clock says 10:40.
"You're pretty jumpy, Connor."	When they arrive there are no shadows, therefore it is around noon.
"It's Sunday"	"You promised to take the kids to Raging Waters today."
No fate	They leave Enrique's around sunset, that is, about 6:00 pm.
"I couldn't do it""	While at Dyson's, John's watch reads 9:35.
"We got a war zone down here!"	When they blow up Cyberdyne it is nighttime.

Notes

From this information we can conclude that the first day had the Terminators arriving, on the second day John goes to the Mall, meets the T-800, drives out to rescue Sarah, that the third day they go to Enrique's, then Dyson's and finally blow up Cyberdyne. Given Tarissa Dyson's statement we also can conclude that the three days were Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Friday	The T‑1000 and T‑800 arrive late evening
Saturday	Confrontation at the mall, rescuing Sarah.
Sunday	Visit to Enrique, blowing up Cyberdyne

Now, as to when this all took place, we are going to radically depart from the standard and make a claim that the events shown in Judgment Day took place in 1994 and that John was 9 years old at the time.

It is true that the police computer shows that John was born in February 1985 and that he is 10 years old. According to that, events would have to occur between March 1995 and February 1996. However, the police computer also shows an arrest record for John dating back to 1991.

We have strong objections to any of this information being correct.

First, in Rise of the Machines, John says that he and Sarah were living in Baja when she was diagnosed with leukemia. She lived for three years and her death occurred in 1997. This tells us that prior to that three year period John was not living in Los Angeles. Sarah returns to blow up Cyberdyne and prevent Judgment Day, she fails and is incarcerated and John in put in regular school. In talking about what his life had been like prior to that, it would seem that he had never been in regular school, that he and Sarah spent their time living in various places including Nicaragua, learning that art of war.

This would all seem to point towards John and Sarah being underground for most or all of John's life until they return to Los Angeles to blow up Cyberdyne. Therefore, it is very unlikely that John has an arrest record dating back to 1991 in Los Angeles . Additionally, we can have no doubt that John was born in early 1985 as Sarah got pregnant in May of 1984. This would mean that he would have been six when he was first arrested. We don't believe it. Even if we accept later arguments that he was 13 at the time of Judgment Day he would have been 10 or 11 at the time of his first arrest, we find even these unlikely.

Therefore, although we have no difficulty in accepting the February 28th, 1985 date for his birth, we cannot accept any of the other information on the police computer, including that John was 10 years old.

Now, there are many problems with him being 9 at the time of Judgment Day. Kate says that John disappeared "in the middle of 8^th grade". 9-year-olds are not often found in the eighth grade, 13 being a more appropriate age. Also, he apparently made out with Kate (who would have been 13 or so) in Kripke's basement. Again, not the usual behavior for a 9 year old.

Finally, John says, in Rise of the Machines, that he was 13 at the time of these events. However, as we have no reason to doubt that John was born in 1985, he would have been 13 in 1998 which is obviously totally incompatible with the story.

So we have four sets of mutually incompatible "facts".

First, we accept that Terminator took place in May of 1984. We therefore also accept that John was born in February of 1985. Next, we accept the T‑800's statements that 3 years and some months was August 1997 and we accept its statement that 35 years in the future was 2029. (Note: as we will see when we reach the Chronologies, we believe that the T‑800 was provided with false information as to when events take place. However, there is no way the T‑800 could lie about 2029 being 35 years in the future, it would be too obviously false if the current year were not 1994.)

These all indicate that Judgment Day took place in 1994. We can now accept that fact that John says in 2004 that he met Kate 10 years ago, and we can accept his statement that he blew up Cyberdyne 10 years ago. These also show that Judgment Day took place in 1994. This would make John 9 at the time, or possibly 8 if events occurred between January 1 and February 27, and now makes more sense of Sarah's referring to him as a child.

