Top Ten Movie Robots Of All Time

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They might be here to save the day, or they could be here to try to make today the last one you'll ever see. One thing is for sure: robots have always been in the movies - from the very earliest cinematic creations. So we thought it was time to stack them up. Who's the head honcho of robot movies? Who's kicked ass and taken numbers? Who are the ultimate heavy-weights of the robotic world?

10) Robby The Robot - Forbidden Planet (1956)

This robot is infinitely strong. I mean literally his strength knows no bounds. Plus he has the ability to recreate anything you give him over and over. Give him a dollar and tell him you want a million by the next day. No problem. And he's got a great retro look to him. If you haven't seen Forbidden Planet - order a DVD of it today. It's 100% essential!

9) Robocop (1986)

While he wouldn't win any awards for charisma, he can shoot the eye out of a duck at a hundred meters. Although not strictly a robot (as he is really a cyborg - with some human parts mixed in with the cogs and wires) he has to be in our top ten. The original Robocop was funny, violent and inventive (unlike the awful and inevitable sequels that limped out of the studio afterwards). Basically Robocop is in the top ten because he doesn't take any crap.

8) Yul Brynner - Westworld (1976)

Long before Terminator was hunting down Sarah Conner in his special little way, there was a low-budget sci-fi adventure called 'Westworld'. The plot is great: a theme park is set up where people can go and act out just about any fantasy they have (yep, even the naughty ones!) with robots that look exactly like people. But someone spills a coffee over the controls (or something like that) and they go haywire. Yul Brynner plays the scariest robot you'll encounter on a screen.

7) Johhny 5 - Short Circuit (1986)

For anyone who is into robots, this is an essential for your collection. The cool thing about this is that Johnny 5 is a real robot (albeit a radio controlled prop). In the movie he gets zapped by lightening and, well, has a moment. He realizes he's alive and then has to come to terms with all the crap the rest of us do. Hmmmm... maybe he would have been happier just being a robot after all.

6) Huey, Luey and Duey - Silent Running (1971)

This movie was made in the 70's and it's got some environmental subtext about save the planet, and isn't it awful what we're doing to the forests. But forget about all the tree hugging and you've got a movie with 3 of the best robots you'll ever see on screen. Seriously they look like toolboxes with feet, but they're complete stars. They plod about, fix things and cheat at cards. Just make sure you take a box of tissues with you. It's a weepie.

5) The Fembots - Austin Powers (1999)

A different sort of BOT here altogether. Oh yes. This one had guys all over the world wishing they'd been born in a time when it was actually possible to create robot women of this caliber. OK, so you probably wouldn't want to take them home to meet your momma (especially considering they've got fully automatic machine guns in each breast. But they have to be the sexiest robots to have graced the big screen yet.

4) The Tin Man, Wizard of Oz (1939)

Hmm... bit of a dubious one this but if you really think about it he is a robot. And, well... it's the wizard of Oz. And there's some unwritten law that whatever top 10 count down it is - the Wizard of Oz has to be in there somewhere. And in 1939 he was way ahead of his time. It would have been a much better film though if he'd gone haywire and tried to pull Dorothy's arms off but hey, it was only the 30's.

3) Gort - The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

Kind of like a robotic bouncer, with a stern "you're not getting in here" type of expression on his face, Gort is definitely not a robot you'd want to mess with. The Day The Earth Stood Still is a classic movie on it's own, but with Gort in it, it's also a great robot flick.

2) T500 - The Terminator (1984)

At number two we have the Terminator. This is the movie everyone wanted to see in 1984 and it was way ahead of it's time. I can't believe that there's anyone who hasn't seen this flick so I'm not going to go into the plot... about this unstoppable robot sent back in time to kill the enemy of his kind before he's even born! This is a great movie that is a cross between a horror flick and a sci-fi thriller. It's got everything. Well... plenty of violence and robot action. What more do ya need?

1) R2D2 - StarWars (1977)

<Drumroll> Anyone who was around when the original StarWars movies were out (not the crappy ones with JaJa Binks in them) will have a huge soft spot in their hearts for a certain little white and blue droid. He didn't speak, only emitted a series of Bloops and Bleeps and WOOOOOoooooooo's, but we still knew what he meant. I suppose it's only fair to mention the 'straight man' in his act too - C3P0. The golden gay android. But R2D2 was really the star in StarWars.