Top 10 Favorite Film Robots
Hollywood has introduced us to a ton of awesome robots over the years. Robots have always been extremely cool, and they've sparked the imagination of what is possible. The robots we've seen in the movies have inspired technology and science. There are engineers out there who have created robots of their own and are constantly trying to perfect them. One day those robots will take over the world and destroy us all.
We all have our favorite robots, and I thought I'd come up with a top 10 list of my personal favorites. Note: Cyborgs like RoboCop don't count as robots on this list.
If you'd like to share your own favorites, please feel free to post them in the comments section below!
Iron Giant - The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant is by far my favorite robot. He's the one I would have loved to play with as a kid. Excluding the yells and groans, he only said a total of 53 words. Vin Diesel voiced the character but the studio also considered Peter Cullen, Sean Connery, Frank Welker, and James Earl Jones.
Robby the Robot - Forbidden Planet
This might just be one of the most iconic robots ever. I don't know anyone that isn't familiar with the design. It not only appeared in Forbidden Planet, it has also shown up in a ton of other sci-fi films such as The Thin Man and Lost in Space. It even showed up in some TV shows like The Twilight Zone, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Addams Family, and Mork & Mindy.
Johnny 5 - Short Circuit
I loved this movie when I was a kid, and I just thought Johnny 5 was the funniest damn thing. The filmmakers wanted to show what a real life robot might look like in the real world, so every part of Johnny 5 was built to have a specific, logical purpose. For example, Johnny's signature "eyelids" were created as sun guards/camera coverings.
Gort - The Day the Earth Stood Still
"Klaatu barada nikto!" This thing just looked like a menacing badass! When I first saw this thing as a kid I was a little terrified of it. It looked like it couldn't harm anything, but it was the ultimate weapon. The guy who played Gort was Lock Martin, who was the doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theater. He was hired because he was so freakin' tall. He wasn't that strong, though, so he had difficulty with the heavy Gort suit and could only stay in it for about a half-hour at a time.
Terminator - The Terminator
I don't know any movie geek that doesn't love the Terminator. This thing is the ultimate killing machine, and it was really fun watching him kick ass. It has been revealed that the POV shots through the Terminator's eyes shows a dump of the ROM assembler code for the Apple II operating system. Apparently, if you own an Apple II and enter "] call -151 * p" at the basic prompt, it will give you the Terminator view.
T-1000 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
A liquid metal machine? Are you kidding me?! What an amazing idea for a robot! I remember seeing this character on the big screen for the first time and being blown away. When Robert Patrick played the character he mimicked the head movements of the American bald eagle, and when moving patterned himself after a shark closing in on its prey.
Gunslinging Cowboy Robot Model 406 - Westworld
First of all, if you haven't seen this movie yet, you need to put on your list because it's great! The renegade robot cowboy played by Yul Brynner was such a creepy character. The story is about a robot that malfunctions and terrorizes the guests at a futuristic theme park for adults.
Optimus Prime - Transformers: The Movie
Yes, I'm going with the version of Optimus Prime from the animated movie because he's so much cooler than what Michael Bay came up with. That sequence when he goes out to fight Magatron in the movie was so intense. I was really sad when they killed him off, and it was all Hotrod's fault! I was shocked by how many characters they killed off in this story! Other characters that died included Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl, Brawn, Wheeljack, Windcharger, Megatron, Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Shrapnel, Kickback, Bombshell, and Huffer. What the hell were they thinking?
C-3PO and R2-D2 - Star Wars
It was really hard to choose just one of these characters, but since they are basically a team that is almost always together in the films I'm going to count them as one unit on my list. Hey, it's my list, and I can do what I want! In early drafts of the script, R2-D2 could speak standard English, and apparently had a foul vocabulary. Both of the characters have been inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame — R2-D2 in 2003 and C-3PO in 2004.
Max - Flight of the Navigator
There's definitely some nostalgia with this character. I watched this film a ridiculous number of times growing up. Max is a Trimaxium Drone research ship with a personality. It can travel faster than light speed and also has a time travel function. This allows him to return samples exactly as he found them without missing a second in-between the abduction and return. This way he doesn't disturb the environment he came to observe.