‘Metropolis’ (1927)
This German silent film directed by Fritz Lang was set in a dystopian future and featured one of film's earliest robots. The art deco-influenced robot later became inspiration for Star Wars' C-3PO.
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Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection -
‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ (1951)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Gort acted as a robot bodyguard to visiting alien Klaatu in Robert Wise's seminal science fiction classic. The Cold War-era film had a strong anti-nuclear message, while the 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves focused on environmental sustainability.
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‘Forbidden Planet’ (1956)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection On the poster for MGM's colorful classic Robby the Robot was billed alongside the other actors, who included Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis. Unlike many other movie robots that came before him, Robby was meant to help his human counterparts. He also had the ability to speak and had a killer sense of humor ("Sorry, Miss, I was giving myself an oil-job").
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‘Sleeper’ (1973)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection In Woody Allen's futuristic satire, Allen played a health-food store owner who accidentally gets cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the year 2173. In order to hide his identity, he posses as a robot butler in the house of a self-indulgent poet, played by Diane Keaton.
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‘Star Wars’ (1977)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection C-3PO and R2-D2 are probably two of the most famous movie robots of all time. Their Odd Couple-style banter served as comic relief in George Lucas' iconic space operas.
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‘Blade Runner’ (1982)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Ridley Scott's cult classic dealt with larger themes of humanity and technology and their inevitable communion. Harrison Ford starred as a Blade Runner — a type of futuristic policeman charged with hunting down and "retiring" rogue replicants.
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‘Terminator’ (1984)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection The first film in the James Cameron franchise starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a murderous T-800 cyborg who travels back in time to kill the mother of the future leader of the human resistance.
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‘Short Circuit’ (1986)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Johnny Five was created by the government to be a killing machine, but after being struck by lighting he was rewired to have a pleasant personality and a moral conscience.
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‘RoboCop’ (1987)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection The graphically violent film by director Paul Verhoeven followed a cop that was killed in the line of duty but was resurrected as an invincible cyborg. The film's tagline says it all: "Part man, part machine, all cop."
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‘Bicentennial Man’ (1999)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Based on Isaac Asimov's 1976 novella of the same name, the film starred comedian Robin Williams as robot servant NDR-114, who exhibits human characteristics and eventually turns himself into a prosthetic human. The robot's model number (114) was thought to be a tribute to Stanley Kubrick, who used the number in many of his film including Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange.
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‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection In the first installment of the Wachowski siblings' franchise, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne et al. had to fight autonomous spider-like sentinels that patrolled the now-vacant human cities following a massive robot uprising.
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‘Artificial Intelligence’ (2001)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Haley Joel Osment plays an android child — complete with an animatronic teddy bear — who embarks on a Pinocchio-esque quest to become a human boy. Jude Law also plays a humanoid robot, known as Gigolo Joe. He is pleasure model who tells one client, "Once you've had a lover robot, you'll never want a real man again."
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‘I, Robot’ (2004)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection Based on the nine-part anthology written by Isaac Asimov and published in the 1940s, the movie follows Will Smith as a robot-hating Chicago detective who needs to work with a humanoid robot named Sonny (voiced by Alan Tudyk) to solve the murder of Sonny's creator.
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‘Transformers’ (2007)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Dreamworks/Paramount Michael Bay's ultra-lucrative franchise is based on the Hasbro toy line and subsequent cartoon series. The first film introduced moviegoing audiences to Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Having directed four installments, Bay has announced he will not return to direct the fifth.
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‘Wall-E’ (2008)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: PIXAR Pixar's venture into the world of computer-animated science fiction chronicled the life of a waste-removal robot on an abandoned Earth who falls in love with a visiting robot named EVE. The Andrew Stanton-directed film went on to win the Academy Award for best animated feature and was nominated in five other categories.
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‘Big Hero 6’ (2014)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: DISNEY Walt Disney Animation's follow-up to the monstrously popular Frozen was inspired by the Marvel superhero team of the same name. Baymax, an inflatable health care companion, is the film's resident automaton. Together, Baymax, robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada and their friends fight bots on the streets of a futuristic San Fransokyo.
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Chappie (2015)
Image Credit: Photo Credit: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures From Neil Blomkamp, the director of District 9, Chappie follows the story of an automated police robot that has been reprogrammed with humanity, meaning an ability to think and feel for itself.