Everyone loved robots, and they have been the source of umpteen movies, books, and comics. In homage to the robots of film, we have picked the 10 greatest. This list is restricted entirely to robots in movies – there are no robots here from television. I have also excluded robots that are part of a large group, such as the droid army from Attack of the Clones.
Johnny 5 (originally called “S-A-I-N-T Prototype Number 5″) is the fictional robotic star of the movies Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2 and a TV special called Hot Cars, Cold Facts. He is a former military robot imbued with intelligence and sentience by a lightning bolt, and is considered to be alive in the philosophical sense, as he has emotions and is self-aware. Johnny 5 is very curious and inquisitive with an almost insatiable thirst for “input” of just about any kind, but he is especially fond of books and television. While he started life as a military prototype he has a great respect for life and refuses to use his capabilities to harm others, even when they have no such compunctions towards him. He is very intelligent and inventive with an encyclopedic knowledge, but can be quite naive and child-like at times and can be too eager to trust people that he shouldn’t. [More]
The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (Sylvia Plath’s husband). Brad Bird directed the film, which stars a voice cast of Eli Marienthal as Hogarth Hughes, as well as Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald and John Mahoney. The film tells the story of a lonely boy raised by his single mother, discovering a giant amnesiac “iron man” that fell from space. Hogarth, with the help of a beatnik named Dean, has to stop a military force and an egotistical federal agent from finding and destroying the Giant out of paranoia. [More]
Mechagodzilla is Godzilla’s mechanical doppelgänger from various Godzilla movies. The original Mechagodzilla was created as a weapon of destruction by the Simians. It first appeared in a pseudo-flesh outer covering, masquerading as the real Godzilla during attacks against Japan in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Curiously, while the Simians gave Mechagodzilla a laser beam in his mouth to mimic Godzilla’s atomic ray, they didn’t bother replicating Godzilla’s unique roar. Godzilla’s ally Anguirus wasn’t fooled by the impostor, but in the resulting fight Mechagodzilla broke Anguirus’ jaw and sent him fleeing underground. [More]
Pris is a “pleasure model” (incepted on Valentine’s Day) created for entertainment and thus even more of a slave-object than the others. However, she shows that she can be quite adept at manipulation of the human male when she uses her wiles to “make friends” with J.F. Sebastian, a man who, until then, literally built his friends. Pris is also the girlfriend of fellow replicant Roy Batty. At an A Physical Level, she is shown to have super-human endurance (as in the scene where she grabs a boiling egg with her bare hand and tosses it to Sebastian). Her B Mental Level puts her at a lower intellectual level than Roy. [More]
“The Terminator” is a character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger — a cyborg, initially portrayed as a programmable assassin and military infiltration unit. In the fictional Terminator universe, the Terminator is a formidable robotic assassin and soldier, designed by the military supercomputer Skynet for infiltration and combat duty, towards the ultimate goal of exterminating the human resistance. It can speak naturally, copy the voices of others, read human handwriting, and even genuinely sweat, smell, and bleed. To detect the Terminators, who are otherwise indistinguishable from humans, the human resistance uses dogs to alert humans to their presence. [More]
Ash is the Nostromo’s science officer from the movie Alien. He administers medical treatment, conducts biological research and is responsible for investigating any alien life forms the crew may encounter. It is at Ash’s insistence that the crew investigates the mysterious signal emanating from LV-426. After the Alien has eliminated several of the other crew members, Ripley discovers through the ship’s computer “MOTHER” that Ash has been given special orders by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to ensure the return of the Alien to the company’s laboratories, even at the expense of the crew. When confronted by Ripley, Ash attacks her. Due to the risk of spoilage, I will say no more – you need to watch the film to see what happens next! [More]
