The Terminator franchise is one of the most groundbreaking sci-fi series in cinematic history, combining slasher elements with a time-travel narrative to create an action-packed thriller pitting man against the machines in a ruthless and unavoidable war. However, Skynet’s inevitable attack on humanity—aka “Judgment Day“—has been subject to several timeline shifts since the franchise’s inception in 1984.In the first two Terminator films, Skynet launches the world’s full nuclear arsenal on August 29th, 1997, setting in motion John Connor’s uprising against the machines. However, this date has changed numerous times, first being postponed to 2003 and then being pushed back as late as October 2017 for the ill-fated Terminator Genisys.

Consequently, one thing has become abundantly clear in the Terminator series—despite humanity’s interventions, their apocalypse is an inevitability that can only be delayed. Why this is the case hinges on the franchise’s deeper message of the stability of time, a constant that cannot be surmounted by the meddling of man or machine through doomed, inconsequential ripples.

Every Attempt To Change The Past In Terminator Creates A New Future

From the beginning, the Terminator franchise hasn’t shied away from messing with the natural flow of its timeline, throwing Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) against the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in a race to change the future by killing the mother of humanity’s revolutionary leader, John Connor (whom, ironically, was fathered by Reese, the soldier he sent back in time).

Despite this temporal shift, however, it wouldn’t be until Terminator 2: Judgment Day that the date of the apocalypse was delayed by Sarah Connor and the now-reprogrammed T-800, who’s back in time to protect John against the shape-shifting liquid-metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick). Through their efforts, Judgment Day was postponed to 2003 as seen in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

What’s obvious when viewing these timelines from a distance is the constant looming presence of war with the machines, namely, that, despite humanity’s success in protecting the Connors, Judgment Day remains a fixed point in each timeline’s future. Furthermore, Skynet persists across each newly created future as an unrelenting force that will stop at nothing to systematically eradicate humanity.

The Humans Won Terminator’s War Before It Started

What’s often overlooked in the franchise’s lore is the victory humanity achieved before the beginning of the first Terminator film. As Kyle Reese details in his interrogation with the Los Angeles police, the humans had just destroyed the machine’s defense grid, leaving the latter with no other course than to travel back in time and retroactively kill John Connor.

Ignoring the blatant paradox within this act (trust me, this is only one reason why the Terminator timeline is so confusing), Skynet’s ultimate goal becomes far more desperate with this reality in mind. Simply put, they’d lost, and rather than face extinction, they threw a “Hail Mary” 45 years into the past.

Despite the failure of the machine’s plan, it ultimately postponed their defeat, locking them into an eternal, timeline-shifting battle with humanity. Much like the humans, however, the machines are equally cursed, with the former unable to prevent Judgment Day, and the latter unwilling to face their own extermination by John Connor and the revolution.