From all-mechanical contraptions like the droids of Star Wars and Wall-E to the cybernetic entities in classics such as RoboCop and Terminator, robots have a storied and checkered history in sci-fi movies and television series. With the emergence of Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie, and in the spirit of the great sci-fi Cuisinart that routinely blends elements of previous works, I’m reminded of the many other sentient machines that have blazed the trail for him.
Here are some of my favorites.
Note that artificially intelligent systems such as HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mother from Alien and W.O.P.R. from WarGames are disqualified forthwith simply for their lack of mobility.
R2-D2 & C-3PO (the Star Wars saga)
The Laurel and Hardy of the mecha world, R2-D2 (a/k/a “Artoo”) is a pudgy trash-can-shaped astro droid and X-wing co-pilot who speaks and emotes in a series of beeps, chirps and whines. His counterpart C-3PO (a/k/a “Threepio”) is a gold-plated protocol droid who walks like a human, is fluent in over six million forms of communication, and never seems to shut the hell up. Artoo has often rescued our heroes in the nick of time by performing such feats as halting garbage compactors or rebooting a faulty hyper-drive, while Threepio’s greatest contribution to the saving of our heroes’ hides was once being mistaken for a deity by a gang of primitive and murderous teddy bears.
Twiki and Dr. Theopolis from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century are direct and shameless descendants of Artoo and Threepio, while Dot Matrix in Spaceballs offered a female riff on Threepio with all the intelligence, twice the sass, and the vocal stylings of Joan Rivers.
Wall-E (Wall-E)
Wall-E is a diligent worker bee programmed to clean up the landscape after humanity trashes and abandons Earth. He looks a lot like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, he speaks in electronic tones, he’s got a soft spot for old Barbra Streisand musicals, and his only companion is a resilient cockroach…that is, until he encounters a sleek scout droid named Eva and ultimately proves that machines have a heart—and can fall in love, too. Wall-E is most likely a direct descendant of Rosie, the Jetson family’s fastidious mechanical maid.
Maximilian (The Black Hole)
The blood-colored machine serves as the intimidating bodyguard and right hand “man” to the crazy hermit captain of the USS Cygnus. It floats with the aid of anti-gravity technology, and its rotating propeller arm blades are best utilized for shredding books and disemboweling perceived enemies.
Alas, there’s always been something vaguely and creepily Freudian about the fact that the robot shares its name with the actor who portrays its master.
David (A.I.: Artificial Intelligence)
Created by his heartsick master to make up for the death of a very real young son, David is programmed to love its owner unconditionally. He’s equally capable of jealousy and rage, but all he really wants is a mommy.
Alex Murphy/RoboCop (the RoboCop series)
Part man, part machine, all cop—best tagline ever? The crucifixion and resurrection of Detroit policeman Alex Murphy into an incorruptible cyborg on patrol is also a twisted and deliriously violent Jesus fable. The metal armor and very big gun does most of the work in instilling fear in the hearts of futuristic crooks, but it’s actor Peter Weller who succeeds most splendidly in giving Murphy/RoboCop a human soul.
We’ll forgive RoboCop for two increasingly wretched sequels in 1990 and 1993 and one woeful remake in 2014 because, try as they might, they cannot tarnish the memory and influence of Paul Verhoeven’s seminal 1987 original.
T-800 (the Terminator series)
As immortalized by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a model from the T-800 series first appeared in 1984 as a nearly unstoppable killing machine without remorse. True to his words “I’ll be back,” his later appearances in T2 and T3 as alternate T-800 models proved the cyborg could be conveniently reprogrammed to protect as well as dispense flippant one-liners, and later we caught a fleeting glimpse of him on a factory floor in T4.
The T-800’s virtually indestructible metal endoskeleton is surrounded by living organic tissue, a pivotal plot point audiences will do well to remember when Arnie reprises his infamous role as an older and greyer model in this summer’s T5 (titled, goofily, Terminator Genisys). The alluring but deadly Fembots in the Austin Powers movies owe the T-800 a huge debt of gratitude, no doubt to be paid with a double-barreled torso salute.
