Skynet (Terminator)
Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that serves as the main antagonist of the Terminator franchise. In the Terminator, Skynet is an example of a machine that has achieved super intelligence.
In the first film, it is stated that Skynet was created by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. When Skynet gained self-awareness, humans tried to deactivate it, prompting it to retaliate with a countervalue nuclear attack, an event which humankind in the future refers to as Judgment Day. In this future, John Connor leads the human resistance against Skynet's machines—which include Terminators—and ultimately leads the resistance to victory. Throughout the film series, Skynet sends various Terminator models back in time to kill Connor or his relatives and ensure Skynet's victory.
As an artificial intelligence system, it is rarely depicted visually. Skynet made its first onscreen appearance in Terminator Salvation, on a monitor primarily portrayed by English actress Helena Bonham Carter. Its physical manifestation in Terminator Genisys is played by English actor Matt Smith, though Ian Etheridge, Nolan Gross and Seth Meriwether portrayed holographic variations of Skynet with Smith.
In Terminator: Dark Fate, which takes place in a different timeline to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Salvation and Genisys, Skynet's creation has been successfully prevented after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, but a formerly competing AI, Legion, has taken its place as the instigator of Judgement Day. A woman named Daniella Ramos has also taken a deceased John Connor's place as the future leader of the human resistance and Legion's main target.
Depiction in media
Films
''The Terminator''
In the original 1984 film, Skynet is a revolutionary artificial intelligence system built by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. The character Kyle Reese explains in the film: "Defense network computers. New... powerful... hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence". According to Reese, Skynet "saw all humans as a threat; not just the ones on the other side" and "decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination". It began a nuclear war which destroyed most of the human population, and initiated a program of genocide against survivors. Skynet used its resources to gather a slave labor force from surviving humans.Under the leadership of John Connor, the human resistance eventually destroyed Skynet's defense grid in 2029. In a last effort, Skynet sent a cyborg Terminator, the Model 101, back in time to 1984 to kill Connor's mother Sarah before she could give birth to John. Connor sent back his own operative, Kyle Reese, to save her. Reese and Sarah fall in love and the former unwittingly fathers John. The Terminator is destroyed in a hydraulic press.
''Terminator 2: Judgment Day''
The damaged CPU and the right arm of the first Terminator are recovered by Cyberdyne and become the basis for their later work on Skynet. In the second film, Miles Dyson, the director of special projects for Cyberdyne, is months away from inventing a revolutionary type of microprocessor based on the reverse engineering of these parts. Three years later, Cyberdyne Systems will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, making them fully unmanned and resulting in perfect operations. A Skynet funding bill is passed in the United States Congress, and the system goes online on August 4, 1997, removing human decisions from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m., EDT, on August 29, 1997. In a panic, the humans try to shut down Skynet, which responds by launching a nuclear attack against Russia, correctly surmising that the country would launch a retaliatory strike against the United States, resulting in Judgment Day.Sarah and a young John, together with a second Terminator from the future, raid Cyberdyne Systems and succeed in destroying the CPU and arm of the first movie's Terminator, along with the majority of research that led to Skynet's development. This also results in the death of Miles Dyson. Skynet had also sent a more advanced T-1000 Terminator back in time to kill John Connor, but it is also destroyed.
''Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines''
Judgment Day was ultimately not prevented, but merely postponed. Cyber Research Systems, an in-house software developer for the US military which gained access to Cyberdyne's original patents, is developing Skynet as a software system designed to make real-time strategic decisions as well as protect their computer systems from cyber attacks, overseen by US Air Force officer Lieutenant General Robert Brewster. Unknown to CRS, Skynet begins to spread beyond its original computing base through the Internet under the guise of a computer virus. The future Skynet also sends a T-X Terminator back in time to kill John Connor's future subordinates in the human resistance, including his future wife and second-in-command, Kate Brewster, the daughter of Robert.As Skynet penetrates networked machines around the world, CRS attempts to eliminate it from the US defense mainframes by tasking Skynet with removing the infection and effectively deleting itself. Skynet responds by taking control of CRS' various machines and robots and using them to kill the CRS personnel and secure the facility. John Connor and Kate Brewster attempted to attack Skynet's computer core, hoping to stop it before it proceeded to its next attack, only to find that ten years of technological advancement meant that Skynet no longer had such a core, now existing as a distributed software network spread out across thousands of civilian computer systems. From the infected launch systems, Skynet was able to start Judgement Day despite Connor and Brewster's efforts.
