Aahana Swrup
‘Terminator Zero,’ the Japanese sci-fi anime, brings a thrilling story that revolves around an everlasting desperation to change fate’s design in the midst of a perpetual battle between humanity and machines. In the year 2022, following humanity’s mass destruction, a few resistance groups continue to survive in the shadows of the rogue AI, Skynet’s overarching strength. Therefore, once a group of survivors realizes that Skynet is sending a Terminator back to the past to tip the odds further in their favor, one survivor, Eiko, follows after him with a mission of her own. As they time travel to 1997, both enemies attempt to change the course of history by changing the future of one man: Malcolm Lee, the creator of the Kokoro AI.
Nevertheless, Eiko and the Terminator’s missions end up putting Malcolm and his three kids in the direct path of a dangerous collision. Thus, these characters’ convoluted pasts entangle with the inescapable judgment day right around the corner. Naturally, their conflicting goals, paired with the complexities of time travel, lead to an explosive—and confounding—conclusion. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Terminator Zero Recap
In the post-apocalyptic world of 2022, robots have overtaken Earth as the dominant species, and humans live in small resistances of survivors. Eiko, a member of one such group, manages to carry out a near-fatal reconnaissance mission, extracting crucial information about their enemies’ plans. In 1997, the year that Skynet destroyed human civilization through a nuclear attack, one prophetic individual, Malcolm Lee, worked towards creating a counter-AI, Kokoro. Thus, the robots plan on sending a Terminator to assassinate the man and subjugate his AI, if possible. As such, the human survivors devise a plan of their own to interfere with Malcolm’s fate long enough to prevent the historical nuclear launch while eliminating Kokoro’s dangerous AI inception from the board.
Even though a Terminator attempts to attack the survivor base to prevent Eiko’s journey—endangering her loved ones in the process—the latter manages to travel back to 1997 successfully. Meanwhile, Malcolm Lee, who is cursed with the knowledge of the future apocalypse following Skynet’s upcoming launch, exhaustively works towards perfecting Kokoro to prevent the same. In doing so, he ends up neglecting his kids, Hiro, Kenta, and Reika, who are left under the supervision of their nanny, Misaki. Consequently, Reika remains upset about her father’s negligence over the anniversary of her mother’s death. For the same reason, she ends up running away from home, with her brothers following after her.
However, after Misaki reaches out to Malcolm and the two set out to bring the kids back home, the Terminator from the future intercepts them. Fortunately, Eiko intervenes and neutralizes the bot long enough to save the duo. After recognizing that he has a target on his back, Malcolm rushes back to his lab, realizing that his efforts must be working. Meanwhile, Eiko deduces that Terminator would likely go after Malcolm’s children to get to him. For the same reason, she takes Misaki hostage to track the kids down. As a result, both Eiko and the Terminator find themselves after Reika and her brothers. Even though the robot manages to get to them faster, Eiko arrives in the nick of time.
In the aftermath, Misaki ends up escaping with Hiro and Kenta, while Eiko and Reika flee from the Terminator. Soon enough, despite reaching out to the police, Misaki and the kids find themselves facing the Terminator as it attacks the station and takes out officer after officer. Yet, after a direct altercation with the robot, wherein it tears Misaki’s arm out, the woman realizes she’s actually a robot with metal and wires for a skeleton and a CPU for a brain. Even though the revelation comes as a shock—to Misaki and the kids both—she remains steadfast in her attempts to keep them safe.
Meanwhile, Eiko attempts to contact Malcolm through Reika, but the father prioritizes his work with Kokoro. Malcolm wants to take Kokoro online so that she can stop Skynet from launching nuclear missiles as soon as they go active. Nonetheless, he’s worried that once he launches his AI, she will come to the same conclusion as Skynet and team up with it to spell out humanity’s doom. Ultimately, as the clock ticks away, he takes a leap of faith and sends Kokoro out to the world. In turn, the AI prevents Skynet’s plans of nuclear warfare, but only for a moment. She decides to give Malcolm a chance to prove humanity’s goodness to her before she decides on whether or not she wants to team up with Skynet.
In the meantime, Kokoro takes over the cities’ machinery, including the helper bots, and establishes her rule over the humans. As for Misaki and Eiko, both decide to travel to Cat Town, an amusement park where they hope to reunite the Lee siblings. Even so, upon reuniting, an attack from the Terminator separates Kenta from the group as he becomes his prisoner. Thus, in the end, the Terminator and Eiko both undertake their trips to Malcolm’s lab in the Cortex Industries to complete their final mission of destroying Kokoro to differing ends.
Terminator Zero Ending: Does Malcolm Convince Kokoro to Save Humanity? What Happens to Him?
After creating Kokoro, the actual hurdle that Malcolm faces remains his mission to convince the AI to see humanity as a species worth saving. Since Kokoro—personified by three apparitions, mind, body, and soul—has all the knowledge in the world, her initial analysis of the humans remains that they are a war-mongering, self-destructive species. Even though Malcolm is unable to argue against this, he insists that humans as a species have a redeeming quality that deserves to be preserved. For the same reason, he remains engaged in conversation with the AI as the time-traveling Terminator and Eiko go after his kids.
