Sarah Connor (Terminator)
Sarah Jeanette Connor is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Terminator franchise. She is one of the protagonists of The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), as well as the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009). The character develops from a timid damsel in distress victim in the first film to a wanted fugitive committing acts of terrorism, a hardened warrior and mother who sacrificed everything for her son's future, on the verge of losing touch with her own humanity, and a mentor preparing and protecting a protégée for her destiny.
Not to be confused with Sarah O'Connor.Sarah Connor
The Terminator (1984)
Fortnite Battle Royale (2021)
- Adult:
- Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, T2, T2-3D, Dark Fate)
- Emilia Clarke (Genisys)
- Lena Headey (Chronicles)
- Young:
- Willa Taylor (Genisys)
Linda Hamilton (Salvation, Gears 5)
Sarah Jeanette Connor
Female
John Connor (son)
Tara Connor (daughter-in-law)
In an alternate timeline, depicted in Terminator Genisys, she is in her younger years, raised by a Terminator, while in another alternate timeline, depicted in Terminator: Dark Fate, she hunts numerous rogue Terminators (from various alternate timelines) in the years following her son's death.
Sarah was portrayed by Linda Hamilton in The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, T2-3D: Battle Across Time, Terminator Salvation (voice only), and Terminator: Dark Fate; she was additionally portrayed by Emilia Clarke, Willa Taylor as a younger Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys and Lena Headey as an older Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Terminator film series[edit]
Sarah Connor's age[edit]
The Terminator does not specify Sarah Connor's age or birth date, although according to the original script (available on the Special Edition DVD), she was 19 years old. The film is set in May 1984.
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah's psychologist states she is 29. However, her tombstone shown in Terminator 3 reads 1959–1997, which would make her several years older than what was previously established in the earlier films. In Terminator Genisys, Sarah was nine in 1973, placing her birth in 1963 or 1964, consistent with the original films.
In Terminator: Dark Fate, the film is set twenty-five years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, making Sarah 55 years old by the time of its events. This is further evident as the end-credits state that Sarah was 33 in the opening scene in 1998.
Sarah Connor
Other appearances[edit]
Theme park attraction[edit]
Linda Hamilton briefly reprised her role for T2-3D: Battle Across Time, a 1996 theme park attraction for Universal Studios. In the attraction, set after the events of the second film, Sarah and John break into Cyberdyne Systems to prevent the creation of Skynet, but they are stopped by a T-1000. John and a T-800 later travel to the future, where they succeed in destroying Skynet, and John returns to the present to reunite with Sarah.
Literature[edit]
The T2 novel trilogy explores Sarah and John's life while living off the grid. The first novel T2: Infiltrator, set six years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, sees Sarah and 16-year-old John live a relatively normal life under the assumed names John and Suzanne Krieger near a small town in Paraguay, believing they have destroyed Cyberdyne Systems for good and prevented the creation of Skynet. They own a successful trucking company known as Krieger Trucking, while also being proficient smugglers. Sarah works at the company, while John attends military school, quickly becoming one of their best students, gaining military skills, weaponry and hacking knowledge. They gain a new neighbor in Dieter von Rossbach, a former Austrian counterterrorism operative and future model for the T-800 series. He is drawn to the Connors, and after Sarah tells him about the future war, they are attacked by a new T-800, created in the present by a new Terminator model, the i-950 Infiltrator Serena Burns. Realizing that Judgment Day was not permanently averted, they attempt once again to stop Skynet's creation with the help of Dieter. They eventually run into FBI agent Jordan Dyson, Miles Dyson's brother who is looking to capture the Connors for his brother's death and Cyberdyne's destruction, but witnesses the Terminators himself and comes to believe them and decides to help them destroy Cyberdyne's most recent facility and the remaining Terminators. Sarah is fatally wounded by Serena as she destroys her, while Dyson looks after her and makes sure she makes a full recovery. John and Dieter flee to Paraguay once again. Dyson, however, finds out that Cyberdyne has a back-up facility located in Montana and immediately informs them of this information.
The following novel, T2: Rising Storm, shows John and Dieter starting up the foundations of the future Resistance a few months after the events of the previous novel. John traces possible recruits all over the internet, while Dieter secures weaponry and supplies to live through the coming Judgment Day. Dieter has been chosen as John's guardian by Sarah while she recovers from her wounds, becoming Sarah's most trusted asset. She is taken back to Pescadero State Hospital and is transferred to a halfway house by Dr. Silberman. After having seen the T-800 and the T-1000 himself seven years previously, Silberman has come to believe Sarah's story. When an undercover Terminator is watching over the recovering Sarah, Silberman helps her flee across the border so she can make it back to Paraguay, making amends for his previous treatment of her. Sarah stays at Dieter's house, while Dieter and John head to Cyberdyne's back-up site in Montana alongside Wendy Dorset, John's new girlfriend and the Resistance's first recruit. They come to the conclusion that no matter how far Skynet's creation is delayed, it will seemingly always become sentient. John and Wendy design an A.I. virus which prevents it from ever becoming sentient. While Wendy is subdued by Serena Burns' first i-950 clone, Clea Bennet, John mistakenly uploads the wrong program into Skynet's programming and Wendy is killed. A distraught John destroys Clea Bennet alongside Dieter, who end up fleeing the military base. As they head back to Paraguay, John feels like the entire journey was in vain, with he himself being responsible for Skynet's eventual sentience. Meanwhile, Sarah has been attacked by Serena's second clone, Alissa, managing to destroy it and preventing it from succeeding in its mission. Skynet, however, becomes sentient and starts its process of eradicating humanity.
The final novel, T2: The Future War, shows the destruction Skynet causes around the world and its killing of 3 billion lives. Skynet creates machines to track and kill the remaining humans. John has become the leader of the Resistance, with Sarah and Dieter having fallen in love and married. The life between the parents of John's eventual father Kyle Reese is explored, starting with John identifying Kyle's father and debating the extent of influence he should take in his grandfather's life. Eventually, Kyle is born, captured by a patrol unit as a child and forced to work in a Skynet work camp. The work camp is liberated by John and his Tech-Com unit, freeing Kyle and the other prisoners, while Kyle's parents are killed. John assigns his friend Jack Brock to protect Kyle, as well as becoming his foster father. He grows up fighting alongside John and his Tech-Com unit. Around the time John rescues Kyle, he has Sarah fake her death to serve as a martyr to the cause, also acknowledging how Kyle never met Sarah before he was sent back to the past. In 2029, as the Resistance is about to destroy Skynet's defence grid, as a last ditch effort in winning the war it sends back a T-800 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, a T-1000 to 1995 to kill a 10-year-old John Connor, and the i-950 unit Serena Burns to 2001 to kill the Connors and ensure Skynet's creation. Once John finds out about this, he sends the volunteering Kyle back to protect Sarah from the T-800 and a reprogrammed T-800 to protect his younger self from the T-1000. Afterwards, Skynet is effectively destroyed and John is greeted by Sarah, Dieter and the remaining Resistance members as they are relieved that the great ordeal is finally over.
Sarah Connor appeared in the non-canonical Superman crossover Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future (2000). In the story, Sarah and John Connor join forces with Superman to destroy Skynet and Superman's robotic enemy the Cyborg Superman. In the past, John and Sarah receive assistance from Supergirl (Matrix), Superboy and Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor. After Superman is drawn into the future by the resistance when they attempted to retrieve a Terminator sent back after John, Skynet is destroyed when Superman detonates an EMP in Earth's atmosphere, using a shielded time machine to return to the past.