History Headscratchers / TerminatorGenisys

* The age-old time travel problem: Why do the protagonists, who are shown to have excellent control over their destination, always give themselves JUST ENOUGH time to stop the Apocalypse? They could have given themselves months, years, heck they didn't even have to time travel, just find SkyNet at its earliest ideation and kill it before it becomes smart enough to defend itself!

** Two words: [[spoiler: John Connor.]] It's stated in the film that he sent himself back a 3 years before Judgement Day and is meant to [[spoiler: set up Skynet's creation.]] Plus Skynet would have to be identifiable and the only clue they have is Kyle's vision that [[spoiler: Skynet = Genisys.]] To be fair the first half of this is omniscient knowledge of the audience, so out-of-universe reason is so they could keep the movie more cohesive.

** Two words: [[spoiler: John Connor.]] It's stated in the film that he sent himself back a few years before Judgement Day (4 years if I'm remembering correctly) and is meant to [[spoiler: set up Skynet's creation.]] Plus Skynet would have to be identifiable and the only clue they have is Kyle's vision that [[spoiler: Skynet = Genisys.]] To be fair the first half of this is omniscient knowledge of the audience, so out-of-universe reason is so they could keep the movie more cohesive.

** Kyle in T1 states that Skynet some of the prisoners are being taken to work and also load dead bodies. The points you have made are also reasons as to why they take prisoners, with experimentation in particular being the reason they know our anatomy and psychology. This troper assumes they also kill off a majority of them making the numbers we see not as bad as the risk sounds. As for why Skynet is doing this, it seems the rewards they reap from it outweigh the risks, those rewards being knowledge to create better killing machines and intel.

** Kyle in T1 states that Skynet some of the prisoners are being taken to work and also load dead bodies. The points you have made are also reasons as to why they take prisoners, with experimentation in particular being the reason they know our anatomy and psychology. This troper assumes they also kill off a majority of them.

** Two words: [[spoiler: John Connor.]] It's stated in the film that he sent himself back a few years before Judgement Day (4 years if I'm remembering correctly) and is meant to [[spoiler: set up Skynet's creation.]] Plus Skynet would have to be identifiable and the only clue they have is Kyle's vision that [[spoiler: Skynet = Genisys.]] To be fair the first half of this is omniscient knowledge of the audience, so out-of-universe reason is so they could keep the movie cohesive and short.

** Two words: [[spoiler: John Connor.]] It's stated in the film that he sent himself back a few years before Judgement Day (4 years if I'm remembering correctly) and is meant to [[spoiler: set up Skynet's creation.]] Plus Skynet would have to be identifiable and the only clue they have is Kyle's vision that [[spoiler: Skynet = Genisys.]] To be fair the first half of this is omniscient knowledge of the audience, so out-of-universe reason is so they could keep the more cohesive.

** Two words: [[spoiler: John Connor.]] It's stated in the film that he sent himself back a few years before Judgement Day (4 years if I'm remembering correctly) and is meant to [[spoiler: set up Skynet's creation.]] To be fair this is omniscient knowledge of the audience, so out-of-universe reason is so they could keep the more cohesive. Chalk it up to them deciding to go with Kyle's gut on this one?

** Two words: [[spoiler: John Connor.]] It's stated in the film that he sent himself back a few years before Judgement Day (4 years if I'm remembering correctly) and is meant to [spoiler: set up Skynet's creation]]. To be fair this is omniscient knowledge of the audience, so out-of-universe reason is so they could keep the more cohesive. Chalk it up to them deciding to go with Kyle's gut on this one?

* The age-old time travel problem: Why do the protagonists, who are shown to have excellent control over their destination, always give themselves JUST ENOUGH time to stop the Apocalypse? They could have given themselves months, years, heck they didn't even have to time travel, just find SkyNet at its earliest ideation and kill it before it becomes smart enough to defend itself!

** Indeed, humanity ''has'' outlived their usefulness. The motive Skynet originally had shifts to a secondary motive, but this time Skynet-as-Genisys perceives humans as "obsolete". After all, Skynet/Genisys is an AI learning computer that learns at an ''exponential'' rate, [[spoiler: even remarking that "Primates evolve across millions of years. I only take seconds!"]] At that point, what use are humans and humanity to it if they are basically the equivalent of that old computer you may have in your attic/basement? It certainly doesn't help that [[spoiler: the good guys are trying to destroy Genisys, though it brought that on itself.]]

** Indeed, humanity ''has'' outlived their usefulness. The motive Skynet originally had shifts to a secondary motive, but this time Skynet-as-Genisys perceives humans as "obsolete". After all, Skynet/Genisys is an AI learning computer that learns at an ''exponential'' rate, [[spoiler: even remarking that "Primates evolve across millions of years. I only take seconds!"]] At that point, what use are humans and humanity to it if they are basically the equivalent of that old computer you may have in your attic/basement? It doesn't certainly help that [[spoiler: the good guys are trying to destroy Genisys, though it brought that on itself.]]

** Indeed, humanity ''has'' outlived their usefulness. The motive Skynet originally had shifts to a secondary motive, but this time Skynet perceives humans as "obsolete". After all, Skynet is an AI learning computer that learns at an ''exponential'' rate, [[spoiler: even remarking in Genisys that "Primates evolve across millions of years. I only take seconds!"]] At that point, what use are humans and humanity to it if they are basically the equivalent of that old computer you may have in your attic/basement? It doesn't certainly help that [[spoiler: the good guys are trying to destroy Skynet, though it brought that on itself.]]

