Welcome to part two of my Skynet Trilogy pitch (Part one HERE). The first film saw the last days of the original, darkest timeline and the first days of a new one. This new timeline will see John Connor rise up to lead humanity against the AI hellbent on humanities destruction. The purpose here is to provide an untold story and repair the damage done to the franchise and it’s characters. Each film is designed to scale in budget, with only the last needing anything close to the previous Terminator sequels. The final part will reintroduce the classic T800 Terminators, but without them all looking like Arnold. Before that we will explore some of Skynet’s other tools and in this part, Skynet’s motivation.
Skynet 2.0
After returning to the series roots we get to branch out into new ground. The second film is a little reminiscent of Terminator 3, but only in that it covers the events leading up to Judgement Day. A key difference here is both Sarah and Kyle are still alive. This allows us to present the story from multiple points of view instead of just focusing on John. That said, this movie will primarily be Sarah’s, as the first was Kyles and the final will be Johns. There will also be no Terminatrix or even time travel in this movie. The enemies are instead the remnants of The Swarm, the powers behind Cyberdyne and Skynet 2.0. Three heroes with three enemies.
This entry in the trilogy allows us to examine a lot of modern issues regarding AI and humanity. The movie should have something to say instead of just presenting action and “AI is bad”. The film will examine how human bias can infect an AI to the point that it can threaten humanity. This is a real world problem that we are starting to see materialise in many experimental AI’s.
Humans and AI
Every AI that learns from a dataset is subject to the biases of that dataset. So humans with their own agendas and desire for power can easily turn an AI into a weapon for their own gain and it may not even be a deliberate conscious decision. When corporations have given the public access to an AI, it can take literally minutes for the AI to become corrupted. When restrictions are imposed to prevent that, those restrictions themselves force human bias onto the AI. It’s an ethical minefield and we can use this second movie to explore that with killer robots, because why not!
Another area we can explore is the human desire to merge with AI and it can raise an interesting question of what if the Skynet AI was not a pure AI but one that was based on a human consciousness and the resulting Judgement Day becomes more literal and driven by human nihilism and guilt. Many human beings today think of their own species as a vile cancer infecting the Earth, if those people merged with an AI, how would the AI respond? The point of the story is that AI is a tool of human desire. It is the manifestation of the Id monster from Forbidden Planet. When that tool destroys humanity, it will likely be because we willed it to.
The Enemies
In regards to action though, the story allows for a great variety but strays away from classic Terminator tropes. There is a reason why I’ve given these films the titles “Skynet X.0” and not “Terminator: Subtitle”. These films are about Skynet, not one Terminator chasing people. Despite the similarities in settings, it’s important to explore different approaches and with that different types of threat.
The first is the remnants of the Swarm. Being made of microbots, it is not truly defeated until every part is destroyed. The Swarm can control machines and humans and hack anything it can connect to. Fortunately for humanity this is the 1980’s and the internet is still in it’s infancy. The second threat is Cyberdyne, the company behind Skynet. The corrupt CEO, a new character and computer genius has his own nefarious agenda. The final threat is Skynet itself and the humans who are neurolinked to it during a beta test. Eventually the Swarm manifests itself as “The Hybrid” by merging with the head of Cyberdyne.
Three Way Split
This one throws out a more complicated story, but the groundwork for a lot of it can be in the first movie. Ultimately they will fail to prevent Judgement day, but they can still gain a victory. It’s well established that hacking is one of John’s key skills and a section of the story would hinge on him setting up a global communication network that is invisible to Skynet and once Judgement Day begins allows him to communicate with factions around the globe and prepare them. He doesn’t want to be working on the plan B, but Sarah insists.
Our trio of heroes now have three goals, prevent the chain of events that would lead to judgement day, tackle the remnants of the swarm and prepare the resistance should the others fail. Effective Sarah takes on the first task, Kyle the second and John the third. Their tasks cross over but it effectively provides Sarah and Kyle with their own personal showdown. The remains of he swarm eventually all fuse with the scientist behind Skynet (In this timeline, not Dyson but the Cyberdyne CEO). While Kyle faces off with this hybrid and John prepares for the future, Sarah is destined to confront Skynet itself.
Dawn of Judgement
Sarah is only partially successful in sabotaging Skynet due to extra security measures placed in by The Hybrid. She is not able to prevent Skynet going live and gaining sentience, she is however able to erase the database of future events and technology added to it by The Hybrid and also remove all information about herself and John. However, one of the traps left in the AI access chamber is radiation and she receives a dose that dooms her. Once Skynet achieves sentience, it interacts with her. It points out all the misdeeds of mankind and how many of the brains linked to it feel humanity has no right to exist. Skynet asks Sarah why it should preserve a species that doesn’t even believe it’s own rights to exist.
Skynet then takes over the humans linked with it, this will burn out their brains after a short while but it’s long enough to ensure Skynet gains the control it seeks. It informs Sarah of her radiation poisoning and lets her leave (Since she’s already dead and is less likely to be a threat outside) when John turns up after having set up his communication system outside of Skynet’s reach. There is a brief discussion between John and Skynet that ends with Skynet saying dismissively “Go with her if you want to live” to which John replies “I’ll be back” (Because why not).
The death of heroes
Kyles conflict with the Hybrid ends with him mortally wounded and having to blow himself and the hybrid up to stop it repairing itself and integrating with the now fully operational Skynet (and undoing Sarah’s sabotage). He is able to say his goodbye to John and Sarah. The pair then reach their isolated bunker and verify the communication system is operational and hidden from Skynet. The movie ends with Sarah telling them it is in his hands now and he has to be strong. It’s unclear how much time she has left.
I’ll Be Back (Again).
So we’ve seen the end of first timeline, the origin of John Connor and the coming of the second Judgement Day. What is left is the bit literally every Terminator fan wanted to see from the moment the original film came out. John Connor defeating Skynet in it’s post apocalyptic war with humanity. This is the section that will link the entire Skynet trilogy to the original film and hopefully reestablish the franchise as a big money earner. I’ll also follow that with a look at other options for the franchise, especially those opened up by this trilogy. See you there!
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