In order to accept these we have to reject the police computer's information: John is not 10 years old and John did not have a police record dating back to 1991.

The last set of facts to deal with are John's statement that he was 13, Kate's statement that he was in eighth grade and the joint statement that they made out in Kripke's basement.

Our theory is that, when Sarah was incarcerated, John assumed the false age of 13. Once Sarah was arrested and he was put in foster care he convinced the authorities that he was 13 years old. John was a very sophisticated kid given the way in which he had been raised. We can believe that he would have been able to present himself as much older than he actually was. Additionally, many 13-year-old boys are still pre-pubescent and not that different than much younger boys. Also, having been underground for his entire life, there would be no contradictory records for the police to use to challenge his claimed age.

More difficult to explain is that John was able to convince his "peers" that he was 13. However, he knew a lot of cool stuff, like how to steal money from ATM's, and, according to Kate, he played the "bad boy" role. We are willing to believe that a nine-year-old John Connor would have been able to pull all of this off.

So, his cover at the time of Judgment Day was that of a 13-year-old 8^th grader. His statement in Rise of the Machines is simply confirming his alias at the time.

Now, what can we surmise about when in 1994 these events took place? First we have Kate's statement that John was "in the middle of 8^th grade" when he disappeared. We think that "middle" would have to be between October and April of the school year. Any earlier would have been at the beginning, any later would have been at the end, of 8th grade.

Given the T-800's statement that "in a few months" Miles Dyson develops the chip and "in three years time" we are at August 1997, we would have to lean towards the first few months of 1994, that is, January, February or March. However, this does raise another problem. Sarah had been incarcerated after attempting to blow up Cyberdyne and, at the time of these events, had been in Pescadero for at least six months. We know this because in her interview with Silbermann she refers to his promise that if her attitude improved, in six months she could get visitors. As she is hoping that he grants that wish at the review it has obviously been at least six months since she was incarcerated. Also we know that she was diagnosed in Baja and hung on for three years, dying in 1997, indicating that she was diagnosed in 1994.

Again we would seem to have inconsistent facts. If Judgment Day took place in early 1994, Sarah would have to have been incarcerated in late 1993, months before she was diagnosed in Baja and this does not make sense. However, we have to remember exactly what John said.

We were living in Baja when she was diagnosed.
They gave her six months. She hung on for three years, long enough to make sure.

Make sure the world didn't end. Sarah's crypt clearly shows she died in 1997. We believe that Sarah was diagnosed around September 1993, she and John returned to Los Angeles, she attempted to blow up Cyberdyne and was incarcerated sometime in late September and John was placed in school.

John is told at this time that his mother was insane and he believed it until he helps Sarah escape and they blow up Cyberdyne. We can imagine Sarah at that time, early 1994, saying she wanted to hang on for three more years just to make sure Judgment Day didn't happen in August 1997. This would be John's memory. Not three years from her diagnosis, but three years from destroying Cyberdyne.

Therefore, in August or September of 1993 Sarah and John are living in Baja and she is diagnosed. They return to Los Angeles, she attempts to blow up Cyberdyne, is shot and arrested and John is placed with foster parents and enrolled in school. Sarah is incarcerated in Pescadero. In early 1994, John rescues her, they blow up Cyberdyne and she hangs on for three more years until late 1997.

Given that John's chat with the T-800 in the alley took place at 5:20 pm and it was light, and John's phone call to Janelle was at 7:00 pm and it was dark, we believe that March is the correct month. Sunset on Saturday, March 26, 1994 was at 6:08 pm in Los Angeles which fits nicely. Therefore, Judgment Day took place on:

Friday	March 25th, 1994
Saturday	March 26th, 1994
Sunday	March 27th, 1994

Determining which events occurred on which days, we need to look closely at travel times.

Pescadero, presumably the location of Pescadero State Hospital, is a seven hour drive from Los Angeles and this effects the possible sequence of events.

