| Sarah Connor | |
|---|---|
 Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day |
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| First appearance | The Terminator |
| Created by | James Cameron |
| Portrayed by | Linda Hamilton Lena Headey |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Children | John Connor |
Sarah Connor (born Sarah J. Connor) is a fictional character, the heroine in the first two entries in the Terminator film series and the upcoming TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. She was played by American actress Linda Hamilton in the film series and will be played by British actress Lena Headey in the television series The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
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Character history
The Terminator
In The Terminator, Sarah Connor is a young waitress who finds herself pursued by a relentless cyborg killer, the Cyberdyne Systems T-800 Model 101 Terminator (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), for reasons completely unknown to her. She is rescued from the Terminator by time traveling soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who explains that in the future, an artificial intelligence called Skynet will be created by military software developers to make strategic decisions. The program becomes self-aware, seizes control of most of the world's military hardware (including various highly-advanced robots), and launches an all-out attack on human beings. However, a man named John Connor eventually leads the human Tech-Com resistance to victory, only to discover that in a last-ditch effort, Skynet had researched time travel and sent a robotic killer back in time to destroy John Connor's family before he can be born. John Connor is Sarah's future son, and Connor sends back a trusted sergeant (Reese - who, unbeknownst him, is John's father) to protect his mother at all costs. During their brief time together, Sarah fell in love with Reese as he became the only thing protecting her from the Terminator (initially unaware that Reese himself had been in love with her from afar), and they share a night of intimacy that results in the conception of John. Their relationship was cut short when Reese died fighting the Terminator in a Cyberdyne factory; Sarah in turn crushed the Terminator in a hydraulic press. Though Reese's death deeply saddened her, his sincerity and courage would inspire Sarah to carry on and develop the necessary skills and abilities that would make her a suitable mentor to John.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, two robots travel back from the future this time: one to kill Sarah's son John (now ten years old, played by Edward Furlong), and one to rescue him. The twist (given away by the movie's advance publicity) is that this time, Schwarzenegger's character (another T-800) is the rescuer, having been re-programmed by John Connor to protect his younger self from the more advanced prototype T-1000 (Robert Patrick) that has been sent to kill him. The newer robot's liquid metal construction gives it the ability to change shape, an ability which was the focus of many of the movie's Oscar-winning special effects. In some ways, Terminator 2 is a character study of Sarah Connor. She is a quite different person from the frail woman in the first Terminator film; her entire perspective on life has been irreversibly altered by the events in her life. The knowledge she has about mankind's future has made her ever vigilant, a trait which is perceived by many as paranoia and psychosis; at the outset of this film, Sarah is in a mental institution following a botched attempt to bomb the Cyberdyne Systems building. Her knowledge of the future is also a source of recurring nightmares, as well as a great deal of antagonism, which results in the doctors overseeing her "recovery" to place her under maximum security. However, she cannot be contained for long and manages several tries to escape; her latest attempt coincides with the second T-800 and her son John arriving to break her out of the hospital. During their escape, Sarah's lead doctor is horrified to see both Terminators in operation and realizes Sarah's predictions were true. Sarah finds it nearly impossible to accept that the T-800 is benevolent; throughout the film, she remains hostile towards it and what it represents, while her own son develops a bond with it, resembling a father-son relationship. In the director's cut of the movie, it is revealed that Sarah has an opportunity to destroy the machine's processor, thus killing it. She nearly does so, but John stops her. In a moment of desperation, Sarah attempts to murder Miles Dyson, the computer researcher who is destined to build the revolutionary microprocessor that eventually becomes Skynet. In doing this, she loses touch with her humanity, becoming eerily similar to the Terminator itself. Ultimately, she regains her humanity and does not kill Dyson. Shortly afterwards, John and the T-800 arrive and, together, they persuade Dyson to stop his research and destroy all recovered remnants of the first Terminator. The Terminator then, with the help of Sarah Connor, destroys himself, despite the protests of the young John. In the first Terminator movie, it is mentioned that Sarah was a legend among members of the resistance, teaching her son to fight and organize while they were still in hiding prior to the war. An alternate epilogue to Terminator 2 shows her living to become a grandmother. That ending, however, was not included in the theatrical release.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
However, at the time of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, she is already dead, succumbing to leukemia sometime after Terminator 2. Her ashes were spread at sea while a casket containing a cache of weapons was placed for John to find at a false gravesite. The epitaph on her mausoleum niche reads: No fate but what we make.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
In November 2005, it was announced that 20th Century Fox would produce a television series called Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles featuring the adventures of the title character and her son in the years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The series will ignore Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Sarah Connor will be alive. Plot: Prompted by the return of the Terminators into their lives, Sarah and John decide to stop running and focus on stopping the birth of Skynet. They are aided by Cameron, a Terminator who poses as a student at John's school and whose mission is to protect John. Meanwhile, an FBI agent named James Ellison pursues Sarah and John with the belief that Sarah is deranged. [1] This was followed by a November 2006 announcement that Lena Headey had been chosen as the new face of Sarah Connor.[2]
References
- ^ "The Terminator Franchise Rises Again", Variety (achieved on ComingSoon.net), November 10, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
- ^ "Headey lands 'Connor' role", November 8, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
See also
External links
- A New Body of Work:Linda Hamilton Gets Tough in Terminator 2
- The Terminator at the Internet Movie Database
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day at the Internet Movie Database
- T2 3-D: Battle Across Time at the Internet Movie Database
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles at the Internet Movie Database
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Xenogenesis (1978) • Piranha II: The Spawning (1981) • The Terminator (1984) • Aliens (1986) • The Abyss (1989) • Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) • True Lies (1994) • T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) • Titanic (1997) • Dark Angel (TV series) (2000-2002) • Expedition: Bismarck (2002) • Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) • Aliens of the Deep (2005) • Avatar (2009) • Battle Angel • The Dive |
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| Main cast | Sarah Connor • John Connor • Cameron Phillips • James Ellison • Cromartie |
| Guest characters | Season 1 |
| Related information | The Terminator series • T-800 / T-850 / T-101 • Skynet • Tech-Com |
