Current Events > Is it me, or is Skynet incompetent as fuck? *Terminator spoilers up to Genisys*

(+) Yeah! (+)

How the fuck are humans or any life still even alive in the future?

Shouldn't something like Skynet be able wipe all life out in a few months? Ignoring the fact that they can't even stop somebody in the past by time traveling?

Seven and a half billion people on the planet. The top 10 most heavily populated cities don't even account for 1% of that number. The nukes Skynet fired were aimed at the most populated areas, but most countries have some kind of missile defense system in place. No way of knowing how many got through, or what the total casualties on the first day were. Less than 500 million, I can reasonably guess. Skynet has only a few thousand Endo's running around, not nearly enough for a global conquest.

Have to remember that Skynet started the war, because it knew it's creators were going to try to kill it. It didn't have a long term plan in place.
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Skynet's power would be more limited than you think. While Skynet's core operations would be in some sealed military bunker(s), most human technology would vanish with us when it made its first strike on Judgement Day. It would take time for Skynet to develop the kind of infrastructure it would need to research and develop the futuristic weapons we see in the future, to say nothing of their mass production. This would give humans time to dig in.

Guerilla warfare has been a surprisingly successful tactic throughout human history. Starting from scratch with limited knowledge of what humans were up to during its build phase, it would take ages for Skynet to start finding hidden human settlements. Skynet is an AI, not a person inside of a machine. We don't know what its priorities are. For example, it might be devoting the bulk of its time and energy on scientific research or self-evolution. Reese mentions that Skynet maintains death camps for humans in T1, so it may not want to kill every wild human. It may have other uses for us in mind. Training its weapons using "free range" humans might actually be a thing.

But don't forget that the entire reason the resistance "wins" against Skynet is John Conner. The future humans know when and where to strike Skynet because John Conner got that information from Sarah, who got it from Reese, who...got it from John Conner. Without the paradox caused by time travel, humanity would have stood no chance against Skynet.

The films would be a lot less fun if they had to avoid faceless drone strikes.
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darkmaian23 posted...

John Conner

I have always wondered about John Conner, factoring in the movies and t.v series, he never seemed like kind of person who was capable of putting together a concerted resistance effort. I wonder, was he merely the face? A target for Skynet to focus it's attentions on, so the Resistance could work unhindered?
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Genisys. What. Sorry but Terminator ended after 2

Axiom posted...

Genisys. What. Sorry but Terminator ended after 2

and other hilarious jokes you can tell yourself
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There are no Terminator movies after Judgement Day.
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Terminator is like the worst series that keeps the status quo
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The death camps makes sense, Skynet used them to learn everything it needed about humans. Some early experiments probably involved trying to turn some humans into spies and/or suicide bombers, but Skynet decided that it wasnt worth the trouble.

008Zulu posted...

darkmaian23 posted...

John Conner

I have always wondered about John Conner, factoring in the movies and t.v series, he never seemed like kind of person who was capable of putting together a concerted resistance effort. I wonder, was he merely the face? A target for Skynet to focus it's attentions on, so the Resistance could work unhindered?

I will say that it depends on the changed timelines.
In the first timeline, Skynet was activated much later. Sarah got a boy with an unknown father, hopefully they were in love and raised him good. Perhaps he was a military or interested in guns, which could have made John join the military and get a military career. Or he had a bad childhood and the military turned into the family he never had. Anyway, he was a highranked military that had access to more hightech stuff once Skynet woke up. With guerilla warfare, humanity slowly beat the crap out of Skynets forces. Skynet probably learned about John from captured humans and soldiers screaming FOR JOHN CONNOR! before dying. It knew that it was a matter of time before it would be defeated so it put resources into building a timemachine that could remove humanitys biggest ace, John Connor.
John probably entered the chamber as Skynet sent back the Terminator in time. John couldnt go back in time because he didnt know if it would destroy the universe or not, and he was needed (or he needed) to destroy Skynet, so he sent somebody else, Kyle Reese. Why did he pick Kyle?
Was he a random soldier? Was he the only other living human around? Was he Johns right hand? Could be any or all of them.
Anyway, he was sent back and saved Sarah from the (a most likely totally different) Terminator. Since he had nothing else to do, he decided to stay by Sarahs side, protecting her. They fell in love, gave birth to John and raised him as the future leader, teaching him important stuff. But scientists found the remains of the destroyed Terminator, studied it and used it to create Skynet earlier, and the war started earlier.
Kyle and Sarah died, expecting the war to start much later. John was not fully learned but knew enough to raise in ranks and keep being a nail in Skynets eye.
This Skynet had a technological boost because of the first Terminators remains. While it couldnt directly copy it because it lacked the technology to do it, it could still base the Terminator line on it which gave it a huge advantage against humanity. But humanity could still manage and adapt, and in the end they got the upper hand.
Skynet knew that it would be defeated, so it created a time machine to send back a Terminator to remove the biggest ace humanity had, John Connor.
John saved Kyle from a death camp, recognized him as his father and decided to hold him back some. This Kyle saw less fights than the original Kyle, so he was less experienced. Perhaps he would have been able to defeat the Terminator in the past and survive if John hadnt tried to protect him. John talked much with Kyle about his mother, because he knew that they would fall in love.
Skynet sent back a more advanced Terminator, John sent Kyle and a third timeline started.
This is when the first movie starts.
So the John we follow got a less stable childhood and less likely to turn into the leader humanity needs.
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Axiom posted...

Genisys. What. Sorry but Terminator ended after 2

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Foppe posted...

So the John we follow got a less stable childhood and less likely to turn into the leader humanity needs.

So through attrition, it seems like Skynet will win.
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Prediction: it's playing 5D chess with another threat that won't be revealed for another two - three movies.

I also agree, it ended after 2. Everything after is subpar. It's like every actor after Robert Patrick has tried to imitate his performance.
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Isn't the new one supposed to be a sequel to 2 that ignores 3-Genisys?
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Because humans systemically beat down the robots from R ratings to PG-13 to where they were no longer murdering humans but instead throwing them around.
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Tired-Insomniac posted...

Isn't the new one supposed to be a sequel to 2 that ignores 3-Genisys?

Yes.
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Yomi posted...

Axiom posted...

Genisys. What. Sorry but Terminator ended after 2

and other hilarious jokes you can tell yourself

Except James Cameron is throwing everything after Judgement Day in the toilet where it belongs.
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