Movies robots aren't just mindless automatons. They can often be metal marvels with their own charismatic personalities. TIME looks at cinema's long tradition of smart silver screen machines.
ROBOT: Gort QUOTE: “For our policemen, we created a race of robots… In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us… At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor.”
—The alien Klaatu, describing his robotic companion.
Call it the Alien vs. Predator of its day; a sci-fi movie that took three of the most tantalizing sci-fi concepts — flying saucers, aliens and robots — and fused them all together in a movie about the planet brought to the brink of destruction in a single day.
Landing in Washington, a mysterious spacecraft holds two occupants: Klaatu, an alien, and Gort, a robot. As the ship opens its doors, Klaatu flees, determined to hide among the people in hopes of learning about the human race. Gort, meanwhile, stands guard — a silent, silver sentinel. The American military approach him with fear and suspicion because — surprise, surprise — they believe these creatures came to hurt humans and that the spacecraft can mean nothing but doom for all. Considering Klaatu the enemy, the military opens fire when the alien returns to the spaceship, and Gort responds to the attack by firing a death ray before Klaatu intervenes.
Released shortly after the end of World War II, in the midst of America’s Cold War tensions that would influence so many sci-fi films to come, the message of The Day the Earth Stood Still is steeped in a fear for the future of our own species and destructive earthly ways. As for Gort, he is a peaceful alien who is misunderstood — but when provoked, he is not above protecting his own, even if that means killing us all.
ROBOT: Robby the Robot QUOTE: “Sorry, Miss. I was giving myself an oil job.”
—Robby the Robot, explaining to his master’s daughter, Altaira, why he did not answer the bell when she called him.
Forbidden Planet became a cult classic for its pioneering special effects and a satisfying combination of 1950s cheesiness and sexual innuendo, not to mention a young (and serious) Leslie Nielsen. But the real star of the film is a hilariously smug robot named Robby. While his predecessors had all the personality of a toaster, Robby behaves like a deadpan Shakespearean clown (the film’s characters and theme found an unlikely inspiration in The Tempest). He is pompous yet clumsy, domineering yet still willing to get drunk with the crew. More advanced than humans could create, Robby was constructed by a man named Dr. Morbius who used plans from an alien computer system.
Robby is not just a charmer, he also has heart, following the same robot morality introduced by writer Isaac Asimov in his 1940s and 50s I, Robot stories. Because he is programmed to follow three basic tenets: obey human orders, protect his own existence and never injure humans, Robby faces a philosophical dilemma when he is ordered by a human (Dr. Morbius) to kill a human (Dr. Morbius) in order to save his own life.
To date, Robby is the first and only movie prop to receive “star billing” in a film, perhaps because he cost so much to make — a reported $125,000 in the 1950s, the equivalent of a gazillion dollars today. He later re-appeared in TV shows like The Twilight Zone and inspired countless robots after him, most notably Star Wars‘ C-3PO.