John and the T-800 are traveling when they stop and John calls his foster parents - his watch reads 7:00 pm. At this point, John orders the T-800 to help him rescue Sarah. They then drive to Pescadero and arrive around the same time as the T-1000 - around midnight. So John and the Terminator were only 5 hours away from Pescadero and must have already been driving north from the mall for the hour and forty minutes between the chat in the alley and the call to the foster parents.

When they arrive the police had just left, after telling Sarah about the events at the mall that afternoon, and Dr. Silberman is on duty. This makes sense if we realize that it would probably take hours for the police to connect the events at the mall with the shooting back in 1984 and connect that to Sarah, visit the foster parent's home finding them murdered, and send someone out to talk to her. So their arrival at approximately 10:30 pm is not a problem (the nurse on duty tells the T‑1000 that "his friends" have been there for over an hour when he arrives at 11:50 pm). Also, it makes sense that they would have had Dr. Silberman paged which explains his presence at that late hour.

They escape and leave Pescadero around 12:30 am and travel to the gas station where they spend the night. In the gas station they do first aid, reprogram the T‑800 and then get some sleep. When they leave the gas station it is dawn, which would be around 6:00 am.

They then drive to Enrique's. In the script it is stated that Enrique lives in Calexico. When they stop along the way to get gas and food it is 10:40 am, both by the shadows and by a clock at the gas station. When they arrive at Enrique's there are no shadows, therefore it is around noon.

So, Enrique lives about 6 hours from the gas station where they spent the night. Also, he lives about 2 hours from the pit stop gas station. As the pit stop gas station is not on an interstate, we can surmise that it is located on 247 just south of Yucca Valley about 2 hours from Calexico. This means that the overnight gas station is almost 5 hours north of Yucca Valley, or on I-5 north of Coalinga. That is 3 hours from Pescadero.

That means that they escaped the hospital just after midnight, drove for 3 hours to the first gas station. They left 3 hours later at 6:00 in the morning, so they could only have gotten 2 hours sleep. (This might explain why Sarah naps later that afternoon.) They then travelled south and just under 5 hours later they stop for gas and food south of Yucca Valley. They then drive the remaining two hours to get to Enrique's place near Calexico.

Sarah leaves Enrique's at sunset, or around 6:00 pm. When John arrives at Dyson's his watch reads 9:35. This works out as it is about 3 hours from Calexico to Los Angeles.

We have to acknowledge that John's watch does indeed read 9:35 but only in some camera angles. In the same scene, but from other angles, it reads 10:00 or 10:35 or 11:00.

Here it's 10:00

All these would work with the timeline but the 9:35 time seems best.

Timeline

Friday, March 25th, 1994
Night	Terminators arrive
Saturday, March 26th 1994
9:30 am	John leaves foster parent's for mall
10:00 am	Silberman goes on rounds
Morning	T-800 visits foster parents
Early afternoon	Sarah's evaluation, Dyson gets chip
1:10 pm	T-1000 visits foster parents
3:00 pm	Terminators at the Mall
5:20 pm	John and T-800 talk
7:00 pm	John calls foster parents, decides to rescue Sarah
10:30 pm	Police visit Sarah
11:50 pm	T-1000 arrives.
Sunday, March 27th 1994
Midnight	T-800 and John arrive, Sarah escapes.
3:00 am	They stop at gas station, fix wounds, John reprograms T‑800.
6:00 am	They leave the gas station.
10:40 am	They stop for gas and food.
Noon	They arrive at Enrique's, weapon up, fix the truck.
6:00 pm	Sarah leaves for Dyson's, John and T-800 follow.
9:30 pm	Sarah arrives at Dyson's.
11:00 pm	They arrive at Cyberdyne
11:15 pm	Police arrive, Cyberdyne blown up
11:30 pm	Chase to foundry, end of Terminators.

 

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

This story has no serious sequencing issues other than those it inherits from Judgment Day.

