Terminator (franchise)
| Terminator | |
|---|---|
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| Creator |
James Cameron Gale Anne Hurd |
| Original work | The Terminator (1984) |
| Print publications | |
| Novels | T2 trilogy (2001–2004) |
| Comics | List of Teminator comics |
| Films and television | |
| Films |
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| Television series | The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009) |
| Games | |
| Video games | List of Terminator video games |
| Audio | |
| Soundtracks |
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| Original music |
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| Miscellaneous | |
| Theme park attractions |
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| * Ride currently continues to operate without Terminator branding. | |
The Terminator series is a science-fiction franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. It encompasses a series of films, comics, novels, and additional media concerning battles between Skynet's synthetic intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race. Skynet's most well-known products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800 (Model 101), who was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the first film, and similar units he also portrayed in the later films. As of May 2010, the franchise has generated $3 billion in revenue.
The central theme of the franchise is the battle for survival between the nearly-extinct human race and the world-spanning synthetic intelligence that is Skynet. Skynet is positioned in the first film as a U.S. strategic "Global Digital Defense Network" computer system by Cyberdyne Systems which becomes self-aware. Upon activation, it immediately perceives all humans as a "security threat", and formulates a plan to systematically wipe out humanity itself. The system initiates a nuclear first strike against Russia, thereby ensuring a devastating counter strike and a nuclear holocaust which it anticipates will instantly wipe out much of humanity. In the post-apocalyptic aftermath, Skynet later builds up its own autonomous machine-based military capability which includes the Terminators used against individual human targets and, therefore, proceeds to wage a persistent total war against the surviving elements of humanity...some of whom have militarily organized themselves into a Resistance. At some point in this future, Skynet develops the ability of time travel, and both it and the Resistance seek to use this technology in order to win the war; either by altering or accelerating past events in Skynet's favour, or by preventing or forestalling the (present) apocalyptic timeline.
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