Kyle Reese
From Terminator Wiki
| Kyle Reese | |
| |
| Portrayed by: | Michael Biehn (The Terminator) Jonathan Jackson (SCC) Anton Yelchin (Terminator Salvation) |
| Appearances | |
| Franchise(s): | Films, Novels, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles |
|---|---|
| First Appearance: | The Terminator |
| Details | |
| Gender: | Male |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Age: | 27 (original timeline)[1] |
| Date of Birth: | 2002 (Terminator Salvation: Ashes to Ashes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) |
| Date of Death: | 1984 |
| Occupation: | Sergeant with the Resistance |
| Parents: | Dennis Reese (father, T2: The Future War) Mary Shea (mother T2: The Future War) |
| Children: | John Connor (son) |
| Relatives: | Tim Reese (younger brother, The Terminator (NOW Comics)) Derek Reese (elder brother, SCC) |
| Affiliations: | Tech-Com Justin Perry |
Kyle Reese (Sergeant, Tech Com, Serial Number: DN38416[2][3]) was a Resistance fighter sent from the future to protect Sarah Connor. He was the father of resistance leader, John Connor (through the result of a predestination paradox).
Contents |
In the film franchise
Character History
Kyle Reese (DN38416) was a Human Resistance soldier in the post-apocalypse future of the Terminator universe, where most of humanity had already been wiped out in a deadly nuclear Third World War, sparked off by an artificial intelligence entity known as Skynet. The computer system launched another genocidal war on the survivors of the war between the Eastern Bloc and the West. Born after the first war around 2002, Reese was one of the last remaining humans who achieved a victory over the machines.
He survived the capture and killing of his fellow humans only to serve as a slave in one of Skynet's concentration camps, where he and others were forced to load huge numbers of dead bodies into Skynet's furnaces to be incinerated. Reese's freedom would come when a resistance movement, led by John Connor (whom Reese would unwittingly father later in the movie, and ironically consider his closest friend), freed him and the others from Skynet. After leaving the camps, Reese served in the 132nd division under Perry from 2021 to 2027 before transferring as a sergeant to Tech-Com under John Connor himself. John Connor and the resistance would eventually rally enough remaining humans and resources to launch an assault on Skynet.
The final assault would eventually allow the human resistance to cripple Skynet, as Reese explains in The Terminator. The resistance was able to smash Skynet's defense grid allowing them to enter Skynet's main complex and attempt to destroy it. Skynet however would have a final move left: using time displacement equipment, Skynet would send one of its most feared machines (the Terminator) back to May 12, 1984, a Thursday, to kill the young Sarah Connor, known to have been the eventual mother of resistance leader John Connor, and thus prevent the birth of Connor and his future rebellion.
Terminator
Realizing what Skynet was attempting to do, John Connor sends a soldier to protect himself from the machine menace. It would be Reese who would volunteer himself to go back. Once Reese had gone through, the time travel equipment would be destroyed leaving only Reese and the Terminator in 1984. Arriving unarmed and not knowing what the Terminator looks like in its disguise, Reese locates Sarah Connor, warning her of the impending doom of the human race and of the future significance carried by her and her unborn son.
Having grown up in the future where the machines had all but wiped out the human race, Reese is both physically and mentally hardened. His body is scarred from numerous battles with Skynet, and he has a number of burns as a result of the time travel process. In a deleted scene, when he tries to stop Sarah from going to Cyberdyne Systems, he sees something he has never seen before, what the world looks like now before the war in the future. He says he thinks of it as a dream, the trees and stream, the flowers, and Sarah, all beautiful. Bursting into tears, he confesses that it hurts, because he wasn't meant to see this. He then agrees with Sarah that they should try to change the future.
Though hard and battle weary, Reese had a love for Sarah despite having never met and only through a photo could identify. The affection Reese felt for Sarah was based on the legend that surrounded her and on the image of her from the photograph given to him by John Connor. Though initially hostile towards Reese, Sarah grows to trust and love him as he becomes the only thing between her and the Terminator. On the run from the Terminator, Reese and Sarah share a night of intimacy, in which her future son and human leader John Connor is conceived.
