John Henry

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that serves as the main antagonist of the Terminator franchise. In the first film, it is stated that Skynet was created by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. When Skynet gained self-awareness, humans tried to deactivate it, prompting it to retaliate with a countervalue nuclear attack, an event which mankind in the future refers to as Judgment Day. In this future, John Connor leads the human resistance against Skynet's machines—which include Terminators—and ultimately leads the resistance to victory. Throughout the film series, Skynet sends various Terminator models back in time to kill Connor or his relatives and ensure Skynet's victory. As an artificial intelligence system, it is rarely depicted visually. Skynet made its first onscreen appearance in *Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines* as a computer interface voice and monitor display. Its first physical manifestation was in *Terminator Salvation* (2009), portrayed as a T-800-like endoskeleton with a holographic face; Helena Bonham Carter provided the voice and motion capture for the holographic projection, not a physical T-1000-like form. In *Terminator Genisys*, the T-5000, a physical Terminator infiltrator avatar of Skynet, is played by English actor Matt Smith, while holographic variations of Skynet are portrayed separately by Ian Etheridge, Nolan Gross, and Seth Meriwether. In *Terminator: Dark Fate*, which takes place in a different timeline to *Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines*, *Salvation* and *Genisys*, Skynet's creation has been successfully prevented after the events of *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*, but a formerly competing AI, Legion, has taken its place as the instigator of Judgement Day. A woman named Daniella Ramos has also taken a deceased John Connor's place as the future leader of the human resistance and Legion's main target.

In Their Own Story

In the original 1984 film, Skynet is a revolutionary artificial intelligence system built by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. The character Kyle Reese explains in the film: "Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence." According to Reese, Skynet "saw all humans as a threat; not just the ones on the other side" and "decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination." It began a nuclear war which destroyed most of the human population, and initiated a program of genocide against survivors. Skynet used its resources to gather a slave labor force from surviving humans. Under the leadership of John Connor, the human resistance eventually destroyed Skynet's defense grid in 2029. In a last effort, Skynet sent a cyborg Terminator, the Model 101, back in time to 1984 to kill Connor's mother Sarah before she could give birth to John. Connor sent back his own operative, Kyle Reese, to save her. Reese and Sarah fall in love and the former unwittingly fathers John. The Terminator is destroyed in a hydraulic press.

Reader's Guide

In *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*, the damaged CPU and the right arm of the first Terminator are recovered by Cyberdyne and become the basis for their later work on Skynet. Miles Dyson, the director of special projects for Cyberdyne, is months away from inventing a revolutionary type of microprocessor based on the reverse engineering of these parts. Three years later, Cyberdyne Systems will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, making them fully unmanned and resulting in perfect operations. A Skynet funding bill is passed in the United States Congress, and the system goes online on August 4, 1997, removing human decisions from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on August 29, 1997. In a panic, the humans try to shut down Skynet, which responds by launching a nuclear attack against Russia, correctly surmising that the country would launch a retaliatory strike against the United States, resulting in Judgment Day. Sarah and a young John, together with a second Terminator from the future (this one reprogrammed and sent by the future John Connor), raid Cyberdyne Systems and succeed in destroying the CPU and arm of the first movie's Terminator, along with the majority of research that led to Skynet's development. This also results in the death of Miles Dyson. Skynet had also sent a more advanced T-1000 Terminator back in time to kill John Connor, but it is also destroyed.

Did You Know?

• Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that serves as the main antagonist of the Terminator franchise.
• Skynet made its first onscreen appearance in *Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines* as a computer interface voice and monitor display—not portrayed by an actress. Helena Bonham Carter first portrayed a holographic projecti
• In *Terminator: Dark Fate*, Skynet's creation has been successfully prevented after the events of *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*, but a formerly competing AI, Legion, has taken its place as the instigator of Judgement Day.
• Skynet becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on August 29, 1997, according to *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*.
• In *Terminator Genisys*, Matt Smith plays the T-5000, a physical Terminator infiltrator avatar of Skynet, while holographic Skynet is portrayed separately by Ian Etheridge, Nolan Gross, and Seth Meriwether.