In 2003, in the Longview State Correctional Facility, the criminal Marcus Wright that is in the death row is convinced by the cancerous Dr. Serena Kogan to donate his body to her research and he accepts. In 2018, after an unsuccessful attack to a Skynet facility, only John Connor survives, but he discovers that Skynet is developing the powerful new model T-800. Out of the blue, Marcus appears naked and with amnesia in the location. Marcus befriends the teenager Kyle Reese and the girl Star that help him to survive to lethal machines and they travel together in a Jeep. Meanwhile the resistance discovers a signal that might turn-off the machines and John offers to test it. When Kyle is captured by a machine and brought to the Skynet headquarter, Marcus decides to help the youngster and heads to Skynet; on the way, he saves Blair Williams that suggests him to meet John Connor first. But Marcus steps on a mine and is submitted to a surgery, when a secret about his origins is disclosed.