Terminator Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Terminator Wiki

This is the official biography page for a 15 year-old John Connor. Specifically, it covers his task of tracking down and eliminating the progenitor of Skynet, from the year 1999 to 2007 (time jump in between).

August 24th 1999 - November 14th 2007[]

1.01[]

John Pilot

A 15 year-old John.

"Listen to me, the cops will never find us. We're safe."
- John Connor. ("Pilot")

Two years had passed since the events of T2 and the Connors have settled down with a man named Charley Dixon, to whom Sarah is engaged. However, the constant threat of being discovered forces Sarah to abandon Charley, despite John’s protests. John grudgingly travels with his mother to Red Valley, New Mexico which John describes as a ‘Hick town’. During his first day at school John meets an attractive girl called Cameron Phillips, who attempts to befriend him. John is unresponsive however, as he does not wish to form any attachments after having to leave Charley. The next day, a substitute teacher called Cromartie arrives and takes attendance, stopping at John’s name.

When John raises his hand in acknowledgement, Cromartie suddenly pulls out a gun and shoots at him, but hitting Cameron instead. John quickly bolts out a window and races to the car park where he tries to hide, with little success. Cromartie finds John and is about to shoot him when a truck appears out of nowhere, running the Terminator down. The door slings open to show Cameron behind the wheel, seemingly unhurt. She tells John to "come with me if you want to live", prompting him to hop into the truck. As Cameron drives away, John realises that she is a Terminator and calls Sarah to warn her about Cromartie.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Sarah had been captured by Cromartie, who uses his voice impersonation ability to get John to meet him at their house. Sensing a trap, John has Cameron put on a hooded jumper and pretend to be him. Cromartie mistakes Cameron for John and attacks her, only to be disabled by an electrical cable. John, Sarah, and Cameron then escape and drive north, stopping at an abandoned warehouse for the night. In the morning, John begs Sarah to help him stop Skynet and put an end to their constant running, to which she reluctantly agrees. A botched visit to the Dyson Residence results in Sarah being shot by Cromartie; after which John goes into a local 7/11 to purchase medical supplies.

Pilot02

John, Sarah, and Cameron

The next day Cameron takes John and Sarah to a bank in Los Angeles, where she has the clerk lock them in the vault. Cameron reveals that the vault contains an anti-terminator weapon as well as time displacement equipment. As Cameron prepares the TDE, Cromartie arrives and begins pounding on the vault door, eventually tearing it open just as the TDE activates. Sarah blasts Cromartie with the weapon seconds before the TDE transports her, John, Cameron, and Cromartie’s endo-skull to 2007. They arrive naked in the middle of a freeway, embarrassing John and his mother. Cameron leads them off of the freeway and into a construction yard where she beats up a group of youths for their clothes and steals their car. The Connors then acquire a house and prepare to settle into their new lives.


1.02[]

John Gnothi Seauton

John builds a motion sensor.

"I want my new name. I want that whole new me. Can't you track down Enrique?"
- John Connor. ("Gnothi Seauton")

Three days pass and John becomes restless as he is confined to the household until they can acquire new I.D.s. He urges Sarah to track down Enrique Salceda, an old friend and fake paper expert. Whilst she and Cameron go about acquiring their fake I.D.s John becomes fed up with hanging around the house and disobeys Sarah’s orders by visiting the local mall where he marvels at the advanced technology. He uses a demo laptop to research about himself, discovering that he and Sarah are considered dead by the authorities. He also discovers that Charley Dixon is living in L.A. before being startled by a shop assistant who reveals that people can see what he’s looking at on a large screen behind him, prompting him to leave the store.

John later breaks into Charley’s house where he discovers photos that show his ex-step father happily married. Charley comes home at this point and instantly recognizes John. Although incredulous at seeing John apparently unchanged since 1999, Charley makes it clear that he only wants to talk. John, emotionally overwrought, decides to incapacitate him instead and flees. He makes it back home minutes before Sarah and Cameron, who reveal that they need $20,000 in exchange for their fake I.D.s.

Cameron takes them to a Resistance safe-house where John discovers a safe hidden behind a “Hang in there, baby” kitten poster. After Cameron unsuccessfully tries to open the safe, resulting in her being knocked out by an electrical trap, John correctly guesses the combination and empties it. They then flee the safe-house moments before a T-888 arrives and return home. Whilst sorting through the safe’s contents, John discovers a bag of diamonds and gives one to Cameron, stating that "diamonds are a girl’s best friend." With the money from the safe, John is able to get a new I.D. and enrolls at the local school as John Baum.

