WALL·E (2008)

In the 29th century, Earth has become a garbage-strewn wasteland due to rampant consumerism and corporate greed; seven centuries earlier, the megacorporation Buy-n-Large (BnL) evacuated humanity to space on giant starliners. Of all the trash compacting robots left by BnL to clean up, only one robot remains operational, Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth-Class (WALL-E). One day, WALL-E’s routine of compressing trash and collecting interesting objects is disrupted by the arrival of an unmanned probe carrying an egg-shaped robot named Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator (EVE), who has been sent to scan the planet for signs of sustainable life. WALL-E is smitten by the sleek, otherworldly robot, and the two begin to connect, until EVE goes into standby when WALL-E shows her his most recent find; a living seedling.

Sometime later, the probe returns to collect EVE and the plant, and, with WALL-E clinging on, returns to its mothership, the starliner Axiom. In the centuries since the Axiom left Earth, its passengers have degenerated into corpulence due to laziness and microgravity, their every whim catered to by machinery. The captain, B. McCrea, is used to sitting back while his robot steering wheel AUTO pilots the ship. McCrea is unprepared to receive the positive probe response, but learns via a pre-recorded message from BnL that placing the plant in the ship’s Holo-Detector will trigger a hyperjump back to Earth so humanity can begin recolonization. When McCrea inspects EVE’s storage compartment, however, the plant is missing, and EVE blames WALL-E for its disappearance.