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13 Robot films to make you feel more human

BY Anna Walker

1st Jan 2015 Film & TV

13 Robot films to make you feel more human

From cuddly Disney heroes, to terrifying terminators, we’ve selected 13 of the best examples of cyborg cinema.

Since the release of Metropolis in 1927 films about artificial intelligence have had the power to makes us laugh and cry, have us hiding behind cushions or rooting for the humans to just leave them alone!

 

13. The Terminator

Terminator
The eternally robotic Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as an android assassin, who travels back in time from the year 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose as yet unborn son holds the key to the human/cyborg apocalypse of the future. Worth watching for the impressive eighties bouffants alone.
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12. Wall-E

Wall-E is an adorable robot, with a lot of time on his hands! Designed to clean up the abandoned and waste covered Earth, the tiny helpful bot finds himself falling in love with another robot named EVE. This Oscar winning Pixar film can certainly boast being the cutest entry on our list.

 

11. Chappie

From the director of District 9, Chappie tells the story of the first artificially intelligent robot on earth. ‘Chappie’, as his creators name him, responds to the world with child like impulses but soon finds himself torn between his creators, and a gang who set out to manipulate his innocence. Starring Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel and Sigourney Weaver
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10. The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Day the Earth Stood Still

A humanoid alien named Klaatu comes to earth, accompanied by an intimidating ten-foot tall robot companion named Gort who will deliver a message with the power to affect the entire human race. Unusually for the genre, the film carries a strong pacifist message.
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9. Robocop

What a different world we’d live in with cyborg bobbies on the beat. Robocop centers on police officer Alex Murphy, who after being brutally murdered by a gang of criminals, is revived as the superhuman law enforcer, Robocop.
Buy the Trilogy

 

8. The Matrix

The Matrix           

Thomas Anderson is a computer programmer who leads a double life as computer hacker ‘Neo’. Double life takes on a whole new meaning however, when his reality disintegrates and he realizes life as he knew it was nothing more than ‘the Matrix’, a shared simulation of the world as it was in 1999. In truth, he has been lying plugged into the system whilst intelligent machines, originally created by humans, harvest his bioelectricity. Phew, it’s exhausting just thinking about it! Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne star.                
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7. Silent Running

On a future planet Earth, all plant life has become extinct save a few specimens, kept alive in giant greenhouse domes. When orders come to destroy the domes, resident botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) goes AWOL and kills one of his crewmates. With the help of some drones, he sets about trying to preserve what little is left of earth’s natural environment. The eco friendly lifestyle just got serious.
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6. Bicentennial Man

Bicentennial MAn

Robin Williams is the NDR series android, Andrew and his one wish is to become human. In the years the cleaning robot belongs to the Martin family, he undergoes various upgrades and repairs that allow him to gradually demonstrate the full range of human emotions he is capable of feeling. When he finds himself falling for a member of the Martin family, the line between human and robot faces the ultimate test.

 

5. 2001 A Space Odyssey

At the dawn of man, a mysterious monolith inexplicably triggers rapid advancement in the evolution of primates. Millions of years later, another monolith, this time discovered on the moon emits a radio signal to Jupiter and a mission is sent out to investigate. The only apparent danger is a psychotic and intelligent computer named HAL…
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4. Star Wars

Star Wars

These are the droids we’re looking for. When artificial intelligence acts stupid. R2-D2 and C-3PO are one of the best double acts in Sci-Fi history. Constantly irriated by one another, whilst clearly a match made in heaven, the pair get into all sorts of scrapes in the course of the series, but also do a lot to save their friends. Both robots are set to appear in the upcoming sequel trilogy.

 

3. Metropolis

Metropolis

This German expressionist, epic, science fiction drama film (try saying that ten times faster!) is a slice of genius. Released in 1927, it is regarded as a pioneering genre work. Set in a future city where a small sliver of society live atop a mountain of laborers, the city leader’s son sets out on an odyssey in pursuit of worker’s advocate Maria. Meanwhile her evil doppelgänger is raging chaos.
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2. Blade Runner

Retired police officer Rick (Harrison Ford) makes his living tracking down bioengineered robots named ‘Replicants’ and destroying them. When he is informed that six Replicants have come to Earth illegally, a brutal search unfolds, that will blur the lines between human and robot.

 

1.Ex Machina

Perhaps the scariest entry on our list, Ex Machina presents a truly chilling vision of our not-too-distant future. In the mountain retreat of an eccentric, genius billionare a young man (Domhnall Gleeson, About Time) is tricked into playing a part in a strange experiment. He must test out a new Artificial Intelligence, placed in the body of a beautiful robot girl (Alicia Vikander, Testament of Youth).
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