** Indeed, humanity ''has'' outlived their usefulness. The motive Skynet originally had shifts to a secondary motive, but this time Skynet percieves humans as "obsolete". After all, Skynet is an AI learning computer that learns at an ''exponential'' rate, [[spoiler: even remarking in Genisys that "Primates evolve across millions of years. I only take seconds!"]] At that point, what use are humans and humanity to it if they are basically the equivalent of that old computer you may have in your attic/basement? It doesn't certainly help that [[spoiler: the good guys are trying to destroy Skynet, though it brought that on itself.]]

* Why is Skynet still obsessed with destroying humanity? Starting out as Genisys, Skynet basically controls every aspect of modern human culture. It has humanity willingly by the balls already. There's no real threat from a population that wants you to exist because it has come to depend on you. John after becoming the T3000 even tries to reason with Sarah and Kyle to join Skynet which doesn't sound like a prelude to eliminating them from the equation. It seems like Skynet is suffering from total MotiveDecay. The only adequate explanation is that Skynet looks at humanity and decides YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness.

** This film does take some liberties with the "defeat of Skynet" from the original film. Exactly what "(Skynet's) defense grid was smashed" means is never really made clear in the films, though supplemental material indeed suggests that Skynet itself remained active for some time, just not in a capacity that was capable of defeating the Resistance. In this film, Skynet itself is taken offline, crashed, kaput. [[spoiler: Except for Matt Smith.]] Terminator 2 does state (in Sarah Connor's opening narration) that Skynet sent the T-800 and T-1000 back at the same time, but Terminator 3 seems to indicate that Skynet still had some time and R&D to prepare for its next time-travel incursion (T-X is WAY more advanced than either the T-800 or T-1000.) The problem with ''that'', though, is that once you take into account the events of T2, the [[StableTimeLoop Stable Time Loops]] starts to unravel.

** This film does take some liberties with the "defeat of Skynet" from the original film. Exactly what "(Skynet's) defense grid was smashed" means is never really made clear in the films, though supplemental material indeed suggests that Skynet itself remained active for some time, just not in a capacity that was capable of defeating the Resistance. In this film, Skynet itself is taken offline, crashed, kaput. [[spoiler: Except for Matt Smith.]] Terminator 2 does state (in Sarah Connor's opening narration) that Skynet sent the T-800 and T-1000 back at the same time, but Terminator 3 seems to indicate that Skynet still had some time and R&D to prepare for its next time-travel incursion (T-X is WAY more advanced than either the T-800 or T-1000.) The problem with ''that'', though, is that once you take into account the events of T2, the StableTimeLoops starts to unravel.

** As I understand, the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] has that the plot of the first two movies is that Skynet sent two Terminators back in time at the same time (the T-800 for Sarah, and the T-1000 for John either as a contingency or because it knew that the T-800 was destined to fail), and that the Resistance sent Kyle and the reprogrammed T-800 immediately after. Recall that Kyle stated in the first film that the resistance had smashed Skynet's defense grid and won; Skynet's use of time travel was a final desperation move. How this affects the subsequent timelines is not clear, however.

* If the [[spoiler:T-5000 didn't interfere to mess up everything]]. How and when did the events from Terminator 2 and (canon or not) 3 happen? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but wasn't the plot that after sending Kyle and the Terminator for the first movie, the war still continued for a while until they decided to send more Terminators to the past for the second and third movies? But the future war scene showed that Skynet was defeated and shutdown for good right after the first Terminator was sent to the past.

* If the T-5000 didn't interfere to mess up everything. How and when did the events from Terminator 2 and (canon or not) 3 happen? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but wasn't the plot that after sending Kyle and the Terminator for the first movie, the war still continued for a while until they decided to send more Terminators to the past for the second and third movies? But the future war scene showed that Skynet was defeated and shutdown for good right after the first Terminator was sent to the past.

* How did Skynet get RippleEffectProofMemory? It's stated that Skynet learns from each alternate timeline, but I'm sure neither Dyson nor Dyson, Jr. knew how to program that in (they were only just starting to dip their toe into time travel to start) and Future!John Connor only showed up in this timeline to offer pointers.

** Firstly, the T-1000, at least in the original T1/T2 future, was an advanced prototype. It was likely totally brand new and never even field-tested before. John would have known about it (if the events of ''T2'' occurred in the timeline depicted at the start of this film) but no one else in the Resistance would have. Secondly, its implied in the film that the T-5000 (Matt Smith's character) comes from another timeline, something which is confirmed by WordOfGod, so its abilities do not reflect the abilities of the Skynet that this version of the Resistance has been fighting.

* Did Kyle really not recognize the T-1000? It seemed like he needed Sarah to explain to him what it was. He's been fighting on the front lines with John his entire life, and he's never seen or heard of one? Were they not out in the field? It seems strange that Skynet's Terminator tech would advance all the way up to [[spoiler:colonies of nanomachines that can assimilate a human into a Terminator]] without first having fielded the comparatively simple T-1000.
** Maybe Skynet lost the war because it kept all its crazy super Terminator models locked up in R&D instead of cranking them out onto the battlefield.

** Maybe Skynet lost the war because it kept all its crazy super Terminator models locked up in R&D instead of cranking them out onto the battlefield.

* Did Kyle really not recognize the T-1000? It seemed like he needed Sarah to explain to him what it was. He's been fighting on the front lines with John his entire life, and he's never seen or heard of one? Were they not out in the field? It seems strange that Skynet's Terminator tech would advance all the way up to [[spoiler:colonies of nanomachines that can assimilate a human into a Terminator]] without first having fielded the comparatively simple T-1000. Maybe Skynet lost the war because it kept all its crazy super Terminator models locked up in R&D instead of cranking them out onto the battlefield.