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John Connor
Terminator films and Sarah Connor Chronicles character
Four on-screen versions of John Connor (clockwise from top left): Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Christian Bale and Thomas Dekker
First appearance	The Terminator
Created by	James Cameron
Portrayed by	Edward Furlong Nick Stahl Thomas Dekker Christian Bale Michael Edwards (Old John Connor in T2) Dalton Abbott (infant John Connor in T2)
Information
Aliases	John Reese John Baum
Gender	Male
Occupation	Student (T2) Student/Fugitive (TSCC, T3) Resistance Officer (T1, TS)
Spouse(s)	Kate Brewster
Relatives	Sarah Connor (mother) Kyle Reese (father) Derek Reese (paternal uncle) (TSCC) Tim Reese (paternal uncle) (The Terminator (Now Comics)) unborn child

John Connor is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Terminator science fiction franchise. In the fictional post-apocalyptic future that first appeared in The Terminator, powerful, intelligent machines have dedicated themselves to the eradication of humanity, led by Skynet, the supercomputer mainframe that has destroyed most of the world by triggering mutually assured destruction with nuclear weapons. John Connor is the leader of the human resistance against the machines, known as Tech-Com. Knowing that John is the most important leader of the resistance, the machines have repeatedly tried to kill John Connor in the post-apocalyptic future and, through time travel, at various points in his life. Skynet uses a temporal displacement device to send cyborg assassins called Terminators to various points in John Connor's past in an attempt to terminate him even before the war.

John Connor is referred to and appears briefly in the original film The Terminator (1984) as a figment of the future, but his mother Sarah Connor is the target. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), a Terminator is sent to kill John, played by Edward Furlong, when he is ten years old. Connor appears again as a young adult, played by Nick Stahl in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), and as a man in his early thirties, played by Christian Bale, in Terminator Salvation, (2009). He was also featured in the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008 TV series) as a teenager, played by Thomas Dekker. Linda Hamilton's real-life son, Dalton Abbott, played John as a child during Sarah's vision of Judgment Day in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Biography

The Terminator

In this film, set in 1984, a T-800 (Model 101) Terminator is sent back in time to 1:52 am on May 12, 1984 by Skynet from a post-apocalyptic 1997. The Terminator's mission is to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to John Connor, the leader of the human resistance in the future war. John Connor of the future sends a soldier, Kyle Reese, to 2:01 am on the same day to protect Sarah, knowing that Reese is his father and that he and Sarah will conceive during the mission.

Sarah and Reese fall in love and have one night to spend together. Reese is later killed during his attempt to obliterate the Terminator, but Sarah Connor manages to destroy the machine in a hydraulic press. The film ends with a pregnant Sarah, hiding Mexico to ensure she will not be arrested for the destruction caused during the adventure and that John will be born in safety. John Connor appears briefly at the beginning of this film, as a battle-scarred man in his 30's or 40's over-seeing a battle with the machines in the post-apocalyptic future. Reese relays a message to Sarah from John saying: "Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to say that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist."

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

This film is set in 1995, when John (played by Edward Furlong) is 10 years old. When the film opens, he has been living with foster parents, but finds it difficult to settle to a suburban lifestyle and is a juvenile delinquent. John reveals that he spent the entirety of his early years being prepared by Sarah for his future role as leader of the resistance in the war against the machines. He has learned about computers, helicopters, explosives and guns. He explains to a friend that Sarah was shot, arrested and sent to a mental institution after attempting to bomb a computer factory and he was sent to foster care, which he hates. In the early portions of the film John is under the impression that Sarah's beliefs are a delusion, and it's only when he is confronted by a T-1000 Terminator sent by Skynet to terminate him that he realizes that his mother's stories are true. As in the first film, a protector is also sent from the future to protect John, but this time it is another T-800 (Model 101), which future John has reprogrammed to protect his younger self.

