History Main / TerminatorTwosome

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' has a complex version of this: A WellIntentionedExtremist from the future goes back to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, bringing her to the storyline's present. Unfortunately, her goals would cause major trouble for the main characters ([[BadEnding turning into an ermine can put a crimp in anyone's plans]]), and she sends them a week forward in time to a future in which she's already won. Good thing Negi can go back in time too...

* Comicbook/IronMan and ComicBook/DoctorDoom for some reason do this often. They wound up in Camelot once, and another time they inverted the trope by traveling to the future (after Merlin has awaken and King Arthur has reincarnated). Often, though they end up [[TakeAThirdOption taking a third option]] and working together to get back. And again in Bendis' ComicBook/MightyAvengers. It helps that both Doom and Stark have ''nothing'' to gain from changing anything in the specific past periods they enter, and both would rather keep the present they have. Seeing as it's dangerous to fuck with reality and all that.

* ''Comicbook/RoboCopVersusTheTerminator'' written by Creator/FrankMiller had a human sent back to kill the former Alex Murphy before he could grant Skynet sentience, and a Terminator sent back to protect [=RoboCop=] by any means necessary -- whether he wanted it or not.

* The ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfic [[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/2570231/1/Fusion_of_Destinies Fusion of Destinies]] features a spell that can pull a deadly weapon from the future, but in a form of EquivalentExchange, also brings a person with the knowledge or ability to defeat it. A long time ago, a Goblin rebellion used the spell and got a nuclear bomb along with a technician who gave his life to disarm it. When Voldemort casts it, it brings back [[Videogame/MetroidFusion the X Parasite and Samus Aran]].

* In the InteractiveFiction game ''{{VideoGame/Jigsaw}}'' by Creator/GrahamNelson, the player character (known as "White") is attempting to stop "Black" from changing the past, although neither side is really in the wrong.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WonderWoman1975'': In "Time Bomb", Cassandra Loren, an expert on 20th Century history from 2155, travels back in time to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles in 1978 in order to [[TimeTravelForFunAndProfit use her knowledge of the future to make a fortune]]. Adam Clement follows her back to stop her.

** ''Franchise/BillAndTed''

* In ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'', Rufus follows the robot Bill and Ted into the past to try and stop them killing the originals.

* ''Film/DemolitionMan'' inverts the trope, sending two people from the present into the future. One is a criminal "mistakenly" unfrozen from [[HumanPopsicle Cryogenic Sleep]], the other is a present-day cop also in cryogenic sleep for a crime he was framed for, unfrozen to deal with someone simply too evil and dangerous for the wimpified future cops to handle.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime]]

* ''Comicbook/XMen'':
** Comicbook/{{Cable}} came back in time to prevent the future he grew up in. Stryfe, his [[EvilTwin evil clone]], then came back in time to stop him -- not so much because he was hugely enamoured of their home era, but rather because he lived to screw with Cable's life. Oh, and then Cable's evil adopted son came back as well... Later X-Men storylines have Cable jumping into the future to protect [[ComicBook/HopeSummers a girl]] he believes will become the [[MessianicArchetype saviour]], while Bishop wants to kill her because in ''his'' original timeline she becomes TheAntiChrist.

* During one [[BonusMaterial Omake]] in ''FanFic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'', Chibi-Usa attempts to prevent Nanoha and Fate from meeting, with Vivio trying to stop her.

* ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'' has an interesting, all-evil version of this pop up in one chapter -- Drago comes back in time to kill [[VillainProtagonist Queen Jade]] for no other reason than to secure his own chance at ruling the world in the future. Karasu, meanwhile, is sent back by the Matriarch (Jade's future self) in order to preserve the timeline. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Drago is banished back to the future and imprisoned by the Matriarch, while Karasu is trapped in the past and imprisoned by Section 13]].

[[folder:Film]]

** If ''that'' wasn't confusing enough, ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'' disregards all movies after the second as AlternateTimeline and takes its place as the [[UnReboot new third movie]], where a new liquid metal Terminator is sent to terminate the new leader of the Resistance, with a cyborg member of the Resistance sent back to protect her, aided in the present by Sarah Connor and the [[TheAtoner reformed T-800]] [[spoiler: who successfully killed John Coonor]].

* A Terminator ''Threesome'' happens in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', when Marty and Doc travel back to 1955 to undo Old Biff's tampering with the timeline.
** To make this more confusing, it's set at the same time as [[Film/BackToTheFuture first movie]]. So Marty and Doc have to avoid that film's younger Marty who's unaware of other time travellers in order not to mess the timeline up further.

[[folder:Pinball]]

* ''VisualNovel/TimeHollow'' plays a variation of this. Upon learning that the past has changed, the protagonist tries to undo the antagonist's interferences in time through time portals. The biggest conflict is [[spoiler: trying to save the antagonist's mother, who sent herself a letter in time to commit a form of suicide]].

** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' uses the interdimensional travel variety: Sunset Shimmer wants to retrieve the MacGuffin from the [[HighSchoolAU human high school]] so that she can, [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic you guessed it,]] TakeOverTheWorld.[[note]][[Film/StreetFighter Of course!]][[/note]] Twilight Sparkle is trying to bring the MacGuffin back to Equestria.