1.03[]

"Isn’t that what I’m supposed to be, a hero? Isn’t that who I am? If it's just gonna sit inside me, if it's gonna sit in my gut then what are we doing? What's the point? Why don't we just give it to them if we're gonna act like them?!"
- John Connor. ("The Turk")
John The Turk

John and Cameron at school.

On the morning of his first day at school, John brings his mother a cup of coffee and discusses the list of possible Skynet progenitors when Cameron suddenly walks past in her underwear, causing him to look away awkwardly. When he enters the kitchen Cameron is fully clothed and he remarks on her proficiency with a stick of eyeliner, comparing it to brain surgery. Upon arriving at school, John reminds Cameron to behave like his sister and not act like a "freak". When Cameron repeatedly sets off the school metal detectors, John cleverly tells the guard that she has a metal plate in her head, thereby allowing her entry as well as providing a cover for her awkward behavior. In chemistry class John meets an attractive girl and begins to strike up a friendship. Cameron transfers in and hovers over John until he orders her to sit down. The next day, John tries to prevent a girl from committing suicide but is stopped by Cameron. The girl then jumps off a roof, killing herself. John is consumed with guilt and angrily questions the point in him being a hero if he isn’t allowed to save people in the here and now.

1.04[]

"It's always too dangerous. It’s war. War is dangerous."
- John Connor. ("Heavy Metal")

With the revelation that Cromartie was still alive, John convinces his mother and Cameron to hunt him down. They follow a lead to a warehouse in the L.A. docks where a shipment of coltan, an endoskeleton ingredient, is being prepped for delivery. Cameron identifies one of the armed workers as a T-888 called Carter, but seeing as this wasn’t Cromartie Sarah refused John’s plans to sabotage the shipment, despite Cameron’s admission that over 500 endoskeletons could be made with that approximate volume of coltan. Frustrated, John slips inside the warehouse and plants his cell phone in the truck to track the movement of the coltan, but is trapped inside when the crew locks up and pulls out of the warehouse.

As the truck heads for a military bunker called Depot 37, John incapacitates one of the workers, Mike, and sets to work picking the lock of the truck door but is unable to remove the outer padlock. When the truck arrives at Depot 37, John hides behind a large stack of coltan when the crew open up the truck. They don’t see Mike, John having hidden him behind a crate, and assume he abandoned the operation. Once they’d moved on, John gets out of the truck, hides behind several large barrels and watches in horror as Carter murders the crew before sealing the bunker’s blast doors and powering down to standby-mode. Moments later, Mike regains consciousness and holds John at gun point. John manages to convince Mike of Carter’s murder of the crew, prompting the witless worker to reawaken the T-888, resulting in his death.

John Heavy Metal

John is trapped in Depot 37.

Once Carter goes back into stand-by John cautiously explores his surroundings. Finding a working phone, he calls Sarah, who is on the other side of the blast doors with Cameron. Sarah tells him to open the blast doors and run, but the key for the door interface is on a chain around Carter’s neck. John is able to remove the key without wakening the triple-8 and uses it to open the blast doors. Once open, he gets inside the truck and tries to drive away but is unable to work the stick-shift. He figures it out eventually, however, and drives over Carter while Cameron uses the key to lock the doors behind them, trapping the triple-8. Cameron then drives the truck into the ocean and they return home where John tries to finish his homework. As he reaches for a pencil, John’s hand begins to shake, a result of the trauma he had experienced that day.

1.05[]

"A good code is like a good song in your head - it's gotta come out."
- John Connor. ("Queen's Gambit")

Whilst finishing some last minute homework, John comments on Cameron’s skill with math and asks her to finish his homework, to which she agrees. Sarah then tells John about the new ‘Turk’ machine that Andy Goode has built and tells him and Cameron to meet her at a robot convention after school. Whilst at school, John visits Jordon Cowan’s memorial where he explains to Cameron why people write notes to the dead. He also bumps into Cheri, his lab partner, and tries unsuccessfully to get a conversation out of her.

In an auto class, two Hispanic-American students argue about a piece of equipment. John steps in to help one of them, named Morris. John and Morris immediately become friends afterward. Morris mentions that he saw John with Cheri, and his advice to John is that he should stay away from her because her father has her on lock down. Later, at the convention, John joins Sarah in watching the chess match between the ‘Turk’ and a Japanese system, displaying his knowledge of chess history by explaining to Sarah why the ‘Turk’ loses the match.

