Artificially intelligent machines from 2029 send a killer cyborg back to 1984 to kill Sara Connor because, in 2029, her son John will lead the resistance against the machines’ rule.

The story has a classic self-defeating act: The Terminator goes back in time to kill Sara Connor, causing Kyle Reese to follow and become romantic with Sara Connor, causing John Connor to be born and eventually lead the revolution, causing the Terminator to go back in time to kill Sara Connor, . . .

If they can’t get John Connor, then the machines from 2029 will send a T-X terminator for his lieutenants in 2004. Seems like a good play, but they don’t count on John sending back another T-800 to lend a hand to John and his future wife Kate.

The entire Terminator franchise is infused with time travel, but no time travel™ occurs in this pure Future War film.

1. Watch The Terminator.
2. [optional, but recommended] Watch T2.
3. Suspend all questions about how various timelines can mesh.
4. Enjoy Genisys.
5. Bonus points if you can identify the other excellent time-travel movie with a main character named “Pops”! Answer: It Happened Tomorrow

After the excitement of T2, you’d have thought that Sarah Connor and her son John could have settled down for a well-deserved, peaceful life. But, no: First a leftover T-800 Model 101 Terminator kills young John, and then 20 years later, Sarah meets two new characters—young Dani Ramos and an enhanced woman from the future—who are running from a new kind of terminator built by a new kind of Skynet. Certainly a fun T-romp, cast in the mold of T2, but really?!, if those johnny-come-lately millennial writers wanna live, they can’t be messing with the come-with-me line.