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This question is aimed at Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Would one think that he was weighing the decision that "It is either that this T-800 could end up going rogue" or "It is worth a shot or else I would have to send a human back again and this time another Terminator (what we come to find is the T-1000) would be way too advanced for a human to fight."

Is there any explanation in sources (particularly the novel or from James Cameron) on why John would risk doing this?

Jenayah
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Wanting Answers
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    Worst case scenario if sending a human against the T-1000: human gets squished, as well as young John. Probability: 99,99%. Worst case scenario if sending a (presumably well) reprogrammed T-800 against the T-1000: young John gets squished. Probability: <99% if your hacker knows their job. Seems pretty straightforward? – Jenayah Jun 03 '19 at 12:40
  • Jenayah: Not hacker, the chip being self aware itself. Something tells me that a Skynet microchip is susceptible to going rogue by itself. The whole cybernetic organism is basically advanced AI. – Wanting Answers Jun 03 '19 at 22:56
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    "Something tells me that a Skynet microchip is susceptible to going rogue by itself." I'm gonna turn this back on you. "Is there any explanation in sources (particularly the novel or from James Cameron)" to suggest that a Skynet microchip is susceptible to going rogue by itself? – Gregor Thomas Jun 04 '19 at 14:42
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    @Gregor - Well, Skynet itself was a system that went rogue. I think that speaks to the possibility of its systems going rogue. – Theo Brinkman Jun 04 '19 at 20:08
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    Skynet "doesn't want you to do too much thinking". It's a "learning computer" but the default when sent out alone is read-only. Terminator 2 deleted scenes – Mazura Jun 05 '19 at 02:24
  • The "Uncle Bob" terminator says that future-John sent it, but it might not be telling the truth. The Catherine Weaver rogue terminator faction from Chronicles is interested in protecting John and influencing him to think favourably about machines. – Gaultheria Jun 05 '19 at 04:39
  • Further information is available in a scene that was never even filmed: Extended Future War Sequence. but neither of those scenes are necessary with the line that is in the movie: ("Who sent you?") "You did. 35 years from now you reprogrammed me to be your protector here - in this time." - if you can hack ATMs and reprogram Terminators, go nuts. (the novelization is excerpting the Future War scene from the Illustrated Script) – Mazura Jun 06 '19 at 23:38
  • @Gregor: Gregor: There is also that scene towards the end of the 2nd movie to where the T-800 points to its head and states "One more chip, it needs to be destroyed." There could be two reasons for explaining this. 1.)The T-800 knew that its chip could go rogue at some point or 2.) It was just to tell John and Sarah that someone could get their hands on it and either use it to reprogram the T-800 or use it to restart Skynet. We know it that no one is coming close to its head unless it is a stronger Terminator. This leaves the assumptiong that the T-800 knew the chip was unstable. – Wanting Answers Jun 09 '19 at 01:32
  • @WantingAnswers - nope. That's explained in a third deleted scene, where grandma Sarah talks about how 'judgement day' came to pass, and things like Michael Jackson turning forty happened instead. The only thing going rogue here is the timeline, which at the end of T2, Cameron was smart enough to not wrap it all up for us in a bow. Instead we see a dark road that leads us to several million more dollars in ticket sales. – Mazura Jun 11 '19 at 00:41

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The film's official novelisation gives us the only answer that could possibly suffice. John Connor sent the T-800 back in time to protect his younger self...because he remembered being rescued by one when he was his younger self.

They passed numerous galleries filled with hulking machines, now cold and motionless; a vast library of strategic technology Skynet had designed and built. Even John’s vaunted techs would need years to study it all. And once having deciphered the machines’ functions, John would have to decide whether to destroy them, or trust that the new society rising up from the ashes could use them responsibly.

He had no information to guide him in this, no memories of the past resonating with his future. On what happens after today, John didn’t have a clue. But as he walked up to a massive steel door, the memories of the past flooded into his present. John knew he was looking at the door of fate. He knew that behind it he would find what he was looking for: the final answer to the question that had haunted him all his life. Was all of it true? Even to the last?

It's not clear if this is a stable time loop (in which case, there doesn't need to be an original causation) or whether the earlier (later?) John had a different motivation.

