14 Significant Sci-Fi Movies with Robots—From the Amazing to the Weird
With tech so common now, it’s time to look back on some of our favorite robots from the movies—from the amazing to the weird.
“I am an artificial human.”—Tima from Metropolis (2001)
Kickstarter announcement: Find out about the all-new Robot Monster graphic novel anthology!
Automated machines that can do stuff with little (or no) human help, robots have advanced a lot over the years. Over the centuries, ideas behind robotics go all the way back to Aristotle and Leonardo Da Vinci to more modern thinkers like businessman Henry Ford and science fiction author Isaac Asimov.
Giving special notice to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein (which more or less invented “science fiction”) and Karel Capek’s 1920 stageplay R.U.R. (which actually introduced the word “Robots”), there have been all kinds of stories with automatons in movies and on TV and in comics and books and anywhere else.
In the list below, we take a look at some of the best movie robots of all time—from charming co-workers who just want to help us out to menacing monsters planning to stomp on us.
We also talk about the upcoming hardcover comics anthology expanding on the ideas in Robot Monster! Details below!
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14 Significant Sci-Fi Movies with Robots
#1 Robot Monster (1953)
One of the most memorable sci-fi movie robots of all time is the one that came to Earth in the 1953 movie Robot Monster to destroy the human race. Once it has already killed all but eight survivors, the Ro-Man works to annihilate the last family on Earth—but is stalled when it finds itself falling in love with their daughter.
A movie on lots of “so bad it’s good” lists, Robot Monster was made in 3-D—and includes bits of stock footage from several other movies. And a bubble machine.
The movie also features a musical score by legendary composer Elmer Bernstein, whose scores over the years have included a wide range like Ghostbusters (1984), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Grifters (1990), The Blues Brothers (1980), and lots more. (We’re planning to share a more complete list of his movies on Monster Complex™ in the future.)
Having grown into a cult favorite—partly because of how bizarre it is—Robot Monster has shown up here and there over the years. Examples include a reference in The Cars music video for song “You Might Think”; a quick glimpse of the Ro-Man costume in the Power Rangers Zeo episode “Invasion of The Ranger Snatchers”; a visual gag in the Rocko’s Modern Life episode “Popcorn Pandemonium”; and a Ro-Man appearance in the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
There were also Ro-Man lookalike characters in the 2010 animated movie Megamind, the 2012 series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the 2016 cartoon Milo Murphy’s Law.
Robot Monster was also featured (and heckled) by both Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax.
Robot Monster was restored for a special DVD and Blu-Ray (with bonus features) by 3-D Film Archive in June 2023.
RELATED LINK: ROBOT MONSTER COMICS IN 3-D 64-page graphic novel anthology!
Finally able to share a project I’m working on: A new 3D comic based on the cult classic 3D movie Robot Monster! This campy 1950s movie got restored last year and was a huge hit—so we’re keeping the fun going with new stories based on the character.
This hardcover book will be a 64-page graphic novel anthology in 3-D. For this anthology, I wrote one of the stories for which my wife is doing the art. Other contributors include writer-producer Harold Buchholz (MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000), veteran comics writer-editor Paul Castiglia (ARCHIE COMICS), plus several top-notch indie comics contributors, and up-and-coming talents making their comics debuts.
And Robot Monster’s Greg Moffett—the last surviving Robot Monster cast member—is directly involved, with story concepts and autographed bookplates!
Find out more about the Robot Monster comics collection here!
#2 Star Wars series
Over the years, the Star Wars brand has introduced us to lots of intriguing and lovable (and fearsome) characters—including lots of droids. Throughout the course of the space opera, the bots have played important parts in nearly every Star Wars story.
The earliest memorable examples include C-3PO and R2-D2, which appeared in the original 1977 movie Star Wars. (Yes, they later changed the name of the movie. I’m still calling it Star Wars.) C-3PO is the shiny protocol droid that can translate all those languages. R2-D2 is the rolling ATM-type machine that is good at plugging into machines and passing along messages.
