Terminator 2 was part of the Causal Loop/Fixed Timeline

[Mutant 77]

This is it. No sequels. There are no sequels at all.

Terminator 2 was part of the same fixed timeline where T1 takes place. Future creates past, past creates future.

As simple as that:

1965 - Sarah Connor is born.
1984 - The events of "The Terminator".
1985 - John Connor is born.
1994 - The events of "Terminator 2". John is 9 years old (he looks 13).
1997 - Judgment Day.
2000 - Kyle Reese is born in a post-nuclear America.
2027 - Kyle Reese meets John Connor.
2029 - Skynet is defeated. Two Terminators are sent back in time: (Evil) T-800 and T-1000.


Well, if you think about it:

1- Thanks to the events in T2 and their premise, John had the chance to spend some time in the States, and thus learn what was America before the Judgment Day. Remember: by the end of T1, it was apparent that Sarah was willing to spend her life in Mexico, no matter what, "off the grid".
Now we know that John knew civilization before the apocalypse, and how he came to know that.

2- Thanks to the events of T2, they (scientists) kinda shaped a less powerful Skynet because they destroyed the T-800 arm at the Cyberdyne (that's why Skynet conceived the Terminators so late) and Dyson's main work. Without Dyson, they developed Skynet the way it "always" was.
Plus, they just made Cyberdyne blow to the point Skynet never found any trace of the "1984 incident" where chip and arm had been retrieved.

3- Thanks to the events of T2, we can see how Sarah became a soldier and raised John Connor the way he was and will be.



More thoughts:

T-1000 helped to shape John Connor, Uncle Bob helped to shape Skynet.


T-1000:

1- Made John Connor rejoin Sarah Connor after some time, and SHOWED John Connor that Sarah was not crazy and her "vision" of the future was true.

2- Gave John Connor a psychological boost to "speed up" his future counteroffensive against Skynet, before Skynet would create terrible weapons like T-1000. And INDEED, he defeated Skynet in 2029, when T-1000 was just a prototype.

3- Made Sarah escape from Pescadero before Judgment Day.


Uncle Bob:

1- By destroying the "main" building of Cyberdyne, it pushed American government to invest money on the alternative Cyberdyne branch, and that's even because the attack was "perceived" as being a terrorist act from some foreign country.

2- With Dyson's death, someone more capable picked up the work and just created Skynet. Maybe Dyson had some limits.



Perfect causal loop.

[ChrisIII]

Although I know you don't want to bring the other sequels into this, the idea that Cyberdyne's patents were taken over by Army research was actually an idea in T3 but was deleted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayFrIR-Qfw

[Mutant 77]

Although I know you don't want to bring the other sequels into this, the idea that Cyberdyne's patents were taken over by Army research was actually an idea in T3 but was deleted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayFrIR-Qfw

Indeed.

As simple as that, Cyberdyne had more buildings, not just one. Dyson's work had been backupped somewhere anyway (and he didn't know it).

[Scott Taylor]

Although I know you don't want to bring the other sequels into this, the idea that Cyberdyne's patents were taken over by Army research was actually an idea in T3 but was deleted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayFrIR-Qfw

This is the reason I like to include T3 in the loop, just because it explains how SkyNet still could have occurred without Dyson and Cyberdine. That part helps close the loop, even if other parts of the movie possibly introduce other issues.