Over three decades after the release of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, fans find themselves wondering if they’ve been rooting for the wrong side. A fan theory has gripped Reddit this week proposing that the older version of John Connor shown in the beginning of the movie is actually a Terminator himself, impersonating a human and leading their resistance against Skynet. This seems to be based mostly on Connor’s movements and stoic expression, but fans pointed out other reasons why this set-up would make sense. Others proposed twists on this theory that could make it fit into the narrative in a few different ways.
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Terminator 2 opens with a hunting vision of the year 2029, where the survivors of the human race are at war with Skynet under the leadership of an adult John Connor (Michael Edwards), who we see surveying a battlefield with binoculars. In this brief scene, he moves his head in small, quick twitches followed by moments of stillness, and his expression seems completely blank. This led user u/Sudden_Natural_9426 to note that “the way he moves is very Terminatory!!”
Commenters provided a lot of iterations on this idea and all the reasons it might work. The top comment by u/ConsciousDiamond3236 suggested that John didn’t necessarily need to be a Terminator — he may simply have learned these mannerisms from the T-800 model he spent time with in the movie.
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“John Connor now doesn’t think and behave as if he’s human. However as a Terminator,” they wrote. “Also in that scene, you will see some 2 soldiers doing the same. Scanning ahead and moving slowly to assess any threats. Also the same movements like a Terminator. Who knows maybe those 2 are reprogrammed Terminators probably different models.”
By the year 2029 in the Terminator timeline, we know that the resistance has learned to reprogram Terminator androids and turn them to their side, because the T-800 sent to the past to protect John is loyal through and through. That makes it plausible for some of the soldiers alongside John to be robots, although the idea that the hero himself is a robot is harder to swallow — at least in the context of this movie.
It would also disrupt the stories of several of the sequels, although by now fans know how malleable the Terminator lore can be. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is streaming now on Paramount+. Several of the other movies in the franchise are streaming now on MGM+, while Terminator Salvation is on Max.
