[karajorma]

But why would Skynet know? Skynet's interest in John Conner is easy to understand. John's been on the radio telling the world about things that Skynet is going to do before it's even done them. It's obvious that there is something special about Conner. But why would Skynet have even heard of Kyle Reese in the first place? The only person who knew he was Conner's father was Sarah Conner. She told John via the tapes and I suppose it's possible that somehow Skynet got wind of Dr Silberman's recordings when Sarah was in the institute but it seems just as likely that Skynet doesn't know who Reese is beyond the fact that he's somehow important to Conner winning the war.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah- wait, then how does the HK do the verification thing on Reece's face? You're right in it being plausible them knowing he had importance to Connor, but they must've found out a little about him while ascertaining his DNA matchups and defining facial features (things Skynet would've found out so they could register Reece on their database, or facial features at the very least.)

[karajorma]

Yeah but why would any of that tell Skynet his connection to Conner? Sure it if runs a DNA test then robot Maury Povich will be straight in to say "You ARE the father" but why would Skynet bother?

Let me put it this way. Suppose Skynet knows that Kyle Reese is the man who gets sent back in time to save Sarah Conner. It doesn't know he's John Conner's father though. Perhaps it's got hold of the footage and transcripts of the original T-800's attack on the police station where Reese and Sarah were being held for example. That would be enough to know that Reese is from the future and that he saved Sarah without showing he's Conner's father.

Killing Reese achieves nothing. Conner would have just send someone else or maybe even gone back himself. But counting on John Conner's emotions to make him want to save the man who saved his mother before he was born? Now that's a plan that might work.

As for how it would recognise Reese, I'm sure Reese's mugshots along with those of the T-800 would have been distributed far and wide following the attack on the police station. It's not hard to believe that facial recognition is good enough that it can recognise him even though he's much younger.

[Roanoke]

The whole storyline post T1 makes no sense anyway. Why would Skynet send back ever more powerful assasins along a 20-ish year gap ? Why not send a T800, a T1000 and a TX together, or atleast to the same time destination ?
Let's see those pesky humans deal with all 3 together.

[Scotty]

Maybe the time portal-ish thing that lets them go back has a maximum reach.  That would make every subsequent attempt later in the actual(?) timeline.

[Black Wolf]

Maybe the time portal-ish thing that lets them go back has a maximum reach.  That would make every subsequent attempt later in the actual(?) timeline.

That doesn't work either, since Arnie ws supposed to be Skynet's last ditch plan to win. I prefer to think of it as Skynet being thorough. Arnie was sent to stop Sarah Connor, T1000 to stop John Connor and (if we have to acknowledge that it actually happened ) TX to kill Connor's lieutenants, so that if the previous attempt(s) failed, then the others would have a chance. Limited time and possibly limited access to Terminators explains why only three were sent back, and their relative order makes sense too (weakest terminator vs. the least prepared, least dangerous enemy). The timing could be because these were the only times Skynet could reliably and definitively place the individuals in question, or maybe just when they were easiest to access.

[Scotty]

Yeah, a little sense.  More sense would be to send strongest first, then possibly (if it actually failed) weakest, then reserve second for last ditch.  More likely to win the first time around.

[mxlm]

I'm curious; did anyone else have a squick reaction to that bit about 'we're in cattle cars, man!' It just...I dunno, if you're making a movie called Terminator Salvation and your name is McG then you probably shouldn't be making barely-veiled allusions to the Holocaust.

[karajorma]

Why not? In that situation who the **** wouldn't be thinking that?

[mxlm]

Poor taste? Same reason James Bond shouldn't deal with Darfur. You need to have a fair amount of talent to combine Hollywoodish sfx spectacles and power fantasies with things like real world genocide.

YMMV

[NGTM-1R]

Kara's point stands. In that situation, it would be a very ignorant man indeed who didn't draw the parallel.

[karajorma]

Poor taste? Same reason James Bond shouldn't deal with Darfur. You need to have a fair amount of talent to combine Hollywoodish sfx spectacles and power fantasies with things like real world genocide.

Sorry but I think you're just inventing reasons to be upset now. The original movie contained this line.

Kyle Reese: Hunter-Killers. Aerial and ground patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal.
[Pulls up his right sleeve, exposing a mark]
Kyle Reese: This is burned in by laser scan. Some of us were kept alive... to work... loading bodies into dumpsters and incinerators. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever.

So it's obvious that the original movie was going for a concentration camp vibe right from the start. The laser scan is a pretty blatant Auschwitz reference. Did you get annoyed at it being used there?

Your comparison with Darfur is silly because that would require deliberately writing that in to a storyline that doesn't need to. But Reese has already described the processing plants as being like a concentration camp. It's an established part of the story that he was in a camp. You can't write around that and still make a movie involving him.

