MovieChat Forums > The Terminator (1984) Discussion > "Connor sent me to intercept" makes no s...

"Connor sent me to intercept" makes no sense

posted 7 months ago by avortac4 (3473)
6 replies | jump to latest

Reese says, 'The Terminator (tm) had already gone through'.

Um.. 'ALREADY' doesn't exist when you have a... oh, I don't know.. a FUNCTIONAL TIME MACHINE!

Whatever 'already' happened, doesn't matter, because you can travel in time to BEFORE that happened.

Why does Connor send Kyle to 1984, when he COULD be sending a platoon of people to BEFORE SKynet sends The Terminator(tm) to 1984? They could intercept that robot (and it IS a robot, Kyle just doesn't understand what words mean) before it enters the time machine, easy, quick, nothing convoluted about it, game over for Skynet. That robot will then never enter 1984 and thus future is saved!

WHY such a convoluted idea of sending only one guy to 1984 to intercept only one robot sent by Skynet, when they would have MUCH bigger success probability by sending people to 'time before the robot uses the time machine'?

Heck, they could send people to 'when Skynet starts building the time machine' and bomb the whole faculty, BOOM! No time machine, no problems.

But no, it HAS to be the most convoluted plan ever...

Red Letter Media's Mike Stoklasa described just how hare-brained Skynet's plan is by comparing the 'human infestation' to a 'rat infestation'. People don't send one robotic rat back in time to kill the mother of a rat resistance leader, they just hire an exterminator and have the whole house fumigated. Problem solved.

Skynet should and would logically have employed something way more global and devastating, instead of fighting people with robots one on one - robots don't need the resources people do, as in nutrition, water, oxygen, etc. Pollute all waters, waste all nutritional sources, poison all air and destroy all oxygen... use radiation and biochemical weapons in conjunction with things like napalm and carpet bombing.

But no, it's these ridiculous one-on-one matches with ridiculously underpowered weapons considered it's the 'distant future' (of 2029)..

So, if Connor can sent people back in time to intercept, why not send them to proper chronological points to destroy Skynet's plan before it's even half-realized, a retroactive abortion of Skynet's ridiculous plans..?

The problem when people build a movie around some fever dream of a robot standing in flames is that this kind of stories tend to make no sense, and the more you think about them, the less anything seems to make sense.

It's also comically interesting how bad at conversations this robot is when it meets the punk rockers, but how excellent it suddenly is in picking up venacular, police lingo, intonation, accent, cadence and speaking style when it comes to imitating a cop it only heard speaking for a very short time, and Sarah's mom, when he could NOT have had a very long conversation with her, judging by the remains of the smoking door and all.

But it's even funnier, when you contrast this with later versions of this same or 'similar model', that basically manifest as elderly Arnold explaining things that happen 'on a cellular level' - aagh! Why is it so well-versed in human speech all of the sudden, when he can barely repeat what the punk rockers say, CLEARLY not understanding what they're implying..?

Of course there's no in-universe explanation, but the real-world explanation is that this was a standalone movie that no one intended to make a sequel for, but MONEY, so suddenly they wanted to make the same, exact story but diluted with kid-friendly 'cringy humor', and then the third movie happened, which made a pig's breakfast of the remains of what 'T2' did to the story (and it RETCONS a lot and destroys a PERFECTLY good time paradox that works, so now even less makes any sense)...

When we arrive at 'Genisys', it's pretty amazing how much this 'thug robot' can suddenly talk and explain, but also how BADLY it pronounces english words, ALTHOUGH even in this movie, it can imitate english-speakers with perfect fluency - SO perfect that even Sarah can't tell it apart from her OWN MOTHER..!

I want to be born into a universe where movies actually make sense. Just give me ONE movie that makes sense to hold me over.. just one.

[–] Sparky123 (1658) 7 months ago

Good point.
Dont ruin it.

[–] ccr1633 (1415) 7 months ago

Why does Connor send Kyle to 1984, when he COULD be sending a platoon of people to BEFORE SKynet sends The Terminator(tm) to 1984?

So long as we're talking about plot points that would constitute a significantly different movie, it could simply be that the human resistance knew how to press the on button for the time travel machine but didn't know how to program it. Further, even though victory was imminent, this particular group of humans could've been subjected to an immediate threat from the machines and, under intense pressure, opted to destroy the equipment and return to defending themselves. I really don't see why you make such a big deal of it. If you send an army of soldiers instead, you don't have the Kyle Reese / Sarah Connor love story, which is absolutely critical to the film.

Only T1 and T2 count. The others are garbage. Why stress over the logic and continuity of the subsequent trash?

[–] xergan (849) 6 months ago

Yes, don't overthink! It is a movie where the time travel is just an instrument to get the plot running. So what the time machine can do and what not, how it work is TOTALLY irrelevant to the plot. It just starts the plot. The only thing we know from the movie is that it has to be living tissue going through it. Because we even not seeing it, the machine can do really everything. It could be the size of the suitcase powered by one solar cell or as big as a Stadium and takes all energy of the east coast when used. That's why it is nothing you should discuss why or why not Skynet/Resistance is doing this and that with it.

[–] seagal72 (1831) 6 months ago

I always thought it was a vice-versa deal...that the Terminators were sent back to prevent Kyle from conceiving his own child (who would eventually send him back) Either way, it was a safer bet to kill Sarah or Kyle (as a child)

Perhaps I'm under (or over) thinking this?
Hence time travel movies to be best enjoyed on a base level of simple enjoyment (as opposed to attempting to point out all their contradictory flaws?)

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 6 months ago

Just a thought:
Maybe John Connor's people didn't know how to reset the time machine, so they had to send Kyle to same settings it was already programmed for. Since time passed on their end, it also passed on the other so Kyle arrives later than the Terminator.

[–] moviechatterer (13340) 6 months ago

"Just give me ONE movie that makes sense "

well , you can rule out any time travel movies right off the bat!
perhaps some sort of rom-com might make more sense.