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Robots categorized as: Film

1927

Metropolis

Categories: Fiction, Film – Tags: , ,

In the classic and hugely influential silent movie Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang, the evil scientist Rotwang creates an evil robot substitute for the peaceful character Maria. Maria urges the working lower class not to revolt against the aristocratic upper class but to find a common ground. She is kidnapped and substituted with the robot-Maria that creates revolt and devastation in the city of Metropolis.

When the revolting mob realizes the devastation created by the robot-Maria, they burn her at the stake.

In Metropolis the robot was originally made by Rotwang to do good and replace the workers in their hard work. The power of the robot nonetheless falls into the hands of an evil mind and is used for a personal vendetta, threatening to destroy a whole civilization in the process. The robot is used as a heartless infiltrator; an instrument created for good, but one that easily falls into evil misuse.

1965

B9

Categories: Art, Fiction, Film – Tags: ,

In 1997, the Earth suffers from overpopulation and natural resource depletion. Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart), their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright), Will (Billy Mumy), and their friend and pilot, Major Don West (Mark Goddard), are chosen to travel on the Jupiter 2 to Alpha Centauri to colonize a habitable planet discovered in that system. After the Robinsons are placed in suspended animation, but before the launch, staff medical doctor / foreign double agent Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) sneaks aboard on a sabotage mission. He reprograms the ship’s robot B-9 (voiced by Dick Tufeld) to destroy the ship shortly after it leaves Earth. He becomes trapped during launch, however, and his extra weight throws the Jupiter 2 off course, causing it to encounter a meteor storm. The robot’s rampage causes the ship to become lost. (Wikipedia)

1956

Robby

Categories: Fiction, Film – Tags: ,

Robby the Robot is a 6-foot, 11-inch tall mechanical suit designed for an actor to wear, to play the part of a robot. It was originally designed for the 1956 MGM movie Forbidden Planet, and quickly became a science fiction movie and television icon. As Forbidden Planet was inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, Robby’s character was inspired by Ariel, the sprite in the play. An important feature of Robby was an unalterable command that he was not to inflict fatal harm upon human beings. This comes into play near the end of the film, where Robby is commanded to kill the monster, but cannot do so because it comprehends that the monster is an alter ego or extension of Dr. Morbius. (Wikipedia)

1984

Bumblebee

Categories: Fiction, Film, Transportation – Tags: , , ,

Bumblebee’s primary function in the original Transformers animated series and comics was to serve as the “young” character with whom the youthful viewing audience could identify, and he would befriend the Autobots’ primary human ally – the young son of the Witwicky family (Buster in the Marvel comic – see issue #1 – and Spike in the cartoon) – to this end, a concept that persists into the 2007 live-action film. Although a well-known character because of this, Bumblebee is quite unusual in that, unlike many other Transformers, his name has not been re-used and applied to unrelated characters throughout the ensuing twenty years of Transformers media, due to the loss of the trademark until recently. His role as the “young yellow character”, however, has inspired other Transformers characters with the same role such as Cheetor and Hot Shot. (Wikipedia)

1999

The Iron Giant

Categories: Art, Fiction, Film – Tags: , , , ,

The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated science fiction film produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Brad Bird directed the film, which stars a voice cast of Eli Marienthal as Hogarth Hughes, as well as Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald and John Mahoney. The film tells the story of a lonely boy raised by his widowed mother, discovering a giant iron man which fell from space. Hogarth, with the help of a beatnik named Dean, has to stop a military force and a federal agent from finding and destroying the Giant. The Iron Giant takes place during the height of the Cold War (1957). (Wikipedia)

1977

C-3P0

Categories: Fiction, Film – Tags: ,

C-3PO is a protocol droid designed to serve humans, and boasts that he is fluent “in over six million forms of communication.” C-3PO is generally seen with his long-time counterpart, R2-D2, a small, quirky astromech droid. Threepio’s main function as a protocol droid is to assist with etiquette, customs, and translation so that meetings of different cultures run smoothly. Together with his fellow droid R2-D2, Threepio played a vital and pivotal role in the Galaxy’s history. (Wikipedia)

2005

Marvin

Categories: Fiction, Film – Tags: ,

Marvin, the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship’s robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. He was built as a prototype of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation’s GPP (Genuine People Personalities) technology. Marvin is apparently afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a “brain the size of a planet” which he is seldom able to use. Indeed, the true horror of Marvin’s existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human, (or 30 billion times more intelligent than a live mattress) though this is, if anything, a vast underestimation. (Wikipedia)

1999

Bender

Categories: Fiction, Film – Tags: ,

Bender serves as a member of Hubert J. Farnsworth’s delivery crew, being the chef for the often long trips through space, to deliver goods for Planet Express. He is one of Fry’s closest friends, though the relationship is often one sided. Bender is a heavy drinker, smoker, and gambler and has been known as “pure evil”. He has a mostly voluntary morality and constantly steals, ranging from the petty theft of wallets to much higher crimes like kidnapping Jay Leno’s head due to their long feud and stealing Fry’s blood. Bender is a robot built by Mom’s Friendly Robot Company at its plant in Tijuana, Mexico, circa 2996. He is a Bending-Unit 22, serial number 2716057, and chassis number 1729. He weighs about five hundred and twenty five pounds. (Wikipedia)

1986

Bishop

Categories: Fiction, Film – Tags: , ,

Lance Bishop 341-B, portrayed by Lance Henriksen, is a character from the science fiction films Aliens (1986) and Alien 3 (1992). Bishop is an android created by the Weyland-Yutani corporation. In Alien 3, Henriksen also plays a character named Bishop II who claims to be the android’s designer. In Alien vs. Predator (2004), which serves as a prequel to the Alien series, Henriksen plays Weyland Industries chief executive officer Charles Bishop Weyland. (Wikipedia)

1984

T-800

Categories: Fiction, Film, Military – Tags: , ,

The Terminator is a fictional character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger : a cyborg, initially portrayed as a programmable assassin and military infiltration unit. “The Terminator” character first appeared in the 1984 movie of the same name, directed and co-written by James Cameron, and its sequels. The first film in the series features only one cyborg: the one portrayed by Schwarzenegger, although a second Terminator played by Franco Columbu is shown in a future flashback scene. In two sequels, Schwarzenegger’s Terminator is pitted against other Terminators, and appears briefly in the fourth. (Wikipedia)

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