A couple other noteworthy robots from the Star Wars saga include IG-11 from the streaming show The Mandalorian and L0-LA59 from the show Obi-Wan Kenobi. IG-11 (voiced by Taika Waititi) was a bounty hunter and assassin droid that was then reprogrammed into being an ally that saves the Baby Yoda. (I know the baby’s name was changed, but that’s still what I’m calling him.) L0-LA59 was the cute little droid that served the young Princess Leia Organa.
There are, obviously, lots more robots from the world of Star Wars.
#3 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
A sci-fi invasion movie were Martians head for the North Pole to kidnap Saint Nick, the silly classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians also has a robot: When the two main Earth children of the movie try to escape from the Martians in the snow, they’re chased down by a terrorizing six-foot robot. (Well, um, “terrorizing” if you aren’t put off by it being made out of boxes.)
When the robot stumbles into the elves’ workshop, Santa remarks that the big metal marauder is the “biggest toy” that he’s ever seen. Which, somehow, breaks the robot down so that he’s no longer a threat.
Considered one of the worst movies ever made, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has nonetheless taken on cult movie status. The movie has been celebrated by the likes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Cinematic Titanic, RiffTrax, Elvira’s Movie Macabre, and Cinema Insomnia. There was a comic book adaptation from Dell Comics in 1966, a novelization by Lou Harry in 2005—and at least two stage adaptations, including a musical in 1993 and a play in 2006.
#4 Westworld (1973)
A high-tech amusement park for adults features historical environments populated by highly realistic androids programmed to indulge the whims of every high-paying guest. It’s all wonderful until the androids unexpectedly become a threat to the guests.
The original SF Western, Westworld starred Yul Brynner as one of the androids. Richard Benjamin and James Brolin played two of the guests.
Westworld was written and directed by Michael Crichton (1942-2008), an author and filmmaker whose work reached lots of fans. His books, which often touched on technology (and how it impacts humanity), have sold more than 200 million copies around the world. His titles include Jurassic Park (1990), Sphere (1987), The Terminal Man (1972), Congo (1980), Timeline (1999), Prey (2002), and lots more.
Also involved in film and TV, Crichton’s screen works—in addition to Westworld—included the movies Coma (1978) and Runaway (1984), and he created the famed TV medical show ER (1994–2009). And, of course, several of his novels were adapted to screen, including all those Jurassic Park movies.
Westworld was followed by a sequel, Futureworld (1976), and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld (1980). A TV show based on the film played 2016-2022 on HBO.
(Also got to mention that I loved when The Simpsons did a Westworld-inspired Halloween episode in their sixth season. That’s when the robots went wild at Itchy and Scratchy Land.)
#5 Forbidden Planet (1956)
A sci-fi reworking of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the classic science fiction movie Forbidden Planet is also clearly one of the big inspirations for the original Star Trek TV series. Forbidden Planet revolves around a spacecruiser crew who go to Planet Altair-4 to find out what happened to the expedition sent there from Earth years before. They meet Dr. Morbius, his daughter, their dutiful robot—and are attacked by a mysterious terror...
The movie starred Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen...
…and Robbie the Robot.
His design a major advance over previous robots created for movies or TV, following his debut in Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot made several more appearances over the following years. He appeared in his original or different forms in the movie The Invisible Boy (1957), plus episodes of Lost in Space, The Twilight Zone, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Thin Man, Columbo, The Addams Family, Mork & Mindy, Space Academy, and the movie Gremlins (1984). (Plus more stuff.)
In 2004, Robby the Robot was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame.
#6 Terminator series
Launched by the 1984 sci-fi horror classic The Terminator, an entire these-robots-are-killing-to-take-over-the-world franchise was created that includes movies, a TV show, novels, comic books, and more.
The original movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a relentless cyborg who had traveled from the future to kill a young woman and change history. Created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, the Terminator franchise has grown to hit on different historical points of a world-threatening war between computer intelligence (directing killer robots) and the human race.
Sequel movies have included great movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). There are also movies that fans argue about, including Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), and Terminator Genisys (2015). (By the way, Terminator Genisys had at least one great scene—when two different Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminators—from two different time periods—fight it out. You can watch that clip here on YouTube.)
