Terminator film series
In the narrative of his fictional universe, John Connor is a messianic figure who will lead the Resistance to defeat an empire of robotic Terminators amassed by Skynet (the rogue military supercomputer) following Judgment Day (a cybernetic revolt doomsday event). When his mother Sarah Connor became the target of a time travelling Terminator unit in the first film The Terminator, John sent resistance fighter Kyle Reese to protect her, knowing Kyle and Sarah would later conceive John himself. With foreknowledge from his parents, John fends off Terminator assassination attempts in the second and third films before Judgment Day.
In the fourth film, John fights with the Resistance in a post-apocalyptic setting after Skynet has taken over. As the series' central plot heavily involves the concept of time travel, the story of the character is often non-linear and portrays many possible outcomes, for example The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Terminator 3 both continue from the ending of Terminator 2 but are depicted as taking place in alternate timelines, while in Terminator Genisys (2015) revisits and changes the events of 1984's The Terminator.
Publication Information
- Host : John Connor
- Gender : Male
- Family : Kyle Reese (father), Sarah Connor (mother)
- Spouse(s) : Kate Brewster (T3 & TS)
- First appearance : Terminator 2 : Judgment Day
- Created by : James Cameron
- Portrayed by : Edward Furlong (second film; child), Michael Edwards (second film; adult), Nick Stahl (third film; adult), Thomas Dekker (television series; teenager), Christian Bale (fourth film; adult), Jason Clarke (fifth film; adult)
In The Terminator, John is mentioned and is the basis of the film (the titular Terminator is attempting to kill Sarah Connor because she will be his mother) but does not make a physical appearance. However, at the end of the film, Sarah is pregnant with John.
Terminator 2 : Judgment Day
John makes his first true appearance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day which takes place in 1995, played by Edward Furlong. He was a 10-year-old juvenile delinquent living with foster parents while his mother was at a hospital for the mentally insane. One day, while in an arcade with a friend, the T-1000 and the Terminator T-800 (who looks exactly like the Terminator in the original film but has, in this film, been sent as a protector) fight over John. This starts a chase sequence where the T-800 and John try to lose the T-1000.
Alternate ending
The alternate ending for Terminator 2: Judgment Day depicts Sarah Connor alive and well on August 29, 2029. John Connor has become a U.S. senator and father to a daughter in a world where Skynet was never able to start its war on humanity. While Sarah states that Judgment Day has been averted, John accepts that he still has a destiny to make a difference, which is what motivates him to pursue his political career.
Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines
In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which takes place in 2004, John Connor, portrayed by Nick Stahl, is now a young adult who has recently left from the United States Marine Corps. John has been living off-the-grid after the events of T2, even as the original Judgment Day deadline of 4:20 on 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.
Terminator Salvation
In Terminator Salvation, which is set 14 years later in the year 2018, John Connor, portrayed by Christian Bale, is now an older, battle-experienced, resistance soldier married to Kate Brewster, who serves as a medic and is now pregnant with his child. The story features a new character named Marcus Wright, and a younger Kyle Reese. 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 by General Ashdown who runs the resistance organization.
Terminator Genisys
John Connor is portrayed by Jason Clarke in the fifth installment, Terminator Genisys. Following a confrontation with a T-5000 (Matt Smith), John is forcibly transformed into a human-terminator nano hybrid, the T-3000, courtesey of Skynet, in which the process drives him insane and programmed to serve it. Skynet then sends the T-3000 back in time to ensure Skynet's creation- now 'believing' that the future requires man and machine to come together like he has- in a parallel change with the Terminator from The Terminator to Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Despite his superior physical strength, he was later destroyed by "The Guardian" Terminator when both of them were trapped inside a prototype time machine; with the machine currently only capable of generating the electro-magnetic energy that prevented non-living tissue travelling through time without actually generating a temporal portal, Connor is ripped apart while trapped at the heart of the machine, while the 'Guardian' is thrown out of the machine and falls into a nearby pool of poly-mimetic alloy, allowing its CPU and what remained of its endoskeleton to be absorbed by the metal and convert it into a nano-cyborg similar to a T-1000.
Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Casting and production background
Dekker was cast after Headey secured the role of Sarah Connor. Regarding the Terminator films, Dekker says "They are like my favorite films when I was younger. So it's very ironic that I'm getting to do this.
And I know for the younger generation and for myself, John was equally important to me as Sarah was, and I know a lot of the people that I hear from really, really care about John". Dekker describes his character as "a continuation of Eddie Furlong's character" but "he's in a darker, more mature place now". The show tells the story of the Connors before Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. It branches off from the shared back story of Terminator 2, and according to consulting producer James Middleton "is a new version of T3."
Publication Information
- Host : John Connor
- Gender : Male
- Aliases : John Reese, John Baum
- Occupation : High school student
- Family : Kyle Reese (father), Sarah Connor (mother), Derek Reese (paternal uncle), Cameron (guardian,confidant)
- First appearance : "Pilot" (episode 1.01)
- Last appearance : "Born to Run" (episode 2.22)
- Created by : James Cameron, Josh Friedman
- Portrayed by : Thomas Dekker
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, lock-picking, 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.
Literature
Comic books
With the success of T2, John Connor would appear in the non-canon Terminator/Superman crossover Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future, where DC Comics and 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 - the resistance had attempted to recover a Terminator that Skynet had sent back earlier but the machine targeted Superman by mistake, and is then able 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 - leaving a message in a Terminator's skull about Superman's weaknesses and subsequently allying himself with a T-X sent back from the future to assist him, while Supergirl, Superboy, and even Lex Luthor continue to protect Sarah and young John from wave after wave of Terminator cyborgs, the later models being specifically upgraded to cope with the Superman family.
The story concludes with Superman having aided the resistance in destroying Skynet by detonating an EMP in Earth's atmosphere powerful enough to shut down Earth's machines before returning to the past, where the Cyborg is defeated and all Terminator components disposed of in the sun. However, at the end of the comic it is revealed that Lex Luthor has multiple parts of other Terminators. He was continuing to research them since he never was able to capture a fully functional Terminator. This leads the reader to believe that Luthor played a hand in Skynet's creation in the future.
Related Post : Source : Wikipedia
