Kyle Reese is the resistance soldier who becomes John Connor’s father in The Terminator.
John Connor sends Reese from the post-apocalyptic future to protect Sarah Connor from the T-800. Reese explains that John leads humanity’s resistance against Skynet and that the machine’s mission is to prevent John’s birth by killing Sarah.
The film reveals that Reese and Sarah become intimate during the crisis, making Reese John’s biological father. This creates a closed time loop: John sends Reese into the past, and Reese becomes the father of the person who will eventually send him back.
Kyle Reese is played by Michael Biehn. The character is not the same as Marcus Wright, the human protagonist played by Sam Worthington in Terminator Salvation. Reese also appears in Terminator Genisys, where the franchise presents an altered version of his history.