Terminator Zero is a Netflix anime series focusing on humanity’s efforts to combat the threat of a deadly AI called Skynet.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
In 2022, Eiko and her fellow rebels infiltrate a facility to gain crucial information about Skynet’s plans. She is the only survivor but she gets what she came for.
Skynet controls everything in a post-apocalyptic world and is trying to ensure its survival by sending terminators back in time to assassinate anyone who might jeopardize its cause.
In 1997, Malcolm Lee worked with an alternate AI named Kokoro in Tokyo to avoid “judgment day” and save humanity from Skynet.
He has nightmares about the future and does his best to stop it. He leaves his children, Kenta, Heiro, and Reika with their caretaker, Misaki, back home.
He believes Kokoro can be the difference between survival and utter destruction, but he must convince the AI that humans are worth saving.
The resistance realizes that Skynet is sending a terminator back to target Malcolm Lee, so they send Eiko. Before she leaves, she gets advice from The Prophet, the leader of the resistance.
Malcolm is so focused on avoiding the future that he neglects his children. Reika is disappointed in him because he cannot take them to the park on their mother’s death anniversary.
He also has a dislike for all robots, so when Misaki brings home an android cat, he orders her to get rid of it.
Kenta wants to open it up and learn how it works but Reika treats it like a real cat and wants to keep it safe. She sneaks out with it so Kenta and Heiro go after her.
Misaki notices they are gone and calls Malcolm. She goes to Cortex Industries where he works and they search for his children together.
The Terminator interrupts them, but Eiko arrives in time to help. Kenta and Heiro catch up with Reika who wants to go to the amusement park Cat Town because it was their mother’s favorite
Malcolm rushes back to speak to Kokoro and tells Misaki to find the children. Eiko tells Misaki that she is there to help and needs to know where the children might be too.
Eiko insists that the Terminator is the one to fear because it has a singular mission and will not divert but Misaki is unsure about that.
The Terminator realizes that Cortex Industries is impenetrable so it goes to their house. He finds the box of the cybercat and uses its network to track the children.
He catches up to them in the subway tunnels and tries to grab the children but Misaki and Eiko show up on time to save them.
They run away and Misaki, Kenta, and Heiro get separated from Eiko and Reika. Misaki takes the children to the police station, while Eiko leads Reika to her father.
She runs into trouble with the police and a high-speed chase ensues. The Terminator goes to the police station where he massacres everyone.
Misaki tries to protect the children and the Terminator pulls off her arm, revealing that she is also a cyborg.
They get away but Kenta doesn’t trust Misaki because of this new development. Malcolm aims to convince Kokoro before getting it online, but she doesn’t seem convinced.
He is too late, as Skynet comes online in Los Angeles and fires the nukes just like Malcolm predicted. He brings Kokoro online and she saves Tokyo to give him some more time.
She is not entirely convinced but is willing to listen to his arguments. Eiko was there to stop Kokoro because either she joins Skynet, or her war with Skynet leaves no survivors.
After failing her mission, she believes all is lost but Reika tells her that since this is a new timeline, anything is possible.
Kokoro takes control of a line of helper bots called ‘1NNO’ and uses them to take over the city. She promises to protect them as long as they comply.
The children conclude that they need to find each other and both parties head to Cat Town because that is where the other is mostly headed.
Kokoro asks Malcolm if he ever lost someone he loved so he talks about his wife. She died while on the bus with Reika, and he believed it was to get to him.
He wanted to believe that it was a conspiracy but eventually accepted that she died in an accident that had nothing to do with him or his cause.
Misaki, Heiro, and Kenta run into some trouble and Misaki kills the men attacking them to protect the children.
Kenta holds a gun to Misaki’s head because he still doesn’t trust her completely but Heiro stops him because she saved his life.
The Terminator goes after the children because he knows that they will help him convince Malcolm to shut down Kokoro.
Kokoro wishes to know how Malcolm is so certain of the future, and he finally reveals that he traveled back in time with Misaki.
He was born in 2025 and was recruited to the war effort as a young child. He studied the machines and believed they could change their minds, but his ideas were considered blasphemy.
He decided to build intelligence by himself and give it free will. This eventually turned out to be Misaki, Kokoro’s spiritual “mother”.
When they were discovered, they traveled back in time to approach the problem differently, by creating Kokoro.
In her present, The Prophet explains the paradox of time travel to Eiko and tells her that once she goes back, it is a whole new timeline that is born.
The children converge at Cat Town, but the Terminator captures Kenta and takes him as a hostage to Cortex Industries.
He threatens Kenta’s life but Malcolm doesn’t open the door to Kokoro’s mainframe. Eiko, Misaki, Heiro, and Reika are escorted to Cortex by Kokoro for the final resolution.
Ending explained:
There’s no fighting fate
Malcolm doesn’t agree to let the Terminator in but when he hears Kenta’s cries, he walks out. He tells the Terminator that since Kokoro’s already online, there is no stopping her.
Eiko and Misaki show up and try to stop him but he escapes with Kenta. Malcolm says that the Terminator is going for the EMP in the building to shut Kokoro down.
Eiko and Misaki try to stop him while the other children go with Malcolm. A fight ensues as Malcolm tells Kokoro that she might finally realize his vision.
A very difficult choice
Malcolm and the children watch as the Terminator fights off Misaki and Eiko. He incapacitates Misaki and then crushes Eiko’s hand.
Malcolm rushes to stop him and gets shot in the chest. The terminator walks away with Kenta while Misaki and the others gather around Malcolm.
He tells Eiko that she is his mother and her goal now is protect her grandchildren. He also repeats a line she heard from The Prophet before she came back.
The Terminator arms the EMP and tells Kenta that he must activate it because he cannot do it. He explains that he was sent to the past by him.
In the future, Kenta brokers a peace between Skynet and the humans, but Kokoro will kill him if he doesn’t shut it down.
Learning to be the be good and kind
After watching Malcolm sacrifice himself, Kokoro realizes what she must do. She sends the 1NNOs after the Terminator and they destroy it.
She comes face to face with Kenta and tells him that she got to see the best and worst of humanity, but she wants to follow the best.
She gives him a choice and he aborts the EMP. Misaki and Eiko take the children and head underground, unsure of what lies in their future, while Kokoro protects them from Skynet.
Kenta still doesn’t know what to believe, but for now, he trusts Misaki and his father’s hope that they will achieve great things in their future.
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