Since the first Terminator film it has been quite clear that Skynet's goal is genocide and frankly I'd find it harder to believe it if no one in one of the "cattle cars" did make the association.

EDIT : And while I'm at it, why the **** should the directors name matter when it comes to mentioning the holocaust?

[mxlm]

Mm. I'd completely forgotten that bit from the first film. Been years since I've seen it. My mistake.

But no, not inventing reasons to be upset; it did jar me while I was watching the movie, but then I went back to being modestly entertained by A-10s shooting at things. It wasn't very high on my list of things I disliked about the movie but it was on the list; I was wondering if it was on anyone else's list. You've pretty clearly demonstrated that it shouldn't be.

[karajorma]

I suppose I can see how that could happen if you don't remember the first film that well.

[Roanoke]

Maybe the time portal-ish thing that lets them go back has a maximum reach.  That would make every subsequent attempt later in the actual(?) timeline.

That doesn't work either, since Arnie ws supposed to be Skynet's last ditch plan to win. I prefer to think of it as Skynet being thorough. Arnie was sent to stop Sarah Connor, T1000 to stop John Connor and (if we have to acknowledge that it actually happened ) TX to kill Connor's lieutenants, so that if the previous attempt(s) failed, then the others would have a chance. Limited time and possibly limited access to Terminators explains why only three were sent back, and their relative order makes sense too (weakest terminator vs. the least prepared, least dangerous enemy). The timing could be because these were the only times Skynet could reliably and definitively place the individuals in question, or maybe just when they were easiest to access.

While we're at it neither the T1000 or TX had any organic "parts".
And I still think the 101 was the best expression of the terminator ethos .

[Kosh]

Just recently saw it.


Overall pretty good, not up to par with the originals but then again James Cameron isn't taking the lead (again). Still, this is way better than the crapfest T3 was, and it's nice how it doesn't really refer back to it. This is what Terminator 3 SHOULD have been. I liked the view of Skynet's human resources department, showing it for the horrorshow that it was meant to be.

Limited time and possibly limited access to Terminators explains why only three were sent back, and their relative order makes sense too (weakest terminator vs. the least prepared, least dangerous enemy).

Skynet no doubt had plenty of T-800's, but it only had one T-1000, so why not send it against the most prepared target? As for why it only sent two, perhaps time......skynet at that point had lost and probably was about to be taken off-line, but did this at the last second.

it would've been much better if they had maintained Skynet as a faceless villain but its not something that breaks the film.

Agreed.

One other thing I wonder is why does it appear that some of skynet's bases inner areas look like they were designed to be operated by humans? Maybe if this particular facility was built before skynet nuked the world that would be understandable, but really why design something to be friendly to human users when you hate them so much?

For that matter, he has forgotten the previous three films and is unaware that M4s and sidearms are not ideal for fighting terminators.

It was all he had. I guess hyperalloy was just being introduced when the movie started, and was limited to just the state of the art T-800's.

Secondly, how are there still scores of operational A-10s, Hueys, and Blackhawks? There was a nuclear apocalypse, so where exactly are the spare parts and fuel and munitions coming from?

It's only ten years after the nuking, and the US does have a large number of all these aircraft. The parts to maintain them are partly based on whatever parts were stockpiled by the military with the rest coming from canniblized aircraft. Fuel and ammo comes partly from pre-war stockpiles, and it is entirely possible what is left of other nations are feeding the resistance as much as possible (Russia alone is no doubt sitting ontop of huge amounts of fuel). Long term none of this will last, human industry was largely wiped out and so every vehicle that is lost is gone for good (which is why by the time the T1 flashbacks happen, 32 years into the war, humans have almost nothing except banged up POS cars and trucks plus whatever cannons they could salvage from skynet wrecks). I think we can expect a lot more basic guerella action in the future.

[Sarafan]

Agreed.

One other thing I wonder is why does it appear that some of skynet's bases inner areas look like they were designed to be operated by humans? Maybe if this particular facility was built before skynet nuked the world that would be understandable, but really why design something to be friendly to human users when you hate them so much?

From what I understand that facility was being used to research and build terminators for infiltration so it kinda makes sense to make the facility "human-friendly" because thats what Skynet is trying to do, a terminator that can be as convincing as possible to infiltrate human bases so it should be able to handle itself in a enviroment made for humans.

[Kosh]

From what I understand that facility was being used to research and build terminators for infiltration so it kinda makes sense to make the facility "human-friendly" because thats what Skynet is trying to do, a terminator that can be as convincing as possible to infiltrate human bases so it should be able to handle itself in a enviroment made for humans.

Good point, although I still think the elevator scene of the factory (which seemed like an homage to aliens) also seemed like it was built for humans. Why would automated factories need buttons at all?

Here's someone else's thoughts on skynet's archetecture, amoung other things. Certainly worth a look.