John Connor must face a female Terminatrix with power over all the machines. But a new Terminator unit a T-850 sent back through time will guide him through the coming battle.
More than 10 years after 'Terminator 2', John Connor now exists only as a drifter - living 'off the grid', so no more Terminators from the future can hunt him down. Unfortunately, SkyNet does send another one back - and this one is called the T-X, even more powerful & advanced than the dreaded T-1000. However, another CSM-101 Terminator is also sent back to protect John against the T-X. Now, Skynet is patiently assuming control of civilian computer systems, under the guise of a computer virus. John has also met his future wife, Kate Brewster, whose father - a U.S. Air Force General - is in charge of the military computer systems & is leery of up linking SkyNet. However, when the SkyNet virus infects the U.S military computers & leaves the country open to attack, the machines begin their horrific takeover. Soon a nuclear war will result - and the war against the machines will begin. Can the outdated CSM-101 Terminator eliminate the highly advanced T-X - or will a darker future await man following the nuclear attack?—Derek O'Cain
Living off-grid--ten long and challenging years after the encounter with the liquid-metal killer in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)--the resilient survivor and now-23-year-old vagabond, John Connor, knows that these are dark and uncertain times. For the third time, the self-aware computer network, Skynet, sends another cyborg assassin--this time, its most efficient and technologically perfect model, the gynoid-like T-X--to terminate the future leader of the humans; however, the Resistance, too, has sent a protector: the reprogrammed but long-obsolete, T-101. Once more, the future is hanging by a thread, and this time, it's either us or the cold robots. Is humankind prepared for the Rise of the Machines?—Nick Riganas
It is a dark time for the resistance and Skynet is on the verge of going online, the events of the last movie has changed nothing and John must now battle a new Terminator called the T-X. As before, the resistance was able to send another T-800 as a protector for John, and its still a question of which one will reach him first...—Scott
On the verge of Judgement Day, the most advanced Terminator unit ever, the T-X, arrives from the future to ensure the rise of the machines. The only hope against it is a new upgraded T-800 unit, the T-850, that is sent back by the human resistance. Together with John Connor, it must stop the rise of the machines or all humanity will fall.—Paul McLaughlin
Following the events of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", John Connor (Nick Stahl) has been living off-the-grid (so that he cannot be traced by anyone in the future) in Los Angeles. Although Judgment Day did not occur on August 29, 1997 (which was supposed to take 3 billion lives in a single coordinated nuclear attack on the human race), the date given by the Terminator in the previous film, John does not believe that the prophesied war between humans and Skynet has been averted. The machines from the future have already tried to kill John before he was born, and when he was 13 years old.Unable to locate John, Skynet sends a new model of Terminator, the T-X (Kristanna Loken), back in time to July 24, 2004, to kill his future lieutenants in the human Resistance.
A more advanced model than previous Terminators, the T-X has an Endoskeleton with built-in weaponry, a liquid metal exterior similar to the T-1000, and the ability to control other machines through Nanotechnological Transjectors. It is powered by a plasma reactor, which also powers its on-board weapons. T-X starts its mission.
The Resistance sends a reprogrammed T-850 model 101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect the T-X's targets, including Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) and John.John meets Kate when he breaks into her medical clinic to steal some medicines and crashes from the aftereffects. Kate discovers him in the clinic the following morning. Kate captures John in a dog cage. Kate recognizes that she and John studied together in school. T-X and T-850 reach there simultaneously.
The Terminator saves John and Kate from the T-X's attack. T-X has the ability to remote control machines that she comes in contact with and can shoot energy bolts from a cannon inside her hand. After sending John and Kate in a pickup truck (Kate was put forcefully in the back while John was driving), John engages T-X, who shoots him unconscious. T-X follows John and Kate in a crane, while John goes on a bike to save them. T-X causes mayhem on the streets of LA, and it follows John and Kate, but John manages to stop T-X by snagging the crane wires in a manhole, that topples the entire vehicle.At this point Kate believes that she is being kidnapped. As she tries to escape the pickup truck, the truck position is reported to the police by gas station attendants and convenience store owners. John tries to explain the truth to Kate, that T-850 is a robot from the future. John is suspicious when he realizes that he met Kate in high school, the day before the 2nd Terminator arrived.The three visit the grave of Sarah Connor, who died of leukemia some years before. This Terminator reveals that in the future John and Kate are married, and that it successfully killed John in 2032 before being reprogrammed by Kate.