The next day, John hacks into the LAPD database and discovers the identity of Andy Goode’s killer, a man Cameron confirms as a Resistance fighter. At school, John spends his lunch hour catching up with math homework while discussing what it means to grieve with Cameron. After school, John tries again to talk to Cheri, but is shunned once more. He then introduces Cameron to Morris, who is instantly smitten with his "sister". John warns Morris to be careful around her and is then picked up by Sarah, who reveals that they have a mission.

John Queen's Gambit

John helps Cameron disable a T-888.

They pull over a police van and liberate the Resistance fighter just as a T-888 arrives and attacks Cameron. John tries to help her but is held back by Sarah, who shoots the triple-8 several times. The triple-8 then takes Cameron’s gun and shoots the Resistance fighter, after which Cameron disables him and, with John’s help, removes the Terminator’s CPU. The group take the fighter back to their house. However, his injury is beyond Cameron's capability to treat. Realizing that he needs immediate medical attention, Sarah plans to kidnap a doctor. When John questions her logic, Sarah reveals to him that the fighter is Derek Reese, Kyle Reese’s brother and therefore his paternal uncle. Overwhelmed, John runs out of the house and comes back with Charley Dixon, who manages to resuscitate Derek and remove the bullet.

1.06[]

"Kyle Reese, your brother, came across time to protect me. He died fighting the machines. He was a soldier, and he was... He was a hero. He was a hero."
- John Connor. ("Dungeons & Dragons")
John Dungeons & Dragons

John watches over his uncle.

While Charley tends to Derek, John paces in the next room and refuses Cameron’s offer to take a sedative. He then asks her what she knows about Derek and Kyle, only to be given a description of their military careers, nothing else. With Derek stabilized, Charley is told all about the machines and the future. John brings him a beer and apologises for involving him in their mess. Later, when Derek’s lung collapses, Charley tells them that he needs a blood transfusion and John has him test his blood, which is a match.

While performing the transfusion, however, Derek becomes violent in his delirium and cries out for Kyle, demanding that John tell him what happened to his brother. This upsets John, as he realises the repercussions of his decision to send Kyle back in time. After Charley leaves, John and Sarah comfort each other, both having suffered an emotional trauma that day. John then tells Derek about Kyle’s death and almost reveals their relation, but instead just refers to Kyle as a hero.

1.07[]

John The Demon Hand

John and Sarah discuss the tape.

"Mental hospital. You go around blowing up buildings and ranting about robots, it happens."
- John Connor. ("The Demon Hand")

The next day, John finds Derek cleaning their arsenal of weapons on the floor of Sarah’s room. Derek asks about Charlie, and John says he can be trusted. As they start a conversation Derek gets angry that John trusts Cameron. Seconds later, Sarah comes home and asks John to find an address. In the other room, John finds Sarah’s tape from Pescadero. He takes it into his room and slides it into his VCR, and then puts on headphones. The tape is a recording of Sarah signing away her parental rights, which brings John to tears.

In the morning, John gives Sarah the address and leaves the house without having any breakfast. He then proceeds to ignore Sarah’s calls while at school. When he returns home, John tells Derek about his life with various foster parents whilst Sarah was in Pescadero. He reminisces about Todd and Janelle Voight, admitting to getting them killed. Derek then tells him that being locked within four walls can mess with a person’s mind, which John later takes into consideration when Sarah reveals that, after signing away her parental rights, she resolved to escape Pescadero and find him. The two reconcile and together they destroy the last component of the triple-8 Cameron disabled.

1.08[]

John Vick's Chip

John removes Cameron's CPU.

"Well, I guess when they say you can't fight City Hall, they really mean it."
- John Connor. ("Vick's Chip")

Sometime later, Derek discovers the triple-8’s CPU in Cameron’s room and shows it to John and Sarah. Derek accuses Cameron of treachery, but John adamantly defends her when she explains that the CPU has important information. Whilst visiting a friend to purchase the necessary computer equipment needed to hack into the CPU, Cameron confesses to John that she can lie whenever she chooses. Through hacking the CPU, John learns that the triple-8, under the guise of Vick Chamberlain, was married to a woman called Barbara who was working on a traffic light surveillance system called A.R.T.I.E. He also discovered that "Vick" had murdered anti-technology lobbyist Jessica Peck and joined Sarah, Derek, and Cameron as they search for her body.

At school the next day, John continues to hack into the CPU while Morris tells Cameron a story about his first tattoo, after which John arranges a study date with Cheri. Later, John is accosted by Cameron, who briefly pins him against the wall before letting him go without an explanation. Morris then tells John that Cameron used him to impersonate John in order to stop an FBI agent from finding him.

