Robots: 63

After Yang (2021) is an American science fiction drama film written, directed, and edited by Kogonada. Jake and Kyra have adopted a robotic teenage boy named Yang, along with their daughter Mika. They had purchased Yang from a defunct reseller, Second Siblings, as a way for Mika to connect with her Chinese heritage through cultural stories and facts. However, Yang suddenly becomes unresponsive after a family dance competition. Unfortunately, he is no longer under warranty since he was not bought directly from his original manufacturer, Brothers & Sisters Incorporated. This proves to be problematic for Jake and Kyra ...

Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021), an animated sci-fi comedy directed by Sarah Smith and Jean-Philippe Vine, with co-director Octavio E. Rodriguez and written by Peter Baynham and Smith, features tech giant Bubble’s latest invention: the B-bot. The brainchild of CEO Marc Wydell, this robot buddy uses an algorithm to help individuals make friends. In Nonsuch, California, middle-schooler Barney Pudowski is the only one in his ...

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik, Finch (2021) is an American post-apocalyptic survival film written by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell. After a devastating solar flare destroyed the ozone layer, Earth became a desolate wasteland ravaged by harsh weather and intense UV rays. Finch Weinberg, a robotics engineer and one of the few survivors, resides in an underground laboratory in St. Louis with only his loyal dog Goodyear and helper-robot Dewey for company. While battling an undisclosed illness (hinted at through his reading on ...

The Matrix Resurrections (2021), an American sci-fi action film, marks Lana Wachowski’s solo directorial debut in the franchise, without her sister Lilly. Bugs, a young woman, discovers that the Matrix is stuck in a loop of old code. She sets out to free Morpheus from the simulation with the help of a program that embodies him. The creator of the video game series The Matrix, Thomas Anderson, based it on his hazy memories as Neo. He frequently meets Tiffany (a character inspired by his past encounters with Trinity) at a coffee shop. To develop game characters, ...

Tales from the Loop (2020) is an American science fiction drama TV series created and penned by Nathaniel Halpern, inspired by the art book of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag with the same name. The entire first season, consisting of eight episodes, premiered on Amazon Prime Video on April 3, 2020. It tells the story of the intertwined lives of individuals living in Mercer, Ohio – a fictional town that hosts the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics and a subterranean facility dubbed as the Loop. Within its walls, scientists strive to achieve what was once deemed ...

The Australian film, Monsters of Man (2020), contains graphic violence and potentially offensive themes. It follows a group of killer robots unleashed in the jungle as part of a military experiment. While the robots may be intriguing and the movie explores ideas of responsibility and life, it is lengthy, violent, and not particularly inclusive towards non-White-male characters. Many individuals meet their demise in shocking and grisly ways through heavy gunfire, explosions, and even a robot stepping on someone’s head. Other instances of violence include a man stabbing a woman to death. However, despite its brutality, there is some depth to the portrayal of ...

In 2019, a new addition to the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), was released. It is a direct sequel to the highly acclaimed Terminator 2:Judgment Day (1991), and disregards the events of Rise of the Machines (2003), Salvation (2009), and Genisys (2015). Several years after their mission to destroy Cyberdyne Systems in 1998, Sarah and John Connor have retired and moved to Livingston, Guatemala. However, their peaceful life is abruptly disrupted when they are attacked by a T-800 Terminator sent from Skynet. Despite Sarah’s efforts, John is killed. In 2020, another advanced Terminator known as the ...

Smash and Grab (2019) is a computer-animated short film from Pixar. The story follows two laborer robots, Smash and Grab, on a futuristic planet. They work in a giant train powered by glowing rocks, with Smash breaking them apart and tossing them to Grab. Despite their repetitive task, they try to make their work fun by turning it into a game. However, their power cables prevent them from moving freely or even touching each other. One day, Smash builds a pile of rocks to get a glimpse of the outside world through the train’s window. It discovers that there are free robots who move around easily thanks to spherical batteries that can attach to the same port as ...

Altered Carbon (2018–2020) is an American cyberpunk series, based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Richard K. Morgan. In a future world where consciousness can switch between bodies, Takeshi Kovacs, a former soldier turned investigator, is released from prison to solve a murder. The story takes place over 360 years in the future in Bay City, a futuristic metropolis. Memories and consciousness are stored on disk-like devices called cortical stacks, implanted at the back of the neck. These stacks are made from alien materials found only on Harlan’s World and can be transferred into new bodies after death. ...

