Isaac Asimov is, to a large degree, the father of fictional robots. His robot stories first postulated the “Three Laws of Robotics”.
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
It is the obeying or disobeying of these three laws which apply to every robot that has ever appeared in film, no matter how small a part the robot played.
In this article we’ll look at a few robots that most movie fans have forgotten about. Some obeyed the laws. Some disobeyed. Others had such a small role that they had no choice but to obey. But first, because there are over 3 trillion distinctly different robots in film history (trust me, I’ve counted them all), I need some rules to limit the scope of this article. I think I’ll call these rules Tim’s Five Laws of Robotics For This Article, or TFLORFTA for short. My self-imposed rules – not to be confused with Asimov’s “Three Laws” – are:
- Only robots (no cyborgs, that is an upcoming article)
- Only movie robots (no television, that is also an upcoming article)
- Only robots that are likely to be forgotten by the average movie fan (unforgettable robots are yet another upcoming article)
- Only robots in human form (androids) or robots with obvious human qualities (such as R2-D2 from Star Wars)
- Only one entry per movie franchise (so only one form of Terminator, etc.)
That’s it. Let’s get started.
14. Dot Matrix in Spaceballs
I’m sure you all remember Dot Matrix from Spaceballs, but when’s the last time you thought about her? I thought so. That’s why she’s on this list.
Dot takes the First Law to an unusual extreme – she protects the Princess from losing her virginity. Perhaps we shouldn’t build many Dots; it might just be the end of humanity.
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18 Comments
what? no doggit from the original BSG? :) i really wanted a doggit when i was a nipper.
also, loved the teddy in AI… but thats just because im a big kid still…
good list though… some real classics on there and some i havent seen.
I loved daggit as well. Muffit II will be appearing in my article on television robots. I expect that article up in a couple of days.
I’m so happy that you mentioned Saturn 3 – no one ever mentions it enough for my liking.
I always like it when an article tells me what I can and can’t remember.
That’s why the article specifically said “In this article we’ll look at a few robots that MOST movie fans have forgotten about”.
Obviously I wasn’t including you or anyone else who is offended by articles that tell them what they can and can’t remember.
Ah, I’m only joshing. Just a pet peeve of mine that’s all.
A few to add to the list:
Johnny 5 from “Short Circuit”
Val Com 17485 (Andy Kaufman) and Aqua Com 89045 (Bernadette Peters) from “Heartbeeps”
“The Fix-Its” from “… batteries not included”
Heartbeeps is a good one. Ironically, I had forgotten all about that movie. I figured Short Circuit was too well known to include, but that didn’t stop me from adding Spaceballs, so maybe not. The Fix-Its are a good one as well.
Thanks for the fun retrospective.
Another is the bartender from Fifth Element (although not much screen time) .. serving Priest Vito Cornelius at the bar in the spaceport asks “you want some more?” even has his own facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bartender-from-Fifth-Element/128551313885685.
Darn it, that’s a great one. I love that movie and I still forgot about him. Thanks for reminding me about him.
Mechagodzilla might be a contender, especially for western audiences.
Beta from the Last Starfighter.
Jinx from Space Camp.
Cherry 2000 from Cherry 2000.
How could I forget BB from Deadly Friend from my list????
I’m starting to get so many good ones that I’m working on a sequel article right now. Thanks for the input.
Howabout Gort from the day the earth stood still?
Gort will make an appearance in an upcoming article about robots we HAVEN’T forgotten.
Westworld robot gunslinger and Huey, Dewey, And Louie rock!
Most of the robots cited are dopey B-Grade film robots.
What about the Maria the Robotrix from Fritz Lang’s 1926 film ‘Metroplis’ or do you guys only care about American trash films?
Hey, and Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics suck! A robot does what you program it to do. Even when I encountered them as a kid, I immediately saw they were just a gimmick to continue Asimov’s dull stories with leaden characterisation.
Maria is going to be in my article about robots we HAVEN’T forgotten, not this article which is about robots we HAVE forgotten, which by definition means there will be a lot of B-Grade robots.
Also, you obviously missed the point of Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. He understood that robots do what you program them to do, and therefore his Laws designed to be programmed into every robot.
Good fun to read – personally, I think a lot of people also forget Deep Thought from ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’, although technically that’s a computer. :)