Kyle Reese Terminator: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

Kyle Reese is a human soldier in the war against Skynet, the machine network that wipes out much of humanity in the Terminator saga. He is not a robot. In The Terminator (1984), directed by James Cameron, the Resistance sends him from 2029 to Los Angeles in 1984, where he arrives behind a cyborg assassin whose mission is to kill a waitress named Sarah Connor. Her unborn son John will one day lead the human fight against the machines, so stopping her means stopping him. Reese is also that son's father, which is the fact most readers come looking for: the soldier sent to protect Sarah helps create the leader of the future Resistance.

Three actors play Reese across the franchise. Michael Biehn originates the role and is billed second in The Terminator, after Arnold Schwarzenegger. Anton Yelchin plays the character in Terminator Salvation, directed by McG, where Reese is a young survivor in the ruined world of 2018. Jai Courtney plays him in Terminator Genisys, directed by Alan Taylor, billed fourth. The credits also list the character as Young Kyle.

He does not appear in the cast lists of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines or Terminator: Dark Fate. That makes him a character tied to the first film and to the two later entries that return to his story. For the wider cast, see Terminator characters and Terminator cast and crew.

Kyle Reese's arc runs from a hunted bodyguard in 1984, to a child on a Skynet kill list in 2018, to a soldier who lands in a rewritten 1984 in Terminator Genisys.

The Terminator (1984). Reese lands in a Los Angeles where the machine is already crossing names off the phone book, one Sarah Connor after another, and his task is to reach the right one before it does. He gets there first and pulls her out of danger. The police dismiss what the two of them say, which leaves the police station as the place where the machine strikes next. After that attack Reese and Sarah flee through the night, and in those hours they fall in love and conceive John. The pursuer survives being damaged until only a metal frame is left. The film closes months later with Sarah in Mexico, dictating tapes for her unborn son. A boy snaps an instant photo of her, the same picture John will one day give to Reese.

Terminator Salvation (2009). Here Reese is no longer the veteran but a boy in the ruins of 2018. John Connor, a Resistance officer, discovers that Skynet's kill list names him alongside a young Kyle Reese. In Los Angeles, Marcus Wright runs into Kyle and a mute girl called Star, and Skynet machines take them prisoner. Marcus then bargains with John, offering to help free the captives in exchange for his life. The rescue ends when John destroys the base and the group gets away.

Terminator Genisys (2015). John Connor trusts Reese enough to send him back after the Terminator that Skynet dispatches to kill Sarah, and Reese volunteers. He arrives to a changed 1984: Sarah is a seasoned fighter who has been guarded since childhood by a reprogrammed Terminator she calls Pops. A liquid metal T-1000 attacks them, and Reese remembers a different future, one where Judgment Day arrives in 2017 through a worldwide system called Genisys. The three jump forward with a time device to San Francisco in 2017, where they learn that Genisys is Skynet and that John has been turned into a machine hybrid.

Kyle Reese's most important relationships are with Sarah Connor, who becomes the mother of his son, and with John Connor, who is his son. Reese is John Connor's father, not his son. Readers who ask whether Kyle Reese is John Connor's son have the relationship reversed. In The Terminator, Reese and Sarah conceive John during their night on the run, so the soldier sent to protect her helps set in motion the future he came from. For Sarah's own story, see Sarah Connor, and for the son, see John Connor.

His relationship with John runs through the Resistance. In Genisys, John is the leader who trusts Reese enough to send him back after Skynet's assassin. In Salvation, John, a Resistance officer in 2018, learns that Skynet has a kill list that includes him and a young Kyle Reese.

His relationship with the machines is defined by pursuit. In the first film the relentless pursuer is the Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and credited as Terminator, and you can read more about that machine at T-800. In Terminator Genisys the Terminator Pops is a reprogrammed guardian who fights beside Reese and Sarah. In Salvation, Reese crosses paths with Marcus Wright, a cyborg whom John's soldiers distrust. In every version, Skynet is the force that makes Reese matter.

Kyle Reese dies in The Terminator, killed in the factory fight while helping Sarah Connor destroy the machine. Sarah finishes off the Terminator and survives, and she is pregnant with Reese's son John. The ending leaves the war with Skynet unresolved, with Sarah driving toward a storm.

His death is not the end of the character in later films. In Salvation, a younger Reese is alive in 2018 and is among the prisoners the Resistance sets out to free, and the group escapes when John blows up the Skynet base. In Genisys, Sarah and Reese both survive the final fight at the Cyberdyne building. Pops traps John in the time machine's field and the blast destroys both Pops and John. Sarah and Reese then leave together to build a life, and Pops is rebuilt from liquid metal debris.

Kyle Reese does not appear in Terminator: Dark Fate, where a T-800 kills John Connor in 1998 and the threat comes from Legion. The central figures there are Sarah, Grace and Dani Ramos. Readers who want the full chronology can use the Terminator timeline.

Kyle Reese's best moments are his arrival in 1984 Los Angeles, the night on the run with Sarah Connor, and his death in the factory fight, all in The Terminator (1984). Each one shows him outmatched and still doing the job.

The arrival comes first: a soldier from 2029 reaches 1984 Los Angeles, while the machine that follows him is built for killing. The night on the run after the station attack comes next, where Reese and Sarah are hunted and still find time to fall in love. The strongest choice in the script is that the love story is not a pause in the chase but the reason the future exists.

The factory is the last of the three, and it is where Reese dies helping Sarah destroy the machine that has chased them all night. His sacrifice gives the film its weight, because the audience knows he is also John's father.

Of the later versions, the best is Genisys: Reese arrives in 1984 and finds the past already rewritten, with Sarah more experienced than he is. It gives Jai Courtney a different job from the original, and it uses the franchise's timeline as a plot device. Salvation's Reese, played by Anton Yelchin, is the quietest of the three, though the scene where Marcus meets him and the girl Star in Los Angeles is the one that stays with me. To see how the films compare, read Terminator movies ranked.