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Consider the humblerobot. A faceless threat in sci-fi stories immemorial, a vessel for human anxieties about technology and our capacity to facilitate our own destruction, and a way to explore human issues through beings that look like us, but exist outside ourselves.
Great films likeThe Wild Robotrealize a humanoid machine’s potential as the emotional lead of a film, but there are plenty of amazing movies that came before it, and laid the groundwork for stories like it, both inanimationandlive-action filmmaking. In that spirit, here’s a ranked list of the best robot movies you can stream right now.
The Wild Robot: A wonder that must be seen to be believed
A robot accidentally crash lands on an island and becomes more than her programming in this heartfelt tale with gorgeous animation.
9Ghost in the Shell (1995)
A cyberpunk inspiration for a generation of filmmakers
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Based on the popular manga of the same name, Ghost in the Shell has not only inspired an English-language adaptation, but alsoan anime sequel, and multiple spin-off games. The story of cyborg super cop Major Motoko Kusanagi’s investigation into the dangerous hacker dubbed The Puppet Master, Ghost in the Shell’s mystery plot quickly unravels into a larger conspiracy that prompts even bigger questions about what it means to be human and have free will.
The questions of what is or isn’t artificial and what nonhuman entities deserve from humans are central to stories about robots and, by extension, Ghost in the Shell.
The questions of what is or isn’t artificial and what nonhuman entities deserve from humans are central to stories about robots and, by extension, Ghost in the Shell. Beyond that, though, the film’s director Mamoru Oshii and his crew created iconic visuals that have had an huge impact on the science fiction films that came after Ghost in the Shell, most notably, The Matrix. Ignore the terrible English language remake and watch the original, you’re bound to recognize something. It’s just that influential.
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8M3GAN (2022)
A scary, silly meditation on technological parenting (or the lack thereof)
M3GAN (2023)
A Chucky for the 2020s, M3GAN is about an artificially intelligent robot doll named, you guessed it, M3GAN, that’s equal parts best friend, parent, and serial killer. Created by a roboticist who recently became the guardian of her sibling’s daughter, she’s designed her robot to be the ultimatechild-shaped parenting solution. It just doesn’t go quite as planned.
M3GAN is undeniably absurd, taking itself just seriously enough to be dramatic, without getting in the way of dance-based murder. It also features a pretty exciting use of practical effects. M3GAN the robot was a mix of animatronics and an actual actor in a rubber mask, with CGI to smooth over the rough patches.
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7Ex Machina (2014)
An examination of where misogyny and machines meet
Ex Machina (2014)
Alex Garland directed one of A24’s biggest in Civil War, but the movie that marked his transition from screenwriter to director was far smaller, the chamber piece of a Turing Test, Ex Machina. Following a programmer who was invited to a special retreat to examine what might be the first example of true artificial intelligence, Ex Machina deals with many of the classic themes of robot movies, like identity, tinged with more specific ways men misunderstand women.
The current obsession with AI adds an extra dimension to watching Ex Machina in our post-ChatGPT world. What convincingly passes for human, and whether that even matters, are implicitly asked anytime anyone decides to use generative AI and that question is at the heart of the film.
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6WALL-E (2008)
Pixar’s exploration of robots that are more human than their creators
WALL-E (2008)
One of the most elegant and charming films Pixar’s ever made,WALL-Efollows a trash compacting robot of the same name, as he meets his love-at-first-sight, EVE, and gets swept up in a conspiracy to keep humans from returning to a trash-riddled Earth.
Large swaths of WALL-E are completely dialogue-free, letting the expressive animation of its robot main characters say more than dialogue ever could.
Large swaths of WALL-E are completely dialogue-free, letting the expressive animation of its robot main characters say more than dialogue ever could. The film is not only an impressive example of Pixar’s animation tech from the time, but like many of the studio’s films, it also does a tremendous job of humanizing the inanimate, showing just how many fingerprints are left behind on anything human’s make.