Reese's life however is cut short when both he and Sarah are forced to confront the Terminator. A chase ensues with the terminator following first on a motorcycle and then in a semi-tanker truck. During the chase, Reese is hit by gunfire. After apparently thinking that they destroyed the Terminator, they run to an automated factory, later revealed to be owned by Cyberdyne Systems where the now-metal endoskeleton of the Terminator pursues them inside. Kyle turns on all the equipment as cover while the Terminator batters its way through the door. After Sarah accidentally turns on a machine, their hiding place is discovered and the Terminator finds them. After reaching the stairs of a crawlway, Reese tells Sarah to run for cover while Kyle tries to beat the Terminator with a metal rod. The Terminator slashes Kyle to the floor, and the nearly-dead Reese reaches for a pipe bomb and lights it up, as he runs for cover. The Terminator explodes except for its lower midsection and Reese rolls down a metal stairway head first. A short time later, after Sarah removes a piece of shrapnel from her leg, she tends over to Kyle and finds he had broken his neck [4], his dead body with face covered with blood from the fight with the Terminator and the shrapnel/debris from the explosion.
However, the terminator's midsection is still functional and begins to chase Conner again. Sarah crushes the Terminator in a mechanical press and later tearfully sees Reese's dead body being zipped up in a body bag and taken away. Although Reese died not knowing Sarah was carrying his son that was his future commander, his strength and courage gives Sarah enough for her to teach her unborn son for the pending future he will bring.
By impregnating Sarah with John, Kyle created a predestination paradox in the same way that the discovery of the Terminator's remains in the factory gave birth to Skynet.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
As seen in the extended release of Terminator 2, Kyle appears unchanged from his appearance in the first film to Sarah in hallucinations at her stay at Pescadero State Hospital. In these hallucinations, he tells her to go and protect John, because the terminators are coming and the future is not set.
Terminator: Salvation
A sixteen year-old Kyle Reese is Skynet's priority target in 2018 with the emergence of the new Series 800 terminator and John Connor is trying to find him in order to protect him [5]. In contrast with the first film, it is evident that Kyle's history has been altered due to the events of second film, he was born before Judgment Day and apparently never have been forced to work in one of Skynet's concentration camps. His father initially survived Judgment Day but was killed prior to the events of the film. Following the events of Judgment Day, he has been working closely with Star and the two have developed a close working friendship which is based upon hand signals. Shortly after the activation of Marcus Wright, Kyle rescues him from a Series 600 terminator that has attacked him. The two developed a working relationship soon after with Marcus teaching him several tactics to survive (including attaching a string to a shotgun and wrapping the string around the shoulder). He is not yet a member of the Resistance and is listed as being of civilian status according to General Ashdown, but Reese considers himself and Star to be the Resistance's Los Angeles chapter.
After spending the night at Griffith Observatory, Reese, Star, and Marcus set out in a jeep to find John Connor. They briefly stop at a believed to be derelict 7-11 in the desert, but they find themselves with a group of Resistance members led by a woman named Virginia. They are offered food and supplies, but their rest is short lived when they are attacked by a Harvester. After Marcus stuns the heavy machine, Kyle is instrumental in trying to destroy the Moto-Terminators now giving them chase from his vantage point on the tow truck. This would be futile. Reese as well as Star were soon after taken hostage by Skynet and taken to Skynet Central aboard a transport. While underway Kyle would try to keep the troops rallied and looked for anything that could be considered a weapon.
