Sarah Connor

Terminator 2 is a landmark movie due to its quality — practically everything is dead on-target — and also marks an interesting evolution in the main female role.

Yes, there are plenty of caveats about Sarah Connor’s agency, maternal role, etc.. But back in 1991 having the leading lady be that tough, determined, charismatic and combat-ready was still rare, especially in a A-list move.

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Background

Powers and Abilities

Ever since the fight against the first Terminator Sarah has trained herself in various skills to better prepare herself and John for the coming Judgement Day. She’s an able hand-to-hand combatant, a master weapon user (all types), demolition expert and a good driver.

She’s also a master in the most useful skills of lock picking, stealth, forgery and being an escape artist. Her journeys in southern- and latin America has taught her fluent Spanish. She is also unusually strong and muscular for her size.

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History

Around 1985, a 19-years old woman named Sarah Connor was attacked by a so-called Terminator, a powerful combat android. The Terminator, a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, also referred to as a T-800, had been sent back in time to 1985 to kill Sarah, who was destined to give birth to John Connor, the future leader of the resistance against the machines.

Judgement Day

Some time around 1997, an artificial computer would become self-aware and self-conscious. The creators would try to shut it down, but instead it started the third world war, referred to as Judgement Day. Humanity would nearly die.

The computer, named Skynet, would built an army of robot killers, of various Terminator models (mainly the T-800 models) in order to protect itself and destroy the rest of humanity.

Those humans would be successfully lead by a John Connor, who was the son of Sarah Connor. Since John Connor actually was the last hope of humanity Skynet attempted the plan of assassinating his mother, back in time, before John could be born, thus changing future history into certain victory for Skynet.

Before the Terminator could kill Sarah, she met a man from the future, who had been sent back in time by the resistance in order to save her. They also fell in love and Sarah would later give birth to their son : John Connor. Thus, John had sent his own father back in time so that he could be born.

Sarah Connor survived the first Terminator (who killed 17 police officers while hunting Sarah) and managed to destroy it (Terminator I).

No Fate

Around ten years later Sarah, now 29 years old, was residing in a sanitarium. She had been arrested while trying to blow up Cyberdyne Inc, which was the company responsible for creating the computer, Skynet, that would destroy humanity in the future.

During those ten years, after having given birth to her son, John, they spent most of their time in South and Latin America for training John to become the great leader that he was destined to be. John had been taught a number of useful skills when Sarah was captured by the authorities. Sarah had also been a gunrunner in those areas and still had heavy amounts of weapons in various hideouts.

Around this time a new prototype Terminator, a T-1000, was sent back in time to kill John at the age of ten. Again, the resistance sent back a protector for John. This time the future John had managed to program a T-800 for the job of protecting John. A lethal hunt ensued with the T-1000, composed of liquid metal, trying to kill John, who was protected by the metallic T-800.

The T-1000 had the ability to mimic the appearance of humans to better pass among them. He would have killed Sarah and taken her place to get at John. Fortunately, the T-800 deduced the T-1000’s plan and thus John and T-800 (referred to as “Uncle Bob”) attempted to reach Sarah before the T-1000 could do so.

Sarah, John and T-800 got away with the smallest margin, but were still pursued by the T-1000.

Heavy metal

After emptying one of her weapon caches, Sarah went on alone to kill Dyson, the man who had been responsible for creating the processor and computer that would destroy humanity. Sarah was unable to force herself to kill the still innocent Dyson before John and T-800 arrived.

Dyson, having been told his part in the future history, agreed to stop his work. He volunteered to help them destroy the notes on the processor and the remains of the first Terminator (which the company secretly had kept, and on which part of Dyson’s work was based). The plan succeeded although Dyson was killed in the process.

Later, the T-1000 found Sarah, John and T-800, and attempted to kill them all. Despite the fact that the T-1000 was basically unstoppable, the nearly-destroyed T-800 managed to kill it by throwing it into molten metal.

Not willing to risk that his own neural processor would fall into the wrong hands, and thus bring Skynet and the Judgement Day in existence, the T-800 destroyed itself in the same metal bath. The T-800’s sacrifice deeply affected both Sarah and John.

Sarah, believing that the future might now perhaps be avoided, since Dyson was dead and the notes were gone, felt hope rekindled (Terminator II).

Video

A 90 seconds fan cut about Sarah in T2.

Description

Sarah Connor is a tall, attractive and well-proportioned woman with blue eyes and auburn long hair. She’s tough and in excellent physical shape. The clothing of her choice is khaki-colored military clothing of trousers, boots, a sleeveless t-shirt and a military hat.

She moves in a confident manner and appears to be dextrous and agile. Her body language is rich and forceful and her intentions are usually apparent.

Personality

Everything about Sarah is focused on stopping the coming Judgement Day. Sarah believes in getting the job done (and not afraid to get her hands dirty while doing so), regardless of the odds. She’s very strong-willed and will not be deterred by pain or threats of pain.

She’s cynical, effective and doesn’t believe in fate. She’d easily sacrifice herself to save her son John’s life. While far from a stranger to combat, she was unable to kill the developer of the chip that led to the terminators, Dyson, in cold blood. Regardless, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill to protect John.

She can keep going against heavy odds, such as a Terminator, despite the fact that she could very easily die by doing so. Sarah is intelligent, has good foresight and feels really strong about stopping the destruction of humanity. She had her son trained, several years, at various military, weaponry and thieving techniques to prepare him for his future role as a leader.

She’d also have continued to do so unless she’d been captured and put into an asylum. This desire is so great that she will spend all her waking hours working for this goal, forfeiting any personal gains or enjoyment. Truly, she’s a fanatic of a rare breed. Her dreams and thoughts are filled with pictures of the coming doom, but this usually fuels her further.

After the Terminator that protected John sacrificed itself for mankind, Sarah appears again, in a very long time, to feel some hope for mankind.

Quotes

“There’s 215 bones in the human body. That’s one. Now don’t move.”

“No fate” (carved in a wooden table)

“There’s a storm coming. I can feel it.”

DC Universe History

Sarah Connor is obsessed with stopping the terminators and Judgement Day. As such, she should be in a DC situation where a coming doom is at hand, and she gets the opportunity to stop it. She could have been attacked by a time-travelling animal from Kamandi’s future world or robots from the future of Hex.

Such robots could actually be Terminators created by Borsten, creator of the time platform. John Connor would then, of course, unless completely replaced by Hex, oppose Borsten and other dictators in the Hex-world. These approaches are possible, although the story according to the movie is nicer, and should perhaps be kept as is, in a no-supers campaign.

Important to note is that in the Terminator-movies history can, in fact, be changed. This contradicts the rules of the DC Universe, and thus the Terminator Genre should be placed outside the ordinary DC Universe.

Hex alternative

The Hex background could nicely be done as Seb suggested ; Sarah Virginia Hex, née Connor, is Jonah Hex’s mother. When Borsten was defeated by Hex in an as-yet-undisclosed future, Borsten started sending mechanical assassins in the past. They first tried to kill Hex and failed, and then tried to kill his mother to prevent his birth.

Hex managed to go back in time using a Borsten platform, and fought alongside his own mother before he was born. He discovered a young and tough woman, quite different from his dim childhood recollections. The fighting alliance between the spirited young woman with a Winchester and the greatest and toughest bounty hunter ever was memorable.

By Peter S Piispanen aka The Angel.

Source of Character: Terminator-movies.

Helper(s): Sébastien Andrivet.