Fun Facts About the Terminator Character, John Connor

Since 1984, the Terminator franchise has been trucking along. Filmmaker James Cameron wrote and directed The Terminator in '84 and Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991. Since then, his entries into this series has become legend. They are benchmarks for many science-fiction, and action movies that come out today. Not only that, but future filmmakers behind the Terminator franchise will always fall back on those two original masterpieces for inspiration and understanding.

John Connor was not even conceived when this franchise began in 1984. His future parents couldn't have been more different. Sarah Connor was a blundering waitress with a very weak social life. An edgy soldier, Kyle Reese had just been sent back in time to find and rescue Sarah Connor. A super computer in the apocalyptic future called, Skynet sent a killing machine back through time to literally terminate Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. This Terminator as played to perfection by Arnold Schwarzenegger became legendary himself, uttering such famous lines as "I'll be back" just before driving a car into a police station. In this film, Sarah as played by Linda Hamilton and Kyle as played by Michael Biehn eventually fell in love, and conceived John Connor inside a motel room while running from the Terminator.

In the fight against the Terminator, Kyle would be killed in an explosion. Very pregnant, very determined, Sarah Connor would record an audio cassette, explaining what had happened. Then, she would get her picture taken - a picture that Kyle would dote on in the future.

Fun Fact #1: In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, we're finally introduced to John Connor. As played by Michael Edwards, John appears just before the opening credits as a man in his late 40s with a nasty scar on his cheak, watching his soldiers battling the machines.

Fun Fact #2: Edward Furlong, the 13 to 14-year-old boy who would make the role famous in T2 had absolutely no acting experience, whatsoever. As Furlong said before he was cast as John Connor, he had only acted in his parents' home movies.

Fun Fact #3: By 10 years old as portrayed by Furlong, throughout Mexico and South America, John had already received extensive combat training, learning about everything, from guns and ammunition to helicopters and explosives. His mother was beyond adamant.

Fun Fact #4: After all of that training, it should be no surprise that John was upset when his highly skilled and insanely passionate mother was caught trying to blow up a building and thrown in a mental hospital, leaving John in foster care.

Fun Fact #5: Due to the fact that John never knew his father, he would continue to look on every male role model in his life as a father figure. Oddly enough in T2, John would bond with the same model of machine that tried to kill his mother back in '84.

Fun Fact #6: Writer and director, James Cameron tried to keep John and Edward Furlong by keeping him from firing any weapons in T2.

Fun Fact #7: The young John Connor as played by Furlong was mischievous, rebellious and yet, passionate about preserving human life. He would continually have to remind his Terminator role model as once again played by Schwarzennegger that he can not kill anyone, despite his programming.

Fun Fact #8: After the events of T2, you might say the timeline split in two. In the amateurish Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, you would get a timeline in which judgment day didn't happen and John as played by Nick Stahl was left to live by himself, "off the grid." In the wannabe TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker) are on the run from authorities while also trying to make something of a normal life together. At the same time, they continually change their identities, making it hard for anyone to find them.

Fun Fact #9: In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Nick Stahl's John Connor finds himself a girlfriend in childhood friend, Kate Brewster as played by Claire Danes. Supposedly, the two are married in the future. She would send a good Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger again) back through time to protect her and John from the Inspector Gadget-like Terminator, the T-X or Terminatrix (Kristanna Loken). John and Kate survive the pending and "inevitable" nuclear war together in an old military bomb shelter.

Fun Fact #10: In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, John goes through several different love interests, including a female Terminator. He discovers his uncle, Derek Reese. He goes through many emotional traumas that we never saw in the movies. I personally would say his character was fleshed out better in this TV series than in Terminator 3, but I am bias.

Fun Fact #11: John Connor lives and breathes in three different universes so far. The original universe in which he was played by Edward Furlong is still my favorite. In the Terminator 3 universe, John does not show any sign that he is capable of taking on Skynet or leading any human resistance for that matter. In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, John's still young, his strengths and weaknesses haven't completely developed yet. Supposedly, the new film, Terminator Salvation will feature a fully grown John Connor as played by Christian Bale, based upon the James Cameron universe set forth by T2.