Terminator: Dark Fate - Every Easter Egg & Reference We Spotted

25. The Death Of John Connor

Dark Fate opens with the shocking death of a young John Connor (Edward Furlong) in 1998 at the hands of one of the several T-800s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back through time to take him out.

The nature of Connor's death immediately recalls Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, where Arnie's T-850 calmly explains to John (Nick Stahl) and Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) that, in a future 2032, he is sent by Skynet to kill John. The cyborg is able to infiltrate the resistance ranks due to John's childhood attachment to the "Model 101" design.

After John's death, Kate ends up capturing the T-850, reprogramming it as a protector and sending it back to the timeline of T3, setting the movie's events in motion.

And while the T-800 (aka Carl) which murders John in Dark Fate doesn't infiltrate or do anything more than approach John and shoot him dead, Carl similarly ends up atoning for killing John by helping fight back against the machines - after growing a conscience (literally, apparently) and settling down with a family, that is.