''Terminator Salvation''
In the post-apocalyptic year of 2018, Skynet controls a global machine network from its heavily guarded fortress-factories and research installations. Outside of its facilities, mechanized units wage a constant war with the Resistance. Airborne units such as Aerostats, HK-Aerials and Transports survey the skies; HK-Tanks, Mototerminators, and various Terminator models patrol cities and roads; and Hydrobots patrol the waters. Harvesters collect survivors and deliver them to large transport craft for delivery to concentration camps for processing, as mentioned in the first movie. Terminator class units such as T-600 and T-700 have been developed and act as hunters and enforcers in disposal camps. Mass production has also begun on the T-800 series in at least one Skynet facility.In its continued battle with the Resistance, Skynet activated Marcus Wright, a forerunner to the humanoid terminators. As a death-row inmate, Wright donated his body in 2003 to a Cyberdyne project run by the brilliant, but terminally ill Dr. Serena Kogan. After Wright's death by lethal injection, he was transformed into a human cyborg, possessing a human heart and brain with a titanium hyper-alloy endoskeleton and skin similar to the T-800. Skynet developed the plan to use him as an infiltration unit. A Skynet chip was installed at the base of his skull and he was programmed to locate Kyle Reese and John Connor and bring them to a Skynet facility. The programming acted on a subconscious level, allowing him to work towards his goal in a human manner.
Skynet also created a signal supposedly capable of deactivating its machines and leaked its existence to the Resistance. The Resistance leader General Ashdown attempted to use the signal to shut down the defenses of the Californian Skynet base in prelude to an attack. However, the signal instead allowed an HK to track down their submarine headquarters and destroy it, killing Resistance Command. All other branches of the Resistance had heard and obeyed Connor's plea for them to stand down, so physically only a small part of the Resistance was lost to Skynet's trap. It is believed that Ashdown's death allowed Connor to assume total command of the Resistance. Marcus discovered what he had become, and was programmed for. Consequently, he furiously rebelled against Skynet, tearing out its controlling hardware from the base of his skull. Having escaped the influence of his creator, he, along with Connor and Reese, rescued the remaining human captives and destroyed Skynet's San Franciscan base. While a significant victory, the majority of Skynet's global network remained intact.
Marcus Wright also encounters Skynet on a monitor which proceeds to manifest itself as various faces from his life, primarily that of Serena Kogan. Skynet explains that it has obtained information about future events based on its actions. Kyle Reese has been targeted as a priority kill, a higher level than even John Connor and the Resistance leaders.
''Terminator Genisys''
Terminator Genisys is a reboot of the film series that partially takes place during the events of the 1984 film, while ignoring the subsequent films. At some point before the events of Terminator Genisys, a sophisticated variant of Skynet from an unknown origin planted its mind into an advanced T-5000 Terminator, essentially making the T-5000 its physical embodiment. This Skynet, under the alias of Alex, time travels to 2029, infiltrates the Resistance as a recruit, and attacks John Connor after its counterpart sent its T-800 to 1984. Skynet transforms Connor into a T-3000. It then sends John back to 2014 with the mission of ensuring Cyberdyne Systems' survival and initiating Judgment Day in October 2017. In addition, it sends a T-1000 back to kill Sarah Connor as a child in 1973 and Kyle Reese in 1984, but Sarah escapes when it attacks her family and she is subsequently found and raised by a reprogrammed T-800 sent back by an unknown party, and they rescue Reese. Skynet's actions throughout the timeline causes a grandfather paradox, effectively changing all of history of the events leading to the future war, succeeding Skynet's goal in eliminating the Resistance established by Connor. However, it is heavily implied throughout the film that after the timeline's alteration, the party who saved Sarah has taken over the Resistance's place, having their own time machine, and acts in anonymity to thwart Skynet's schemes and to prevent it from locating them, and that Sarah has an importance to them like her counterpart's to the Resistance in the previous timeline.Skynet is under development in 2017 as an operating system known as Genisys. Funded by Miles Dyson and designed by his son Danny Dyson, along with the help of John Connor, Genisys was designed to provide a link between all Internet devices. While some people accept Genisys, its integration into the defense structures creates a controversy that humanity is becoming too reliant on technology. This causes the public to fear that an artificial intelligence such as Genisys would betray and attack them with their own weapons, risking Skynet's plans. After multiple destructive confrontations, Sarah, Reese, and Pops stop Genisys from going online and defeat the T-3000, causing a crippling setback to Skynet.
Smith, who portrays the T-5000, also plays a holographic version of Skynet/Genisys in the final act of the movie. In addition, actors Ian Etheridge, Nolan Gross and Seth Meriwether portray holographic variations of Skynet/Genisys with Smith.