Inside the grave they find a weapons cache left by Sarah's friends as a backup in the event that Judgment Day was not averted. Sarah was cremated in Mexico and her ashes scattered in the sea. The T-X and police arrive, and a battle ensues, but John, Kate, and the Terminator manage to steal a hearse and escape. T-X's plasma cannon is damaged, and it switches to a flame thrower as its primary weapon.
The Terminator reveals that John and Sarah's actions only delayed Judgment Day, and that Skynet's attack will occur that day. The Terminator intends to drive John and Kate to Mexico to escape the fallout when Skynet begins its nuclear attack. He says that the T-X, having failed to kill Kate, will go after her father Robert, the head of Cyber Research Systems (CRS), autonomous weapons division. John understands that Robert is heading Skynet, which is developed as a digital defense system against cyber threats.The Terminator has been programmed to take John and Kate to a safe location so that they may survive Judgment Day, which is to occur in a few hours, but John decides that they should attempt to prevent Skynet from being activated.
After the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the United States Air Force took over the Skynet project and it is being headed by Kate's father, Lieutenant General Robert Brewster (David Andrews). Robert finds that the world's computers are increasingly infected by a virus. The military command suggests using AI to scan for the virus, after bringing all civilian and military internet systems under a single computer command. The single computer is Skynet. Robert refuses to put humans out of the loop as he believes Skynet is not ready.Gradually, the virus evolves and creates global outages in computer networks. As the virus evolves, it starts infecting military systems and Robert is forced to activate Skynet.
John orders the Terminator to take Kate and him to see her father, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Robert Brewster. The Terminator refuses: however, when Kate demands to see her father, the Terminator obeys. It is revealed that the Terminator killed John in the future (on July 4th, 2032), after which Kate captured and reprogrammed the Terminator and sent it back in time.
However, the trio arrive too late to stop him from activating Skynet in an attempt to stop the spread of a massive computer virus. Turns out Skynet was the virus. It created a global crisis, so humans would willing surrender all digital control over to it.Skynet assumes control of the military's defense network just as the T-X arrives, taking control of various machines including T-1s in an attempt to eliminate John and Kate. John asks the dying General for the location of Skynet's system core, hoping to still stop Judgment Day, and is instructed to go to Crystal Peak, a military base built into the Sierra Nevada mountains.
After a battle, the T-X severely damages the Terminator, reprogramming it to kill John, and pursues John and Kate through the CRS facility. When a particle accelerator is activated, it magnetically binds the T-X to the equipment. The still-conscious Terminator struggles to control its outer functions. As it prepares to kill John, he urges the Terminator to choose between its conflicting programming; it deliberately forces a shutdown of its corrupted system, enabling the pair's escape. Shortly after they leave, the Terminator's system reboots. Meanwhile, the T-X escapes the accelerator and resumes pursuit.
After John and Kate reach Crystal Peak, the T-X arrives by helicopter. Before it can attack, the Terminator arrives in a second helicopter, crashing into and crushing the T-X. The T-X pulls itself from the wreckage and attempts to drag itself inside the bunker to follow the pair. The Terminator holds the bunker door open long enough for the pair to lock them inside, then uses its last hydrogen fuel cell to destroy both itself and the T-X.
John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak is not Skynet's core but rather a nuclear fallout shelter command facility for government and military officials. Having no core, Skynet has become a part of cyberspace after becoming self-aware. Judgment Day begins as Skynet fires nuclear missiles worldwide, starting a nuclear holocaust. The pair begin receiving radio transmissions on the emergency radio equipment; John tentatively assumes command by answering radio calls, and they reluctantly accept their fate.
