In the future, some year (20xx), Kyle is sent back by the Resistance leader John Connor to the past, before he is conceived, to protect her. Kyle ends up becoming the father. So, following a time-loop, Connot knew that he was sending his father back so that Connor himself could exist. (Time paradox – can’t do anything there)

In the new movie, when Bale’s Connor learns that Kyle is a target, he finds and protects him. He needs to, for his own survival, because (if there is a Part-5) a few years later, Connor will send this Kyle back in time. But if Kyle gets killed before that, Connor himself won’t exist, and an alternate time-line will be established.

Since the events of T4 are, in Kyle’s timeline, before he’s gone back to the past to meet Sarah Connor, he is still a young fighter. In a few years, he will grow to a more able man who fights the first Terminator-Arnie.

… btw check out “Dirty Deeds” for a really good performance of Sam Worthington … and yes they should have played the Bale outrage when the end credits were rolling (thats humor!) … this previously R-rated movie frachise needed his f-bomb desperately … cos since when do people not swear in war … LOL not even a FRACK!

… and I was wondering … what’s the explanation that Kyle is younger then his son John ?

As far as I remember in Part I Kyle was sent from the future to protect Sarah Conner aka future-mum of the hero. He impregnates her and the baby is John (but he was not supposed to shag her, was he ?)

In part II mum is in the loony bin, John is a rebellious young boy and Arnie is send from the future to protect young John cos we learn he’s gonna be a valuable asset of the resistance in a few years.

In part III John is a bit older then in part II as time progresses in-between, he’s on the run, and Arnie is back again to protect John and his soon-to-be wife Kate. Ok so far so good.

Now a few years later – it’s 2018 – we are in part IV. John is a bad mutha of a grown man with a big gun, his wife Kate is pregnant with John jr.

Ok, so how does a YOUNG Kyle fit in ?

I haven’t seen the first two flicks in years so I might not remember key details but it’s bugging me that in part IV there is no time wasted to explain a little bit for those who are not into the terminator-mythology.

So wassup with this Kyle dude ? I asked several guys after the screening and they all shrugged with their shoulders …

In a sense, I think McG succeeds by making a movie that is such a departure and yet liked by the audience. Equalling or even holding up against the Cameron movies was an impossible task – and the main reason T3 got bad reviews. What he does here is set up a completely different format by (1) setting it up *during* the War of the Machines instead of the present day, and (2) by shaking off the necessity to have an Arnold Terminator for the entirety of the movie — something which is physically not possible now. As Fizz mentions in his review, this is now about the Mythology that the title represents rather than the character it referred to. Another two days and we come to know of the Box Office potential that this has, and the possibility of the two sequels so talked about. If they do get greenlit, then McG has done himself a favour in setting up the format, the world, the characters and the expectations for what is to come. If (and a strong If) the sequels do what this movie did in a little better way (especially with the Kyle-Connor dynamics), then McG is possibly looking at the new generation also becoming fans.