The woman who gave birth to the leader of the human resistance against Skynet probably ought to keep a low profile on social media.
Except Financial Times reporter and Twitter user Sarah O’Connor is not, in fact, robot-fighting Sarah Connor from the Terminator series.
The latter is the mother of John Connor, the man who will fight back against the Terminators after the inevitable nuclear apocalypse. And O’Conner’s name is close enough to make any tweet about killer robots an invitation for tomfoolery.
A robot has killed a worker in a VW plant in Germany http://t.co/RRdCnNmbsj
— Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
@sarahoconnor_ And so it begins…
— Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara (@Te_Taipo) July 1, 2015
https://twitter.com/TripleSixGod/status/616313028573696000
@ElliotAndersonv @sarahoconnor_ I knew it would come to this. I just didn’t think it would be so soon! Get my 40-watt pulse rifle!
— Steve Sebelius (@SteveSebelius) July 1, 2015
O’Connor is reporting on a real tragedy. A contractor installing a manufacturing robot at a Volkswagen factory near Kassel, Germany, was killed when the robot somehow pressed him against a metal plate.
The sudden attention on the news story about the accident could be further fueled by the unfortunate keyword parallels between the fictional and real-life stories. Sarah Connor killed the T-800 model assassination machine by smashing it under a hydraulic press in a factory in The Terminator.
https://twitter.com/TheExcel/status/616309588510572544
Now O’Connor is garnering followers who may be expecting updates on when the war against the machines will begin, despite her attempts to put a lid on The Terminator fans’ enthusiasm.
https://twitter.com/Kennigit/status/616301100036157440
https://twitter.com/LornestoToledo/status/616311754012930048
@sarahoconnor_ @sarahoconnor_ @edbott Only the true Sarah Connor would deny her follow-worthiness.
— Horace Dediu (@asymco) July 1, 2015
Feeling really uncomfortable about this inadvertent Twitter thing I seem to have kicked off. Somebody died. Let’s not forget.
— Sarah O’Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
Screengrab via Terminator Genisys