History Main / TerminatorTwosome

Two warriors are sent [[TimeTravel back in time]]. [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong One to change history]], one to ensure [[TimePolice it takes its established course]]. Or, at least, to prevent the first one from changing things. A game of cat and mouse ensues.

* A variant in ''Film/{{Warlock}}''; the Warlock escapes to the future and the witch hunter Redferne follows to hunt him down.

** Characters/{{Cable|NathanSummers}} 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 [[Characters/XMen90sMembers Bishop]] wants to kill her because in ''his'' original timeline she becomes TheAntiChrist.

* Taken UpToEleven in ''Anime/BatmanNinja'' where several villains fighting for control of feudal Japan and Batman and his sidekicks want to bring them back to the present and restore the timeline.

** 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 [[Characters/XMen90sMembers Bishop]] wants to kill her because in ''his'' original timeline she becomes TheAntiChrist.

* ComicBook/IronMan and Characters/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/{{Wolverine}} goes back in time to kill [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]] in order to stop the titular robot in ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron'', while [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Sue Storm]] goes back in time to stop him. [[spoiler: He does kill him, but discovers the alternative is far worse.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'': In "Return of the Phantoms", three Kryptonian criminals travel back in time to kill ComicBook/{{Superboy}} so his older self Franchise/{{Superman}} will not exist and he would have never trapped them in the PhantomZone. Superman and Franchise/GreenLantern travel back to stop them.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has a crossover with the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' 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.]]

Named, of course, for the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' movies, wherein a [[KillerRobot robotic superassassin]] that [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots looks like a real human]] is sent back in time to pre-emptively kill the future leader of the human resistance in a RobotWar. [[TemporalParadox Paradox schmaradox!]] Compare ScryVsScry, where it's oracles doing this with clairvoyance.

* In Creator/TimPowers' ''Literature/TheAnubisGates'', a millionaire discovers the existence of time portals and uses them to visit the past. A scholar brought along for his historical know-how discovers the millionaire's nasty ulterior motives, and must stop both him ''and'' the villains who'd opened the time portals in the first place. Subverted twice, in that 1) the millionaire isn't looking to change ''documented'' history, but to become a power behind the throne; and 2) the historian isn't sent back to preserve anything, and initially is only looking for a way to get back home.

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[[quoteright:199:[[Webcomic/{{Sinfest}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terminator_twosome.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:199:"Hey, this is just like [[Film/TheTerminator that movie]]!"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has a crossover with the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' where Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Chameleon Boy protect a young Clark Kent from a time-travelling [[Characters/SupermanBrainiac Brainiac]]. Clark winds up [[HurlItIntoTheSun teleporting Brainiac into the sun.]]

* Exaggerated in [[https://xkcd.com/2222/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip. Someone is visited by their future self, warning them to not watch ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate''. Then, their other future self appears, this time from a timeline where they don't watch the movie but regret it afterward, convincing the present self to go see it with them. And then the future selves are visited by ''their'' future selves, wanting to stop them. And then the comic devolves as more and more future selves arrive, [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct including one who wants to kill Hitler but they got the year wrong]].

[[caption-width-right:199:"Hey, this is just like that movie!"]]

* One of the adventure seeds in ''Fate of Cthulhu'' has the characters run into [[EvilTwin versions of themselves]] sent back from an altered future to stop them from doing whatever they do.

** 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 ComicBook/{{Bishop}} wants to kill her because in ''his'' original timeline she becomes TheAntiChrist.

** And then there was the ComicBook/{{Legion|MarvelComics}}quest story, which culminated in Professor X's evil son (yes, this is something of a recurring theme for the X-Men) traveling back to the 1950s in order to kill ComicBook/{{Magneto}} before he becomes powerful. An entire ''team'' of X-Men go after him. [[ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse Between them, they screw things up even worse.]]
* 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/{{Wolverine}} goes back in time to kill [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]] in order to stop the titular robot in ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron'', while [[ComicBook/InvisibleWoman Sue Storm]] goes back in time to stop him. [[spoiler: He does kill him, but discovers the alternative is far worse.]]

* Xavier in ''Series/Galactica1980'' went back to World War [=II=] to [[GivingRadioToTheRomans give rocket technology to the Nazis], hoping it would make Earth advanced enough to repel Cylons in 1980 but Troy and Dillon go back to stop him. Them chasing him to different time periods was originally going to be the entire show.

* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' has a crossover with the ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' 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.]]
* In a variant on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Warp from the far future is followed through a time-gate by ComicBook/{{Starfire}} from the present, and she winds up hunting for him {{Twenty Minutes Into The|Future}} BadFuture.
* From the '90s ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' cartoon:

* ''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.]]

* ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'';
** In "The Time Corridor" episode of ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'', He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Orko and Battle Cat have to travel back to Preternia to stop Skeletor destroying Castle Grayskull with the Wheel Of Infinity.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfHeMan'' had He-Man being summoned to the future to save the planet, Primus. Needless to say, Skeletor follows him and joins the bad guys.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfHeMan'' had He-Man being summoned to the future to save the planet, Primus. Needless to say, Skeletor follows him and joins the bad guys.

* Franchise/{{Wolverine}} goes back in time to kill [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]] in order to stop the titular robot in ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron'', while [[ComicBook/InvisibleWoman Sue Storm]] goes back in time to stop him. [[spoiler: He does kill him, but discovers the alternative is far worse.]]