Upon arrival, however, he was separated when Skynet identified him and taken to an execution chamber. His quick thinking helped him in escaping from the Series 600 terminator assigned to guard him and he was soon reunited with Star. Moments later he would meet John Connor for the very first time, only to be attacked by the Series 800 terminator sent to kill Connor. They would escape to a terminator factory where Kyle would work closely with Connor to build a bomb capable of taking down the machine. Kyle was rescued by the Resistance and left alongside Connor and the rest of his squad.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
In the series, Kyle's place in the timeline has changed little. However, a significant revision reveals that he was born in 2002, and he lived a "normal" life until the new Judgment Day on April 21, 2011. It is also revealed that he had an older brother named Derek Thomas (born in 1995). Kyle and Derek witnessed the launch of U.S. missiles while playing ball in their yard. Derek took his younger brother underground for safety before the counterstrike. At some point Derek and Kyle slaughtered a deer for food; however, Kyle was distraught over the animal's death and Derek buried it at Kyle's urging. Kyle was later imprisoned at Century Work Camp with John Connor, in 2015, and escaped with him in 2021, after which he became known in the Resistance for his leadership. While as a Corporal, Kyle carried Martin Bedell on his back to a medical station after he was severely injured in combat against a Skynet weapon known as an Ogre.
John Connor sent Kyle back in 2027 to 1984 [6][7] to protect Sarah, in order to ensure his existence and that of his mother. His brother Derek was later sent back to 2007 by the resistance to assist other temporal missions, and protected a teenaged John. In "Born to Run", John traveled to the future with Catherine Weaver to an alternate future where John never became a powerful figure in the Resistance due to his perceived absence for two decades. Almost immediately after jumping forward through time, John meets Kyle, Derek Reese, and Allison Young, all of whom were never killed in this timeline.
NOW Comics Alternate Timeline
In a divergent timeline, as presented in the NOW Comics series The Terminator (NOW Comics) set in 2031, a younger brother, Tim Reese was introduced to the franchise. This 14 year-old fighter was separated from his brother at age 6 and works hard to both stand away from and live up to his elder brother's legend serving with The Synth Slashers Resistance cell.
Quotes
- Kyle Reese: (to Sarah Connor) Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
- The Terminator
- Dr. Silberman: So. You're a soldier. Fighting for whom?
- Kyle Reese: With the One Thirty Second under Perry, from '21 to '27.
- Dr. Silberman: That's the year 2027?
- Kyle Reese: That's right. Then I was assigned Recon/Security, last two years, under John Connor.
- Dr. Silberman: And who was the enemy again?
- Kyle Reese: A computer defense system built for...
- (Silberman's beeper goes off)
- Dr. Silberman: Damn! (turns beeper off) Sorry.
- Kyle Reese: Built for SAC-NORAD by Cyberdyne Systems.
- Dr. Silberman: I see. And this, uh, computer thinks it can win by, uh, killing the mother of its enemy, killing him in effect, before he's even conceived. Some sort of retroactive abortion? Why didn't the computer just kill John Connor then? I mean, why this obsession with the Terminator?
- Kyle Reese: It had no choice. Their defense grid was smashed. We'd won. Taking out Connor then would make no difference. Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence.
- Dr. Silberman: Is that when you captured the lab complex and found the, uh, what's it called? The time-displacement equipment?
- Kyle Reese: That's right. The Terminator had already gone through. Connor sent me to intercept and they blew the whole place.
- Dr. Silberman: Well, how are you supposed to get back?
- Kyle Reese: I can't. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him and me.
- The Terminator
- Kyle Reese: You know when I was in Century...
- Derek Reese:(interrupting) Hey, Wisher. Did you hear; brother Kyle was in Century Work Camp.
- Billy Wisher:(mocking) No, really. Was he a hero?
- Kyle Reese:(sighs) Go to hell.
- Derek Reese: I heard he led Connor out of a slaughter house without getting so much as a pin-prick.
- Billy Wisher: No, I heard it was two slaughter houses and that he carried Connor.
- Kyle Reese:(smiles) It was one slaughter house, many Connors.
