FAQ

Cameron is a female Terminator (Series Model 900) who comes from the year 2027 and had been sent back in time to 1999 to protect both John and Sarah Connor. Cameron had been created as a replacement for resistance fighter Allison Young and was programmed to get close to John Connor. But, it wasn't known if was sent to help John or to assassinate him by Skynet. However, it's assumed John reprogrammed her and sent her to 1999 to protect his younger self.

The series follows mad wanted criminal Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her arrogant teenage son John (Thomas Dekker) whom are on the run from authorities whom along with a mysterious young woman (Summer Glau) travel forwards 8 years in time as they set out to prevent a computer with artificial intelligence called Skynet from wiping out humanity in a nuclear attack. But, John, Cameron and Sarah are not alone are soon gain an allie in the form of Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) a rebel warrior from the future as they not only set out to prevent Skynet from going online, they at all costs protect John from Terminators, robotic assassins whom travel back in time to assassinate John and prevent John from fulfilling his destiny to lead rebel warriors against Skynet after Skynet has wiped out humanity.

Yes. Sarah Connor suffers from Psychological Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the T-800 Terminator being sent back to kill her in 1984.

In the future war, John led the human resistance against Skynet which Skynet was defeated. Skynet had built a time machine called the Time Displacement Device and sent a T-800 Terminator back in time to kill Sarah Connor before John Connor was born. By terminating Sarah, John will never lead the human resistance against Skynet.

Correct. It was established in The Terminator (1984) that you cannot travel through time in the Time Displacement Field with clothing and if you go through clothes, you lose your clothing. Summer Glau confirmed this in a interview. Though if you look closely in some of the wide shots, they are wearing flesh coloured tights.

Following the events of the 1st movie, nobody believed Sarah about The Terminator and the future war and that John would lead mankind against Skynet thinking she was delusional and insane. However, John had mentioned to his friend Tim that Sarah got institutionalized because she attempted to blow up a computer factory which is presumed to be Cyberdyne and attempted to prevent the future war from happening and Dr. Silberman, the slimy police psychologist whom interviewed Kyle Reese and didn't believe his story and thought Kyle was nothing but a looney and also disbelieved Sarah about The Terminator diagnosed Sarah with schizo-affective disorder and had Sarah cut off from John. However, Sarah was already suffering from psychological trauma and PTSD due to The T800 trying to kill her in 1984.

Like the T101, Sarah again found it hard to believe that future John had reprogrammed and sent back another Terminator to protect John and didn't trust Cameron to guard and watch John's back and would expect Cameron would turn on them and kill John. Sarah also doesn't like Cameron and would berate her because she thinks Cameron is a more suitable bodyguard for John and that she would replace her.

James Cameron is credited because the characters of Sarah Connor, John Connor, Kyle Reese, the Terminators, Skynet were all created by him, as were the show concepts which were taken from first two movies, therefore he had a certain influence on the show's creation.

This is a major plotline of the series. Judgment Day still happens despite the destruction of Cyberdyne's program in T2. The origins of Skynet are shrouded in much more mystery in the series, as the Connors try to figure out what other technology programs might result in the creation of Skynet.

This was a major theme in the movies as well: Judgement Day is stopped but another one is created a few years later by different events. The events which caused JD in T1 were not the same events as T2, or T3. Each film has had JD on a different day being caused by different set of events.

Thats the entire basis for the storylines. JD is always stopped and a new one created.

It isn't. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is an alternate story, starting from where Terminator 2 left off, and completely retcons Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines & Terminator Salvation. However, as many viewers have come to understand, the show does not necessarily 'ignore' the events of T3 and T:S; it takes place in an alternate universe where T3 and T:S simply never happened.

The show starts off in 1999, four years after T2 ended. This show follows the same idea of T3 where Judgment day is inevitable. But by the end of the pilot episode they time-jump to 2007, which completely eradicates T3 and T:S's story from that timeline. TSCC and T3 are completely far removed timelines in separate parallel universes, with the 'events' of T1 and T2 a shared constant in all timelines (dates of those constant events being slightly different in each timeline due to effects of repeated time travel).

It seems the events of T1 and T2 are fated to happen; they are inevitable much like Judgment Day. However, in each universe, some events can occur differently, and lead to a completely different outcome. In the universe where T3 occurred, Sarah contracted leukemia and died from it; in the universe where TSCC occurred, she discovered it in time and was cured from it. This explains why two parallel universes that had a similar beginning can eventually diverge into two very different storylines, because of a crucial event that altered their courses. This theory also helps to explain why there are stories in the franchise that seem mutually exclusive; they occur in one universe, but not in the other.

