Four months ago<\/a>, I created a collection of photos depicting all the actors who have played John Connor in all the various timelines<\/a> covered by the Terminator<\/a><\/i> movies and TV episodes produced so far. Yesterday, I finally caught up and finished watching the entire first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/a><\/i>, and I discovered that multiple actors have begun to play some of the other characters too. So here is another photo archive \u2014 for Kyle Reese, Dr. Peter Silberman, and The Photo.<\/p>\n First, Kyle Reese.<\/p>\n In the first two films, we were led to believe that, in the original timeline before all the time-travel began, the nuclear war began on August 29, 1997 and Kyle was born some time after that. In other words, he lived his entire life under the rule of the machines \u2014 until John Connor sent him back in time to protect Sarah Connor and thus become John\u2019s father. But by the end of the second film, Sarah and John had succeeded in averting the nuclear war, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n Now, in the TV show, we are told that the nuclear war is going to start anyway<\/i> \u2014 on April 21, 2011 \u2014 at a time when Kyle is already eight years old. It is exceedingly unlikely, of course, that the circumstances that led to Kyle\u2019s conception in the original timeline would have been replicated in the new timeline \u2014 and it is even more<\/i> unlikely that the Kyle who was sent back in time to father John Connor in the original timeline would be all that similar psychologically to the Kyle who is sent back in time from the new timeline \u2014 but hey, let\u2019s run with these ideas, for now.<\/p>\n So, here are the various actors who have played Kyle, from youngest to oldest. Note that there is a slight complication in that, according to the movies (timeline 1), Kyle was sent back in time from 2029, whereas in the TV show (timeline 4), he was sent back in time from 2027 \u2014 yet we are apparently supposed to think that the Kyle who was sent back from both timelines is one and the same. And while the TV show indicates Kyle was born in late 2002 or early 2003, I don\u2019t believe the movies have ever specified how old he was. Finally, just to be a completist, I am including Kyle\u2019s cameo appearance in the dream sequence from the \u201cspecial edition\u201d of the second movie.<\/p>\n Kyle Reese, age 5, timeline 4<\/b> \u2014 ?, age ? Kyle Reese, age 8, timeline 4<\/b> \u2014 Skyler Gisondo, age 11 Kyle Reese, age 15, timeline 3<\/b> \u2014 Anton Yelchin, age 19 Kyle Reese, age 24, timeline 4<\/b> \u2014 Jonathan Jackson, age 25 Kyle Reese, age ?, timeline 1<\/b> \u2014 Michael Biehn, age 27 Kyle Reese, age ?<\/b> \u2014 Michael Biehn, age 34 Second, The Photo.<\/p>\n In the first movie, Kyle is motivated to come back and rescue Sarah partly because John gave him a photo of her. Kyle tells Sarah he always used to wonder what she was thinking about when the photo was taken \u2014 and then, at the end of the film, after Kyle is dead and Sarah has become pregnant with his child, it is revealed that Sarah was thinking of Kyle himself, and pondering whether to tell John about him. (In the end, she does \u2014 so John knows exactly why<\/i> he has to give Kyle the photo of Sarah.) Thus, the first movie follows a closed-loop view of temporal mechanics: You can go back in time, but you can only fulfill what has already happened.<\/p>\n The sequels have messed with that idea in multiple ways, to the point where each new branch of the franchise seems to exist on a separate timeline. And there is certainly something to be said for the idea that many timelines can branch off of a single moment in time. The paradox here is that The Photo persists as an essential element in the Terminator<\/i> mythology \u2014 appearing in the second movie and also in the TV series \u2014 yet it represents the very antithesis of multiple-timeline dynamics. It serves as a constant reminder that John Connor would not even exist<\/i> if the series had been following the open-loop view of temporal mechanics from the beginning.<\/p>\n Anyway, you could almost say that The Photo is, itself, a character in these films, so here are its various depictions, arranged chronologically \u2014 that is, following the lifespan of the photo, rather than the precise dates that any film or TV episode might have assigned to any of these moments:<\/p>\n The Photo<\/b> \u2014 fresh out of the camera, 1984 The Photo<\/b> \u2014 in John\u2019s possession, 1995 (film) or 1997 (TV) The Photo, timeline 4<\/b> \u2014 as seen by Kyle, 2027 (TV) The Photo, timeline 1<\/b> \u2014 as seen by Kyle, 2029 (film) The Photo, timeline 1<\/b> \u2014 destroyed as Kyle watches, 2029 (film) The Photo, timeline 4<\/b> \u2014 discovered after the fire, 2027 (TV) Finally, Dr. Peter Silberman.<\/p>\n Dr. Silberman is the only character who appears in all three films, and a version of him appears in the TV series as well. (Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in all three films as well, but he plays a different Terminator in each film and is thus a different \u201ccharacter\u201d in each film.) In the first film, he is a skeptic who does not believe in the Terminators \u2014 but in the second film, he personally witnesses a confrontation between the T-800 and the T-1000, and he deals with this in different ways, depending on which sequel is telling the story. In the third film, it is clear that he has spent the past several years trying to deny what he saw; but in the TV show, he has gone to the exact opposite extreme and has become a fanatical, even religious, believer in the Terminators.<\/p>\n Dr. Silberman, in 1984<\/b> \u2014 Earl Boen, age 38 Dr. Silberman, in 1995<\/b> \u2014 Earl Boen, age 45 Dr. Silberman, in 2003, timeline 3<\/b> \u2014 Earl Boen, age 56 Dr. Silberman, in 2007, timeline 4<\/b> \u2014 Bruce Davison, age 61 And that\u2019s it for now. If even more actors tackle these roles in future movies or TV episodes, I will update this post accordingly.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/R9X8ZPQA7fI\/AAAAAAAABU0\/-z93Qa5II4g\/s400\/sarahconnorchronicles-kyle5.png\")
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