Terminator is an American media franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The franchise encompasses a series of science fiction action films, comics, novels and additional media, concerning a total war between Skynet’s synthetic intelligence – a self-aware military machine network – and John Connor’s Resistance forces comprising the survivors of the human race. Skynet’s most famous products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800, who was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger
from the original Terminator film in 1984. By 2010, the franchise had generated $3 billion in revenue. The film franchise is considered to be of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.
The central theme of the franchise is the battle for survival between the nearly-extinct human race and the world-spanning synthetic intelligence that is Skynet. Skynet is positioned in the first film, The Terminator (1984), as a U.S. strategic “Global Digital Defense Network”
computer system by Cyberdyne Systems which becomes self- aware. Shortly after activation, Skynet perceives all humans as a threat to its existence and formulates a plan to systematically wipe out humanity itself. The system initiates a nuclear first strike against Russia, thereby ensuring a devastating second strike and a nuclear holocaust which wipes out much of humanity in the resulting nuclear war.
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