* From the '90s ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' cartoon:
** A two-episode arc involved Bishop traveling from the BadFuture to the present day, attempting to prevent the outbreak of a mutant plague. He succeeds. But his actions backfire, however, and result in the deaths of the X-Men and the complete extinction (rather than just decimation) of mutants. Specifically, the vaccine that was created to counter the plague was also needed by future mutants to survive and due to Bishops actions, it was never created--so Cable comes from an ''even further'' future to stop Bishop. Cause the mutant plague or stop the mutant plague? [[spoiler:Nah, Cable [[TakeAThirdOption takes a third option]]: Infect Wolverine with the plague, letting his healing factor develop the vaccine, ''then'' destroy the plague.]]
** You've also got the more basic variety in most TimeTravel episodes. First it's Bishop and Nimrod, then it's the Cable and Bishop thing, then it's Bishop and Fitzroy, then it's Shard and the various agents of Apocalypse (though they're from the present, Apocalypse is the version from Cable's future.) [[spoiler: In the end, the BadFuture is NOT prevented, but at least they always managed to stop those who'd make it any worse.]]

* In a variant on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Warp from the far future is followed through a time-gate by Starfire from the present, and she winds up hunting for him {{Twenty Minutes Into The|Future}} BadFuture.

* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has a crossover with the ''Comicbook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' where Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Chameleon Boy protect a young Clark Kent from a time-travelling ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}. Clark winds up [[HurlItIntoTheSun teleporting Brainiac into the sun.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' did this with a FutureBadass version of Jade and [[BigBad Shendu's]] KidFromTheFuture, Drago, in "J2". Future Jade's arrival was even accompanied by Terminator-style music.

* ''For King And Country'', by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans, features [[spoiler: what seems to be]] an example of an IRA agent traveling back to Arthurian times to change history in Ireland's favor or simply punish England, and a British soldier trying to stop it. They go all the way back to around 500 AD or so and share the bodies of people close to King Arthur. It seems like a StableTimeLoop and/or TrickedOutTime, but the ending is a little ambiguous. MeanwhileInTheFuture, their bodies remain in a comatose state while they are in the past.

----

-->-- '''Sarah Connor''' OpeningNarration, ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''

->''"Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him - and me."''
-->-- '''Kyle Reese''', ''Film/TheTerminator''

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' of all things features an example, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundaneas though it could have a mundane explanation]], said explanation makes less sense than this. While TheStinger of the episode leaves it as an open question, the behavior of the killer makes no sense if he isn't a time travel, as it would require that he work backwards in an extremely convoluted fashion.

* The ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/NightWatch'' features Sam Vimes and a criminal both [[LightningCanDoAnything accidentally going back in time]], and Sam Vimes has to stop him from changing history for the worse - while wondering whether he can morally allow history to run its course when it means innocent people dying that could be saved if he used his knowledge from the future to make a few changes of his own. [[spoiler: He finally decides to make the changes, though these turn out to be entirely necessary to counteract those of his nemesis and arrive at broadly the same present they left.]]

* ''Series/TimeTrax'' is a variation. The hero was sent back into the past to retrieve several escaped criminals who escaped to the past with the help of a MadScientist. This trope applies since the MadScientist himself also escaped into the past, and several times his schemes in the past threaten to change the timeline, and the hero must stop him. Unfortunately, the show can't decide on whether the 20th century shown is actually the main character's past or merely a time-shifted alternate universe. The main character's main problem with them is that they're escaped criminals, not that they're a danger to his timeline. He does, however, have a personal score to settle with the MadScientist for killing his {{Love Interest|s}} in the pilot.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers'': Has [[spoiler: Dusknoir and Grovyle. One is there to stop the other from [[BadFuture plunging the world into a dark, frozen hellscape]]. However, the established course of the timeline ''is'' that hellscape, thus the game plays with the trope with a VillainWithGoodPublicity trying to stop the HeroWithBadPublicity from changing anything]].

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Cell and Trunks, although they come from different [[AlternateTimeline timelines]]. Trunks had no idea who Cell was, and Cell killed the Trunks of his timeline before going to the past. Oddly, due to the TimeyWimeyBall, between the two of them, they've killed two versions of the other each.

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'', [[TropeNamers obviously.]] Basically, the entire franchise is a [[BigBad Skynet]] and the adult John Connor repeatedly sending their agents back in time to subvert each other.

** If ''that'' wasn't confusing enough, ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'' disregards all movies after the second as AlternateTimeline and takes its place as the [[UnReboot new third movie]], where a new liquid metal Terminator is sent to terminate a hybrid cyborg human and all of her allies, and Sarah Connor and her old T-800 come to the rescue. So now we have a timeline that is both fixed and fluid and also splintered into at least three maybe more. [[TimeyWimeyBall Whew]].

* A variant in the 2009 ''StarTrek'' movie, Nero and Spock are both accidentally sent back in time due to an UnrealisticBlackHole. Nero takes advantage of this by using futuristic mining technology to destroy Federation planets while Spock recruits past Kirk to stop him. In this case, the whole event creates a separate branched timeline which does not affect the original, so they're not trying to protect the future, but the plot still follows much the same formula.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' features "Marth" [[spoiler:or Lucina, as she's actually named, as well as any other child characters]], sent back to prevent the BadFuture, and [[spoiler:the ''actual PlayerCharacter'', or at least an alternate thereof]] sent to enforce it.

* The above became AscendedFanon with the official play, ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'' having the Surgery go back in time to prevent Voldemort's first defeat and Harry and co having to stop her.

* A variant in the 2009 ''StarTrek'' movie, Nero and Spock are both accidentally sent back in time due to an UnrealisticBlackHole. Nero takes advantage of this by using futuristic mining technology to destroy Federation planets while Spock recruits past Kirk to stop him. In this case, the whole event creates a separate branched timeline which does not affect the original, so they're not trying to protect the future, just to prevent genocide.