More than a decade has passed since John Connor helped prevent Judgment Day, leaving him to live off the grid with no record of his existence. But Skynet has not been defeated, merely delayed. A highly advanced killing machine, the T-X, is sent back in time to finish the job by eliminating John's future lieutenants. With an outdated T-850 reprogrammed to protect him, John and his future wife Kate Brewster must race to stop the activation of Skynet before the nuclear nightmare begins.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States Germany United Kingdom |
Premiere date |
July 2, 2003 |
Running time |
109 minutes |
Genre |
Sci-Fi Action Thriller |
Budget |
$187,000,000 |
Box Office |
$433,371,112 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Jonathan Mostow |
Produced by |
Mario Kassar Hal Lieberman Joel B. Michaels Andrew G. Vajna |
Written by |
John Brancato Michael Ferris |
Music by |
Marco Beltrami |
Cinematography |
Don Burgess |
Edited by |
Nicolas De Toth Neil Travis |
Production Co. |
Intermedia C2 Pictures |
Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures Columbia TriStar |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #03 in The Terminator Collection
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The Plot
The Targeted Drifter and the Terminatrix
Following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the originally predicted apocalypse did not occur on August 29, 1997. However, John Connor remains unconvinced that the catastrophe was completely prevented. Haunted by the weight of the future, he lives strictly "off the grid" in Los Angeles, maintaining no permanent residence, possessing no credit cards or mobile phone, and working only freelance jobs to ensure he cannot be tracked by any digital means. Skynet, unable to locate Connor through information databases due to his elusive lifestyle, initiates a new protocol to ensure its rise.
The artificial intelligence sends a new, highly advanced Terminator, the T-X, back in time to July 24, 2004—the revised date for Judgment Day. Her mission is to terminate the future lieutenants of the human resistance since Connor himself cannot be found. Dubbed the "Terminatrix," the T-X is a formidable evolution in machine warfare. Unlike the T-1000, which was entirely liquid metal, the T-X features a sheath of mimetic polyalloy over a solid endoskeleton. She is armed with a full arsenal of advanced future weaponry housed internally within her limbs, bypassing the time travel restriction on non-living tissue. Furthermore, she possesses the terrifying ability to control most other machines remotely and is specifically designed and programmed to destroy other cybernetic organisms, effectively countering the Resistance's tactic of reprogramming Terminators.
The Assassin Reprogrammed
As history repeats itself, the human resistance sends a protector back in time to intercept the T-X. This reprogrammed Terminator is a T-850 model, physically identical to the units from previous encounters. His primary mission is to protect John Connor and his future wife, Katherine "Kate" Brewster. However, the dynamics of this protection are darker than before. It is revealed that in the original timeline, this specific Terminator unit was the one that successfully assassinated John Connor in 2032. The machine succeeded because John's emotional attachment to the model's appearance clouded his judgment, allowing the Terminator to get close enough to kill him. Following the assassination, Kate Brewster captured and reprogrammed the unit, sending it back to 2004 to save their younger selves.
Legacy in the Grave
After rescuing John and Kate from an initial assault by the T-X at a local animal hospital, the Terminator drives them to Victorville to visit the grave of Sarah Connor, who had passed away from leukemia seven years prior. The Terminator reveals that they need to access her coffin. Upon opening the casket, they find no body; Sarah had been cremated in Mexico, and her friends had filled the coffin with a massive cache of heavy weapons in accordance with her will. This was left as a contingency plan for John, intended for use in the event that Judgment Day was not truly prevented.
Their retrieval is interrupted as the T-X and police forces arrive at the cemetery. A chaotic firefight ensues, forcing the trio to utilize the weapons immediately. They narrowly escape the confrontation by stealing a hearse, speeding away before the T-X can terminate them.
The Trojan Horse at Cyber Research Systems
The trio learns that the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems years ago did not stop the development of Skynet; it merely delayed it. The United States Air Force took over the project under its Cyber Research Systems (CRS) division, headed by General Robert Brewster, Kate’s father. The military is currently facing a crisis involving a rapidly spreading computer supervirus affecting the global network. In a desperate attempt to stop the infection, CRS officials pressure General Brewster to activate Skynet, believing the AI can purge the virus from the system.
Unbeknownst to them, the virus is Skynet. The AI has been exerting control over the global computer network under the guise of the virus to trick the military into giving it full access. General Brewster initiates the activation, allowing Skynet to invade all military defense systems. John, Kate, and the Terminator arrive at the CRS facility just minutes too late to stop this critical event.
Betrayal and Corruption
With Skynet now self-aware and fully integrated, it initiates a purge of the facility. The primitive T-1 terminators, originally built for combat support, are reprogrammed by Skynet to slaughter the office personnel. As chaos erupts, the T-850 engages the T-X in hand-to-hand combat to buy John and Kate time. However, the T-X utilizes her superior technology to incapacitate the T-850 and injects him with nanotechnological corruption, programming him to attack John and Kate instead. Meanwhile, the duo reaches General Brewster just as he is dying from wounds inflicted by the machines. With his final breaths, he reveals that the Skynet system core is located in Crystal Peak, a base built into a mountain a short flight away.
Conflict of Programming
John and Kate flee to a nearby airfield to board a plane for Crystal Peak. Before they can take off, the corrupted T-850 attacks them, struggling violently against his reprogrammed directives. John pleads with the machine, appealing to the bond they formed. The T-850, fighting the T-X's corruption, chooses to shut his own system down rather than complete the objective of killing Connor. John and Kate manage to take off, leaving the incapacitated Terminator behind.
The Final Sacrifice at Crystal Peak
Upon reaching Crystal Peak, John and Kate enter the facility, but they are quickly ambushed once again by the relentless T-X, who has arrived to ensure their termination. Just as she moves to strike, a helicopter crashes through the front wall of the entrance, smashing into the T-X. The T-850 emerges from the wreckage; he has managed to reboot his system and regain control of his original programming. The crash has crushed the T-X's legs, forcing her to detach them and crawl rapidly after John and Kate.
The T-850 intercepts the crippled but dangerous Terminatrix, grappling with her to halt her advance. He holds her fast, buying John and Kate enough time to retreat to safety behind the blast doors. Turning to John one last time, the Terminator remarks, "We will meet again!" With the pair safe, the Terminator jams his last remaining hydrogen fuel cell into the T-X's mouth. Delivering a final snide remark—"You are terminated!"—he triggers the unstable cell. The resulting massive explosion destroys both the T-X and the T-850 completely.
The Inevitable War
Safe inside the Crystal Peak facility, John and Kate frantically search for the system core to shut down Skynet. However, they discover a harrowing truth: the base does not house the Skynet core. Crystal Peak is merely an old fallout shelter for VIPs, constructed before John was even born. General Brewster had sent them there not to stop Skynet, but to protect them from the impending nuclear holocaust. They realize there is no central core to destroy; Skynet is software running distributively on thousands of computers across the world, making Judgment Day unavoidable.
As the reality sets in, Skynet launches a massive series of nuclear attacks across the globe, initiating Judgment Day and beginning the long-prophesied war of man versus machine. Foreshadowing his destiny as the leader of the Resistance, John Connor sees the radio equipment in the shelter lighting up. Confused military forces and ham radio operators from around the world are frantically asking for orders. John picks up the microphone and takes command, issuing his first directives to the survivors.
