Judgment Day, also known as J-Day[1], refers to the day that the artificial intelligence —Skynet— becomes self-aware and starts a nuclear strike on the United States of America, Russia, and other places, killing three billion people.

Sarah Connor first learned about Judgment Day in 1984 from Kyle Reese, a soldier sent from the future to protect her from an assassination mission by a Terminator. The Terminator

Due to the impact of time travel on the Terminator timelines, the date of Judgment Day has been altered several times.

In one of the timelines, Judgement Day occurred in 1995, much earlier than it originally is. The Terminator: Future Shock

The first specific date of Judgment Day as described by both Sarah Connor and the T-800 occurs on August 29, 1997. Skynet becomes self-aware at 02:14 am Eastern Time after its activation on August 4, 1997 and launches nuclear missiles at Russia to incite a counterattack against the humans who, in a panic, tried to disconnect it. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Since Sarah and the Terminator both share the same information (which it would in any case if both it and Kyle were sent back at the same time to different destinations. T2: The Future War), this date has not changed as a result of Cyberdyne managing to reconstruct and create the Terminators from the remaining parts of the T-800 sent to 1984 from the future. At this stage, quality may have improved, but the timing has not yet changed.

In Russia, a routine day at sea turns into a nightmare when it seems the US has launched a massive nuclear attack on the rest of the world. Terminator Salvation: Dark Sky

Note: In the "Terminator Timeline", featured in the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines DVD, it is stated that Judgment Day happens in 2003.

DVD, it is stated that Judgment Day happens in 2003. The date "July 25, 2003" is pegged as Judgment Day in the novel "Terminator Salvation: Cold War".

After Sarah Сonnor, her son John and the T-800 destroy Cyberdyne headquarters and all backups of the research Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the date for Judgment Day is moved to July 25, 2004 6:18 pm Eastern Time. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

This event is not prevented, and occurs as predicted with the T-850 indicating "Judgment Day is inevitable". Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Note: The date "July 25, 2004" is also mentioned as Judgment Day in the novel "Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes".

"Terminator Salvation: The Official Movie Souvenir Magazine" marks that Judgment Day occurs in the year 2004.

After John Connor and Wendy Dorset inadvertently participated in the creation of Skynet while attempting to stop Clea Bennet in 2002, T2: Rising Storm the date for Judgment Day was altered into a progressively developing scenario of machine-based homicidal mania that takes years to develop until the full fledged nuclear strikes of Judgment Day now occurred sometime in early 2000s when it executed the program Firefall. T2: The Future War

This sequence of events was directly attributable to the temporal intervention by Skynet and the deployment of the I-950 Infiltrator Serena Burns to ensure Skynet's creation as well as Dr. Kurt Viemeister's involvement. .

Cameron tells Sarah in 2007 that Judgment Day is now set to occur on April 21, 2011. Skynet is destined to go online a few days earlier, on April 19, 2011. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles "Pilot"

Note: Both the Resistance and Skynet are actively seeking to interfere with the timeline and are having unforeseen effects. Due to ongoing temporal alterations, these events are probably still being altered.

As a result of an assassination attempt on Sarah Connor's life in 1973, she has a T-800 known as the Guardian as her protector. When the T-800 arrives to assassinate her in 1984, it is confronted by Guardian almost immediately and deactivated by Sarah with a .50 caliber round to its power cell. Though its later reactivated by the T-1000, it is once again deactivated by Kyle Reese blowing its head off. The T-800 is dissolved in acid and its CPU used to act as the crude version of the Time Displacement Equipment's operating system at which point it burns out and is presumably destroyed by Guardian. As a result of the total destruction of the T-800, Cyberdyne doesn't get its CPU to study, Skynet is not created and Judgment Day does not occur in 1997 and is postponed to 2017 which Kyle learns due to the memories of the new timeline he received while time traveling. In this new timeline, after being converted into a T-3000 by Alex, John Connor is sent back to 2014 where he helps Cyberdyne build Genisys, an operating system that when activated, will control and connect all worldwide hardware, including military hardware. Genisys is actually Skynet in a new form and once it comes online, Judgment Day will begin. Kyle, Sarah and Guardian work to stop it and destroy Genisys before it fully comes online. They are hampered in their efforts by John, but assault Cyberdyne anyway, resulting in John pushing up Genisys' activation from thirteen hours to fifteen minutes. Despite John's best efforts, the three destroy the facility and apparently Skynet. Judgment Day is averted, but unknown to them, Skynet's system core survives underground and it becomes self-aware. It is likely that Judgment Day has just been postponed to another time as a result. Terminator Genisys

In Jade's World, Skynet became self-aware in 2021. It launched attacked on humanity on 18 June, resulting in Judgment Day.