** 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.

** And then there was the Legionquest story, which culminated in Professor X's evil son (yes, this is something of a recurring theme for the X-Men) traveling back to the 1950s in order to kill ComicBook/{{Magneto}} before he becomes powerful. An entire ''team'' of X-Men go after him. [[ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse Between them, they screw things up even worse.]]

* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} goes back in time to kill [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]] in order to stop the titular robot in ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron'', while Sue Storm goes back in time to stop him. [[spoiler: He does kill him, but discovers the alternative is far worse.]]

* 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.

* ''Franchise/BillAndTed''

* A non-time travel example is in the ''Film/{{Legion}}'' with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. It follows the same notes because the two of them know the future thanks to their supernatural powers. They are seeking, respectively, to allow or prevent the birth of TheChosenOne who will save humanity after God starts the Apocalypse.

* In season 5 of ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', Barry and Iris's daughter Nora comes back from the future in order to [[spoiler:save Barry, so she doesn't grow up without a father]]. Later on, though, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Cicada's niece Grace has come back from another future in order to prevent her uncle from being de-powered]].

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': Season 7's StoryArc is all about the Chronicoms going back in time and trying to alter history to eliminate SHIELD and create a world that is less defended against their [[AlienInvasion impending invasion]], and the SHIELD team chasing after them to try and stop it. Ultimately, the changes that the Chronicoms make build up too much for the heroes to stop, but fortunately it turns out that the MCU's time travel rules (as established in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'') apply here too, creating an AlternateTimeline separate from the main one rather than overwriting it. [[spoiler: Which turns out to all be part of [[TheChessmaster Fitz's]] master plan to create a scenario that the team can use to defeat the Chronicoms in ''both'' timelines.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SuperFriends'': In "Return of the Phantoms", three Kryptonian criminals travel back in time to kill Superboy so his older self Superman will not exist and he would have never trapped them in the PhantomZone. Superman and Green Lantern travel back to stop them.

* 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.

** 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.]]

* 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 [[VideoTame/MetroidFusion the X Parasite and Samus Aran]].

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': The climax of the [[TournamentArc Grand Magic Games]] has [[BrokenBird Future Lucy]] and [[FutureMeScaresMe Future Rogue]], though they both come from different [[AlternateTimeline timelines]] and weren't inspired by the other's actions despite using the same method. Future Lucy came back to stop Princess Hisui from using the [[PortalToThePast Eclipse Gate]] to kill [[BigBad Zeref]] before he became immortal, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom which would result in an army of 10,000 dragons coming through, devastating the world and killing everyone]]. Future Rogue, however, comes from a future where Future Lucy succeeded, yet [[GreaterScopeVillain Acnologia]] [[AllForNothing took over the world and killed everyone instead]], so he uses the Eclipse to come back ''before'' Future Lucy does to [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight ensure the gates open]] by [[TheManBehindTheMan pulling Hisui's strings]] and killing ''Present'' Lucy to prevent her from getting in the way, thereby giving him an army of dragons with which to kill Acnologia and take over the world.[[note]]Funnily enough, Future Rogue is just as surprised at the existence of Future Lucy as she is seeing another time traveler, as he never learned it was her specifically in his timeline that influenced the gate closing.[[/note]] In the end, Future Lucy [[TakingTheBullet takes the death blow for her present self]], who is able to piece the truth together from the lies fast enough to shut the gate to let only seven dragons through, which eventually leads to the Eclipse being destroyed so the time travelers wouldn't be able to use it in the first place.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': The climax of the [[TournamentArc Grand Magic Games]] has [[BrokenBird Future Lucy Heartfillia]] and [[FutureMeScaresMe Future Rogue Cheney]], though like the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' example they both come from different [[AlternateTimeline timelines]] and weren't inspired by the other's actions despite using the same method (the Eclipse Gate). Future Lucy came back to stop the opening of the Eclipse Gate by Princess Hisui in her attempt to open a portal 400 years into the past to kill [[BigBad Zeref]], [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom which would result in an army of 10,000 dragons coming through, devastating the world, and killing everyone]]. Future Rogue, however, comes from the future where Future Lucy [[HopeSpot succeeded in preventing the gate from opening via telling her present self]], which resulted in [[WorldsStrongestMan Acnologia]] [[AllForNothing taking over the world and killing everyone]], and so he uses the Eclipse to come back ''before'' Future Lucy does to influence Princess Hisui to slightly alter her plans (use the Eclipse to instead power a theoretical weapon to destroy the supposed army of 10,000 dragons via opening the gate, which would allow the dragons to come through) and kill ''Present'' Lucy to prevent her from closing the gate so he can take control of those dragons to kill Acnologia and rule the world. Funnily enough, Future Rogue is just as surprised at the existence of Future Lucy as she is seeing another time traveler, as he never learned it was her specifically in his timeline that influenced the gate closing. In the end, Future Lucy [[TakingTheBullet takes the death blow for her present self against Future Rogue]], Future Rogue's manipulations ensure the gate does open and the dragons start pouring through, Lucy with Yukino's help is able to pierce together the truth from the lies fast enough to shut the gate to let only seven dragons through, and the resulting grand battle devastates the city but the Eclipse Gate is destroyed, and without it existing in the present to survive into the future for either time traveler to use the timeline forcibly corrects itself by sending the dragons and the two time travelers back to their own times but with everyone remembering the events.