The science fiction action film, Bumblebee (2018), is based on the popular character from Hasbro and Takara Tomy’s Transformers toy line. On Cybertron, the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are facing defeat in their battle against the Decepticons and plan to leave the planet. As they attempt to evacuate, the Decepticons, led by Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave, attack them. In a last-ditch effort to set up a new base of operations, Optimus sends scout B-127 to Earth in an escape pod while he stays behind to fight off the Decepticons. B-127 crash-lands in California in 1987 and disrupts a training exercise by Sector 7 – a top-secret government ...

Pacific Rim Uprising (2018) is an American science fiction film featuring monsters. Directed by Steven S. DeKnight, the movie marked his first time as a feature-film director and writer. Collaborating with Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, and T.S. Nowlin, DeKnight brings to life a story set in the year 2035 – exactly 10 years after the Battle of the Breach. This battle saw the closure of an inter-dimensional portal used by the ...

Big Hero 6: The Series (2017–2021), an American superhero animated TV show, debuted in November 2017 and concluded in February 2021. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series was co-created by Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley (known for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Kim Possible). It is based on Disney’s film Big Hero 6 (loosely inspired by Marvel Comics’ comic book series of the same name) and serves as a sequel to the original movie. Utilizing traditional hand-drawn animation, the series follows tech prodigy Hiro ...

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) is a sci-fi action movie adapted from the popular toy line by Hasbro. In the year 484 AD, after coming across the Knights of Iacon, a group of hidden Transformers on Earth, Merlin seeks their assistance to aid King Arthur and his knights. With their help and armed with a staff, Arthur defeats the Saxons. However, Merlin is cautioned to keep the staff hidden. In present day, five years after the devastation in Hong Kong, Optimus Prime lands on Cybertron’s ruins and crosses paths with Quintessa, a deranged Cybertronian goddess who manipulates him into becoming Nemesis Prime and sends him back to Earth to retrieve Merlin’s ...

Alien: Covenant (2017) is a science fiction horror film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, with writing contributions from John Logan, Dante Harper, Michael Green, and Jack Paglen. This joint American and British production serves as a sequel to Prometheus (2012) and the sixth addition to the Alien franchise. In the prologue, business magnate Peter Weyland converses with his newly activated android in a ...

Blade Runner 2049 (2017), a neo-noir sci-fi masterpiece from 2017, was directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. It takes place in a world approximately two decades after the downfall of the Tyrell Corporation, the original creators and manufacturers of replicants – bioengineered superhumans. The collapse of natural ecosystems prompted industrialist Niander Wallace to develop a new generation of replicants for synthetic farming, effectively saving the planet. While the earlier ...

Westworld (2016–2022) is an American dystopian science fiction Western TV show created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy that premiered on HBO on October 2, 2016. It is based on the 1973 film by Michael Crichton with the same title. In the year 2050, Delos Inc. manages a number of theme parks, including Westworld, which simulates the American Old West. The park is populated by biomechanical robots known as ‘Hosts’ who are virtually indistinguishable from humans. These Hosts are designed to fulfill every wish of the ...

Terminator Genisys (2015), the American science fiction action film, is the fifth installment in the Terminator franchise. Acting as a reboot, it takes a different direction from the original film and disregards events depicted in previous sequels. In 2029, Human Resistance leader John Connor leads a final offensive against Skynet, an artificial general intelligence system set on destroying humanity. However, just before victory is within their grasp, Skynet activates a time machine and sends a T-800/Model 101 Terminator back to 1984 to eliminate John’s mother, Sarah. To protect her, John’s loyal companion Kyle Reese volunteers to go back in time. ...

Based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is the 11th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The sequel to The Avengers (2012), it was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. In Sokovia, a country in Eastern Europe, the Avengers—Tony Stark, Thor, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton—conduct a raid on a Hydra facility run by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. They encounter two of Strucker’s test subjects: Pietro, who possesses superhuman speed, and Wanda Maximoff, who has telepathic and telekinetic abilities. After apprehending Strucker and ...

Big Hero 6 (2014) is an American animated film by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Inspired by the Marvel Comics superhero team created by Man of Action, the film is set in a futuristic city called San Fransokyo (a combination of San Francisco and Tokyo). The main character is Hiro Hamada, a 14-year-old high school graduate and robotics genius who competes in illegal underground robot fights. To steer him away from this dangerous world, his older brother Tadashi, who studies at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, brings him to the institute’s research lab where he meets Tadashi’s friends: Go Go, Wasabi, Honey ...

Director José Padilha brought the American science-fiction action film, RoboCop (2014), to life with screenwriters Joshua Zetumer, Edward Neumeier, and Michael Miner. This remake of the 1987 original is the fourth in the franchise. The story explores a futuristic world where multinational corporation OmniCorp introduces robotic peacekeepers to maintain law and order. CEO Raymond Sellars leads the company’s efforts to market this advanced technology to domestic law ...