# Best android or robot in a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2017, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133 "2017-05-21T11:21:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mavic\_Chen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mavic\_Chen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavic_Chen)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/41 "2017-05-22T15:06:00Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > My nominee is Marvin from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Deadpan and droll similar to Robbie the robot. > > Trillian: Marvin… you saved our lives! > Marvin: I know. Wretched, isn’t it? > > Marvin: I have a million ideas, but, they all point to certain death. > Arthur: Thanks very much, Marv! > > Marvin: I’ve calculated your chance of survival, but I don’t think you’ll like it. > > Marvin: Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to take you to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction, 'cause I don’t. > > Marvin: [as they are gazing at the wonder of Magrathea] Incredible… it’s even worse than I thought it would be. _"Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with"_sup[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/42 "2017-05-22T21:08:07Z")
Thank you, **MrDibble**. I kept thinking that there was some recent robot where you could believe that it really was just a (very) well-programmed machine acting according to its programming, simulating but not quite equalling a person, but I couldn’t remember what it was. Baymax it was. As an aside, when I first saw the promotions for the movie, I blew it off, because that’s obviously a ludicrous design for a robot, why would anyone ever make a robot that looked like that? But of course, the movie explains quite well why that design makes perfect sense for the purpose that Baymax was built for. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/43 "2017-05-23T05:24:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > \ > In the real world, general purpose artificial humans aren’t efficient. I can come up with a few special purpose applications, which means that any group of people could come up with many more. They will exist. Just not for any of the reasons that fiction uses them. We went to a science centre last week where they had a couple of realistic, lifesize Klingon mannequins. I gotta tell you, I think one of the main reasons we will have humanoid androids/robots is because anything that is that close to looking like a human but not looking like a human is just plain distressing to human beings. Robots will have to either be completely non-humanoid, or as close to human-looking as possible, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/44 "2017-05-23T06:07:52Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Robby was in a _Columbo_ episode in which he was operated by a boy genius named Stephen Spielberg. The boy was named by writer Stephen Bochco as a salute to his friend, Stephen Spielberg, who had directed the first _Columbo_ episode. All this time fighting autocorrect and it still didn’t come out the way I intended. The kid in the _Columbo_ episode was called **Stephen Spielborgs** , as a call-out by Stephen Bochco to his friend Stephen Spielberg, who was not yet a world-famous motion picture director, just a guy who was wetting his chops in TV work. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/45 "2017-05-23T06:39:55Z")
Because I just saw it on a plane, the bartender from Passengers was human enough to be your friend but still very much a robot. Spoiler question about the movie that has nothing to do with robots: Why didn’t she get into the sleep chamber thingy after a decade or two-- or even three-- of married bliss? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/46 "2017-05-23T06:50:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Thank you, **MrDibble**. I kept thinking that there was some recent robot where you could believe that it really was just a (very) well-programmed machine acting according to its programming, simulating but not quite equalling a person, but I couldn’t remember what it was. Baymax it was. > > As an aside, when I first saw the promotions for the movie, I blew it off, because that’s obviously a ludicrous design for a robot, why would anyone ever make a robot that looked like that? But of course, the movie explains quite well why that design makes perfect sense for the purpose that Baymax was built for. I haven’t read the comic, but FYI it seems Baymax is [very different](http://www.buycostumes.com/ideas/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/baymax-square-1.png) in that. Me, I like the huggable guy. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/47 "2017-05-23T09:24:04Z")
I’ve always had a certain fondness for Edward Scissorhands. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/48 "2017-05-23T11:03:19Z")