C-3PO is a protocol droid designed to serve humans, and boasts that he is fluent “in over six million forms of communication.” C-3PO is generally seen with his long-time counterpart, R2-D2, a small, quirky astromech droid. Threepio’s main function as a protocol droid is to assist with etiquette, customs, and translation so that meetings of different cultures run smoothly. In his time, C-3PO loyally served over forty masters. R2 has often been a “box of tricks” for the protagonists, including many apparatti and manipulators. Some of his gadgets include a taser, a gripping tool, a computer interface, and a periscope. This “box of tricks” image was parodied by Star Wars Spoofs with an image of R2 featuring such items as a popcorn machine and a bottle opener plus other traditional pocket knife items. [More | More]
Robby the Robot was a popular fictional character who made a number of appearances in science fiction movies and television programs from 1956 onward. Robby the Robot was a 7.2 foot, 2 inch tall mechanical suit designed for an actor to wear, to play the part of a robot. It was originally designed for the 1956 MGM movie Forbidden Planet, and quickly became a science fiction movie and television icon. As Forbidden Planet was inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, Robby’s character was inspired by the Sprite in the play. Before the appearance of Robby, robots in movies and plays tended to lack personality characteristics, being simple mechanical devices. Since his appearance, robots with personalities have become more and more common in movies. [More]
Gort is a fictional humanoid robot in the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. The giant metal robot accompanies Klaatu, a visitor to Earth from a distant planet, aboard a flying saucer. He does not speak, but uses a beam weapon projected from beneath a visor to vaporize weapons and obstacles. Klaatu described him as being part of an interstellar police force. He claims that the people of the universe constructed numerous robots like Gort and gave them irrevocable powers to respond to violent actions in order to “preserve the peace.” He further claims that “There’s no limit to what [Gort] could do. He could destroy the Earth.” The character was based loosely on Gnut, a giant green robot from outer space in “Farewell to the Master”, a 1940 short story by Harry Bates which was used as the basis for Edmund H. North’s screenplay. [More]
Maria, the Maschinenmensch from Metropolis, played by German actress Brigitte Helm in both her robotic and human incarnations, is one of cinema’s most famous icons. The haunting blank face and pronounced female curves have been the subject of disgust and fascination alike. The Maschinenmensch has many names given her through the years: Parody, Ultima, Futura, Robotrix, (false) Maria and Hel. The Maschinenmensch’s back story is detailed in Thea von Harbou’s original 1927 novel. It is described as a very delicate, but faceless, transparent figure made of crystal flesh with silver bones and its eyes filled with an expression of calm madness. Rotwang addresses it as “Parody”. The Maschinenmensch is a perfect example of the Frankenstein complex, where artificial creations turn against their creator and go on a rampage. Artificial beings with a malevolent nature were a popular theme at the time. [More]
This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from the Wikipedia articles cited above.
I love Arnie.. He’s so funny.
To add.
I love Star Wars and I’m so happy that C3PO and Artoo Detoo are on this list.
Plus, I’m watching Metropolis at school. It’s such an amazing movie. When Maria does that erotic dance, gosh it’s hilarious. But yes. Awesome awesome list!
Oh… the cute lil robots from Silent Running aren’t on here
Cool list though
Excellent list! Personally I would have included Dolph Lungdren from every movie he’s ever done.
When Blade Runner first came out, I was horrified at how ugly Daryl Hannah looked. Now, I realize it was just a prescient peek ahead 20 years.
Love that you made Maria the first choice. most people would have opted for a popular robot or something like that but i think Maria is the embodiment of most of what we think of robotics and a classic example of early forms of technology being popularized far ahead of its time.
bender! oh he’s not in a movie.. darn. erm in that case..good list!
Bender should be on here plus two more planned movies.
Where the hell is Data?
The replicants in Blade Runner aren’t robots. They’re genetically modified humans.
In Star Wars, the term “droid” is short for “android”, which means “like a man”. While 3PO is shaped like a human, R2 isn’t.
Great list. I love sf. Real science has a long way to go to make robots with intelligence and sentience, let alone humanoid robots indistinguishable from humans.
I always thought that they were, in fact, robots – but ones constructed using technology that resembles human/mammalian physiology, ie: artificial tissue as opposed to grown from modified humna genetic material.
Mind you I suppose that if a simple tissue sample can’t tell the difference (otherwise why would they bother with all that question/response palaver) then I suppose there isn’t that much different from what you and I said.
astraya: in fact you are wrong: “In the opening crawl of the film, replicants are said to be the result of “advanced robot evolution.” They are a combination of robotics and genetically engineered humans
rocknopera: did you read the opening paragraph where I explicitly stated that the list excludes robots from TV series? I guess not
warrrreagl: scary but true. She is bland compared to some of the girls I have seen in nightclubs of late!
geraint: again I point you to the first paragraph – no robots who appeared first in TV
WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! What about the robot from “Lost In Space”? Also the one in “I,Robot” with Will Smith?? These could’ve replaced some on this list.
Johnny 5 could’ve been placed higher. Love the list.
fivestring63: lost in space was a tv series. See my last few comments and the first paragraph.
Okay – because people seem to be missing the first paragraph I have now put in bold the fact that the list excludes TV robots!
I don’t know if HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey is considered a robot, but he was pretty good.
HAL was a computer – the name of which interestingly enough was devised by decrementing each letter of IBM by one
Optimus Prime from the 1986 movie.
Blah blah thingy thingy nit-pick blah blah blah robot blah. Thingy blah blah badiddly blah blah get-a-life blah blah. Fun list, really enjoyed it!
Me not to big a robot fan, but I knew the star wars robots would be here. And that means I’m wise.
Cool list! But you have Mechagodzilla and no WALL-E? Does not compute!
About Pris and Replicants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicant#Organic_or_Machine.3F
“Although the press kit released to the media for the film, explicitly defined a replicant as, “A genetically engineered creature composed entirely of organic substance,” a question commonly posed is the physical make-up of the replicants themselves. In the opening crawl of the film, replicants are said to be the result of “advanced robot evolution.” The crawl also states that they were created by “genetic engineers.” Characters mention that they have eyes and brains like humans, and they are seen to bleed when injured (although they can take a lot more damage than humans can). An alternative explanation could be that they are cybernetic, having both human and machine parts.
“The original novel makes mention of the biological components of the androids, but also alludes to the mechanical aspects commonly found in other material relating to robots.
“Due to the film’s ambiguous stance to the question, it has been suggested by fans that Ridley Scott chose to keep the question unanswered in an attempt to preserve the film and novel’s core theme: what is human?”
Thus, I would have excluded Replicants from the list simply because it’s not certain that they’re robots or not.
Honorable mention to the robots from ‘Batteries Not Included’?
And yeah, Wall-E has definitely sparked current robot love from me after watching the movie.
Hmm which Mechagodzilla? Also, I just watched Wall-E, so I may be biased, but he shoud be here. Also Sonny, from I, Robot.
No Sonny from I, Robot?
I love robots so I love this list! Thanks for your efforts. I do have a couple of issues with it though such as: Why Ash but not Bishop? I think he was a suprise hit of Aliens. As for the Terminator being on the list thats cool, but the female Terminator in T3 is the *****iest robot in movie history!
HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey
One of my husband’s favorite movies is WestWorld. Where Yul Brenner is a robot gunslinger. He is wayyyy creepy in that movie. The whole movie is about a robot world where people go to live out fantasies and something goes horribly wrong with the robots. Highly recommend for any sci fiers out there.
I wish there was an edit button. Sorry for the poor grammar. I think it should have been a “, with Yul Brenner as a”. And I am not even sure why I feel this post is necessary.
One of the robots from A.I. Artificial Intelligence should have been up there, methinks!
Either David, Gigolo Joe, or Teddy.
Mark
“…the female Terminator in T3 is the *****iest robot in movie history!”
Have you watched Metropolis? Because the robot Maria is very attractive, in an extremely worrying way.