John discovers that since older John programmed the T-800, that he, young John, can also issue it commands. He orders it not to kill anyone. He orders the T-800 help Sarah escape from the mental institution. John bonds with the T-800, who becomes a friend and father figure to him, while Sarah remains distant and shell-shocked. He and the T-800 follow her to the home of Miles Dyson, played by Joe Morton, the man whose research would lead to Skynet's creation and John prevents Sarah from killing him. This argument between them breaks Sarah down and they embrace, the bond between them repaired. The three confront Dyson with the potential future and he agrees to help them destroy Cyberdyne. After a final battle between the T-800 and the T-1000, in which the latter is destroyed, the T-800 tells Sarah and John that, because he is dangerous future technology himself, he must also be destroyed. John cries and pleads with him, but to no avail. He watches tearfully as Sarah lowers him into a vat of hot steel, where he melts.

According to the documentaries in the Terminator 2 Extreme Edition DVD, director James Cameron deliberately kept John "pure" by not allowing him to use any weapons in the course of the film, though he is shown cleaning guns. John commands the T-800 not to kill, and protects Dyson from being assassinated by Sarah, substantiating this depiction.

Michael Edwards appeared briefly in the opening sequence of Terminator 2 as a battle-scarred John Connor, leading the resistance in the year 2029 (wearing the four stars of a general on his shoulders) in one of Sarah Connor's story "flashbacks", as well as in the alternate ending of John Connor as a US Senator and a father, which was filmed but not used because Cameron decided he wanted a more ambiguous ending.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The third film of the series takes place in 2004, and features John Connor (Nick Stahl) as a 19 year old. When the film opens, he reveals in monologue that he has been living off-the-grid after the events of T2, even as the original Judgment Day deadline of August 29, 1997 came to pass without incident. His mother eventually developed terminal leukemia and died.

In the film, John crosses paths with Katherine "Kate" Brewster (Claire Danes), a former classmate from when he was living with his foster parents. He is attacked by a T-X Terminator, which was sent from the future to July 24, 2004. Unlike its predecessors, the T-X's objective was to terminate his future officers as secondary targets because John's location was unknown. When it encounters John it changes its priority to focus entirely on him and Kate.

A protector T-850 (Model 101) is also sent back in time from the future to protect John, and it explains that Judgment Day had not been avoided as initially thought, but delayed to 2004, also stating that Judgment Day is inevitable. The T-850 also states that it was not sent from the future by John, but by Katherine, who is his future wife and second-in-command. The reason for this is because John had actually been killed by that very Terminator on July 4, 2032, as Skynet believed it to be the most suitable for such a mission due to John's emotional attachment to its model number. In the novelization, however, this is shown to be false as John is there giving the order to send the T-800. The reason for this difference is unspecified. It is worth noting that in Terminator Salvation, John battles a T-800 and exhibits no attachment, despite it looking exactly like the T-800 he knew from T2. It's likely that being informed of this event in the past made John prevent it from happening.

Although John and Katherine spend a significant portion of the film trying to halt the launching of Skynet, they are misled to believe Skynet's core is in an underground facility, only to find themselves locked and protected in a secure bunker as the first nuclear assault is launched on the United States as a result of Skynet's manipulations. It is via the working radios in this bunker that John begins to organize the resistance.

Terminator Salvation

Bale as John Connor in Terminator Salvation

This sequel released on May 21, 2009, portrays John (Christian Bale) in the year 2018, as a 34 year old battle-experienced resistance soldier married to Kate Brewster (Bryce Dallas Howard), who serves as a medic and is now pregnant with his child. Director McG wrote, regarding the casting, "It was important for me to get the most credible actor of his generation to come and add gravitas to what we were trying to achieve."^[1] The story features a new character named Marcus Wright, and the younger Kyle Reese character, as seen in the original movie.

In the film, John starts as one of the many foot soldiers who make up the Resistance movement based in California. Despite having extensive prior knowledge of the machines and Skynet's capabilities, John is largely dismissed and considered a nuisance by General Ashdown who runs the guerrilla para-military organization. He considers Connor a delusional false prophet at best and a dangerous liability to their operations at worst. Nonetheless, there are pockets of people within the Resistance who have come to believe in John's experiences and judgment based on their own first hand experiences serving with him.

