8 Movies That Didn't Know Who The Bad Guy Was

1. Short Circuit

In this tale of a sentient robot on the run from his creators, Johnny 5 represents a ray of hope for humanity. Oh, wait, let me phrase that another way: In this tale of a sentient robot on the run from his creators, Skynet's T-800 represents a ray of hope for humanity. See how that subtle little change might change your opinion on the whole rogue A.I. situation?

Although the majority of the movie finds the audience pitted directly against Captain Skroeder, the stern security chief in charge of finding and shutting down Johnny 5. Why? Because Johnny 5 is funny. Kind of. And he's the epitome of innocence, and his quest for "input" finds him soaking up knowledge about anything and everything while developing human bonds and, particularly disconcerting, real emotions.

What's to stop Johnny 5 from learning something very, very bad--say, the "positives" of genocide--and then using that as a basis for interacting with the world? It's certainly not Ally Sheedy's character, who acts as little more than a super awkward love interest for the robot (yeah...seriously). The most she ever teaches him is that "dead things stay dead." So now he knows the most permanent way to stop the government agency from "disassembling" him is to use that built-in laser canon of his. That's...reassuring.

Skroeder was ultimately doing the right thing. He just wasn't very flowery and jovial, which is what you should expect from a government agent.