Writer Zack Whedon, showcasing a lot of the witty dialog his brother Joss is known for, crafts an alternate take on the “Terminator 1” time loop in “2029-1984” (2010, Dark Horse Comics). The six-issue series illustrated by Andy MacDonald features three issues on each side of the time jump, and it branches off from the movie’s storyline by asking “What if Kyle Reese barely survived in the factory showdown and was held in captivity for decades by the government agency that would become Skynet?”
Kyle and Sarah get more time
“2029-1984” doesn’t break wildly new ground, but it does allow Kyle and Sarah to spend more time together in the “1984” portion of the story, after main character Ben has gone back in time – at Kyle’s request – to free Kyle from the bad guys. Essentially, we’re getting a beefier version of “T1” with a happier ending.
Whedon pens a cute relationship between Ben and Paige, as the latter gradually realizes it’s OK to form connections with other humans. Ben pontificates about how it’s not necessarily good war strategy for humans to band together in clumps, but to do otherwise would be to go against human nature.
“Terminator: 2029-1984” (2010)
Six issues, Dark Horse
Writer: Zack Whedon
Artist: Andy MacDonald
“2029-1984” achieves a perfect balance between the familiar “T1” story and some surprises, such as when our heroes defeat a Terminator by tricking it into falling into a vat of wet cement. Months later, it breaks out, of course. It’s neat to see the factory sequence from the end of “T1” illustrated by MacDonald, if only for a couple pages; despite all the “Terminator” media out there, that first movie was never adapted into comic-book form.
Whedon imagines how Sarah’s values might differ if Kyle had lived and she had been reunited with him. She (and Kyle, too, for that matter) doesn’t have to bear the full brunt of being the last hope for mankind’s survival. In a nice sequence at their ranch in Mexico, she rejects Kyle’s invitation to get in some sparring practice, arguing that picking strawberries is just as important.
So with this one little change in the timeline (Kyle’s survival and reunion with Sarah), Whedon finds a fresh theme that’s buried at best, nonexistent at worst, in the “Terminator” films: the notion that there are other things worth living for besides survival itself.
CHARACTERS
Sarah Connor: She goes through her “Terminator 1” arc but still has Kyle in her life afterward, causing both of them to have a sunnier outlook and better lives. As for the Sarah from the first go-around of events, we aren’t told what happened to her. Presumably she died, otherwise she’d most likely be part of John’s Resistance, or John would at least mention what she’s up to now.
John Connor: In the “1984” portion, Sarah gives birth to John in a great final sequence wherein Ben is delivering the baby in a car’s backseat and a wounded Kyle is at the wheel of another vehicle, fighting off a Terminator. In the “2029” portion, John asks Kyle to go back in time to protect Sarah. But in the new timeline, he’ll get to live the life of a normal kid.
Kyle Reese: The young version of Kyle does his usual thing of traveling from 2029 to 1984 to protect Sarah. In 2029, an older version of Kyle is freed from a Skynet prison by young Kyle, Ben and other Resistance fighters. He convinces Ben he’s really Kyle – by drawing a scar that’s on Paige’s wrist – and Ben agrees to go back in time to free Kyle in 1984. In the new timeline, Kyle is fatally wounded by a Terminator while protecting Sarah as she’s giving birth to John.
Ben: The main character of this piece, he “follows” Kyle back in time to free him from the proto-Skynet prison. He also knows that going back in time will give Paige a new lease on life. He ends up settling into a comfortable life with Sarah and young John.
Paige: Ben’s love interest, she is killed by a Terminator in 2029, so Ben travels back in time to give her another chance at life.
TERMINATORS
T-600s: The Resistance fights these standard models early in the “2029” portion.
T-800s: The Resistance faces these human-looking models for the first time in 2029. The robots chase them out of the Pasadena base they have lived in for six years.
CONTINUITY AND CONTRADICTIONS
“2029-1984” is a beefed-up version of the classic “T1” yarn. The element that branches this story into a new timeline is that Kyle Reese does not die in the factory showdown at the end of the movie. Instead, he lives in captivity of the proto-Skynet (later Skynet itself) until 2029, when he’s freed by the Resistance. Then he inspires Ben to go back in time to free him much sooner. The result is that Sarah, Kyle and Ben himself have better lives, plus Ben can protect his girlfriend Paige on this new timeline.
Kyle says “Come with me if you want to live” to an old man who it turns out is Kyle himself, who had traveled from a previous timeline’s 2029 back to 1984 and then lived until this new timeline’s 2029.
Sarah settles in Borrado, Mexico, after the standard “T1” events, and Ben (and later a Terminator that breaks free from its cement grave) tracks her down there. Sarah lives south of the border in many stories, although this is the first appearance of Borrado.
Raven Technologies is one of the proto-Skynet agencies that Kyle and Sarah blow up in the “1984” portion. Cyberdyne is the most famous proto-Skynet, but there have been others.
There have been several other stories that give us a good chunk of the story before the time jump and a good chunk after – the movie “Terminator Genisys” being the most high-profile example. But none of them separate the story into two crisply drawn halves quite the way “2029-1984” does; this format allows us to very clearly see the way the second timeline has improved on the first timeline.
While it’s always possible that Sarah and John will face Judgment Day down the line (indeed, the proto-Skynet possesses some Terminator parts), from what we see on the page, “2029-1984” has a happy ending. This is rare for a “Terminator” story, although James Cameron flirted with the idea in “T2,” filming Sarah and John living happily ever after in a coda he ultimately chose to delete.
TIMELINES AND TIME TRAVEL
The events of “2029-1984” are a closed double-loop featuring all the time travelers seen in “T1” plus another loop featuring Ben traveling from the “second” 2029 back to 1984. The events on the second loop change because Ben rescues Kyle – who barely survives the factory showdown — from proto-Skynet.
When the proto-Skynet officials capture Kyle, they don’t reject his rants about time travel out of hand. They are in the very early stages of creating the time-displacement equipment, so Kyle’s descriptions of the future are plausible to them.
“2029-1984” features the usual time-travelers – the T-800 and Kyle – plus Ben on the “second” go-around.