John Connor is a young man now, always on the run with the feeling his destiny could catch up with him at any moment. One night he breaks into the vet office of Kate Brewster for medicine. She surprises him and locks him up in a cage. To both their surprises, they recognize each other as classmates in junior high. Then a T-X female terminator shows up. It was looking for John, but since it couldn’t find him, it was killing all the people who would work with him in the future against the machines. One of these people was Kate. As the T-X was about to kill Kate, a Terminator shows up and rescues her. He locks Kate in the back of her truck and takes off with John, followed by the T-X. After a long, violent chase, they escape. The Terminator tells them that John and Kate will get married, and their children will help defeat the machines. Kate was the one who sent him back from the future after John dies. He also tells them that Kate’s father is the person who starts Skynet, the computer program that takes over the world and declares war on humans. The three go to the military base where John’s father works and try to stop him, but the T-X shows up and kills him. While the Terminator fights her, John and Kate grab a plane and fly to the base where Skynet is located — or so they think. When they arrive, they discover that it’s just a fall-out shelter. The Terminator destroys the T-X to enable them to get in. While they’re in the shelter, a voice comes over the intercom asking for help because the nuclear war has started.

Quite similar to the second movie, except for the ending. The nuclear war wasn’t prevented in T-2, just delayed, and now it’s come. John can’t escape his destiny after all. The movie was fun to watch, and the ending had some emotional impact. This was the last major movie Arnold made before being elected governor of California.