Of the Rise of the Machines.........

In view of the upcoming Terminator Salvation, I have been revisiting the Terminator franchise quite abit of late, and I can't help but notice the extent to which the third instalment, Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines keeps taking flak, that too for the most banal reasons!

1. In the first part, Rhys says that it was only him and the Terminator that came through before the machine was destroyed. How is it possible that T2 & T3 can exist? - Its true that Rhys mentioned this in the film. However lets not rule out the fact that since Rhys was no 2 right outta that time displacement field, right behind the 1st T-800, he would definitely have no way to be sure if any others came after him or not. Unless if he runs into them of course. Also, at the end of the 1st film, we know that the broken microchip and artifical intelligent limp were recovered from the wreckage of the 1st T-800. This accelerated the development of Skynet as pretty much everything was reverse engineered from there. This puts the 2nd movie in an alternate timeline, which had a possibly more intelligent and advanced Skynet which could have re-created the Time Displacement field.
2. T-800 was the model number of the Terminator in both the 1st and 2nd movies. So how is it T-850 in the third? - Again alternate timelines. The end of T2 saw the destruction of Cyberdyne which was supposed to be the ultimate annhiliation of Skynet in its infancy. However a parallel development by another wing of the US Military, has been running a parallel project led by Robert Brewster, involving the advancement of Automated intelligent robots as weapons systems. Skynet being developed from here takes over as a virus and ends up controlling all machines. This happens much later than the 1st supposed Judgement Day which was averted, Skynet becoming self-aware only much later. This was ensured in Part 2 by the 2nd T-800 when he self-terminates alongside the T-1000 in the liquid nitrogen to eliminate any evidence of artificial intelligence which could be used to develop Skyney in future. Hence, Judgement Day being postponed, we have an entirely new timeline in T3 with an entirely new set of machines developed for different environments, needs, stress and effeciency. The war could be fought in different ways in the different timelines. Probably the reason why Skynet had developed the T-X anti-terminator terminator model to take out other cybernetic organism while in the other timeline, there was no such insurance against a possible machine rebellion. Connor's cronies probably employed the re-programming of captured cyborgs alot more in this T3 timeline than in the other one.

To comprehend the films fully, you have to comprehend the theories on time displacement well. I'd update with the relevant links later. I do have my issues with the films though on one point. John Connor's age always remains an inconsistency.

*hasta la vista!!*