[genewitch]

But the movie is about a robot assassin, it came out when robotic assassins needed a background story.

Make terminator today and you don't need time travel, just Boston robotics with latex skin and a rocket launcher, I guess.

The time travel is a trope to handwave the mechanics of a movie - you want to tell a story about one character and a robot, why should the audience care? PH this human leads a resistance that's why.