Miles Dyson Terminator: Actor, Skynet Role and Fate

Miles Dyson is the Cyberdyne Systems engineer in the Terminator saga whose research is meant to lead to Skynet, and he is played by Joe Morton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Morton is billed sixth in the 1991 film, directed by James Cameron, behind Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick and Earl Boen. The same cast list credits S. Epatha Merkerson as Tarissa Dyson.

In Terminator Genisys (2015), directed by Alan Taylor, Courtney B. Vance takes the role and is billed eighth. That film also introduces Danny Dyson, played by Dayo Okeniyi and billed sixth, who is described as Miles Dyson's son and who helps the heroes late in the story.

Dyson appears in two films, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator Genisys (2015), played by a different actor in each.

In Terminator 2, Miles Dyson is the Cyberdyne engineer developing the technology that leads to Skynet, and after Sarah Connor fails to kill him he helps the heroes destroy his own research. The path there starts at a mall, where the T-800 rescues John Connor from the T-1000. John orders the T-800 not to kill people and to help free his mother from the hospital where she is held. Once Sarah is out, the T-800 explains what Dyson is building.

Sarah goes to kill Dyson but cannot do it, and the group wins him over instead. Dyson then realizes that his work is based on parts of the first film's Terminator, and he helps the group break into Cyberdyne to take those parts and set explosives.

Did Miles Dyson create Skynet? No, Miles Dyson does not create Skynet in the films: in Terminator 2 his research is the path toward it and he helps destroy that research. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines later gives Skynet a different origin: it is software spread across networked systems, born when a computer virus becomes self aware under General Robert Brewster at Cyber Research Systems. In that film an older Terminator also tells John and Kate Brewster that they only delayed Judgment Day.

Genisys returns to the name. In that version of events history has been altered, and Genisys is an app set to launch worldwide and link every device, which turns out to be Skynet. The team gets help from Danny Dyson, and the final fight takes place in the Cyberdyne building where Genisys is being finished. Courtney B. Vance is credited as Miles Dyson in Terminator Genisys, but the plot is carried by his son Danny Dyson.

Miles Dyson's key relationships are with Sarah Connor, who tries to kill him, John Connor and the T-800, who persuade him, and his family, Tarissa and Danny Dyson. His first meeting with Sarah Connor is an attempt on his life, because she goes to kill him and cannot go through with it. That moment turns an enemy into an ally, and it is the reason the break in at Cyberdyne can happen at all.

His link to John Connor runs through the T-800. John is the one who orders the reprogrammed machine not to kill people, which is why Dyson survives long enough to be won over. The T-800 supplies the warning about what his work will lead to, and Dyson then realizes his research is built on parts of the first film's Terminator.

On the family side, Tarissa Dyson appears in Terminator 2, played by S. Epatha Merkerson, and Danny Dyson appears in Genisys, played by Dayo Okeniyi, as Miles Dyson's son. His tie to Cyberdyne is the professional one, since he works there and the heroes treat the company as the target.

Miles Dyson dies in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), shot by police during the raid on Cyberdyne, and he sets off the explosives as he dies. That act finishes the destruction of the research he was building.

This is also the answer to what Dyson is holding at the end: in his last scene he is the one who sets off the explosives the group has placed at Cyberdyne, even after police have shot him. The blast takes out the lab, the research and the parts of the first film's Terminator that the group came to destroy.

In Terminator Genisys, Courtney B. Vance is credited as Miles Dyson, and his son Danny Dyson is alive and helps the heroes in 2017.

The best Miles Dyson moment is the scene where Sarah Connor cannot bring herself to kill him, followed by his realization about the first Terminator's parts and his final act at Cyberdyne. In my opinion, the best of the three is also the quietest.

1. Sarah cannot kill him. The scene works because the film has shown how far Sarah will go to stop Judgment Day, and then it shows a man who is, in the end, just an engineer. It could be argued that the moral argument of Terminator 2 is decided here, since she chooses not to kill a man for what he might build.

2. The realization about the first Terminator. Dyson understands that his own work is based on parts of a machine from the first film. It turns a research story into a loop, and it explains why the group must take those parts, not just destroy his lab.

3. His final act at Cyberdyne. Setting off the explosives while dying is a practical, human ending to a plot built on machines. That being said, it is a short scene, and it works best because the earlier two have earned it.