Ten Robots From Movies That Help to Shape My Childhood

Robots, what’s not to like about them? Robots such as Johnny 5 are easy to fall in love with. And robots such as Optimus Prime are just pure awesome! What I are trying to get at is, if a movie has a robot then it’s usually going to go well as most moviegoers do tend to accept machines on the big screen and into our hearts.

The following top ten robots list could have easily been made into a top 50; there are that many robots in films that it was extremely hard to narrow it down to a top ten. Some of you may not agree with the following decisions on the fact that I left out certain robots, but I feel I have included the best of the best…


Max – Flight Of The Navigator
Max – Flight Of The Navigator

10 – Max – Flight Of The Navigator

Only you true hardcore fans of Flight of the Navigator will know this, but either way it’s an awesome piece of information for when it pops up in a pub quiz: Max is the computer/robotic (still a robot) pilot that commands a Trimaxium Drone Ship of the planet Phaelon. Max is essentially the brain that controls the ship and his purpose is to collect data from other planets in the universe and return the data and samples he finds on his way to his home planet: Phaelon. Being the awesome guy that he is, Max is also equipped with a time machine and he can travel faster than the speed of light – only in science fiction, eh? Seeing as every film in the world is getting a reboot, I would love to see Flight of the Navigator remade…just so I could hate it!

Marvin – Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
Marvin – Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

9 – Marvin – Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

Marvin — or to you films buffs — the Paranoid Android, is a robot produced by Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. He is programmed to think like a human and possesses Genuine People Personalities technology; although, he comes across as a depressed robot. In fact so much so that other robots in his presence usually commit suicide. U would also like to add that I loved the film version of Marvin and to be quite frank, the TV series version made him look like a idiot.

Marvin: That ship hated me.
Ford: Ship? What happened to it? Do you know?
Marvin: It hated me because I talked to it.
Ford: You talked to it? What do you mean you talked to it?
Marvin: Simple. I got very bored and depressed, so I went and plugged myself into its external computer feed. I talked to the computer at great length and explained my view of the universe to it.
Ford: And what happened?
Marvin: It committed suicide.

Johnny 5 – Short Circuit
Johnny 5 – Short Circuit

8 – Johnny 5 – Short Circuit

Johnny 5’s original purpose was for military use, BUT, he came to life didn’t he after a lightning-induced power surge. It didn’t stop there…he realised – although he was programmed for destruction – that he wanted to be a good robot and wanted to live a tranquil life. Johnny is actually a sentient robot and was labelled “SAINT Number 5,” or Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport.”

Andrew – Bicentennial Man
Andrew – Bicentennial Man

7 – Andrew – Bicentennial Man

A robot called Andrew, now that’s amazing. It just doesn’t happen in science fiction does it? Andrew is introduced into a family home to perform everyday tasks where everyone has mixed emotion about him. Although the older daughter Grace decides it would be fun to vandalise him. Andrew then begins to experience emotions and creative thoughts.

[adinserter block=”7″]

Murphy – RoboCop
Murphy – RoboCop

6 – Murphy – RoboCop

RoboCop actually started off as a real man who went by the name Alex J. Murphy. He started off as Detroit Police Officer and was well respected until has was brutally slain by crime boss Clarence Boddicker. He was then basically put back together as the machine RoboCop or for you movie buffs: RoboCop – OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001. Now it is up to the bulletproof cop to clean up the city. I just want to say how much I hated the remake of this film, it wasn’t half as good as the original, but then again…are they ever?

BB-8 – StarWars
BB-8 – StarWars

5 – BB-8 – StarWars

Some might say BB-8 took over from R2-D2 as the nations favourite StarWars robot, but not in my books. While funny and lovable here is still now a patch on the robots from the original films.

WALL-E – WALL-E
WALL-E – WALL-E

4 – WALL-E – WALL-E

How can you hate the lovable yellow cube that is WALL•E (Waste Allocator Load Lifter Earth-Class)? In the year 2805 A.D. the Earth is a barren wasteland that is full of trash. Robots called WALL•E were left on earth to clean up the mess that humans created while they boarded a space fleet called BnL starliners. WALL•E goes about his daily life of cleaning (the little guy loves to make cubes), loving his life and becoming self-aware. He then starts to become lonely and wished to experience love…bless him.

Optimus Prime – Transformers
Optimus Prime – Transformers

3 – Optimus Prime – Transformers

Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobot, who are sworn protectors of humanity against the menace of the Decepticons and their evil ruler Megatron (as they have nothing better to do). You can tell they came from comic books, can’t you? He can also transform into a truck as that is what he decided to imitate when he landed on earth and everyone knows that trucks are the bee’s knees.

[adinserter block=”8″]

R2-D2 – StarWars
R2-D2 – StarWars

2 – R2-D2 – StarWars

R2-D2 made the list and C-3PO didn’t. R2-D2 is an R2-series astromech droid manufactured by Industrial Automaton. With abilities such as slicing computers, extinguishing fires, projecting holograms, repairing starships, flying and often employed unorthodox means to help his friends, you know he is the man and he is overlooked as a robot. With a unique yet simple design and his quirky speech

T-800 – Terminator
T-800 – Terminator

1 – T-800 – Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger as a robot, enough said. In the movie The Terminator, Arnold is a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Series 800 Terminator (T-800) that gets sent back in time by the military supercomputer Skynet in 2029 to Los Angeles in 1984 to kill Sarah Connor who just happens to be the mother of John Connor, the leader of the future human Resistance. The T-800 is also a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

Author: Gus Barge

Leave a Reply