Huh, Edward Scissorshands was a robot? I never saw the movie myself, but I assumed he was just meant to be an unexplained freak. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/49 "2017-05-23T11:13:45Z")
I am quite keen on the robot in the South African film CHAPPiE; a slightly different look at the possibilities of humanoid artificial intelligence. > **[Chappie (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappie_(film))** > > Chappie (stylized as CHAPPiE) is a 2015 American dystopian science fiction action film directed by Neill Blomkamp and written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell. It stars Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Ninja, Yolandi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, and Sigourney Weaver. The film, set and shot in Johannesburg, is about an artificial general intelligence law enforcement robot captured and taught by gangsters, who nickname it Chappie. > Chappie premiered in New York City on March 4, 2015, and ... The robot slowly picks up more human mannerisms as he learns from his associates, to some comic effect. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/50 "2017-05-23T12:13:22Z")
There are lots of interesting robots (“Robots must lead such _INTERESTING_ lives,” I can hear Bugs Bunny saying, in his person as a nail dresser), even if they’re not ideal representatives of the robotic ideal: **The Robot from _Metropolis_** – She’s been given various names (“Futura”, “Maria”, “Maschinenmensch”, etc). One of the first representations of a mechanical robot on film (Exapno’s Houdini robot beat it by many years), it gets the image wonderfully right, from its stylized appearance to its smooth motion. C3PO’s design probably stole from this one. An intentionally Evil Robot, she certainly doesn’t obey Asimov’s laws, which, in any case, she predates. **Kronos** – from the movie of the same name. Not even remotely humanoid, the robot doesn’t sound visually compelling. It’s basically two almos cubical boxes stacked atop one another, with a cylindrical segment joining them, a dome on top, and two antennae. It has four vertical cylindrical “legs” beneath, three of which pump up and down while the fourth rotates. In the hands of the same visual geniuses who made _Forbidden Planet_, though, the robot, its propulsion, and especially its destruction are sheer visual genius. So is the roboit’s initial appearance from the sea. Brad Bird echoed this in his own film _The Iron Giant_, which borrows heavily from Kronos (although it also was inspired by Ted Hughes’ book _The Iron Man_). Bird also used ideas from Kronos in his Pixar film _The Incredibles_, including the Destroying Invading Robot, and even its code name. **The Terminator** – mentioned above. James Cameron’s original Terminator is the perfect Killer Machine – an idea that had already appeared many times in SF literature. Of course, a Killing Machine wouldn’t obey Asimov’s Laws. The Terminator is another perfect robot – Cameron divests it of all human emotions, and there’s no sappy “learning to be human” subplot or inhibitions. He is a machine. And, as with Robby, the humor derives from his being a machine (and there’s plenty of ironic, dark humor in _The Terminator_). My favorite example of this is when he is sitting in his cheap hotel room, his biological exterior deteriorating and fly-infested. The manager asks him if he has a dead cat in there, since evidently he has started to rot and smell. Seeking an appropriate response, he looks through his list of options, something we see from his “point of view”. The highlighted phrases are gone through one by one until he gets to the last one – “Fuck you, asshole”, which he uses. That phrase was the one addressed to _him_ back at the beginning of the film, when he, naked, approached the three punks at Griffiths Park Observatory and said “Give me your clothes”. He clearly added it to his list of options at the time – he’s a _learning_ machine! And then, of course, in the sequel, he got kind of sappy, with the Learning To Be Human subplot. Cameron justified it and explained it, but it’s still not a perfect fit. The original Terminator is a thing of dark and awful beauty. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/51 "2017-05-23T13:08:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Huh, Edward Scissorshands was a robot? I never saw the movie myself, but I assumed he was just meant to be an unexplained freak. Meh. Robot, android, flesh golem. He was constructed, Ship of Theseus style, from what started as a vegetable-chopping robot in Vincent Price’s creepy castle. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/52 "2017-05-23T16:19:54Z")
