While previous works explored the “present” (young John) and “future” (resistance leader John) of the “Terminator” timeline, “T2: The Future War” (2003) was the first story to link the two eras by showing what happens in between.
In contrast to the first two novels of S.M. Stirling’s “T2” trilogy, “The Future War” isn’t a decompressed novel where the heroes and villains have specific, clashing missions. Rather, it is more of a series of vignettes, with a lot of jumps forward in time, that eventually brings us to 2029 and the portrayal of the Terminators and Kyle going back through time, thus bringing the saga full-circle.
Stirling’s approach is somewhat surprising, as a reader might assume the final entry would be even more epic than the first two books. But while “Infiltrator” and “Rising Storm” each ran over 500 pages in paperback form, “The Future War” clocks in at a mere 375.
Perhaps Stirling was rushing to get this book out before “T3” hit theaters (both were released in July 2003). Indeed, many aspects of “The Future War” seem rushed: Dieter and Sarah have increasingly smaller roles, Infiltrators never factor into the story, and Stirling arguably makes a mistake in the final pages by having our heroes use the same TDE (time displacement equipment) as the villains. Still, there’s also some solid writing here, particularly the harrowing sequence where 7-year-old Kyle and his mom are captured by violent Luddites.
CHARACTERS
John Connor: Already forced to grow up fast from the events of “T2” and the first two books in Stirling’s trilogy, he acts out his destiny as a great leader in “The Future War,” from young adult in 2003 to a 44-year-old grizzled veteran in 2029. (The book mistakenly says he’s 42.) In this book, John’s (and Sarah’s and Dieter’s) nominal home base is in Alaska, a departure from their Paraguay home of the first two books.
Sarah Connor: Somewhat surprisingly, she is alive and well throughout the whole story. From a hiding place in the facility, the 64-year-old Sarah even watches the conclusive TDE events unfold. John had decided a decade or so earlier to “martyr” Sarah so the resistance could be inspired. Only John, Dieter and a few close allies know she’s actually alive. Sarah makes sure to not interact with Kyle so as not to mess with fate.
Dieter von Rossbach: Sarah’s loyal boyfriend throughout the book, and the man upon which the Arnold model Terminator would be modeled. He continues to be a key organizer of the resistance.
Sergeant Kyle Reese: John knows about Kyle’s birth in 2006 and follows him from a distance through emails and old-fashioned letters from his resistance contacts. When John meets 10-year-old Kyle, he makes sure to not develop a close relationship, not wanting to mess with fate. For his part, Kyle learns his survival and fighting skills from his parents. In the previous timeline, Kyle was born in 2010.
Lieutenant Dennis Reese and his wife Mary (Shea), a nurse: Kyle’s parents. They are killed in 2016 by a T-90 when Kyle is 10 years old. John learns about Dennis (who is four years older than John) through his contacts, and even joins him on the mission to rescue Kyle and Mary in 2016, but he generally keeps his distance. Kyle’s parentage here is different from “Cybernetic Dawn,” where it’s implied that Jonathan Ellis Reese is Kyle’s father.
TERMINATORS
T-90s: Known as T-600s in non-Stirling stories, these basic endoskeleton models are the resistance’s main ground foes in this book.
T-101s: Arnold-style Infiltrator models, known as T-800s in non-Stirling stories, don’t come into play until the chronicle of the TDE sequence in the final pages.
I-950s: The advanced Infiltrator models of “Infiltrator” and “Rising Storm” don’t come into play, although we know that Serena is being grown “off page” (as chronicled on the previous timeline in “Infiltrator”) because she time-travels in the conclusive TDE sequence.
CONTINUITY AND CONTRADICTIONS
“The Future War” begins in real time (2003), in the aftermath of the 2002-set “Rising Storm,” which ended with Skynet gaining sentience. Then it proceeds to chronicle the war-ravaged years all the way through 2029, when the Terminators and Kyle go back through time, thus closing the time loop. While Stirling doesn’t provide precise years for the major events, this “Terminator” Wiki page provides a helpful timeline.
Skynet becomes sentient three years before this book’s 2005 Judgment Day. It is waiting until it is put in charge of the U.S. military’s weapons systems before it makes its move (page 2 of the paperback). In “T2,” the Uncle Bob Terminator tells our heroes that both sentience and J-Day occurred within one month – in August 1997. “The Future War’s” J-Day features “17 times fewer missiles this time” (p. 97). But in 2016, Skynet – which had held a third of its missiles in reserve — unleashes a second Judgement Day (p. 289), which kills millions and brings about nuclear winter. We also see Skynet strategically deploy its nuclear missiles in the Now Comics, although in that case it was because Skynet desired to toy around with humanity.
Because our heroes are armed with information from the previous pass through the timeline, they do serious preparing for J-Day in “Infiltrator” and “Rising Storm.” And when the war effort is going reasonably well, John thinks the resistance can defeat Skynet “far sooner than they had the first time” (p. 223). But he doesn’t count on the second Judgment Day, which essentially knocks this timeline more into synch with the previous timeline.
Luddites start saying “Judgment Day” (p. 157), and when John’s girlfriend Ninel says “Judgment Day” (p. 219), John realizes Skynet has introduced the term into the lexicon of this timeline.
John plays chess against Ninel (p. 18). Chess also factors in “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” as a way to test computers’ intelligence. And the resistance-versus-Skynet war is, of course, a metaphorical chess match.
