Terminator Time Paradoxes

I enjoy very few movies, I'm not a movie guy, I'm not a movie collector, or anything like that, but since I did get myself a PlayStation earlier this year, and it does come packed with a good bluray player, there were a couple of movies I decided to buy.

One purchase was the Terminator Quadrilogy bluray box.

I've always enjoyed the first two Terminator movies, which is rare since movies tend to bore me a lot of the time. Maybe I should just watch more good movies, right?

Anyway, I like time travel stories a lot, which is a big reason for my love for the Terminator franchise - at least the first two films - but stories dealing with time travelling also hurt my head a lot quite often.

I spend way too much time thinking about stuff like this.

But it's hard for me to not spend time thinking about some of the time travel stuff in the movies that makes no sense.

The first movie has the obvious head scratcher of Kyle Reese being John Connor's father, even though he first meets with Sarah Connor in the past.

If we look at this from the perspective of there once being an original timeline, which is altered by the time travel, this obviously makes no sense since John Connor would have a different father in the original timeline, and would grow up to be a different man as a result. You can't just switch fathers and still give birth to the same person.

The Terminator being sent back in time also makes no sense if we consider the timeline to be alterable:

• The Terminator was sent back in time to kill John Connor before he was born, by killing his mother Sarah Connor. Succeeding in this would mean that John Connor would not lead the human resistance in the future.
• Therefore SkyNet would have no reason to send the Terminator back in time in the future.
• But therefore John Connor would be born, and would lead the human resistance in the future.
• And therefore SkyNet would send the Terminator back in time to kill him.

It becomes and endless loop.

This is often explained away by using the predestination paradox, which basically means that when a time traveler travels to the past, he travels to fulfill his role in the timeline, not change it. Everything simply happens as its supposed to happen. There is always only one timeline, and it can't be altered.

The Terminator and Kyle Reese traveling in time to the past was always a part of the timeline, and could not be avoided.

In the first movie, this is supported by the picture that is taken from Sarah at the end of the movie, since the photo is the same one that Kyle has in the future.

I could live with this. Predestination. One predetermined, unaltered timeline. Fine.

But.

The second movie craps all over this by making the story all about how we can change the future.

In the second movie, Sarah, John and the Terminator destroy Cyberdyne, which is the company responsible for SkyNet in the future, thus making sure the SkyNet AI never becomes active and never starts an attack against the humans.

All well and good on the surface, but I remember this making my head hurt when I was young:

If the Terminator destroys Cyberdyne, and makes sure SkyNet will never be, then how can he exist in the future and travel to the past?

The predestination paradox doesn't work here, since the theme of the movie is "There's no fate but what we make for ourselves", and it's all about changing the timeline.

Sure, the third movie changes things up once again by making Judgement Day inevitable, but I don't count that, since the movie was made by different people anyway.

I'm only focusing on the first two movies.

If, in the first movie, there was only one timeline, in which the Terminator and Kyle Reese travel back in time to fulfill their roles - including Kyle Reese fathering John Connor - then the second movie makes no sense since SkyNet is destroyed, and the future is altered to be one where there is no war between humans and machines.

Making all this time traveling in the future never taking place.

Anyone else like me and can't help but ponder stuff like this, even though it's pure fiction and unrealistic by design? Is there help available?