Events

"I like this car."	When the T-X arrives it is dark.
Why doesn't their skin burn?	When the T‑800 arrives it is dark and the bar is still open.
Couldn't be clearer.	The T‑800 sees watch with date 07.24.2004 and declares it to be accurate. The watch says 10:50.
"You're John Connor."	When John and Kate meet, it is very early in the morning "It's 6:30 in the morning" Kate tells her customer.
Dawn to Noon in 60 seconds!	When John and Kate are being chased, the sun is just coming up.
And back to early morn...	When they stop for gas "near Victorville", it is morning by the shadows.
"Rescuing" Kate at Green Lawn.	When they reach Green Lawn Cemetery it is around noon, again by shadows.
"Cybernetic Organism!"	When they stop and switch vehicles, the T‑800 tells them in 2 hours and 56 minutes it will be 6:18 pm, therefore it is 3:22 pm, and that it will take about an hour to reach CRS.
Where's the system core?	John and Kate reach Crystal Peak before 6:18 pm.

Notes

Given the above, the Terminators arrive on Day 1 and all else happens on Day 2. The date on the watch seems irrefutable and therefore these events take place on:

Saturday, July 24th 2004	The T-X and T-800 arrive late at night.
Sunday, July 25th 2004	Judgement Day

Interestingly, many websites list John as 25 years old in this story, but as he was born in February of 1985 and this is July of 2004 he has just turned 19.

In working out the travels of the various characters, we have run into a few problems.

After the crane chase scene, when the T‑800 finally catches up with the truck, it takes them onto I‑210. We can see the signs at the entrance ramp showing that they are taking the Sacramento entrance heading west/north rather than the Pasadena entrance. The T‑800 is going to take them to the cemetery to weapon up at Sarah's crypt. This is in Bakersfield and the most direct route to there, once you get on I-210 headed for Sacramento, is to stay on it until you get to I-5, take that until you are about 20 miles south of Bakersfield where you get off on state road 99. This trip is about 2 hours.

The problem is the statement from the police detectives that there was a possible kidnapping reported near Victorville, where the gas station attendant sees them. This is nowhere near their route. They would have to have gone more than two hours and 120 miles out of their way and we see no reason for it . Especially so as the T‑800 believes that they should head south to get away from the fall-out. As they must first travel a couple of hours north to Bakersfield, why take another two hours of travel time to detour to Victorville?

Why go to Victorville?

The second problem is with Scott and the two police detectives. When they first talk to him they refer to an incident that occurred "several hours ago" at the clinic. Scott joins them and they head out. We are not certain where they are going, the only clue is the report about Victorville. However, while driving along they receive notice that Kate has been "rescued" out at the Green Lawn cemetery, "off the 5". Within a few minutes of Kate getting away from the T‑800, Scott and the police show up.

This simply cannot happen. The only way they could arrive at Green Lawn within 15 minutes of Kate arriving there, would be if they were already in or near Bakersfield when the call came in. As all we know is that they have the Victorville report, why are they in Bakersfield? Another curious thing is how does Dr. Silberman happen to be at the cemetery? That seems like awfully quick work on the part of the police. In fact, how did the police know they were at the cemetery?

Here's a possible explanation for all of this.

Around 6:30 or 7:00 am the T‑800 joins John and Kate in the truck. Its destination is Bakersfield but it does not want to travel by freeway. We see several scenes of them driving through the desert. It loops around on 14 and heads towards Victorville. They would arrive there around 9:00 morning, which is confirmed by the length of the shadows in that scene. At that time the gas station attendant reports a possible kidnapping.

This is "several hours" after the incident at the clinic. The police detectives arrive at Kate's apartment and pick-up Scott/T‑X. There must be further police reports that we do not hear as, instead of heading for Victorville, they head north for Bakersfield. They have about a two hour trip to get there.