I’ve argued that R2D2 was the best movie _sidekick_ ever – human, animal or robot. He has all the best qualities – unwavering loyalty, pluckiness, rapport with both the hero and the other sidekick, dependable when the going gets tough, and the occasional bit of comic relief. Of course it took several movies for R2D2 to really establish his multiple dimensions. Robby achieved more in his first movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2017, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/53 "2017-05-23T18:19:13Z")
Killer or destroying Robots in SF film: Maria/Futura in **Metropolis** – didn’t actually kill anyone directly, but incited riots The Robots in **the Mechanical Monsters** (Superman cartoon 1941) Gog and Magog in **Gog** – probably the most easily avoidable killer robots, but they had flamethrowers. And they were 3D! The Alien Robots in **Target Earth!** (1954) Kronos in **Kronos** The Evil Supercomputer in **The Invisible Boy** The Androids in **Flash Gordon and the Return of the Androids** (1954) HAL 9000 in **2001** and **2010** (1968 and 1985) Hector in **Saturn 3** (1980) Proteus IV in **Demon Seed** (1977) Maximilian and the Sentry Robots in **The Black Hole** (1979) Terminator Robots in the entire Terminator series the AIMS and various robots in **Screamers** (1995) … and that’s only a partial list. Needless to say, these aren’t among the Best Robots (except for The Terminator) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/54 "2017-05-26T11:53:12Z")
Just thought of one, but from a TV show, rather than a movie. **Adam Link** , from Eando Binder’s 1939 story _I, Robot_ (actually, incorporating its sequel, “the Trial of Adam Link”). It appeared as an episode of _The Outer Limits_ in 1964, and one of the players was a pre-_Star Trek_ Leonard Nimoy. when _Outer Limits_ was revived in 1995, they adapted it again, directed by Nimoy’s son. Nimoy again appeared, although in a different role. The story concerned a self-aware robot put on trial for the murder of his creator. The story is an early example of a sympathetic robot character. It predates Asimov’s robot stories (Asimov was surely aware that the title of his own collection of robot stories lifted its title from the Binder story), and Adam Link appears to be guided by the same principles as Asimov’s Three Laws. Although the title character “dies” in the adaptations, he went on to a series of other adventures in the pulps, later gathered together in a single paperback volume, which was reprinted several times. “Eando” Binder was really the brother team of Earl and Otta Binder (“E and O” – get it?) Otto went on to write for comics. I the 1950s and 60s he scripted adaptations of his Adam Link stories for “graphic novels”. > **[Adam Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Link)** > > Adam Link is a fictional robot, made in the likeness of a man, who becomes self-aware, and the protagonist of several science fiction short stories written by Eando Binder, the pen name of Earl Andrew Binder and his brother, Otto Binder. The stories were originally published in the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories from 1939 to 1942. In all, ten Adam Link stories were published. In The American Robot: A Cultural History, Dustin A. Abnet says that Adam was the "most popular science fiction ... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/55 "2017-05-26T14:27:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Just thought of one, but from a TV show, rather than a movie. > **Adam Link** , from Eando Binder’s 1939 story _I, Robot_ (actually, incorporating its sequel, “the Trial of Adam Link”). It appeared as an episode of _The Outer Limits_ in 1964, and one of the players was a pre-_Star Trek_ Leonard Nimoy. when _Outer Limits_ was revived in 1995, they adapted it again, directed by Nimoy’s son. Nimoy again appeared, although in a different role. The story concerned a self-aware robot put on trial for the murder of his creator. > The story is an early example of a sympathetic robot character. It predates Asimov’s robot stories (Asimov was surely aware that the title of his own collection of robot stories lifted its title from the Binder story), and Adam Link appears to be guided by the same principles as Asimov’s Three Laws. > > Although the title character “dies” in the adaptations, he went on to a series of other adventures in the pulps, later gathered together in a single paperback volume, which was reprinted several times. “Eando” Binder was really the brother team of Earl and Otta Binder (“E and O” – get it?) Otto went on to write for comics. I the 1950s and 60s he scripted adaptations of his Adam Link stories for “graphic novels”. > > [Adam Link - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Link) The title _I, Robot_ was imposed on the collection by publisher Martin Greenberg over Asimov’s objections. He didn’t want to usurp Binder’s priority. The upshot is that Binder’s story is now essentially forgotten although the Adam Link stories are far better and more historically important than Asimov’s. The stories were all Otto, though. Earl dropped out of the collaboration years earlier, in 1934. And the comic adaptations appeared in EC’s _Weird Science-Fantasy_ 27-29 in 1955, ordinary comics not graphic novels. I’ve just been researching Binder, so he’s at the tip of my tongue - so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/56 "2017-05-26T14:49:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And the comic adaptations appeared in EC’s _Weird Science-Fantasy_ 27-29 in 1955, ordinary comics not graphic novels. I’ve just been researching Binder, so he’s at the tip of my tongue - so to speak. Yeah, I know – I was being kind. The Warren magazine adaptations weren’t precisely what we would call “graphic novels”, either. ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/57 "2017-05-26T14:55:01Z")
> [@Mavic\_Chen](#): > > _"Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with"_sup[/sup] I’ve seen it, It’s rubbish. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/58 "2017-05-26T15:03:15Z")
Off-beat case: The Robots in the 1962 film **Creation of the Humanoids**. a very weird film, made on a low budget, with flimsy sets, an over-talky script, and frequently abysmal acting. But it has some good ideas, and there’s clearly force and intellect behind the production. The robots are definitely sympathetic. Despite its amateurish appearance, it was made by pros, and Hollywood makeup legend Jack Pierce did the makeup, including metallic scleral contacts for the robots. Worth seeing at least once. > **[The Creation of the Humanoids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_the_Humanoids)** > > The Creation of the Humanoids is a 1962 American science fiction film release, directed by Wesley Barry and starring Don Megowan, Erica Elliot, Frances McCann, Don Doolittle, and Dudley Manlove. The film is not based on the plot of Jack Williamson's novel The Humanoids, to which it bears little resemblance, but on an original story and screenplay written by Jay Simms. > In a post-nuclear-war society, blue-skinned, silver-eyed human-like robots have become a common sight as the surviving population... ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/59 "2017-05-26T15:08:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Why do you need an android who can pass for human to do any of that? Specialized gizmos can handle all of those things at far less cost. A humanoid android is like buying a blender/toaster/motorized wheelchair. There is a short story somewhere set in a universe with Asimov robots (but I don’t think it is Asimov) where the protagonist figures out that various robots are mal-functioning because they have completely superfluous human parts that don’t contribute to their job function. He rebuilds them to have the physical characteristics needed to perform their work (initially causing dismay to the owners), and their psychological problems go away and they become the perfect servants they were designed to be. Wish I could remember where I read it and what it was called. I think that a couple of the reworked bots were a secretary and a bartender. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133/60 "2017-05-26T16:39:59Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > We went to a science centre last week where they had a couple of realistic, lifesize Klingon mannequins. I gotta tell you, I think one of the main reasons we will have humanoid androids/robots is because anything that is that close to looking like a human but not looking like a human is just plain distressing to human beings. Robots will have to either be completely non-humanoid, or as close to human-looking as possible, in my opinion. Nah. The uncanny valley isn’t that wide. C3-P0 is completely non-disturbing and even sortof charming in his human-like-ness, and he is a completely humanoid robot. In fact, most of the robots getting mentioned here are at least human-oid. You only run into uncanny valley stuff when you get way closer to looking human - fake skin, teeth, etc. This is creepy: [http://www.strangerdimensions.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/creepy-girl-uncanny-valley2.jpg](http://www.strangerdimensions.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/creepy-girl-uncanny-valley2.jpg) These guys are not: [https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-07eb6ac30783679d9e2dcbd6e2dcfe75-c](https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-07eb6ac30783679d9e2dcbd6e2dcfe75-c) Both are humanoid. In fact, the theory from which the uncanny valley derives indicates that people like things MORE as they become more human like (Compare the cute robot dudes in the second screenshot to your average robot arm. We’ll probably see a lot of humanoid robots designed to look cute/charming/reassuring without really looking HUMAN. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-android-or-robot-in-a-movie/787133.md?page=4)