10 Greatest Films About Robots
The word robot comes from robota, which in Czech means serf labor. A playwright named Karel Čapek introduced the term in the context of artificial beings in a Rossum’s Universal Robots in 1920, a story about robot slaves revolting against their human owners. The word android preceded robot. It appeared in the novel L’Eve Futur, written in 1886 and depicted on film in 1896.
The concept of artificial beings has long fascinated us. They’ve been depicted as slaves, as formidable creatures, and as beings striving to become human (e.g. Pinocchio).
Robots can serve both as external threat and internal examination. Robots have appeared in hundreds of film and television stories. Here is my selection of ten films that well represent the genre.
10. Blade Runner (1982) — Based on Philip K. Dick’s story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this Ridley Scott film is an odd mixture of film noir and science fiction. Ford plays a retired cop whose expertise is tracking androids.
“Replicants are like any other machine — they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.” — Rick Deckard
9. Westworld (1973) — Before it was an upcoming HBO series and after it was a bestselling book from the great Michael Crichton, Westworld was a film directed by Crichton and starring Yul Brynner, James Brolin, and Richard Benjamin. On a remote island (what is it Crichton had about remote islands?), a “Disneyland for adults” has been built. There are themed areas and our protagonists decide to visit the area themed like the old west. Things get ugly when the robot actors revolt.
“We aren’t dealing with ordinary machines here. These are highly complicated pieces of equipment. Almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they have been designed by other computers. We don’t know exactly how they work.” — Chief Supervisor
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) — Don’t relinquish two hours of your life to the subpar 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves. Watch the 1951 original. An alien named Klaatu arrives on Earth with an important message. As expected, Earth doesn’t respond well to visitors. Fortunately, Klaatu has a formidable robot bodyguard named Gort.
The film presents itself as a modern parable. Klaatu metaphorically represents Christ, returned to Earth to tell us we’re $#%&ing it up, referencing the fears of the time, such as nuclear holocaust.
“I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.” — Klaatu
7. RoboCop (1987) — Paul Verhoeven’s ultraviolent satire is a sharp critique of Reagan era American values. In this film our robot is not totally an artificial lifeform. A police detective named Murphy is gravely injured by a crime lord. A corporation, intending to peddle a robotic future of law enforcement plans to improve PR for their project by giving their prototype a little humanity. What is left of Detective Murphy is implanted in the robotic body, but that spark of humanity may turn out to be a problem for that corporation.
Peter Weller is excellent in the titular role. In particular the physical acting he brings allows Robocop to convincingly appear not as a man in a metal suit, but a robot.
“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!” — Robocop
6. WALL-E (2008) — One of Pixar’s best films. It simultaneously captivates and enthralls children on one level and has their adult companions bawling on another level.
It’s a beautiful story in which a blocky little robot ends up appearing more human than any of the humans in the film.
5. The Iron Giant (1999) — Imagine E.T., if E.T. were a 50 ft (30 m) tall robot that came to Earth in the 1950s, at the heart of the cold war. And Elliot’s name is Hogarth.
Within its animation and science fiction milieu, there is a sweet story that leaves us with two messages — the silliness of the fear of the unknown, and that we are who we choose to be, not who we are born.
“Two nights ago, at approximateley 1900 hours, S.A.T com radar detected an unidentified flying object entering Earth’s atmosphere, losing contact with it two-and-a-half miles off the coast of Rockwell. Some assumed it was a large meteor, or a downed satelite, but my office in Washington received a call from someone reporting an actual encounter with the object. This is no meteor, gentlemen. This is something much more serious.” — Kent Mansley
4. Forbidden Planet (1956) — The story is little more than Shakespeare’s The Tempest, set on another world, but the script is witty and yet pulp. There’s a blend of action and camp. The production impressive. The film is a sharp contrast to the steady flow of cheap, quick, sci-fi schlock that filled the 1950s and yet so 1950s and so a ubiquitous take on the fear of communism. Forbidden Planet is the epitome of 1950s science fiction, and that is why it is great. Society was just coming to grasps with the impact science could have on their lives and communicating that through the arts.
“Alta, about a million years from now the human race will have crawled up to where the Krell stood in their great moment of triumph and tragedy. And your father’s name will shine again like a beacon in the galaxy. It’s true, it will remind us that we are, after all, not God.” — Commander John J. Adams
3. Metropolis (1927) — If you haven’t seen Metropolis in the last six years, you haven’t seen Metropolis. The film has been thoroughly restored and thirty minutes of missing footage reinserted.
Metropolis is Fritz Lang’s take on the future. It is an absolute marvel of imagination and visualization — incredibly impressive for its time and little impressiveness is lost today. It’s a film so visually spectacular that it is a relief that it is a silent film, because the senses could not handle more input.
2. Ex Machina (2015) — Smart. Different. Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and Alicia Vikander all give excellent performances in this story about artificial intelligence that plays as many games with the minds of the viewers as with the characters.
“Isn’t it strange, to create something that hates you?” — Ava
1. The Terminator (1984) — a robotic assassin is sent back in time to kill the woman that would become the mother of a figure that is key in that dystopic future. The Terminator established the careers of James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton.
The Terminator was a low budget film. Compared to its sequel it looks absolutely cheap. The original film cost $6.4 million to make. The sequel cost $102 million. But it works. Arnold was an organic special effect — It was completely believable that under his skin was a steel bodied killing machine.
A staple of science fiction is the time travel story and the paradoxes that come with the loops of logic needed to form a narrative. A killing machine is sent back in time to kill a woman so that she won’t have a child. And yet, because that killing machine goes back in time, another man is sent back to save the woman. That man becomes the father of the child. The Terminator is sent back to prevent the birth of John Connor, but by going back, it creates the conditions required for John Connor to be born.
“Defense network computers. New… powerful… hooked into everything, trusted to run it all. They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.” — Reese
Other films considered for this list include:
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), I, Robot (2004), Bicentennial Man (1999), Big Hero 6 (2014), D.A.R.Y.L (1985), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Short Circuit (1986), Robot and Frank (2012), Cherry 2000 (1987), The Wizard of Oz (1939), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Logan’s Run (1976), Star Wars (1977), Virtuosity (1995), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), S1m0ne (2002), Her (2013), and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005).
What would make your list?
