Since James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi action-slasher Terminator first introduced the threat of time-traveling killer robots, bent on destroying humanity, subsequent Terminator media has introduced many different variations on the brutally simple T-800. In 2000, Dark Horse Comics served up one of the most gonzo crossovers of all time, Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator, in the process introducing crypto-Terminators, the model that confirms Skynet’s plot against humanity is unassailable.
Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator was a four-issue miniseries – written by Mark Schultz, with art by Mel Rubi – functions as a direct continuation of 1997’s Alien Resurrection, bringing the android Call and the Ellen Ripley clone from that film into contact with the Yautja, from the Predator series, as well as the crypto-Terminators, designed as part of Skynet’s long-term plan to ensure its survival and defeat of humankind.
Crypto-Terminators Are The Contingency Plan For Skynet’s Contingency Plans
As explained in Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator, the crypto-Terminators were another one of Skynet’s contingency plans in the face of its defeat by John Connor’s forces. The entire Terminator series hinges on Skynet’s attempts to circumvent its imminent destruction in the present – with the majority of the series’ incarnations featuring Skynet’s Terminators being sent into the past to kill its enemies before they have the chance to organize a credible resistance. Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator reveals that Skynet also prepared for the future, by creating the Skynet Resurrection Program, resulting in the production of, “a Terminator model designed to last centuries.”
The Threat Of Skynet 2.0 Is Nearly Impossible To Comprehend
The android Call – played by Winona Ryder in Alien Resurrection – learns from a holographic John Connor, housed in the mind of a crypto-Terminator, that the model was intended to, “mimic human habits and thought patterns…to approximate human intelligence…to disappear into the human race” existing as Skynet sleeper agents for centuries, perhaps even millennia, preparing for the right time to resurrect Skynet. Beyond just posing as humans, though, the crypto-Terminators were intended to actually shape the future of humanity, to guide it toward the inevitable return of Skynet. “Infinitely patient,” they are a more deadly threat to humanity than anything previously seen in the Terminator franchise.
Programmed to “watch for technological developments that will allow for a new generation of even deadlier Terminators to be actualized,” the crypto-Terminators mission to “place themselves in scientific research positions” and press humanity forward to “a time of enormous advancement in human understanding of the physical world,” is a massive threat to comprehend. The humans that created the original Skynet were primitive by the standards of future generations – meaning the resurrected Skynet would also be correspondingly more advanced, ready to spread its lethal Terminator legions across the galaxy. Despite its best efforts, humanity can never truly defeat the terrible force it unleashed by creating Skynet – the fate of the species, it seems, is sealed.
