Released by Blumhouse Productions and James Wan's Atomic Monster company, 2022's M3GAN shows how state-of-the-art AI and automation can begin with good intentions but quickly degenerate into oppressive and dangerous forces.
M3GAN is not the first science fiction movie to explore the ethical issues and the potential dangers of androids. The concept of synthetic beings and their relationships with humans are common topics for genre filmmaking. The special effects and technology involved can be astounding and beautiful. In some cases, android characters are valuable allies and beloved family members. But in other situations, they can be challenging antagonists and provide lethal danger.
10 After Yang Shares The Emotional Memories Of A Family Member
After Yang, like other sci-fi films such as M3GAN and AI, examines what happens when an artificial being becomes part of a family. Yang is an android bought second-hand, and he endears himself to Jake and Kyra, who consider him their child. Yang becomes an invaluable advisor and confidante. When he breaks down, the family intends to bring him back.
During Yang's attempted repair, a technician finds his memory bank. Jake learns from Yang's memories that the android has had decades of experience with romantic relationships and loss. In some ways, Yang has had a fuller life than many human beings.
9 Halloween III's Ellie Android Ambushes Tom Atkins
In Halloween III: The Season of the Witch, Tom Atkins stars as a troubled doctor, Daniel Challis, investigating the murder of one of his patients. He soon meets Ellie (played by Stacey Nelkin), the slain man's daughter. They join forces to figure out what happened to Ellie's father, Harry Grimbridge, and the clues point to the Silver Shamrock company. Silver Shamrock is a shadowy corporation involved with witchcraft and dark science, including a security team of well-dressed androids.
Brought together by their search, Daniel and Ellie are soon involved in a passionate affair. The pair tour the Silver Shamrock plant, after which androids kidnap Ellie. Daniel infiltrates Silver Shamrock, discovers their apocalyptic plan, and frees Ellie. As they escape from the factory, Ellie suddenly attacks Daniel, revealing that she is an android. Whether the human Ellie has died or whether she was an android from the beginning is never known.
8 Cyborg She Is A Multilayered Time Travel Romance
The 2008 Japanese release Cyborg She is a complicated tale of time travel, self-sacrifice, and love. Along with the science fiction device of time travel, an android is important to the action.
The protagonist is Jiro Kitamura, who briefly meets a young woman in a restaurant on his birthday. They enjoy a pleasant few hours together, but she abruptly leaves. A year later, he sees the same girl, but this time, she is an android built by his future self. The older Jiro constructed the robot girl and sent her back in time to save him from a shooting. The story follows more twists and turns as their relationship progresses.
7 AI Artificial Intelligence Follows An Android Boy's Quest
Like M3GAN, AI features a realistic android introduced into a grieving family. With A.I., a robotic boy named David (Haley Joel Osment) joins the Swinton family, whose ailing son is in suspended animation.
In M3GAN, the android pairs with Cady, an orphaned child. In A.I., David forms a bond with Monica Swinton (Frances O'Connor) and adores her as his mother figure. Unfortunately, Monica's human son recovers from his illness, and the family soon rejects David as if he were an unwanted toy. David embarks on a quest to become a real boy, as Pinocchio did in the classic story.
6 Ex Machina Tests Emotions Of Androids
In Ex Machina, Oscar Isaac plays a high-tech executive named Nathan Bateman. Bateman has designed an android and assigns technician Caleb Smith to determine if his creation, Ava, has autonomous feelings.
With a plot similar to some elements of Blade Runner, Ex Machina considers the nature of thought and individuality. Also, like the Blade Runner films, Ex Machina is sometimes vague about its characters' humanity and motivations. Bateman's assistant, Kyoko, is also revealed to be an android and joins Ava in rebelling against Batemen. In the end, Ava has only been using Caleb. She abandons him after Bateman's death and escapes alone.
5 Blade Runner 2049's Officer K Searches For His True Nature
The Blade Runner films are based loosely on the Phillip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The debate over the nature of life and consciousness is at the center of the two movies. The creation of the replicants, androids that are close imitations of humans, challenges the idea of identity and the soul.
Even though the Wallace Corporation has programmed the replicants' emotions and installed their manufactured memories, they are outwardly human, with little indication of their synthetic nature. Ryan Gosling plays Officer K, with the nickname Joe, recalling Josef K. from Kafka's The Trial. Joe searches for a miraculous replicant child who may or may not be himself.
4 Metropolis Includes An Early Depiction Of An Android
One of the first full-length science fiction movies, Metropolis, includes an early depiction of an android. A character named Rotwang built her to resemble Maria, a sympathetic woman who cared for the workers of the bleak cityscape. The city's oppressive leader, Frederson, intended to use the android to ruin Maria's relationship with the workers and undermine their plans.
Freder, the movie's protagonist, who loves Maria, thinks that the Maria android is truly her. The android then deceives the workers and compels them to wreak havoc across the city. When the rioting workers realize their violence has threatened their children, they fight against the Maria android and burn her at the stake. As the android burns, everyone realizes that she is mechanical, and Freder joins with the human Maria to save the children and bring peace to the city.
3 Terminator Features An Infiltrating Android In Human Skin
In James Cameron's 1984 Terminator film, Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his first appearance as the T-800, a mechanical killer sent from through time to eliminate Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton). Although the Terminator is technically a cyborg, a blending of synthetic material with living tissue, he functions as an android disguised in human skin. This charade is convincing enough that the T-800 can blend into 1980s California as he hunts his unsuspecting prey.
The film benefited from Schwarzenegger's tall, looming presence. He was perfect as the futuristic killing machine, and his breakthrough performance made him a household name.
2 Alien's Android Had A Secret Mission
Movie fans remember Ridley Scott's Alien ((1979) for the nightmarish Xenomorph. But another sci-fi aspect of the film was an android who worked alongside the crew. The late Ian Holm CBE portrayed Ash, a mild-mannered scientist on board the Nostromo.
Ash's secret mission is to return with one of the alien creatures found on LV-426. The crew thinks they are responding to a distress signal on a hostile planet. Ash influences them into landing, and he lets Kane (John Hurt) back aboard with the alien "face-hugger." Viewers do not discover Ash's true nature until he attacks Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).
1 Blade Runner Explores Synthetic Life And Mortality
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) was a trendsetting work of dystopian science fiction. The film explores technology's effect on what it means to be alive. One of the tragic figures in this darkly futuristic setting is Rachael (Sean Young), the personal assistant of Eldon Tyrell, creator of the replicants.
In Rachael's case, she does not know she is a replicant, a synthetic imitation of a human. Her design is so perfect that Deckert (Harrison Ford) is not sure at first. But Tyrell confirms her nature. Rather than "retire" Rachael, Deckert falls for her, and the lovers soon flee the toxic city.