Robots in Film – A Complete Pictorial History

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Calling All Robots!
Robots in Film – A Complete Pictorial History

*If you want to see my top 10, click here: Top 10 Robots in film and TV

1900 to 1960’s

1960’s to 1980’s:

1980’s to present:

The BIG list of film and TV robots:

(more or less in alphabetical order)

Ash from Alien

Astro Boy (anime – Japan)

The Astro-Creeps (unnamed robot w/Bela Lugosi 1940)

Alfie – Barbarella

Bishop from Aliens

BOX in Logan’s Run

Blade Runner – Roy & Rachel

B9 – Lost in Space – Robot B-9

Cylon from Battlestar Galactica

Chani – in The Devil Girl from Mars

The Colossus of New York

CP3O from some obscure sci-fi film 😉

Data from Star Trek: Next Generation

DV8 – from Crash & Burn

Destroyer from Thor

Ed209 and Robocop from RoboCop I & II

Fembots in Austin Powers and Dr. Goldfoot films &
TV shows The 6 Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman

Gog – from Gog

GORT from The Day the Earth Stood Still

Goliath in Virus

Giant Alien Robot in Monsters vs. Aliens

Giant Robo (Japan)

Gigantor (1969 animated – Japan)

The Gunslinger- Westworld

The Golden Army – Hellboy 2

Huey, Dewey, and Louie – Silent Running

The Iron Giant

 Johnny 5 – Short Circuit

John the Robot in the films:

• Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
• Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968),

Johnny Sokko and Flying Robot (Japan – 1968)

Jet-Jaguar from Godzilla vs. Megalon

Kronos

Mark13 in Hardware

Mogera from the Toho film, The Mysterians

Mecha-Kong

Mechagodzilla

Maria Futura – Metropolis

Maximilian – The Black Hole

Marvin – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

Moon Trap – alien robotics

Proteus IV in Demon Seed (1977)

Pacific Rim (2013) various including Gypsy

RoMan from Robot Monster

Robot Boxers in Real Steel

R2D2 from some 70’s flick

Robbie the robot from The Forbidden Planet

Rosey – The Jetsons

Robot in Heavy Metal (1981)

Robot Teachers in Class of 1999 (1990)

Rapist Robots in Flesh Gordon (1974)

Seven of Nine, from Star Trek: Voyager

Sonny from I-Robot

Screamers assorted killer robots

The Sentinels – The Matrix films
Saturn 3 – Robot

Star Crash – assorted Robots

The Shape of Things to Come – various robots

Surrogates – replacement robots

Twiki from Buck Rogers

Target Earth – Invader robots

Tripods from War of the Worlds (2004)

Terminator Robots:

• T-800
  T-1000
  Terminatrix – TX
  Harvesters
  Skynet ‘Tank’ Robot
  T-600

Transformers various including Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee

Tobar the Great

Ultraman (Japan)

Wall-E – Wall-E

War Robot – Judge Dread (1995)

Zathbot  – Zathura (2005)

Of course there are a slew of robots in TV and Films such as Dr. Who and the Star Wars saga but I think I’ve mentioned the most memorable and widely known.

If I have missed anybody important, let me know. I will add it to my list!

My Top 10 Robots in film and TV

My Top 10 Robots and Killing Machines in film and TV

As a preface of Pacific Rim, I’d just like to take a pictorial look at some other famous robots through the years. I know the machines in Pacific Rim are technically not Robots, but they are Robotics.

My Top 10 Movie and TV Robots:

1) The first lady robot in film and the first lady robot of film, Maria Futura from the silent movie classic, Metropolis.

2) Most famous is Robbie the robot from The Forbidden Planet.  After that film, Robbie, appeared in the film, The Invisible Boy (1957) and in guest spots on several TV shows, Twilight Zone, Addam‘s Family, and The Man From UNCLE, to name a few.. Robbie was the first Robot to demonstrate Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, in film.

3) The television series, Lost In Space had the wonderful computerized think-tank robot, aptly called Robot. He would give words of wisdom like, “That does not compute,” and “Danger, Danger, Will Robinson.” Actually, the robot’s name is B-9.  (this pick goes out to Markmc2012)

4) Mechagodzilla was modeled after Godzilla. He appears in 5 Godzilla movies: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), Godzilla against Mechagodzilla (2002), Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2004)

5) Terminator Robots – Naturally, we have the Terminator Robots, T-800 and T-1000 and the Terminatrix (T-X). In Terminator Salvation, we have The Harvester, a gigantic robot war machine sent to seek and destroy the human resistance. That is one awesome giant robot – the whole film should have centered around The Harvesters, IMO. Also in the film was an earlier model, the T-600.

6) The Gunslinger played by Yule Brenner was the original Terminator in the film Westworld (1974). Based on a Michael Crichton story.

7) Mecha-Kong was a giant robot modeled after King Kong in the film, King Kong Escapes. (Toho Films)

8) War of the Worlds (2005) Tripods – despite the successful 1950’s version of the film, the war machines in HG Wells’ classic were not saucers, but giant 3 footed pods. They came to life in Spielberg’s 2005 version of War Of the Worlds.

9) Sonny from I-Robot (2004). He was smart too. I felt bad for Sonny. The film’s many robots struggled to adhere to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

10) Fembots have been in quite a few films, Doctor Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), Doctor Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966), Austin Powers (1997), The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and GoldMember (2002)

Related articles:
Creature Features – Giant Robots

Robots in Film – A Complete Pictorial History (coming soon)