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Valorum
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    I'd also add, because he knew that getting to know that machine would be/was a major asset later/earlier in the war when he needed to understand them - mentally and physically. – Frank Hopkins Jun 03 '19 at 22:49
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    This is technically the correct answer. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy in the original continuity. – Mark Rogers Jun 03 '19 at 23:21
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    @MarkRogers it also plays nicely with how time travel worked in the first movie. It's all a loop, apparently. There are definitely other problems with time travel, however, at least there is consistency between the two installments in this regard. – VLAZ Jun 04 '19 at 05:23
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    I'd note the extended version (that I watched yesterday) adds a scene with old Sarah in 2029 explaining how they saved the day, the nuclear war didn't happen, and John is a US Senator. It would seem paradoxical to me for him to remember T-800. Although I'd also note that ending doesn't address the T-800 arm they leave behind in that steel mill, even though half the movie is spent trying to destroy the T-800 arm from the previous movie. – AmiralPatate Jun 04 '19 at 14:27
  • @AmiralPatate They took that arm to be thorough; their objective was to stop reverse engineering of the CPU. – Cees Timmerman Jun 06 '19 at 12:39
  • @CeesTimmerman There are 3 arms in the movie. The one from Cyberdyne (from the 1st movie), plus the two attached to T-800 at the start. When fighting T-1000, one arm gets cut off. The first from Cyberdyne is thrown in the pit. Arnold throws himself in the pit with one arm attached. The last one is not picked up on screen, not thrown on screen, and not visibly carried by T-800 either. As far as I can tell, it's not accounted for. I figure that's why we got 3 mediocre sequels, but the extended edition basically acts as if that doesn't happen either. Paradox! – AmiralPatate Jun 06 '19 at 17:10
  • @AmiralPatate - Some crushed metal that looks like someone's prosthetic arm (made out of coltan steel) is not sufficient to create a Terminator or even inspire new chip designs. – Valorum Jun 06 '19 at 17:18
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In the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Today is the Day (part 2)", young John Connor answers this question in a speech he makes to Jesse.

You know, I've been running from the machines my whole life. They tried to kill my mom before I was even born. When I was twelve they sent one after me. I was a kid. I was stupid. I didn't know what it was all about. Both times future me sent someone back to stop them. The first time it was a soldier. His name was Kyle Reese. And he died saving my mother's life. The second time it was a machine. I used to wonder why I did that, why I took that chance. I don't wonder anymore.

Human beings can't be replaced. They can't be rebuilt. They die and they never come back.

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Kyle Jones
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    This seems to be just a fanciful retcon from a separate source (canonicity regardless), when the official novelisation has its own explanation which is at least more directly related, as cited in Valorum's answer. – Nij Jun 04 '19 at 05:13
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    @Nij There's nothing wrong with answering a question using information that comes to light later, retcon or not. Addressing characterization and continuity questions is one of the reasons why retcons happen in the first place. – jpmc26 Jun 04 '19 at 16:43
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    @Nij, the neat thing is that the two reasons (in Kyle's answer and Valorum's) aren't mutually contradictory in the slightest. He was willing to risk it in the first place because people die, but machines can be rebuilt/replaced. He knew it could succeed, because remembered that it was done, so he did it. (Note: I say 'could', because remembering that one was sent to save him doesn't mean that the one in Valorum's answer was necessarily the one that was sent and succeeded. Older John could have sent dozens, but only one found younger John. Younger John would never know that.) – Theo Brinkman Jun 04 '19 at 20:15
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There is a third possibility: simple escalation.

As an adult having both grown up with Sarah's stories and having seen what the more advanced cyborgs could do as a child, John would have known that leaving his past-self defenseless against an advanced future weapon would be both dangerous and foolhardy, and that his chances of survival would increase if he sent back some other type of weapon to even the playing field.

"Pops", the T-800 which became Sarah's protector, was simply one off the assembly line...and is a possible alternate universe version of the same T-800 which would eventually have been sent back to protect John himself. So in truth, there are hundreds or maybe even thousands of T-800s with that particular face and body which could have been used. In the second movie, it was stated that that specific unit [we'll say "Pops" for clarification against the others] was "reprogrammed" to be used as a Protector.We have seen humans reprogram Skynet tech of various forms for their own use in Terminator: Salvation. As Kyle is still a teenager, it's clear that this point of the future is set some time before Kyle could father John, so it may simply be that they only had the programming tech necessary to hack an 800 model or below. By the time the T-1000 was deployed, the Resistance may not have been able yet to fully control a liquid metal nano-tech Terminator, but still needed to send some Terminator as a counter measure.

Again, this makes logical sense; sending a human back resulted in Sarah just barely surviving, so obviously something with a bit more power needed to be used. Without wrapping them in human flesh, sending weapons back is impossible, and they'd likely end up in the wrong hands. Sending back a thinking machine which could double as a guardian and a weapon, however, while also being somewhat of an exception to the rule is sensible.

There is another, also likely answer: simple availability.

In most of the future scenes shown in T2, the most numerous and commonly used combat Terminators by far are the T-800; we see them stepping on skulls and massacring hordes of soldiers on a few occasions. Obviously, it was mass produced, so it's likely this is the unit the Resistance had the most opportunity to study to facilitate their reprogramming. From there, it was a simple matter of gaining a fully cyberized version [likely one mass produced with Pops' face], resetting the programming, and sending it out. In hindsight, it might have made more sense to send a T-1000 to defend against a T-1000, but in that film it was stated to be a "new model", so it was either rare at that point, or they hadn't deciphered how to reprogram one yet.

If that was the case, John simply would have gone with what was available.

All subsequent appearances of Pops, however, would then be influenced by John's memories of the specific model; even Pops himself alluded to it being "a face John would trust" in the second film. And in the third film, they were banking on John recognizing his former protector and thus trusting him/it more off the bat. I can't speak to how the latest films may alter that continuity.

Russhiro
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