Terminator part 10:  resequencing

There is an interesting aspect of Terminator Salvation that is not readily apparent to the viewer, and that is the order in which events in the film series occur.  That is, from our perspective, SkyNet first attempts to kill Sarah Conner because she is John Conner's mother, then attempts to kill John himself when he is a boy, then attempts to kill all of John's lieutenants and incidentally him with them, and then after all of this attempts to kill Kyle Reese, John's father.  Thus the attempt on Kyle Reese is the last effort (known to us) SkyNet makes to eliminate the Conner threat.

However, this is not the sequence of events as experienced by SkyNet in the final history of the world.  It cannot be.  Moments after SkyNet attempts to kill Sarah Conner (by sending the T-800 to the past) Kyle Reese, now an adult, leaves from 2029 never to return.  Thus we know that the events portrayed in this fourth film occur before that departure in the first, confirmed by the date of 2018 suggested in the opening.  In sequential terms, Kyle Reese cannot be targeted as John Conner's father until he has already become John Conner's father, and he cannot become John Conner's father until after Sarah Conner is targeted as John's mother, and thus until after (in atemporal sequential terms) he has been sent back to protect her, after SkyNet attacks her to destroy her unborn child.

It is thus again clear that the events of this film are in a timeline derived from the events of the first film, and not in the original history of the world; it is the more clear here.  What is not clear is which history of the world this might be.  It is not so obvious whether the events of the second and third films have already occurred, and their occurrence or non-occurrence is significant.

One of the key questions is whether John recognizes the T-800 model 101 when it is abruptly revealed during the climactic battles of the film (and kudos to the creators of this film for finding so convincing a double for Arnold Schwartzenegger).  If this is the history which arises from the events of the first film only, then John has never seen a T-800 before this moment, and it has an element of surprise from its human appearance (the reason for the design).  If he knows what it is on sight, though, that means that the events at least of the second movie have also already occurred.  That scene is inconclusive.  Certainly John is surprised when the T-800 appears from behind the door; but the information Marcus Wright downloaded from SkyNet and sent to him said Kyle Reese was there, so his surprise could be simply that he was expecting someone else.

Significantly, John recognizes the design plans of the T-800 early in the film.  Far more significantly, he recognizes the nuclear power cells for the T-800, which he never saw until Terminator 3.  Thus this must be the history flowing from that.

One other factor is suggestive.  When Marcus Wright meets SkyNet, the computer says that he has accomplished what SkyNet's best machines never could.  That, though, opens another problem concerning SkyNet's knowledge of the past and the future, which will be considered next time.