Other video projects include the TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009) and the web series Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series (2009) and Terminator Genisys: The YouTube Chronicles (2015).
#7 King Kong Escapes (1967)
A Japanese/American co-production between Toho and Rankin/Bass, the classic King Kong Escapes is loosely inspired by the Rankin/Bass cartoon series The King Kong Show. In the live action movie, the evil genius Dr. Who builds the Mechani-Kong—a robot version of King Kong—to dig up a dangerous element. But when the robot has trouble, the bad guys kidnap the real Kong from his island home to put him to work.
As heroes from a military ship move to save Kong, the movie leads to a big fight between two King Kongs—and the giant ape has to rescue Tokyo when the giant robot ape threatens the city!
Of course, Toho first brought King Kong into their kaijuverse with the 1962 battle King Kong vs. Godzilla. When the studio wanted to follow that up with Godzilla fighting Mechani-Kong, they learned that they didn’t have the rights to use even a likeness of Kong without paying for it. So, they changed directions and had Godzilla fight the robot version himself in the 1974 movie Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.
Fun note: When Godzilla and Kong got together again in the 2021 movie Godzilla vs. Kong, they teamed up at the end to fight the latest iteration of the Godzilla-bot that was originally inspired by the Kong-bot.
8 Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
While there were very few examples of robots in the Star Trek universe, we thought we’d call attention to the robot duplicate of Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The original series included mechanical beings—ranging from flying computer modules to synthetic bodies hosting the personalities of biological units.
But in the first Star Trek movie, the Enterprise’s Deltan navigator was killed by the cosmic computer-driven being V’ger—and then she was replaced by a drone that looked like her. (It only eventually began to be influenced by its victim’s memories.)
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, an unidentified alien intruder destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers. As the force continues across the universe on its way toward Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk returns to the newly upgraded U.S.S. Enterprise to take command. He reunites with his previous crew as they chase down the global threat.
For the sake of this list, we should mention that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was also responsible for the 1974 TV pilot The Questor Tapes, which featured a robot made by aliens. The premise for the series was a drama about an android with incomplete memory tapes searching for his purpose in the world.
Roddenberry came back in the 1980s to the world of Star Trek with the spinoff Star Trek: The Next Generation. As part of that, he also brought over officer Data, who was clearly inspired by the android Questor.
9 Saturn 3 (1980)
Out in space, at a remote base in the asteroid fields of Saturn, two colleagues are bothered by a mentally unstable technocrat and a threatening robot. Produced and directed by Stanley Donen, Saturn 3 starred Farrah Fawcett, Kirk Douglas and Harvey Keitel.
The movie was based on an idea by John Barry, one of the leading production designers of the 1970s, whose credits included Star Wars and Superman. The script was written by novelist Martin Amis.
Although some have complained that Saturn 3 is too much like Alien, director Donen explained to Starlog magazine that Saturn 3 was a work in progress long before Alien even came out:
“It’s a pity we didn’t get it out first. There is the similarity of the monster villain, but ours doesn’t take on the guise of a monster. Ours is beautiful to look at—in a strange way. The alien was a sort of organic reptile with a steel mouth. Ours looks more human—it has legs. And we show ours.”
Donen said Saturn 3 is actually closer to the story in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein:
“It’s meant to frighten you in an unusual way and give you a sense of relief at the way that it comes out. It’s science fiction but not comic-strip...It’s also a film that is both sensuous and sensual.”
#10 The Robot Vs the Aztec Mummy (1958)
The third movie in the Mexican horror/sci-fi Aztec Mummy film series, The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy is one of those movies with a lot of promise… but a little hard to sit through.
When Dr. Krupp plans to steal precious valuables from the Aztec Mummy's tomb, he builds a robot to fight the mummy. A bunch of the movie is them recapping The Aztec Mummy (1957) and The Curse of the Aztec Mummy (1957), leading up to a fight between the robot and the living mummy.