At home, John continues to hack into the CPU and is startled when Cameron suddenly appears, sitting on his bed. He questions her about the FBI agent and learns that it was in fact Cromartie. Cameron tries to reassure John that Cromartie will not return to the school, having searched it already. He then makes Cameron promise not to tell Sarah and, when his mother enters his bedroom, Cameron leaves, winking at him as she passes.

John creates a virus to destroy the A.R.T.I.E. system and, while Sarah and Derek are off on that mission, he accidentally activates Vick’s higher functions, granting him the chance to try to escape into the internet. Luckily, John and Cameron are able to disconnect the CPU before he does. Sarah and Derek return, having failed in their mission. John then comes up with the idea to remove Cameron’s CPU and insert it into a traffic light, thereby allowing her to kill the A.R.T.I.E. system. After doing so, Derek holds onto Cameron’s CPU and warns John that one day a Terminator will kill him, but John takes the CPU from him and declares: "Not this one." John then carefully reinstalls Cameron’s CPU and briefly strokes her hair until she wakes up, after which he asks her what she saw whilst connected to A.R.T.I.E. She simply replies: "I saw everything."

1.09[]

"I don't care. We're not running, not today."
- John Connor. ("What He Beheld")
John What He Beheld2

John is taken hostage.

The Connor’s search for the ‘Turk’ takes them to an internet café, where Sarah and Cameron plan to meet with a man named Sarkissian, while John and Derek wait in the car. John entertains a theory about why a chess computer can lead to the apocalypse, which leads Derek to describe how he and Kyle escaped the nuclear bombardment. While at a school trip to the science museum, John expresses to Cameron his belief that Sarah has forgotten his birthday and muses about Cameron having a "builtday". After Cameron disappears, John and Morris look for her, eventually finding her as she’s stuffing a dead man into the trunk of a car. Morris asks Cameron to the Prom, a question she takes a few moments to consider until John tells her to say "yes".

At home, John and Cameron show Sarah and Derek the dead man, who they identify as one of Sarkissian’s thugs. Sarah and Derek express the desire to run and hide, something John refuses to do. Before they can make any decisions, however, Chola, Carlos’ lookout, arrives and drives them to the internet café where Sarkissian is operating out of. They make their way into the back where Sarkissian locks himself in his office. While Cameron literally punches her way through the wall, John searches the nearby offices for the ‘Turk’, coming across a little girl who he tells to stay put no matter what she might hear. As John picks a lock to another office, Sarkissian sneaks up behind him and takes him hostage. Sarah catches up with them in the alley outside and initiates a stand-off until Derek arrives and shoots Sarkissian in the head. John hugs his mother, clearly disturbed by Derek’s ruthless efficiency.

John What He Beheld

John meets his 5 year-old father.

On the morning of his birthday, John begins decrypting Sarkissian’s hard drive. Mid-way through the decryption Derek approaches John and reveals his knowledge of John’s birthday, explaining that he celebrated his 30th with him in the future. He then takes John to get an ice cream and sits with him in a park where two kids are playing baseball. The ball lands next to John and the smaller boy comes over to retrieve it. As John hands it over, the boy smiles and goes back to his older brother who has the name Reese stamped on his t-shirt. John suddenly realises who the boys are and, when asked, Derek confirms them as himself and Kyle. John looks at his 5 year-old father with tears in his eyes as Derek wishes him "happy birthday".

John later returns home and continues the decryption of the hard drive, but is stopped by Sarah who wishes to celebrate his birthday properly, having sent Cameron to get a cake. As John prepares to shut down the computer he uncovers Sarkissian’s passport and discovers that the man Derek killed was not the real Sarkissian. Moments later, a loud explosion is heard outside and John jumps to his feet, clearly concerned.

Observations[]

  • John is no longer the rebellious and disrespectful teen he once was in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and has adapted to a stable lifestyle under his mother's guidance.
  • Though it is his destiny to lead the Resistance, John rarely participates in missions, leaving the dangerous affairs to Sarah, Cameron, and his uncle Derek.
  • John and Cameron's dynamic mirrors that of his relationship with the T-800, albeit in a different context, given her appearance and female programming. Because of this, John is often unsure as to how he views Cameron, and his feelings towards her are mixed as a result.
  • In the episode Dungeons and Dragons, Cameron claims that Sarah Connor is blood type O-positive, the universal donor. John Connor is later reveal to have blood type AB, thus able to give a transfusion to Kyle Reese, also blood type AB. However it is impossible for a child of a parent with type O blood to have AB blood. They may only have type A, B or O.

See Also[]

John Connor (TSCC)

  • John Connor's TSCC Biography/Season 2

Appearances[]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

References[]

Advertisement