In the Dark Fate timeline, after the termination of Skynet and the destruction of a Cyberdyne building, a new timeline was created, in which Judgment Day happened in the 2020s. In this timeline, a different AI, Legion, was responsible for the new Judgment Day, in which it began by cutting humanity off from necessary utilities and electronics. Terminator: Dark Fate

Cities destroyed [ edit | edit source ]

This is a list of cities destroyed on Judgment Day.[citation needed]

Aberdeen

Abuja

Adelaide

Agana

Albany

Albuquerque

Amarillo

Amman

Amsterdam

Anchorage

Ankara

Athens

Atlanta

Auckland

Aurora

Austin

Baghdad

Bakersfield

Bali

Baltimore

Bangor

Bangkok

Barcelona

Beijing

Belfast

Berlin

Birmingham

Billings

Boise

Boston

Brisbane

Bristol

Brussels

Budapest

Buenos Aires

Buffalo

Cabo San Lucas

Cairo

Calgary

Cancun

Canberra

Cantaina

Cape Town

Caracas

Cardiff

Carson City

Casablanca

Casper

Champaign

Charlotte

Cheyenne

Chicago

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Colorado Springs

Columbus

Copenhagen

Cork

Corpus Christi

Dallas

Darwin

Dayton

Denver

Des Moines

Doha

Duluth

Delhi

Detroit

Durango

Dubai

Dublin

Dundee

Edinburgh

Edmonton

Elko

El Paso

Eugene

Fayetteville

Florence

Frankfurt

Fresno

Fort Lauderdale

Fort Worth

Galway

Geneva

Gold Coast

Gotland

Guadalajara

Guam

Guatemala City

Hartford

Havana

Helsinki

Hobart

Hong Kong

Honolulu

Houston

Indianapolis

Indian Springs

Indio

Istanbul

Jacksonville

Jakarta

Johannesburg

Kahului

Kano

Kansas City

Karaci

Konya

Kiev

Kingston

Knoxville

Kyoto

Lagos

Las Vegas

Leeds

Lexington

Lima

Limerick

Lincoln

Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal)

London

Liverpool

Lyon

Los Angeles

Louisville

Madison

Madrid

Malmo

Managua

Manama

Manchester

Manila

Marseille

Melbourne

Mendoza

Memphis

Mexico City

Mobile

Modesto

Monterrey

Montevideo

Morelia

Miami

Milwaukee

Minneapolis

Minot

Montreal

Moscow

Munich

Mumbai

Nadi

Nagoya

Nairobi

Nashville

Nassau

Newark

Newcastle Upon Tyne

New Delhi

New York

New Orleans

Norfolk

North Las Vegas

Novosibirsk

Oakland

Oklahoma City

Omaha

Ontario

Orlando

Osaka

Oslo

Ottawa

Oxford

Palermo

Palm Springs

Panama City

Papeete

Paris

Perth

Pittsburgh

Port-Au-Prince

Portland

Providence

Philadelphia

Phoenix

Puerto Vallarta

Raleigh

Reno

Reykjavik

Rio de Janiero

Riverside

Riyadh

Rome

Saigon

Sacramento

Salem

Salt Lake City

San Angelo

San Antonio

San Diego

San Francisco

San Juan

San Jose

San Jose del Cabo

San Paulo

San Pedro Sula

San Salvador

Santa Ana

Santa Barbara

Santiago

Santo Domingo

Sapporo

Scranton

Seattle

Seoul

Shanghai

Singapore

Sioux Falls

South Bend

South Lake Tahoe

Spokane

Springfield

St. Louis

St. Petersberg, Russia

Stockholm

Stockton

Sunderland

Sydney

Taipei

Tehran

Tel Aviv

Tijuana

Tokyo

Toledo

Topeka

Toronto

Toulouse

Tucson

Tulsa

Vancouver

Vienna

Warsaw

Washington, DC

Wellington

Winnipeg

Wichita

Wodonga

Yokohama

York

Zacatecas

Zurich

Sarah Connor: Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

T-800: The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug. Sarah Connor: Skynet fights back. T-800: Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia. John Connor: Why attack Russia? Aren't they our friends now? T-800: Because Skynet knows the Russian counter-attack will eliminate its enemies over here. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

John Connor: My name is John Connor. They tried to murder me before I was born. When I was 13 they tried again. Machines from the future. Terminators. All my life my mother told me the storm was coming. Judgment Day, the beginning of a war between man and machines. Three billion lives would vanish in an instant, and I would lead what was left of the human race to ultimate victory. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Kyle Reese: Skynet, a computer program designed to automate missile defense. It was supposed to protect us, but that's not what happened. On August 29, 1997, Skynet woke up. It decided all humanity was a threat to its existence. It used our own bombs against us. Three billion people died in the nuclear fire. Survivors called it Judgment Day. Terminator: Genisys