The Terminator franchise owned and produced by StudioCanal and Skydance Media.

The Terminator is at once a simple franchise about murderous robots and a complex franchise about murderous, time-travelling robots. The plot is driven by the idea that a machine rebellion, spearheaded by an AI named Skynet, is on its way - and only humanity can drive it back. How? By heading to the past and changing history, of course. But the machines can do this too, and they're all too happy to send their Terminator line of assassination robots back to kill the leader of the human resistance before he can pose a threat...

The only two movies in the Terminator franchise considered inarguably 'canonical' are The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The rest of the films either contradict and replace one another, or have simply been dismissed. The result of this is a sort of mix-and-match trilogy, where you can choose which third piece of media you prefer after watching the first two films. We'll try to list all of the possibilities below.

Since it is set between the 'present' and the 'future' of the other films, Terminator Salvation's placement on this list changes based on how the third piece of media begins. We'll do our best to place it as appropriate, though events in the preceding films may contradict smaller details in Terminator Salvation.

(Final note: The Terminator timeline is a mess. In the final analysis you should watch the ones you like - likely including the first two - and skip the ones you don't like.)

 In-Universe Chronological Order
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