Given that this series picks up a four years after Terminator 2 left off, it starts off in 1999. But the Connors and Cameron time traveled to 2007 which is then the time the rest of the series starts to take place.

Apparently there were legal restrictions placed on the production over the use of the "Terminator" name within the series. Originally the show was simply going to be called "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". Apart from the subsequently revised title, only the introductory voice-over for each episode of the second season of the show used the word Terminator, in reference to Cameron. There is however one single use of the word in the series itself, actually in the final episode, when Sarah uses it to describe a particular character. And even then, the word is muffled.

As a result of the restrictions, the writers were forced to use several workarounds in the shows' scripts. One method of getting around the problem was indeed to give certain Terminators names - such as Cameron, Cromartie, Vick, and John Henry. Another was to use simple nouns such as "cyborg", "robot", "machine", and "metal" to refer to Terminators in general. And sometimes their model numbers were used, such as Vick being described as a "T-888" or "Triple Eight".

However, despite these efforts, as the series goes on the characters' continual determination not to say the "T-word" does become very obvious.

When she is first introduced in the pilot episode, Cameron is utilizing the personality that would most appeal to John, so she could get close to him in order to be around him all the time. After her cover is blown, Cameron reverts to a colder, purpose-driven Terminator. Her human girl "personality" comes out when she has to interact with some humans. For example, at the museum, when the teacher asks her to remain with the group, she smiles, charming him, just like she did with John.

They don't. The future weapon and time machine used in the bank were created by sending someone to the past to build them from scratch and stash them in safe places for present time travelers to use. It is not explained what happens to the weapon and time machine after the Connors leave the vault. Perhaps the remains of the time machine inspire the eventual invention of the time machine itself (similar to how Dyson was inspired by the remains of the first Terminator). It is also possible that both the weapon and time machine were destroyed in the "explosion," considering Charles Dixon's comment that all that was left was a crater where the bank was.

It would be possible, however, for a terminator to transport a weapon under their flesh, as evidenced by the very existence of every Terminator we have seen in the present day. The outer layer of living tissue they are fitted with completely covers their metal body allowing it to make its way safely through the time portal. As such, any small weapon could be placed under that same flesh for their trip. Consider the gun that Cromartie hid in his leg as an example. While it was not a future weapon, it's a perfect example of how it could be done. (That gun was a modern day Glock 17, and why he hid it there has not been explained. Perhaps it was done to get through the school's security.)

According to creator and executive producer Josh Friedman, there is still flesh (at the time burning from the effects of the plasma weapon) on Cromartie's head when it enters the portal. This allows it to time travel. The flesh is completely consumed when the Cromartie's head exits the portal, thus leaving only a metallic skull.

His words: "When Cromartie's head goes through the time bubble, THERE IS FLESH ON IT. If you can't see it, that's because A. it's burning off very quickly and B. certain people don't like it when we show burning flesh, cyborg or not."

Yes. They were called "Grays" (i.e., John Smith is a gray). Grays are hated by other people, for obvious reasons, and usually are killed after being captured.

In 2007, a pilot episode was produced and some copies also found their way to Ebay.

This version is different in certain aspects to the actual pilot that was aired in January 2008 on FOX in the USA: Sarah's fiancé was played by a different actor whose character was originally more sensible than in the broadcast version. Also John is not so soft as he was portayed in the pilot from 2007. Among many small changes there are plot scenes that were cut out or added as well. One of these deleted scenes is quite special: A terminator (dressed up like a teacher) tried to kill John in front of his school. Not only the FBI agent and the policeman can be seen in this scene but also distracted pupils that are walking around helplessly. The attempted assassination scene and the scenes on the parking lot in front of the school were shot before the rampage in the Virginia Tech on 16th April 2007 took place. The producers commented to the incident and put emphasis on the circumstance that this scene is essential for the series. However, they decided to remove the part that shows the traumatized pupils. The images of these youths were simply too similar to the ones seen in the news. The location of the very first scene was also altered due to this reason. Originally, Sarah rescues John out of a school and the terminator shoots numerous policemen in front of the building. In the final version, the school was replaced by a library. The deleted scenes section on the US Blu-Ray contains an interesting aspect: the attack of the terminator is way more brutal than depicted in the first episode and the killing of the policemen has been extended. The pilots on the other hand are quite alike in this scene.

This was a code so they knew that it was indeed the person calling them and not a Terminator mimicking their voice in order to lure them into a trap.