Later on, towards the middle of the movie, John learns that Kyle Reese has been placed in a detention center by Skynet and sets out to rescue him, with Marcus Wright leading him to the base. But upon arrival and seeing that the other prisoners are safe, John faces off with a T-800 crafted in the image of the cyborg unit that he and his family have encountered previously. Marcus helps him destroy the T-800, but due to injury, John's heart is too badly damaged and Marcus offers his own to John, who accepts. John's ending statement is that though this battle has been won, the war is far from over.

It is worth noting that John is hurt during his encounter with the T-800 and receives multiple cuts to the face. These cuts mirror the same scars seen on John's face in the opening scene of the second Terminator movie. This opening scene is set in the future and shows John Connor watching an ensuing battle between The Resistance and Skynet.

Alternate versions

Terminator and the "Man of Steel"

With the success of T2, DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics teamed Sarah and John Connor up with the Man of Steel in an adventure that pitted Superman up against not only Skynet, but also against his old rival The Cyborg. In this adventure, while trying to protect Sarah and Young John, Superman is pulled into the future in order to help the older John, as well as an older John Henry Irons (AKA Steel) take down Skynet once and for all. Meanwhile back in the past Cyborg makes a deal with Skynet, while Supergirl, Superboy, a Younger Steel, and even Lex Luthor continue to protect Sarah and young John from wave after wave of Terminator cyborgs.

Alternate Terminator 2 ending

In an alternate ending included on the Ultimate Edition DVD (though also available through a special feature on the Extreme Edition), an adult John is shown living in 2027, a future without Skynet; he is now a Senator and embracing a part of his destiny to make a difference in the world through his political career (rather than military) and has a daughter.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

The series deliberately subverts the story of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines^[2]. It branches off from the shared back story of Terminator 2, and according to consulting producer James Middleton "is [a new] version of T3."^[3]

At the beginning of the series in 1999, John and Sarah try to settle down to normal lives after the events of T2, but they are in fear of being captured for blowing up Cyberdyne during the events of the second film. While at school, John is attacked by a Terminator posing as a teacher, and is protected by a reprogrammed Terminator named "Cameron". John learns that Judgment Day has not been prevented, only postponed to April 21, 2011. John does not want to run anymore and asks Sarah to stop Skynet from being created. Cameron uses time dilation technology (built by "The Engineer" from the future) to send all three of them to 2007, just before Skynet is created, so that they can stop it.

Settling down in 2007, John enrolls in Campo de Cahuenga High School under the name of John Baum, after author L. Frank Baum who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a book that Sarah says was John's favorite when he was younger, where he is friends with his fellow students Morris and Riley Dawson. He becomes acquainted with his father's older brother, Derek Reese, who is also a resistance fighter sent back in time to help them.

This version of John is shown to be a highly skilled computer hacker (a nod from Terminator 2), even being able to hack into a Terminator's CPU in order to read the information it contains, as well as easily hacking into the LAPD database. He claims that he could hack a computer system 'in (his) sleep'. He is also proficient in chess, self defense, and weaponry, all of which were part of his training during his childhood. The relationship dynamic between John and Cameron is different than with the "Uncle Bob" T-800 by virtue of her size/gender, with some degree of sexual tension. He also develops a relationship with Riley, a high school classmate, who, unknown to him, is also from the future and working with Jesse Flores, a resistance fighter and lover of Derek Reese. Jesse's plan was for John to become infatuated with Riley, making her a threat to John's security. This would force Cameron to kill Riley, thereby alienating John from her. Apparently, after Judgment Day, rumors abound of an unnatural relationship between the two that affects John's tactical decision making, and some are unsettled that he has appointed a Terminator as one of his lieutenants.

References

External links

• John Connor at the Internet Movie Database

From Wikiquote

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Wikipedia has an article about:

Terminator (franchise)

• Films
  • The Terminator (Terminator 1)
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
  • Terminator Salvation (Terminator 4)
• Television
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles