Robots in Film

Robots in Film
A Complete Illustrated History

Part 9

Introduction: Throughout cinematic history, especially in science-fiction tales, robots have played a primary role. Throughout history and popular culture, robots have reflected the mood, social and cultural issues, and technology of their times. For example, in the Cold War 1950s, robots were generally viewed as threatening forces, but in later years reflected both the conflict and the continuity between man and machine. Robots have also functioned as both servant-helpers or oppressors of humanity, portraying the good and evil sides.

This compilation is not designed to be too strict in its choices of 'robots'. Herein are examples of various films with robotic characters.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star

are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

Film/Year Name of Robot	Description	Example
*Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)* "Evil" Bill and Ted	In this sequel, future tyrant Joss Ackland (Chuck De Nomolos) from the 27th century created "evil robots" that were android doubles (robot doppelgangers) of heavy-metal rockers Bill and Ted (played again by Alex Winter as William S. Peterson, Esq., and Keanu Reeves as Ted "Theodore" Logan); the two were sent back to the year 1991 in San Dimas, CA in order to murder and replace the Wyld Stallyns band members; the two robots were successful, sending Bill and Ted into the afterlife where they had to defeat the Grim Reaper (William Sadler), outwit the Devil ("the Dude Downstairs"), challenge Death (with games like Battleship, Twister, and Clue), talk to God, and defeat their evil counterparts with "good" robots created by a pair of hairy, oval-shaped Martians.
*Eve of Destruction (1991)* (aka Terminator Woman) Eve VIII	Scientist Dr. Eve Simmons (Dutch actress Renée Soutendijk) created a state-of-the-art, super-strong robot in her own image -- named Eve Vickers or Eve VIII -- designed originally as an anti-terrorist and military surveillance mechanism; but it went on a killing rampage when damaged during a failed bank robbery test; she actually had a thermonuclear warhead inside of her, threatening to destroy many blocks in the city of Manhattan within only twenty-four hours if not disarmed; with various neuroses derived from her creator, she would often say: "I'm very sensitive" or become super-violent when called a "bitch."
*The Guyver (1991)* (aka *Mutronics: The Movie*) The Guyver	The film's story was derived from a Japanese manga series, taking the tagline: "Part human. Part alien. Pure superpower"; its title referred to an alien artifact or device (a top-secret weapon from the Chronos Corporation) that was absorbed into the skin of college student Sean Baker/The Guyver (Jack Armstrong) when he put the control medallion of the guyver on his head, causing him to 'grow' a costume or suit of malleable, bio-mechanical metal armor that had incredible strength, giving him superhuman fighting skills and making him invulnerable to damage; when unactivated, the metal retracted to a place behind his neck; followed by the sequel Guyver: Dark Hero (1994).
*Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)* Terminator Model T-800, and Terminator Series T-1000	In this second film in the series set 10 years after the first film, Arnold Schwarzenegger was now re-programmed as a protective, monotone-speaking, motor-cycle riding Cyberdyne Systems T-800 Terminator; he battled another seemingly-indestructible Terminator android composed of morphing liquid metal named T-1000 (Robert Patrick) - a killing, shape-shifting terminator with no emotional intelligence, usually exemplified as a policeman; the sleek, more modern android was composed of poly-mimetic metal, meaning it could take on the shape, color, and texture of anything it touched (such as a porcelain-tiled floor), and could also mimic human behavior, such as imitating the voices of its victims; it could transform its hands into jaw-like blades, and completely absorb shotgun blasts to its midsection or head; the T-1000 was self-healing after being damaged; it was sent back in time by Skynet (a 21st century computer warring against the human race) to destroy the young, 10 year-old future leader of the human resistance, John Connor (Edward Furlong); at the end of this film, both Terminators were destroyed in a vat of molten steel.	Terminator T-1000 Terminator T-800
*Universal Soldier (1992)* UniSols, Deveraux as GR44, and Scott as GR13	The two muscle-bound stars of this early Roland Emmerich action/sci-fi film, Dolph Lundgren (as Sgt. Andrew Scott) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (as Pvt. Luc Deveraux), were featured as semi-android "universal soldiers" or elite bionic anti-terrorists -- both re-animated 25 years after killing each other during combat in Vietnam by the military (in a top-secret project) to serve in a high-tech SWAT army of previously-dead soldiers; their memories of the combat robots were supposedly wiped clean but they suffered flashbacks; they were also mostly pain-free, emotionless, and extraordinarily strong; followed by TV sequels and the theatrical sequel Universal Soldier: The Return (1999).
*Cyborg Cop (1993)* Cyborg Assassin, also Quincy	Kickboxing cop and DEA agent Phillip Ryan (Todd Jensen), while on the remote Caribbean island of St. Keith, was taken captive during a failed drug raid against international drug cartel and drug lord Dr. Joachim Kessel (John Rhys-Davies) and turned into an invincible, emotionless cyborg warrior/assassin and killing machine ("half-man, half-machine") with a steel arm that had sharp knife-fingers -- as part of an experiment to create an army of robots; one prototype cyborg already created was named Quincy (Rufus Swart); with two sequels: Cyborg Cop II (1994), and Cyborg Cop III (1995).
*Robot Wars (1993)* Mega-Robot 1 and 2 (Mega-1 and MRSA-2)	Set in the bleak post-apocalyptic year of 2041, a scorpion-like, large-scale Mega-Robot 2 patrolled the nation's borders against ill-defined evil rivals called the Centros; the giant robots were piloted, like in Robot Jox (1990), by human jockies, and were capable of carrying tourists/passengers around the perimeter; in the climax of this tale, a renegade 'Megarobot' 2 pilot named Drake (Don Michael Paul) defeated the giant MR2 robot that was taken over by one of the leaders of the Eastern Alliance, evil revolutionary Wa-Lee (Danny Kamekona); Drake used an earlier, resurrected "good-guy" MR1 model to save the planet.
*Star Trek: Generations (1994)* Data	See earlier *Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)* Android Data was implanted with an 'emotion chip' in this film, so that he could experience human emotions.
*Evolver (1995)* Evolver	This popular Sci-Fi Channel action/sci-fi film's tagline: "It was supposed to be a game" referred to the film's plot about a robot named Evolver that existed in a virtual reality videogame (similar to laser tag) made by the Cyber-Tronix Corporation; teenaged hacker and videogame whiz-kid expert Kyle Baxter (Ethan Embry) won an Evolver videogame contest (that he rigged), and a real-life prototypical version of the robot he had defeated was delivered to his house; Evolver (voice of William H. Macy) was an Atomic Robot with a built in Laser Tag-BB-paintball combo gun, smoke machine, and electrified claws; Kyle was unaware that it was programmed with Defense Department military software programs (S.W.O.R.D. or "Strategic War-Oriented Robotic Device"); the competitive Evolver soon became a deadly killing force as it evolved to 'win' and 'play for keeps.'

Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.