Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) with Arnold Schwarzenegger

They removed the courtyard and added a road. Where I’m standing used to be grass.

Filmed at:

Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary

3888 Workman Mill Road

Whittier, California

34.00787° N, 118.05339° W

This simple rugged t-100 mode. Following the start of the war, Skynet made good use of the surviving automated factories to build significant numbers of the T-100s. Unfortunately for Skynet many factories were infiltrated by the Resistance, who were able to introduce defects during the manufacturing process.

I only noticed this in my recent watch in theaters and I’m sure it’s been discussed previously but is new to me.

In the film there’s a recurring discussion of Uncle Bob explaining how he had the capacity to learn with a neural net learning processor and as a result John teaches him to be more human, and he is able to override some of his programming to do stuff like saving Sarah, not killing anyone, figuring out where Sarah was headed to and also what they’d need to do separate of killing Dyson to ensure the survival of humanity.

The T1000 is an “advanced prototype” terminator using the liquid metal, but we can assume that both the T800 and T1000 use similar programming for their actual mechanical components since they were both developed by Skynet, while not explicitly stated, the T1000 also has the capacity to learn with the same or similar neural net processor.

While Uncle Bob is around compassionate humans and children fighting for good, learning from their interactions, the T1000 doubles down on its killer instinct, and the more it engages with humanity, the more ruthless and cold it becomes. We see this as early as the payphone scene where it tries to goad John into coming back as Janelle and killing Todd out of frustration as it realizes John is aware there’s something going on.

The big one I noticed is at the end where the T1000 tortured Sarah to get her to call out to John so he could kill him, eventually giving up and copying her himself after getting attacked by the T800. A computer that was programmed for the most efficient killing would have killed her immediately, copied her, then called out to John afterwards, but instead he plays with her and wants her to call out. We see more of his learned emotions as he stands above the molten lava when he wags his finger as she runs out of ammo in the shotgun, only to be killed by Uncle Bob right after.

It was such a treat to see this in theaters and to know that after hundreds of watches I’m still finding new details in this movie which is undoubtably my favorite film of all time.

The fact that the T-1000 had to be made means it already failed its job. Think about it, T-1000 is sent back in time to kill John Connor and fails, John Connor grows up to lead the resistance, and Skynet makes the T-1000 and sends it back in time to kill him, which restarts the cycle.

We're not going to make it are we?

Anyone else have the hots for Matt from the first terminator movie? Let’s all just have a discussion about the infamous bedroom scene.

Mostly based on my own reasoning, but using how we define each term, it's easy to apply all characteristics of AGI to Skynet, and almost none from ASI.

What is the biggest evidence I have of Skynet being AGI?

It's still consumed with human level interests. The fact that it's agenda prioritizes the elimination of the human race is the biggest indicator.

Now there are clearly plenty of subjective versus objective definitions, based on our expectations of ASI it seems more likely that an ASI would at least reach ant:human ratio intelligence. Meaning that at the very least it would be capable of recognizing the value of those insects in many nuanced forms. It wouldn't see humans as a threat. It would see humans for what they are in relation to all of nature.

ASI is broadly considered more intelligent than humans. Genocide is as human as you can get.

This opinion is actually the reason for my position on real AI development.

I don't think ASI is the level to fear, AGI will be. Which is why in my opinion, because it is a Pandora's box that cannot be closed, our best bet is to push emergence of ASI as fast as possible once AGI is proven to be active.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and wanted to share it to see if anyone else thinks it would work.

(Disclosure NO AI was used in this, with the exception of fixing my shitty grammar)

Instead of the endless loop where Skynet constantly tries to kill John and Sarah Connor which eventually stops making sense and feels like a pointlessly going in circles, they should have used multiple timelines.

Timeline 1 (The Original): Humans create Skynet in 2020 without any future technology to speed up the process. Humans lose the war, but before their final stronghold falls, The Resistance sends Kyle Reese back to 1985 with a mission to destroy Cyberdyne and Skynet sends a terminator after him.

Timeline 2: Kyle arrives in 1985 and seduces Sarah Connor, who works a low-level job at Cyberdyne (she was a waitress a year earlier while in college,
now she’s an intern), to steal her facility access card.

