In The Terminator, which actor plays Kyle Reese?

Michael Biehn plays Kyle Reese in The Terminator (1984). Reese is a soldier sent from the future to protect Sarah Connor from the Terminator dispatched to kill her.

The film establishes Reese as a member of the human resistance led by John Connor. He knows the Terminator’s capabilities because he has fought machines in the future war, but his mission takes place decades before that conflict reaches its full scale.

Reese also explains the franchise’s central time-travel paradox: John Connor sends him into the past, and Reese becomes Sarah’s partner and John’s biological father. This means John’s future leadership helps create the circumstances that lead to his own birth.

Biehn reprised the character in a brief dream sequence in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He also appeared in other science-fiction films, including Aliens, but his role as Reese remains one of his best-known performances.