Best Movie Robots

Ten machines with better arcs than most of the humans standing next to them.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A tank-tread robot on a library floor surrounded by open books flying off the shelves, a lightning bolt in the window behind.

    10. Johnny 5

    Short Circuit · 1986

    A military robot hit by lightning who reads an encyclopedia in seconds, demands more input and names himself after a song on the radio. Designed by Syd Mead, who did Blade Runner and Tron, voiced by Tim Blaney. Made $40.7 million on $15 million. Deserted the Army to read books.

  2. Four tall rectangular metal slabs striding through knee-deep water on an ocean planet, an enormous wave rising on the horizon.

    09. TARS

    Interstellar · 2014

    Christopher Nolan wanted nothing humanoid, so TARS is four metal slabs that walk, roll and crack jokes. Bill Irwin puppeteered and voiced him on set and was erased digitally. Honesty set to 90 percent, humor dialed down to 75. Every office could use those settings.

  3. A glass-walled room in a forest house holding a rack of spare mechanical arms and a mesh torso on a stand, a keycard lying on the floor.

    08. Ava

    Ex Machina · 2015

    Alex Garland's first film as director, made for $15 million. Alicia Vikander in a metallic bodysuit plus about 350 robot effects shots, and it won the Visual Effects Oscar over Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mad Max: Fury Road. A Turing test where the robot does the grading.

  4. A towering Art Deco skyline with bridges strung between skyscrapers, and in front, glowing electric hoops rising around an empty metal throne in a laboratory.

    07. The Maschinenmensch

    Metropolis · 1927

    One of the first robots on film, and the model for Ralph McQuarrie's early C-3PO designs. Brigitte Helm wore a plastic-wood suit that pinched and scratched; the crew slipped coins into the armor so she could buy chocolate. Fritz Lang still shot the reveal for nine days.

  5. A silver flying saucer landed on a city park lawn with its ramp lowered, a tall smooth robot silhouette standing guard beside it, a raking beam of light across the grass.

    06. Gort

    The Day the Earth Stood Still · 1951

    An interstellar cop who never speaks and will flatten the planet unless Patricia Neal remembers three words. Inside was Lock Martin, 7 foot 7, a doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, who struggled in the suit, so the people Gort carries were often on wires or dummies.

  6. A robot with a clear glass dome head full of spinning antennae standing beside a sleek 1950s flying saucer on a flat alien plain.

    05. Robby the Robot

    Forbidden Planet · 1956

    Cost up to $125,000, about 7% of the film's budget, so MGM got its money back: The Invisible Boy, three Twilight Zones, Lost in Space, a Gremlins cameo. Marvin Miller voiced him. The suit sold at Bonhams in 2017 for $5.375 million. Hardest-working actor in town.

  7. A giant open metal hand resting among pine trees at night, a small comic book lying in its palm, a satellite streaking across the starry sky.

    04. The Iron Giant

    The Iron Giant · 1999

    Brad Bird's debut, loosely from Ted Hughes's The Iron Man, with Vin Diesel as a 50-foot robot who decides he would rather be Superman than a gun. Warner made one poster and no toys, and it grossed $31.7 million on about $50 million. Then everyone found it on TV.

  8. Towers of compacted trash cubes taller than skyscrapers, a single green seedling growing from an old boot at their base, a small tread robot seen from behind.

    03. WALL-E

    WALL-E · 2008

    A trash compactor who collects sporks, hubcaps and Zippo lighters and learns about love from a tape of Hello, Dolly! The early stretch barely has dialogue; Ben Burtt, who voiced R2-D2, does WALL-E too. Won the Oscar for Animated Feature. Earth's last employee, still clocking in.

  9. A metal skeletal robot hand rising from the wreck of a burning tanker truck on a night highway, a pair of dark sunglasses lying on the asphalt.

    02. The T-800

    The Terminator · 1984

    James Cameron met Schwarzenegger about playing the hero, planned to pick a fight to get out of it, and cast him as the machine. Seventeen lines, under 100 words. He wanted to change "I'll be back" because "I'll" was hard to say. Cameron said no. He came back.

  10. A small dome-topped droid on three stubby legs rolling across rippled desert dunes under two setting suns, a thin projector beam lighting the sand in front of it.

    01. R2-D2

    Star Wars · 1977

    Named for a sound editor's request for Reel 2, Dialog Track 2, which George Lucas overheard while writing. Kenny Baker rode inside. Ben Burtt built the voice from an ARP 2600 synth and his own vocal noises. Never says a word, wins every argument.

Honorable mentions

  • A single round red camera lens glowing in a white spacecraft wall panel, a memory bay beside it with its modules pulled halfway out.

    HAL 9000

    2001: A Space Odyssey · 1968

    Technically a computer, not a robot: no legs, one red eye, all the power. Kubrick dropped Martin Balsam's voice for sounding too American and Douglas Rain recorded every line in a day and a half. Sings "Daisy Bell," after a 1961 IBM demo, as he dies. Polite to the end.

Dishonorable mentions

  • An empty gorilla costume wearing a space helmet with antennae, slumped in a cave mouth, a bubble machine beside it blowing a stream of bubbles.

    Ro-Man

    Robot Monster · 1953

    The director hired George Barrows because he owned a gorilla suit, then put a space helmet on it. Shot in four days for $16,000, in 3D, with a credited Billion Bubble Machine. Elmer Bernstein scored it. It grossed about $1 million, the most frightening thing in it.

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