"The computers that Fishcer infected with the Virus are used for analyzing buildings and infrastructure / bridges .performance in Earthquake and other natural and (unnatural probably) scenarios. Skynet would probably leave itself in the newest best constructed buildings built to withstand earthquakes. It probably runs scenarios about bomb placement. I believe thats what a lot of current super computers are used for right now. They analyze the weather and potential fallout spreading information constantly."

"Actually, I'm not upset at all.

Cameron's referencing the MAD policy of both countries annihilating each other in a nuclear exchange. Doesn't matter if that's what would happen in real life. That's what happens in the story as he wrote it. Skynet attacks Russia, Russia attacks back, and what we knew publicly was that Russia would have plenty of time to detect and launch a counterattack before our missiles hit home. Cameron had the same knowledge as your typical American in the 80's and 90's.

So in his story, Russia does have the ability to strike back and annihilate America in response. That's the framework you have to work around when you argue in this universe.

Obviously in real life that's not the case. But we're not debating real life. We're debating what happens in this story universe."

"Actually it's what the Arnold Terminator tells Sarah and John when they're in the car driving to Enrique's in T-2.

Cameron needs to explain what happens to Sarah (and by extension the audience), hence why we see Arnold giving all this exposition to the audience."

"Ah, good point.

But I doubt the writers looked into Russia's actual nuclear capability when they were writing TSCC as well. Skynet gets control of the nukes worldwide and blows up everything. That still happens in T3 and T4 too. We hit the world and the world hits back."

"You guys are confusing me. In any given post I'm not sure if you are talking about James Cameron or Cameron Phillips."

"We're both talking about different things now.

T1/2 is what you're talking about.

TSCC is what I'm talking about. Everyone knows the Russian military is a (pale) shadow of its former self. Even with Putin (and Medvedev) it's still a disaster with exception to some elite units. Since the show was written in 2007 I am assuming the decline of Soviet/Russian military power is taken into consideration.

Additionally the quite considerable numbers of nuclear weapons we no longer posses would be taken into consideration as well.

Saying "billionS" would have been better since it opens it up to longevity. If in 1984 Kyle Reese said "half the world's population died"... well, that's 3 billion then. That's not 3.5 billion. Exact numbers when dealing with changing circumstances leads to situations like this.

And how does Skynet get control of Russian nukes? I'm pretty sure the system is not hackable- isn't it closed?"

"Bedell, and Connor himself. I see that some have been questioning whether these two could actually rise to eminence in such a situation, when there are/would be so many better "qualified" veterans, etc. In fiction, as in history, these things can, and do happen. Those of a religious bent cannot have missed the fact that the supposed son of a humble carpenter had a rather massive impact upon the world.

And closer to us in time, let us not forget the Maid of Orleans. A humble farmer's daughter rose to lead an army, and was burnt at the stake by her enemies,, who were aided and abetted by the envious or fearful of losing their status within her ranks and country. Certain churchmen were embroiled within this betrayal. Looks like Connor may be facing/or has faced a similar problem.
So the existence of Bedell and Connor are believable within this story. Reality is sometimes a lot stranger than ficton. In the case of the original JC, and Jean d'Arc, the tales have no doubt been significantly embellished; yet, there are historical records. Those two had there betrayers too.

And Jesse - I'm here to save him. From her. IT!"