Terminator Genisys (2015): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

Terminator Genisys begins in 2029, when the human Resistance led by John Connor is close to beating Skynet, and it then splits into a changed version of 1984.

Skynet answers its defeat the way it always does, by sending a Terminator back in time to kill Connor's mother, Sarah, before he is born. Connor sends his trusted soldier, Kyle Reese, after it. That much matches The Terminator (1984), and anyone who knows the original will expect Reese to arrive, find Sarah and run.

The film then departs from that script. Reese arrives to find that the past has already been altered: Sarah is a hardened fighter, and she has been raised since childhood by a reprogrammed Terminator she calls Pops. Nothing about the 1984 he was briefed on is safe to rely on, which is the central problem of the first act and the reason the film is sometimes described as a reboot that keeps the old furniture. If you are new to the saga, the Terminator movies in order page explains where this film fits before you press play.

In full, Terminator Genisys sends its three leads from 1984 to 2017 and ends with the destruction of John Connor and the Genisys system.

In 2029 John Connor's Resistance attacks Skynet, and Skynet sends a Terminator back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor. Kyle Reese volunteers to follow and protect her. In 1984 he finds an experienced Sarah guarded by the Guardian, whom Sarah calls Pops, and together they destroy the assassin and a liquid metal T-1000 sent to stop them.

Reese remembers a different future and warns that Judgment Day will come in 2017, not 1997, through a worldwide system called Genisys. The three use a time device to jump to 2017 in San Francisco. There they learn that Genisys is an app set to launch worldwide and link every device, and that it is really Skynet. They also learn that John Connor has been captured and turned into a new machine hybrid that serves Skynet.

The team gets help from Danny Dyson, the son of Miles Dyson, and from Detective O'Brien (J.K. Simmons), who has tracked Sarah for years. They infiltrate the Cyberdyne building where Genisys is being finished and fight John, who is now a nanotech Terminator. Pops traps John inside the field of the time machine's reactor and holds him there. The blast destroys both of them and the Genisys core, though a post credit scene shows the core survived. Pops is later rebuilt from the surviving liquid metal debris, and Sarah and Reese survive and leave together to build a life.

Terminator Genisys had no publicly documented premiere event, and it opened in theaters on July 1, 2015 in the US, the UK and Australia.

Paramount had dated the film for July 1, 2015, by the time Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that principal photography had finished in August 2014. The US date is reported by Box Office Mojo, and the UK and Australian dates by TMDB.

The ending of Terminator Genisys destroys John Connor and Pops when the time machine's energy field detonates in the Cyberdyne building, and the same blast wrecks the Genisys system, so Judgment Day appears to be averted.

The mechanics of the finale are specific. John, by now a nanotech Terminator serving Skynet, is pinned inside the field of the time machine's reactor, and Pops holds him there. Both are torn apart in the blast. Pops is the older Guardian who raised Sarah from childhood, so the scene pays off the one relationship the film builds over decades of story time rather than minutes of screen time. Later, Pops is reassembled from surviving liquid metal debris, and he, Sarah and Reese drive away together.

Production context explains why the building matters. The Cyberdyne exterior was shot at Oracle's headquarters in Redwood City, California, and the overnight gunfire scenes there drew neighbor complaints about the noise, according to reports on the shoot. The interior fight, by contrast, belongs to a story that moves its 2017 act to San Francisco, where Genisys is an app about to link every device.

Compared with the films around it, the choices are unusual. Terminator Salvation kept John Connor as the Resistance's central figure. Genisys turns him into the enemy, which cancels the future that the earlier sequels worked to fix. It also moves Judgment Day from 1997 to 2017 and swaps a military defense network for a consumer product. Danny Dyson, the son of Miles Dyson, is the one who helps the team inside, which ties the new threat to a family name from the earlier story.

The film is not the same story as the first one either: it revisits 1984 and recreates scenes people remember, but the past it shows has already been altered before Reese arrives. Reese remembers a different future, which is the film's way of saying that two histories now exist side by side.

The post credit scene complicates the finish. The Genisys core survives in a protected underground chamber, which suggests Skynet could return. No sequel followed it, and the next release, Terminator: Dark Fate, is the sixth film in release order.

As opinion, the ending is stronger than the middle: the sacrifice of Pops gives the film its one clear emotional beat, while the crowded timeline work around it is harder to follow. Readers who want the saga to remain a single line can treat this film as a separate branch. The full Terminator timeline page lays out how the branches relate.

Yes, Terminator Genisys has one short post credit scene, and it shows the Genisys core system surviving the blast in a protected underground chamber.

The scene suggests that Skynet could return, which sits awkwardly against the ending in which Judgment Day appears to be averted. It works as a sequel hook, though no follow up to this film was released: the next film in release order is Terminator: Dark Fate.

Terminator Genisys was filmed mainly in New Orleans, with additional work in Redwood City and San Francisco, California.

Principal photography began in New Orleans in April 2014 and included a recreated 1984 set and the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility. The exterior of Cyberdyne was shot at Oracle's headquarters in Redwood City, California. San Francisco supplied the street and bridge scenes, including Nob Hill and the Mission District, which suits a story that moves its 2017 act to that city.

Terminator Genisys was titled Terminator Genesis during production, and the Genisys spelling was announced as the official title on August 6, 2014.

Overnight shooting at Oracle's Redwood City headquarters drew neighbor complaints about movie gunfire noise. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that principal photography had finished by August 6, 2014, the same day the title news came out, and Paramount had already dated the film for July 1, 2015.

On the money side, Terminator Genisys earned about $441 million worldwide on a $155 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. The split was roughly $89.8 million domestic and $350.8 million international. The Numbers lists a lower international gross of about $342.4 million, so the exact worldwide total differs slightly by outlet, while the budget agrees at $155 million. Whether that counts as a hit or a flop depends on marketing and distribution costs, which are not part of the budget figure and are rarely published.

For the numbers beside the rest of the saga, see Terminator box office.