Kyle Reese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kyle Reese | |
|---|---|
 Kyle Reese in The Terminator |
|
| First appearance | The Terminator |
| Last appearance | Terminator 2: Judgment Day |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Year of birth | 2007-2008 |
| Year of death | May 1984 |
| Occupation | Soldier |
| Relationships | Sarah Connor |
| Children | John Connor |
| Portrayed by | Michael Biehn |
| Created by | James Cameron |
Kyle Reese (2008–2029/1984), played by Michael Biehn, is the main fictional character and hero of the first Terminator film, father of John Connor, and brief lover to Sarah Connor.
[edit] Character history
Kyle Reese was a soldier in the post-apocalyptic future of the Terminator universe (where most of humanity had been wiped out by an artificial intelligence entity known as Skynet). Reese was one of the last remaining human survivors of the war on humanity launched by the self-aware computer system, Skynet, being himself born after the war.
Reese survived the capture and killing of his fellow humans only to serve as a worker in one of Skynet's concentration camps, where he and others were forced to load huge numbers of bodies into Skynet's machines to be exterminated. Reese's freedom would come when a resistance movement, led by John Connor (whom Reese would unwittingly father later in the movie), freed him and the others from Skynet. After the camps Reese served in the 132nd under Perry from 2021 to 2027 before transferring as a sergeant to Tech-Com under John Connor himself. John Connor and the resistance would eventually rally enough remaining humans and resources to launch an assault on Skynet.
The final assault would eventually allow the human resistance to cripple Skynet, as Reese explains in The Terminator. The resistance was able to destroy Skynet's defense grid allowing them to enter Skynet's main complex and attempt to destroy it. Skynet however would have a final move left: using time displacement equipment, Skynet would send one of its most feared machines back (the Terminator) to 1984 to kill the young Sarah Connor, known to have been the mother of resistance leader John Connor, and thus prevent the birth of Connor and his future rebellion.
Realizing what Skynet was attempting to do, John Connor would send back a soldier to protect himself from the machine menace. It would be Reese who would volunteer himself to go back. Once Reese had gone through, the time travel equipment would be destroyed leaving only Reese and the Terminator in 1984.
Arriving unarmed and not knowing what the Terminator looks like in its disguise, Reese locates Sarah Connor, warning her of the impending doom of the human race and of the future significance carried by her and her unborn son. Though initially hostile towards Reese, Sarah grows to trust and love him as he becomes the only thing between her and the Terminator. On the run from the Terminator, Reese and Sarah share a night of intimacy in which John Connor is conceived.
Reese's life however is cut short when both he and Sarah are forced to confront the Terminator. Reese receives a number of fatal blows while attempting to destroy the Terminator and is killed. Sarah Connor goes on to destroy the crippled cyborg and cement her resolve to ready herself for the impending future.
Having grown up in the future where the machines had all but wiped out the human race, Reese is both physically and mentally hardened. His body is scarred from numerous battles with Skynet and he has a number of burns as a result of the time travel process.
Though hard and battle weary, Reese had a love for Sarah Connor, a woman whom he'd never met and only through a photo could identify. The affection Reese felt for Sarah was based on the legend that surrounded her and on the image of her from the photograph given to him by John Connor.
[edit] Trivia
Before, Reese and another soldier named "Sumner" were sent to protect Sarah from the Terminator, but Sumner died upon arriving after the time portal fused him into a fire escape (the sequels show the time displacement field melting whatever object is in the way). In the original script, Reese says to Silberman: "The Terminator had already gone through. Connor sent two of us, but Sumner didn't make it." Coincidentally, the second actor to play a Terminator, Robert Patrick, went on to play a character called "Sumner" in Stargate: Atlantis.
A still shot of Kyle Reese was used as the basis for a pose held by Solid Snake on the box art for the MSX game Metal Gear, right down to the gear he is wearing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was the original choice to play Reese while director James Cameron intended to use a thinner, more ordinary looking actor as the Terminator, his first choice being Lance Henriksen. Upon meeting Schwarzenegger, Cameron decided to cast him as the Terminator instead, and Henriksen was made a police detective.
Michael Biehn almost didn't get the role of Reese because, at his audition, he spoke in a Southern accent after having just auditioned for a role in a stage production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof earlier that day and couldn't shake the accent, and the producers did not want Reese to seem regionalized. After Biehn's agent explained this to the producers, he got a second audition and won the part.
The original screen treatment gave Reese's age as 21, while a later draft gave his age as 22. In real life, Michael Biehn was 27 at the time that he was cast as Reese.
Reese's height is 6'0" (1.83 meters).