Over the years, not many heard about the movie. But that changed in 1989, when the movie was heckled on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
#11 Bicentennial Man (1999)
Isaac Asimov is one of the most important authors behind what we think about robot stories. Over his career, he wrote lots of influential robot stories. In his introduction to his novel The Caves of Steel (a robot murder mystery whodunit), Asimov stated that his famous “Three Laws of Robotics” came out of a discussion between him and editor John Campbell.
The title “Bicentennial Man” regards the main character living two hundred years. The ideas that sparked the 1999 movie started with Asimov’s 1976 novelette The Bicentennial Man. That work was expanded into the 1992 novel The Positronic Man, co-written with Robert Silverberg. The story discusses several themes regarding an individual’s rights, including prejudice, slavery, love, and mortality.
The movie was directed by Chris Columbus. The movie stars Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Wendy Crewson, and Oliver Platt.
The original novella can be found in either of these books:
#12 Metropolis (1927) + (2001)
Here are two different robot movies—which are loosely connected and that are both glorious to watch.
The 1927 German expressionist SF silent movie Metropolis heralded the message “The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart.” Set in a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
The film’s key robot Maschinenmensch—her name literally means “machine-human” in German—was played by the same actress as both a robot and in her human form. The character was created by the scientist in memory of his deceased lover.
Based on Thea von Harbou’s 1925 novel, the movie Metropolis was directed by Fritz Lang. One of the first feature-length science fiction movies, reviewers at the time it was released didn’t recognize the film’s importance. In the years since, of course, Metropolis has been acknowledged as one of the great achievements of the silent era. The film’s startling set design and special effects command attention throughout.
The 2001 anime movie Metropolis is a Japanese animated futurist cyberpunk drama film loosely based upon Osamu Tezuka’s 1949 manga. Although the two movies share big picture comparisons, Tezuka’s manga did not actually follow the plot of the 1927 movie. However, the 2001 movie does more directly borrow elements from Lang’s film.
Given that Tesuka was the creator of Astro Boy, there is no surprise that his take on Metropolis includes a lot of stuff about the rights of robots and how they should be treated with respect. As such, the anime movie is full of philosophies and drama about the interactions between robots and humans.
#13 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
A classic science fiction movie considering the fears and anxiety of the Cold War and the rise of atomic power, The Day the Earth Stood Still shares when a team from outer space comes to warn Earth about nuclear war. Directed by Robert Wise, the classic movie starred Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, and Sam Jaffe. In 1995, the United States National Film Registry honored The Day the Earth Stood Still as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The two arrivals include the humanoid Klaatu and the robot Gort. The robot Gort has been said to be inspired by the character Gnut from the 1940 short story “Farewell to the Master,” which featured a moving green statue. That story, written by Harry Bates, first appeared in the October 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.
In the movie, Gort is an 8-foot tall robot from an interstellar police force. He can’t speak, but he can hear and follow verbal commands. Gort can also operate highly complex machinery, and piloted the ship that brought Klaatu to Earth.
Once they land in Washington, D.C., Gort spends most of the The Day the Earth Stood Still standing still in front of the ship. He’s armed with a laser-like weapon that projects from his head. In fact, Gort could destroy the Earth if provoked.
The 2008 remake The Day the Earth Stood Still stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. Rather than offering humans the choice to build their future, the remake rests on Klaatu’s decision whether to save humanity.
#14 The Transformers series
The Transformers brand includes lots of robots—including the Autobots (the good guys) and the Decepticons (the bad guys). Created by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy, the Transformers are robots that can change their shapes into other stuff like cars and animals.
Following their great success as toys, the Transformers has grown to now be movies and cartoon shows and comic books and video games and novels.
Here’s a list of the Transformers science fiction action movies:
Transformers (2007)
Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Dark of the Moon (2011)
Age of Extinction (2014)
The Last Knight (2017)
Bumblebee (2018)
Rise of the Beasts (2023)
The bulk of the Transformers film series has gotten mixed reviews. However, Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts have actually gotten better reviews.
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With tech so common now, we take a look at some of the best movie robots of all time—from charming co-workers who just want to help us out to menacing monsters planning to stomp on us.