Malcolm has been plagued by visions of the future his entire life, carrying the burden of the knowledge that Skynet would destroy humanity as soon as it goes live. For the same reason, he has restlessly worked to create Kokoro. Nonetheless, despite Kokoro’s interception of the nuclear attack, the AI still needs convincing to decide against an alliance with Skynet. Thus, she asks Malcolm for honesty, demanding he explain the truth about his virtually untraceable past and his prophetic abilities. The truth that arrives is the only logical explanation, even if it is surprising.
Malcolm is actually a time traveler from the 2040s. He was born in the post-apocalyptic world and, therefore, knows all about humanity’s future. Since he was 5, he had been a child soldier, fighting against the Terminators and surviving under their tyranny. However, as he grew older, he came to an unconventional solution to beat Skynet: the creation of a better AI. For the same reason, his community outcasted him. Even so, he continued his work and created an AI, Misaki, with her independent thoughts free of his biases. Eventually, after Malcolm’s former community learned about Misaki and attacked them, he killed them and decided to travel back in time with his AI.
Consequently, arriving in 1983, Japan, Malcolm, and Misaki began working on a better AI that supersedes even the latter. Yet, something unexpected happened after he fell in love with a woman and welcomed three kids into his life. As he’s recalling the tale, he realizes he knows how to convince Kokoro of humanity’s goodness and asks her to bring his kids to the lab. As such, once the Terminator brings Kenta to Malcolm, it can easily pass through the various security protocols.
Even so, Malcolm refuses to open the lab door—a last line of defense—for the Terminator, knowing he can’t jeopardize Kokoro’s safety. Eventually, as Kenta’s painful screams compel him to open the door, Eiko and Misaki arrive in the eleventh hour, leading to a showdown. In the end, as Eiko fights the Terminator and stands on the precipice of losing, Malcolm intervenes and saves her life. Nonetheless, he loses his own life in the process—a result he knew he was signing himself for when he saved the woman.
As Malcolm is dying, he talks to Kokoro one last time to make her understand the real goodness of humanity—a phenomenon he proves through his own selfless sacrifice. Therefore, Malcolm’s love for his kids and humanity showcases a new side of the species to Kokoro, who finally merges into one golden being, arriving at her self-actualized self. In the end, she decides against teaming up with Skynet and chooses to save humanity from the other AI’s nuclear attack, for now at least. In the aftermath, she also keeps Malcolm’s body preserved—showcasing the significant effect he had on her. Therefore, as of now, Kokoro seems to want humanity’s safety.
Does Kenta Die? Why Does the Terminator Spare His Life?
Even though Eiko ends up getting sidetracked from her mission to defeat Kokoro in her attempts to save Malcolm and keep the Terminator away from the AI—the latter time traveler focuses only on his one mission. However, while it is unrestrained in killing anyone who stands in his path, it doesn’t extend the same brutality to Kenta. For instance, when it initially tries to get to Malcolm’s lab, it threatens Kenta’s life but doesn’t follow through. Likewise, he intentionally saves Kenta’s life during the final battle between him, Eiko, and Misaki. Even after the Terminator kills Malcolm and leaves to destroy Kokoro, it takes Kenta with it to the building’s EMP.
The EMP, an electromagnetic pulse, can be used to dispel a wave that would kill every robot within the building. The Terminator has concluded that it cannot subjugate Kokoro to assimilate her with Skynet. For the same reason, it has decided her destruction would be the ideal outcome. Nevertheless, it cannot activate the EMP on its own since the pulse would kill The Terminator as well. The action—a technical suicide—is in direct violation of its programming. As such, it asks Kenta to activate the device and reveals the real reason for its trust.
As it turns out, Kenta—or at least his future self—is the creator behind the Terminator bots. In the future, the boy goes on to broker an alliance between humanity and Skynet—the first of its kind. Consequently, future Kenta actually sends Terminator to destroy Kokoro, assuring him that his past self will carry out the plan’s final stage. However, Kokoro’s robots end up tearing the Terminator apart while Kenta contemplates the unforeseen moral dilemma he has found himself in.
Does Kokoro Go Offline? Does Eiko Complete Her Mission?
Throughout the show, Kenta has been fascinated by machines, but only within an academic capacity. Unlike Malcolm, his oldest son doesn’t extend the same level of human personification to robots, deeming them unable to feel emotions. For the same reason, he had been callous toward Misaki after learning she was a robot. Nonetheless, the past few hours have drastically changed his worldview. Thus, as Kokoro arrives to talk to Kenta, he takes in her argument. Malcolm’s death showcased the best of humanity to the AI. Therefore, she chooses to trust his son. If Kenta activates the EMP, Kokoro will no longer be able to withhold Skynet’s nuclear attack. Nonetheless, she won’t stop him from making his decision.
Ultimately, Kenta decides against activating the EMP and chooses not to destroy Kokoro. Thus, in the end, Eiko’s mission fails. However, whether or not allowing Kokoro to live puts humanity on a course toward destruction remains yet to be seen. In any case, they have managed to avoid the Skynet-sanctioned judgment day in this timeline, at least. Eiko also learns a new truth about her own future that shifts her worldview. Before dying, Malcolm reveals that he’s actually Eiko’s son from a future she hasn’t lived yet. The same introduces a substantial paradox within the narrative, intertwining Eiko’s past and future in a complex jumble. Therefore, with his dying breath, he gives her a new future: maintaining the safety of humanity and her grandchildren.
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