Many previous incarnations of the story painted the war against the machines – for all its horror – as being a clear case of good versus evil, with almost all humans on the side of the resistance. “The Future War,” however, puts numerous humans on the side of the machines. They are the Luddites, who believe the human population needs to be severely decreased for the sake of nature. Skynet poses as deceased Luddite leader Ron Labane (p. 48) as a way to secure a loyal following — right up until it no longer needs humans to run the factories, of course.
Additionally, Skynet – which can imitate voices – poses as various military leaders. Thus, the military is split into pro-Skynet and anti-Skynet factions (although the majority fall into step behind John’s resistance). Which one is the “true” U.S. military? It depends on how you spin it. This question will be raised again in “T3.”
Skynet believes eradicating humans will take a century (p. 249). In previous timelines, Skynet seemed to be wiping out humans at a much faster rate than that. Most notably, in one of the timelines in “Superman versus The Terminator,” Skynet achieves Omega Point (the point at which all humans are dead) about three decades after Judgment Day.
South America is not hit as hard by J-Day as other parts of the globe (p. 110 and 205). This is consistent with the Now Comics’ portrayal.
Through various action scenes, “The Future War” takes us through all the “firsts” in Skynet’s weapons production. We see the first Hunter-Killer experimental models (p. 150), the first Terminator endoskeletons (p. 158) and the first plasma rifle (p. 165), which is quickly acquisitioned by John.
However, Infiltrator models aren’t featured in this book for some reason (until the TDE sequence of the final pages). In previous versions of the timeline, Infiltrator models appear well before 2029. In the first phase of the Dark Horse comics, for instance, Infiltrators are emerging from their vats in 2009. And considering that I-950s Serena and Chloe construct Infiltrators with primitive technology and labs — and only the crucial microchips from the future – in the first two novels, it’s odd that Skynet doesn’t quickly crank out Infiltrators as part of the war effort. Skynet even notes that it doesn’t trust the Luddites to perform infiltrations. The explanation could be that Skynet doesn’t see a pressing need to use Infiltrators as events unfold on this timeline, and it’s easier to just crank out T-90s. (And it should also be noted that the I-950 Serena is being grown “off page,” but Skynet doesn’t put her into the war games; it saves her for the time-travel mission.)
In the 2016 sequence, the resistance (including Dennis Reese and John Connor) invades a Skynet factory in an attempt to destroy Skynet weapons and rescue hostages (including Mary and Kyle), similar to a sequence in “Terminator Salvation.”
TIME TRAVEL AND TIMELINES
Despite the many contradictions listed above, “The Future War” has fateful overtones throughout. For example, Sarah believes Skynet must exist for John to exist (p. 10) and Dieter believes fate “chose” John to create Skynet in this timeline (p. 41) (as chronicled in the final act of “Rising Storm,” when John mistakenly hits enter on the keyboard rather than erasing the program).
In “The Future War’s” closing chapters, fate plays out at a rapid-fire pace: John gives Kyle the Polaroid of Sarah (p. 363) in 2025. Then, in 2029, we’re told that the “defense grid is smashed” in a throwaway line (p. 365). Then John asks for volunteers for the time-travel mission, Kyle volunteers as expected, and so forth.
That having been said, there are some notable contradictions from the TDE sequence of previous stories:
- Sarah is alive in this timeline’s 2029, and she watches the events in the TDE facility from a distance. In previous stories, she was dead by this time (or at least unmentioned by the author and therefore presumed dead by the reader). She is explicitly deceased in “T3” and the stories that follow from that movie, including the films “Salvation” and “Genisys.” The only previous story where she’s alive in 2029 is the “T2” novelization, which ends with a scene where J-Day never happened.
- John’s friend Snog reprograms the Uncle Bob Terminator this time around. In the “T2” novelization, it’s not clear who reprograms the Uncle Bob model or how they know how to do it, but in that book, John is joined by soldiers named Fuentes and Winn when he prepares Uncle Bob for his time travel mission. And in “Nuclear Twilight,” Danny Dyson reprograms the Uncle Bob as John looks on. Fuentes, Winn and Danny don’t appear in this story, just as Snog is not in the “T2” novelization or “Nuclear Twilight.”
- Human scientists (Luddites) work the controls of the TDE that sends back the Terminators. In previous versions, Skynet was able to handle this process without human help.
- The T-101 (Arnold in “T1”), the T-1000 (Robert Patrick in “T2”) and the I-950 (Serena in “Infiltrator”) use the TDE platform one after another. Previous versions of the TDE story did not include Serena, because Stirling invented her for his trilogy. The TDE story in “All My Future’s Past” includes just the Arnold model (and then Kyle), “One Shot” includes the Arnold model plus a female Terminator for the purposes of that story (and then Kyle), and the “T2” novelization and “Nuclear Twilight” include the Arnold model and the T-1000 (and then Kyle and the Uncle Bob model).
- Kyle and the Uncle Bob model use the same TDE platform that the bad guys just used. In previous versions, the good guys used another platform about a mile away in the same large facility, thus explaining the different points of emergence in Los Angeles. The use of the same platform was probably a mistake on Stirling’s part, although one could argue that the TDE on this timeline can be programmed so the subject emerges in a different location, rather than in the platform’s fixed position. Such scenarios happened, albeit by accident, in “Secondary Objectives” and “Death Valley,” when Terminators emerged in the ocean and desert.