Other actors have portrayed the character in subsequent films, including Nick Stahl, Christian Bale, and Jason Clarke.

"[1] In the fictional universe's narrative, John Connor is a messianic figure (born on February 28, 1985) who will lead the Resistance to defeat an empire of robotic Terminators amassed by the rogue military AI Skynet following a cybernetic revolt doomsday event known as Judgment Day.

The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is attempting to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) because the latter will be his mother, but John does not make a physical appearance.

In his first appearance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (a sequel to the first film), John is a 10-year-old child and a juvenile delinquent[4][5] living with foster parents (Jenette Goldstein and Xander Berkeley) while Sarah Connor is in a prison hospital for the criminally insane.

With the help of Skynet's creator, Miles Dyson, he breaks into a safe to retrieve the first Terminator's damaged arm and CPU, which Dyson—unaware of what it would lead to—was using to create the new technology.

An alternate ending takes place in 2027, in which John is a U.S. senator and father to a daughter in a world where Skynet was never able to start its war on humanity.

Now a young adult, John has been living off-the-grid after the second film's events, even as the original Judgment Day deadline in 1997 came to pass without incident.

In the film, John crosses paths with Katherine "Kate" Brewster (Claire Danes), a former classmate from when he was living with his foster parents.

Unlike predecessors, the T-X's objective is to terminate his future Resistance officers as secondary targets because John's location is unknown.

It is via the radios in this bunker that John begins to broadcast messages to lay the groundwork to help survivors and organize the Resistance.

Since Judgment Day, John has been broadcasting radio messages to both the Resistance forces and surviving refugees in an effort to maintain morale and hope.

Despite having extensive prior knowledge of the machines and Skynet's capabilities, John is largely dismissed by General Hugh Ashdown (Michael Ironside), who runs the resistance organization, considering Connor a delusional false prophet at best and a dangerous liability to their operations at worst.

Following a confrontation with a T-5000 (Matt Smith) on the war's seemingly final day, just as Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is being sent back to save Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), John is forcibly transformed into the T-3000 cyborg as a result of a Skynet program to use nanites to convert living flesh into machine matter.

Skynet then sends the T-3000 back in time to ensure its creation in the altered timeline, John now believing that the future requires man and machine to come together like he has.

Three years later, despite his superior physical strength, he was destroyed by "Pops" (Schwarzenegger), a T-800 reprogrammed and sent into the past by an unknown party to protect Sarah, when both of them were trapped inside a prototype time machine.

In the opening scene, set three years after the events of Judgment Day, it is revealed that even though Skynet was erased from existence with Cyberdyne's destruction, it had sent multiple Terminators back to different points in time to kill John.

In the following years, with its mission fulfilled and Skynet no longer existing to give orders, the same T-800 develops a form of conscience and takes the name "Carl".

"[8] At the beginning of the series in 1999, John and Sarah try to settle down to normal lives after the events of the second film, but they are in fear of being captured for blowing up Cyberdyne.

He also develops a relationship with Riley Dawson, a high school classmate, who, unknown to him, is also from the future and working with Jesse Flores, a resistance fighter and lover of Derek Reese.

Apparently, after Judgment Day, rumors abound of an unnatural relationship between the two that affects John's tactical decision making, and some are unsettled that he has appointed a Terminator as one of his lieutenants.

In 2016, John (voiced by Gideon Emery) and Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) are on a mission to rescue David Weston (Sean Cory Cooper), until they team up with Angie Salter (Rose McGowan) and Barnes (Common) to fight the machines.

He is voiced by Eric Meyers and serves as the player character, Jacob Rivers's commanding officer within the Tech-Com Resistance group.

John makes a physical appearance towards the endgame where he briefs and debriefs Jacob during the final assault on Skynet's base.

To stop Skynet's creation, the Connors team up with their new neighbor Dieter von Rossbach, a former Austrian counterterrorism operative and future model for the T-800 series.

They ultimately realise that Cyberdyne was able to gain new research data from the salvaged arm of "Uncle Bob", which was lost in the battle with the T-1000 and left trapped in the gears of the manufacturing plant.

The following novel, T2: Rising Storm, shows John and Dieter starting up the foundations of the future Resistance a few months after the events of the previous novel.

In the final novel, T2: The Future War, Skynet has killed three billion people and John has become the leader of the Resistance, with Sarah and Dieter having fallen in love and married.

Afterwards, Skynet is effectively destroyed and John is greeted by Sarah, Dieter and the remaining Resistance members as they are relieved that the great ordeal is finally over.