When Does "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" (2003) Take Place?
"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" is a science fiction film written by John Brancato with Michael Ferris and Tedi Sarafian that released July 2nd, 2003. So when is "Rise of the Machines" set?
It takes place in the year:
We know this because Sarah Connor's grave marker reads: "SARAH CONNOR 1959 - 1997 NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE" so it must be after 1997 AD.
2004 AD
We know this because Sarah Connor's grave marker reads: "SARAH CONNOR 1959 - 1997 NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE" so it must be after 1997 AD.
More specifically, early in the movie the T-101 Terminator's digital heads-up-display registers a wristwatch it finds as "ACCURATE" and counts down extremely rapidly until stopping for just an instant at "07.24.2004" representing July 24th, 2004 AD.
The narrative wraps on the very next day (which must be July 25th, 2004 AD) so it ends in the same calendar year.
[HOWEVER, John Connor says to Katherine "Kate" Brewster, "Wait a second, you and me hooked up the day before I first met him?", referring to the events of the previous film, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991) which takes place in 1995 AD and then, immediately, "And now, again 10 years later?" This would place the story in 2005 AD. John simply rounding up is unlikely here because, earlier, John Connor also refers to "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" (1991) when he says to the T-101 Terminator, "We took out Cyberdyne over 10 years ago!" not something more like 'We took out Cyberdyne almost 10 years ago!' Though his rounding up or speaking without careful mathematical accuracy is still more likely than the T-101's programming or sensors being inaccurate in the scene with the wristwatch.
1995 + 10 = 2005.]
It is the third chronological film in the Terminator universe and can be watched at its timeline point.
It was adapted to prose in 2003 and as a video game in late 2003.