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5The Stepford Wives (1975)
A film about why you shouldn’t move to the suburbs
The Stepford Wives (1975)
While robots are never explicitly mentioned in director Bryan Forbes’ adaptation of The Stepford Wives, they’re in the book it’s based on, and the idea of a deathless, ageless class of being explicitly designed to serve is all over the story. The film, adapted from an Ira Levin novel of the same name, follows a photographer named Joanna Eberhart who moves to an upstate New York town named Stepford with her husband and children to start a new life away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
The Stepford Wives book was written by Ira Levin, the author of Rosemary’s Baby, another 70s classic that was adapted into a movie.
Suburban life proves to be idyllic until Joanna notices how strange, conservative, and almost mechanical the women in town are. And then there’s the mysterious men’s club that seems to have taken a particular interest in Joanna. Looking into both proves to be dangerous, but also where the film makes its strongest points about misogyny, living in a patriarchal society, and how easy substituting a machine for a living person is for some people.
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4The Terminator (1984)
The origin of “I’ll be back” and the start of the most popular robot franchise
The Terminator (1984)
Annoyingly, The Terminator was the second film James Cameron ever directed, and likely one of the best science fiction films ever made. Its basic setup has been burned into the history books: a Terminator robot is sent from the year 2029 to assassinate a woman named Sarah Conner because, in the future, she’ll give birth to the leader of the human resistance. She’s not alone, though, a single resistance fighter named Kyle Reese was sent back to help her survive.
The Terminator turns anxieties about technology into an action-packed cat-and-mouse game that spans Los Angeles to Mexico. It’s as much a time travel story as it is one explicitly about humans' relationships with machines, and it deserves all the accolades it’s gotten.
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3Metropolis (1927)
The robot movie that started it all
Metropolis (1927)
Other than the silent comedies created by performers like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Metropolis might be one of the best known silent films currently still available to watch. The film is a parable of sorts about a labor uprising in the city of Metropolis led by a robot masquerading as a human woman named Maria, and how the capitalist oligarchs that run Metropolis respond.
Metropolis' focus on the relationship between industrialization and labor has remained relevant, particularly as businesses eye artificial intelligence as another way to upset the balance of power between worker and employer. The art direction and production design might be the main reason the film has stuck around, though, fusing Art Deco and German Expressionism into a film that feels as retro-futuristic as it does biblical. An over 2-hour silent film might try the patience of modern audiences, but if you’re patient, Metropolis holds some fantastic sci-fi visuals.
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2AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Spielberg’s dark remix of Pinnochio
AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Likely one of the saddest movies on this list, AI: Artificial Intelligence is about a robot named David who’s one of the first capable of something like human love and attachment. David was adopted when a couple’s son falls ill, but his life is turned upside down when that same couple decides to return him.
Played by Haley Joel Osment post-The Sixth Sense, David is undeniably a tragic figure, a robot who wants desperately for the love he feels to be reciprocated, even as he’s deemed less than human. AI is one of Spielberg’s darker movies, likely helped by the fact that the film started out as a Stanley Kubrick project, but that doesn’t make it any less moving. The film not only features fantastic, fairy tale worldbuilding, but it’s a classic example – a modern one at least – of how robots allow us to explore the limits of human empathy.
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1The Iron Giant (1999)
What happens when a weapon doesn’t want to serve its purpose?
The Iron Giant (1999)
The Iron Giant is the best robot movie on this list, and the most human. It’s about a boy who finds a robot from space and the government and military agents who misunderstand the robot and attempt to destroy him. The film is directed by Brad Bird, best known for The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and is his first feature-length film as a director. It’s also surprisingly subversive, set in the 1950’s and evoking the imagery of Americana, but decidedly anti-war and anti-violence.
The Iron Giant is designed to be a weapon, but transcends its programming out of its own free-will. We think of the lives of human-made tools as being defined by the problems they solve, but they have a life all their own.
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