What? No WALL-E? Heheh just kidding, I know he probably doensn’t fit the category, but he is the cuttest little robot I’ve ever seen! ^^
Replicants don’t really look like robots to me…I know they are, but for me robots should have the whole aspect of metal hehe, but that’s just me.
Kowzilla
I’ll watch it again.
But along those lines of discussion..Rachael from Blade Runner is far more attractive and interesting than the Darryl Hanna replicant. Plus there is always the question of “was she or wasnt she….?”
1 – Replicants are neither exactly human nor robot. They are, however, more robot than human. The confusion arises because of the lack of artifice usually noted in what we have come to expect in our robots…machines made of metal, wheels, and cogs, sometimes covered in a layer of artificial skin.
Replicants, robots made to be as close to humans as possible, though stronger and completely lacking in even secondary emotions such as pain and fatigue, to perform the difficult labors, particularly the off-world mining, which had been deemed too dangerous for man. That even the creators of these replicants were uncertain of their creations future development, that is, could they develop human or human-like emotions, was the reason for the self-shutdown after four years.
In the original novel “Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?”, the fact of the replicants ancestry is certain. What is less certain is just exactly who is a replicant? Have some actually made the leap?
When I read the book back in the late 60′s(?) it made a huge impact on me.
This was one of those books I would have sworn could never have been made into a movie of worth, yet Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies. I own the 5 disc collectors set.
I am thrilled that Pris is included in this list.
2 – Gort! The Day the Earth Stood Still. Another example of a fine tale being brought to life on the big screen. I’d read the book, I’m a Bradbury fan since the age of 8, and my first two years in Uni were theatre/film, we were taken to screenings of films after which one of the principles would speak and have a Q&A. The day of TDTESS the speaker was Ray Bradbury! Another fav film in that genre.
3 – Maria, the Maschinenmensch from Metropolis! WOW. The first time I saw this film it haunted me constantly. I saw the imagery everywhere. It was impossibly dark, frightening, impossible to escape. So, naturally, I went back to the little art theater at which it playing, and saw it again.
The second viewing was still dark and frightening, but the magic of the imagery shone through this time. The play of light and dark, the autonomous people who moved like robots, the robots who moved like people!
This was a world I would never want to live in.
But Maria! Oh, Maria!
That was glamor. Or glamour.
****
Jamie, 3 of my favorite genre movies in one list! How can I thank you?
I usually try to keep my posts short, but here, I’m afraid I allowed I let my passions run wild.
I’ll go back to shorter posts in future, but *THANK YOU!*
Great list, love the ol’ cheesy sci fi.
I would have placed Robby at #1, though, with Gort at #2. But that’s nitpicky. But perhaps it’s correct to put the Metropolis Maria at the top… she was, after all, influential on nearly all robots to come, especially humanoid robots like C3PO… she basically inspired his design directly.
But Mechagodzilla? Pleeeeeeeezzzzze. Howzabout Yul Brynner’s gunslinger from “Westworld?” Or The Colossus of New York from the film of the same name?
I confess that the old Godzilla films are a guilty pleasure of mine–I’m of that age, after all, when Godzilla was at his cheesy peak, in the 60s. But Mechagodzilla comes from that godawful 70s period when even the cheese in Godzilla movies had gone all stale and moldy and was impossible to swallow.
But ah well… cute and entertaining list anyway.
The Terminator only at 6? I would have had him up a little higher personally…
Good list though. Two days in a row of lists right up my alley, lol
What? No Marvin?
Though I’m sure he would see that coming.
Thanks for not putting the robot from “I, Robot” on the list. What a god-awful movie.
And props for “The Iron Giant!”
I knew R2 D2 and C3PO would be on here! as well as Terminator! Great List!
