10 Glaring Plot Holes You Didn't Realise The Movie Actually Solved

2. How Did Things Work The First Time Around? - The Terminator

The Plot Hole: The Terminator has such a tight ending that it's unbelievable over thirty years after release Hollywood is still looking for ways to stretch out the story. But that closed-book nature doesn't stop people asking movie-breaking questions.

Who was John Connor's father the first time around, before Kyle Reese was sent back? And how did Joh neven become a revolutionary leader without his mother going through all this? Isn't time travel difficult to follow?

The Solution The Movie Gave Us: General audiences seem to have a massive misunderstanding of the mechanics of time travel. Blame Back To The Future - its vague rules (which are habitually broken) present a warped version of the Butterfly Effect, where meddling in the past can change the present.

And while that's the case in many movies, it isn't in The Terminator. Here it's a very simple time loop - Skynet send a machine back to kill Sarah, in reaction humans send back Reese, who destroys the machine and fathers John Connor, who in turn motivates Skynet to send the machine and so on. So the machines are inadvertently creating the cause of their defeat.

The main reason for the confusion is the film's sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which presented a more malleable form of time travel - the future can be changed. But that doesn't stop the original being a time-loop.