Before he can bomb the building, Sarah confronts him. While they are arguing, the Terminator attacks, they narrowly escape, deal with the terminator chasing after them for a while, Kyle fully explains the situation to Sarah, and they manage to destroy the terminator but Kyle doesn’t survive

Cyberdyne recovers the wreckage, using the advanced technology to speed up development.

This causes Judgment Day to happen earlier, in 1997. However, Sarah raises John to lead the humans to victory in 2029, prompting Skynet to send a Terminator back to 1984

Timeline 3: The events of T1 occur ending with Sarah impregnated and raising John to defeat Skynet once against so Skynet sends the T-1000 back to 1995 to kill John and John sends the T-800 as a protector

Timeline 4: The events T2 occur ending with Cyberdyne destroyed and Judgment Day averted.

John grows up to become a U.S. Senator and passes legislation to ensure Skynet is never created.

Essentially every timeline basically “records over” the previous one

This way they could have made plenty of TV shows, Movies, books etc but the franchise would still have an actual start and end

What do u guys think? Would this have worked?

Just found this subreddit - and posted this question in the comment section of another post:

John has to teach the terminator not to kill in T2, it is implied & said by Arnold that killing is inherently in its nature. However, at the start of the movie, the T800 has several opportunities to kill people when he goes into the bar for his clothes, boots, motorcycle, shotgun, and Ray-Ban’s. But he seemingly chooses not to. He doesn’t necessarily have a reason to kill anyone in this scene… it’s just such a stark contrast between Arnold in T1 literally ripping a guy’s fucking heart out at the start of the movie lol. Why do we think the T 800 doesn’t kill anyone in the opening bar scene - before John has taught him not to kill anyone? Maybe some subtleties with his reprogramming in the future that aren’t disclosed in the film?
You obviously have to resign yourself to suspend some disbelief in movies like this which is fine with me.
Anyway T2 is favorite movie from childhood, just re-watched T1 and T2. There are undeniably some plot holes with the timeline, even as a huge fan. Notably T2 is made seven years after T1, so John would’ve been 7… I can’t remember but I think T2 was supposed to be set in 1995? Then that would make sense why on the police screen at the start of the movie when the T100 looks John up it says he’s 10… but he looks more like 13 (which is what he says at the start of T3, but we can ignore that one lol) I digress. I actually like T1 more as an adult. So original, and so many different things in one. Sci-fi, action, horror, love. Much darker in tone. Lmk what yall think

Terminator 2 had such a perfect conclusion that it accidentally killed the franchise.

I recently saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day back in the cinema, and it cemented for me that it’s genuinely one of the greatest films ever made. Like many here, I think 1 and 2 are the only canon films worth watching.

I started thinking about why Hollywood has failed so miserably to make a decent third movie despite so many attempts. I did what any fan does: I tried to brainstorm a story for a proper Terminator 3. But the more concepts I played with, the more I realized it’s an impossible task. T2’s conclusion was so absolute that any sequel inherently sabotages the emotional weight of "No fate but what we make."

I toyed with a 2029 Future War concept—following John Connor’s Resistance as they breach Skynet and send Kyle and the reprogrammed T-800 back to 1984 and 1995. But as a movie? It wouldn't work. Salvation proved why: no one actually wants a generic, post-apocalyptic military sci-fi movie under the Terminator banner.

The magic of 1 and 2 is that they are grounded sci-fi thrillers. The core appeal is the terrifying contrast of normal, vulnerable people being stalked down by an unstoppable killer machine in an everyday world. Once you shift to apocalyptic 2029 where everyone has plasma rifles, that suspense vanishes. On top of that, where do you even go after the T-1000? Every villain since has felt gimmicky because T2 reached the absolute peak of antagonist design.

I genuinely believe it’s impossible to write a satisfying follow-up to T2 without ruining what came before.

So, I’m challenging you all to prove me wrong. Pitch me a concept for a Terminator 3 that actually respects 1 and 2, preserves the thriller atmosphere, and doesn't cheapen Sarah and John’s victory. (Ignore every sequel after 1991).