T-3000

Background

Skynet created an avatar for itself in the form of a T-5000, which traveled through many timelines seeking to defeat the Human Resistance. Infiltrating the Resistance under the guise of a fighter named Alex, the T-5000 was present when John Connor and Kyle Reese discovered Skynet's time machine. As Kyle was sent back to 1984, Alex killed the other soldiers and infected John Connor with nanomachines, transforming him into a hybrid Terminator designated the T-3000.

Skynet had attempted to convert other humans into infiltrators by infecting prisoners with machine-phase matter, but those subjects were driven insane by the psychological trauma. Connor was the only known human with the strength of will to remain psychologically intact, though corrupted to serve Skynet. This conversion caused a grandfather paradox that fractured the timeline, rewriting the past and future. The T-3000 was sent back to 2014 to assist Cyberdyne Systems in developing an operating system named Genisys, which was actually Skynet and its machines.

When Sarah and Kyle arrived in 2017, the T-3000 met them at a hospital and convinced them he was John Connor, but his disguise was exposed by the Guardian. After multiple battles, the T-3000 was disintegrated by a prototype time machine's magnetic field, though Skynet's global attack was foiled and the T-3000 succeeded in securing its survival in that timeline.

Design

The on-screen representation of the T-3000 was made by British effects company Double Negative, combining Jason Clarke filmed on set, keyframed animation, and motion capture. The design focused on efficiency, with the result described as a pure robot under flesh structure retaining an overall human shape. The mechanical cells resembled material on stealth aircraft, appearing as a slightly iridescent ceramic carbon.