A lot of these were what i was expecting. great list, but no Wall-E? or even Eve/Eva? lol
It’s a great list. I love every ‘bot on the list except for Mechagodzilla. Your top 4 is perfect, but I would’ve put Robby ahead of Gort simply because Gort is barely character. Rather, he’s a figure of menace; a nuclear weapon with a brain. Robby, on the other hand, is charming, with a dry, sarcastic sense-of-humor; he fits the role of Caliban from the play wonderfully without any of the original character’s bitterness.
Oops, forgot to mention False Maria.
I find her seductive in a very disturbing way. If you’ve never seen “Metropolis” then you’ve missed out. Even the version with the Queen soundtrack is great. It has held-up remarkably well over the decades. How many films (especially silent films) can make that claim?
what about that one robot that robin williams played?
I know is from a radio show, that later become a TV series, but there’s a movie of The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Poor Marvin, no one remembers him
I love the Iron Giant. And Arnold is great in all the Terminator movies, but the liquid metal guy from Terminator 2 was way hotter, even if he was the bad guy.
WALLLLLL-EEEEEE
How about the Top 10 Greatest Robots on Premium Cable Television? Here’s my Top 2–
“Affirmative”
yeah, terminator should definitely be higher, interesting list though
“Klaatu barada nikto”
As long as it’s relevant to the subject of the list…
For those with Firefox 3, type about:robots in the address bar, press Enter, and see what happens…
(Those familiar with some of the movies of this list will get more kick out of it!)
Well, technically speaking, Data was on a TV show that was later a movie. Not sure of the criteria on that. Oh, wait, I read Jamie’s response to that.
Fantastic list! I need to watch both Metropolises (the regular one and the anime one).
I’ve read “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and watched BladeRunner (one of my favs). Maybe not closely enough, because I thought that replicants were definately, 100% machine. The issue was that they replicated humans so perfectly that they couldn’t tell them apart. They only had a 4 year life span, so why “replicate” yourself if you were only going to die shortly thereafter? They were robots. The big question Ridley Scott wanted to illicit from one of his cuts of BladeRunner was whether Deckard was a replicant, too.
Hal 9000 was a supercomputer, not a robot.
That’s not working for me, Kreachure. Maybe I have a different version?
Cedestra: Hmm. If you have version 3.[whatever], it should definitely work. If you’re not sure which version you’re using, you can check with ‘Help’>>’About Mozilla Firefox’.
I think WALL-E should be included, but I know it’s too soon from the movie, which isn’t even out of theaters.
before actually reading the list, i said this in my head “terminator, r2d2, Iron giant have to be on here, and if Wall-e is, i am going to be *****ed off”
thank you
Re description of R2D2: The plural of “apparatus” is not “apparati.” It is “apparatus” (same as the singular) or apparatuses.
Segue: “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was based on Harry Bates’ short story “Farewell to the Master.” Bradbury’s only connection is that he wrote an script for an unproduced sequel called “The Evening of the Second Day.”
WALL E has not even made it into New Zealand Theatres yet (Due later this month I think) which likely explains why it has been left out.
Marvin: Apart from the TV First thing the movie Marvin is an absolute travesty compared to the original and does not belong anywhere near a top 10 list. However if TV robots were included then Marvin would near the Top.
Terminator: I also would have rated the Terminator robot higher, but my big problem would be WHICH Terminator Robot – Arnie or the Bad Cop (Patrick Dempsey?) from T2.
Cheers
Lee
57. Hat – Segue: “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was based on Harry Bates’ short story “Farewell to the Master.” Bradbury’s only connection is that he wrote an script for an unproduced sequel called “The Evening of the Second Day.”
I would love to read that script.
I wonder what Gort will be like in the upcoming remake. I’m withholding judgment on this movie until I hear more. From the trailers, it looks like the character is perfect of Keanu’s wooden acting style. All you see of Gort in the trailers that I’ve seen are a quick flash of what appears to be Gort’s eye.
@59 Randallphobia:
Bradbury’s outline for the sequel is available at
http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/sequel_1.htm