John, Kate and the T‑800 have left Victorville on their two plus hour trip to Bakersfield. This would have everyone arriving there about the same time. There must have been reports of the vehicle being seen traveling towards Bakersfield during this time. Enough time before the encounter for them to decide to have a hostage counselor present should Kate actually have been kidnapped, which the police are assuming when they arrive "Release your hostage!".

The police have been gathering strength and preparing for a confrontation when the T‑800 stops at Green Lawn. This now explains how they all got there around the same time.

It does not really explain why the T‑800 took such a circuitous route.

Timeline

Saturday, July 24th 2004
Day	John working.
Early night	John sleeping by fire.
10:00 pm	T‑X arrives
10:40 pm	T‑800 arrives
Late	John in accident
Sunday, July 25th 2004
Early	John arrives at clinic
5:30 am	Kate receives page
6:30 am	Kate arrives at clinic, finds John. T‑X and T‑800 arrive
7:00 am	T‑800 stops T‑X, joins John and Kate in truck, they head out of the city
9:00 am	They arrive at gas station near Victorville then head for Bakersfield.
10:00 am	Police arrive at Kate's apartment, pick up Scott/T‑X.
Noon	Everyone arrives at Green Lawn Cemetery. Gun fight, escape and chase. T‑800 heads south.
3:22 pm	They switch vehicles to motor home.
3:30 pm	They head for CRS out in "the Mojave".
4:30 pm	They arrive at CRS
4:45 pm	John and Kate leave for Crystal peak
5:30 pm	They arrive at Crystal Peak
6:18 pm	The bombs fall.

 

Sarah Connor

Notes

We know, from the script, that Sarah was 19 at the time of Terminator which took place on May 11th, 1984. For her to be 19 at that time she would have to have been born between May 12th, 1964 and May 10th, 1965.

In Judgement Day Dr. Silberman says of Sarah that she "is a 29-year old female ...". This takes place on March 26th, 1994. For her to be 29 at that time, she would have to have been born between March 27th, 1964 and March 25th, 1965.

Finally we learn in Genisys that she was 9 years old in 1973. For this to be true Sarah would have to have been born January 1st, 1964 to December 31st, 1964.

These three pieces of information tell us that her birth date must be in the range of May 12th, 1964 to December 31st, 1964. Although it is possible that Sarah's 20th birthday was on the day she and Kyle ran from the T-800, it is unlikely. Similarly, if Sarah turned 9 on December 30th, 1973 and Pops arrived on December 31st she would more likely remember being 8 when the terminators arrived rather than 9. So it is most likely that Sarah was born June 1964 to November 1964.

We learn in Rise of the Machines that she died in 1997 sometime after August 29th. This would make her 32 or 33 when she died. The only inconsistency in all of this is the date of birth on her crypt which states that she was born in 1959.

Sarah's crypt at Green Lawn Cemetary.

However, we are told that her friends put in the crypt in accordance with her wishes. They certainly would have known when she died, 1997, but may have had no idea when she was born. It is very believable that they simply guessed at the year she was born thinking Sarah was older than she actually was. As we will see when we get to the Chronologies, there may be a good reason they believed Sarah to be older than she was.

We also know that Sarah's middle initial is "J". When we see the three Sarah Connnors listed in the phonebook in Terminator we see "Connor Sarah", "Connor Sarah Ann" and "Connor Sarah J". We know the two who were killed were Sarah Louise Connor and Sarah Ann Connor which only leaves Sarah J Connor.

Timeline

 

John Connor

Notes

In the section dating Judgement Day we outlined in detail our reasons for believing that John was 9 years old at that time and that those events took place in 1994.

Also, although we are told that John sent back Kyle from the year 2029, we will establish in the Chronologies that the dates John gives Kyle, and Kyle gives Sarah, are not accurate, and intentionally so. Therefore, although we know John goes on to become the leader of the resistance, and sends Kyle and two reprogrammed T‑800's back, we cannot be certain of the dates upon which these things happen.

Timeline