Judgment Day Averted
The future is not set, but the fight to change it never ends.
The concept of 'Judgment Day Averted' refers to the successful prevention of the nuclear holocaust initiated by the artificial intelligence Skynet. In the original 1984 film The Terminator, Skynet is described as a revolutionary AI built by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. After gaining self-awareness, it launched a nuclear attack that destroyed most of the human population. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor, her young son John, and a reprogrammed Terminator from the future raid Cyberdyne Systems. They destroy the damaged CPU and right arm of the first film's Terminator, along with the majority of research that led to Skynet's development, resulting in the death of Miles Dyson. This act prevents Skynet's creation and Judgment Day from occurring in that timeline.
Quick Facts
- Primary antagonist
- Skynet
- Key protagonists
- Sarah Connor
- John Connor
- Kyle Reese
- various Terminators
Lore & Background
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the damaged CPU and right arm of the first Terminator were recovered by Cyberdyne and became the basis for their later work on Skynet. Miles Dyson, the director of special projects for Cyberdyne, was months away from inventing a revolutionary microprocessor based on reverse engineering these parts. Sarah Connor, John Connor, and a reprogrammed Terminator infiltrated Cyberdyne and succeeded in destroying the CPU and arm, along with most of the research.
This also resulted in Dyson's death. By eliminating the physical remnants and research that would lead to Skynet's creation, they averted Judgment Day in that timeline. However, in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it is revealed that Judgment Day was ultimately not prevented, but merely postponed, as Cyber Research Systems gained access to Cyberdyne's original patents and developed Skynet as a decentralized software network.
Reader's Guide
John orders the reprogrammed Model 101 not to kill innocent people who stand in their way, so it uses non-lethal force.
Did You Know?
- In The Terminator, Kyle Reese explains that Skynet 'saw all humans as a threat' and 'decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.'
- In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Skynet was set to go online on August 4, 1997, and become self-aware at 2:14 a.m. EDT on August 29, 1997.
- In Terminator: Dark Fate, Skynet's creation was successfully prevented after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but a competing AI named Legion took its place.
More in Story & Timeline
Elsewhere in The Terminator
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