- Sarah Connor Chronicles (Episode 106: Dungeons & Dragons)
Appearances/Actors
Films
- The Terminator (First appearance) - Michael Biehn
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Dream only) - Michael Biehn
- Terminator Salvation - Anton Yelchin
Television
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Jonathan Jackson
- Season 1
- "Pilot"(Mentioned only)
- "Gnothi Seauton"(Mentioned only)
- "Queen's Gambit"(Mentioned only)
- "Dungeons & Dragons"
- "What He Beheld"(Ages 5 & 8)
- Season 2
- "Goodbye to All That"
- "The Good Wound"(hallucination)
- "Born to Run"
- Season 1
Video Games
Novels
- T2: Infiltrator(Mentioned only)
- T2: Rising Storm(Mentioned only)
Comics
- Terminator 2: Infinity
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Nuclear Twilight
- The Terminator (NOW Comics)(Mentioned only)
Relationship with Derek Reese
In TSCC, Kyle has an older brother named Derek, who served as his sole guardian and protector once the bombs fell. Orphaned on Judgment Day at age 15, Derek proceeded to raise his eight-year-old brother on his own and in a post apocalyptic world until Kyle was captured and shipped to Century Work Camp at age 12. Derek did not see his brother again until Kyle escaped with John Connor a full 6 years later. Afterward Derek became Kyle's commanding officer when they formed the military resistance unit the "Four Horsemen". Derek is always concerned about Kyle, yelling his name out in his delirium following his gunshot wound. Derek was also nearly suicidal once he hears his brother has gone missing as evidenced by his attack on a Series 888 Terminator with nothing more than a handgun. All indications have pointed to Derek being a very protective and loving older brother.
Behind the Scenes
Kyle Reese was portrayed by Michael Biehn in the first two Terminator films. On The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reese was portrayed by Jonathan Jackson at age 22, Skyler Gisondo at age 8, and an unknown actor at age 5, and will be portrayed as a sixteen year old teenager by Anton Yelchin in Terminator Salvation. He has appeared in every Terminator film except Terminator 3.
Behind the Scenes details
- RE: April 21, 2011
- Derek: He was just a kid when it happened. Eight years old. I was 15. How do you tell an eight-year-old machines have taken over the world?
- John: How do you?
- Derek: You don't.
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Episode 109: What He Beheld)
- November 10, 2007
- John: Is that...you? And the younger one, is that...
- Derek: Kyle. Throws pretty good for a five-year-old, huh? Your father always had a nice arm.
- John: How'd you know?
- Derek: Every time I look at you, I see him. Besides, your mom's his type. Happy birthday.
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Episode 109: What He Beheld)
Trivia
- Kyle Reese's appearance in the future from the film The Terminator is used for the cover of 1987 Konami game Metal Gear as protagonist Solid Snake[8][9]
- The Skynet Database: Human Central Archive on the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines DVD Special Features states that Kyle Reese was born in 2008, This mean's that Kyle should have been 10 years old during the event's of Terminator: Salvation.
References
- ↑ Fourth draft of script.
- ↑ "Skynet Database: Human Central Archive" Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: DVD Special Features". In two different sections, this DVD states that Kyle Reese's serial number is BN38416 and DN38416. Apparently one of them is a typo.
- ↑ The fourth draft of The Terminator script gives Kyle's serial number as DN38416
- ↑ A likely COD, but the concussion-or even shrapnel-from the explosion may have contributed to his death.
- ↑ Terminator Salvation (novel)
- ↑ Because of the definition of John's birthday as November 11th and turning 16(24) in 2007 (1999 if no TDE), this requires Kyle to go back in time for a full 9 month pregnancy to occur.
- ↑ This differs from the year of 1984 that was given in the movie. Possibly because of a slightly altered timeline. We also have to remember that, according to the movie, John sent Kyle back in 2029 after his two year tenure in Security under Connor himself (following his departure from Perry's unit in 2027).
- ↑ Junker HQ
- ↑ The Terminator imitated by the games
External links
Characters of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
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