Starscream in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Don't anger the machines. They are definitely a lot smarter and most often bigger than we are – and unless they’re somehow turned off, unplugged, blown up or otherwise stopped from taking their frustrations out on us, we don't stand a chance once they get all fired up.
Take the Decepticons, for example. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, these giant deadly metal-crunchers are doubly p.o.’d since the humans, with a lot of help from the Autobots, won the first battle. But now they aren't taking any more crap, especially from our Armed Forces. Watch for yourself:
Take a look at some other examples of how big-screen technology, when provoked, threatened or united for global domination, has taken bloodthirsty action.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): HAL
Classic case of paranoia. When the HAL-9000, a highly intelligent supercomputer on a top-secret mission in space, finds out his human astronaut friends don't trust him and could possibly disconnect him, he goes into self-preservation mode. He won't be IGNORED, Dave.
Alien (1979): Ash
Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) is just doing his job. He was assigned to the Nostromo to make sure the alien specimen the freighter is re-routed to pick up returns alive and intact. Thing is, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the rest of the crew have no idea they have been marked “expendable” – and they certainly don't know Ash is a homicidal android. They quickly discover the truth.
TRON (1982): Master Control Program
Megalomaniacal much? When hacker Kevin (Jeff Bridges) is digitally zapped into a massive computer system he helped create, he meets the MCP – an evil security program that acts as a dictator and makes all the lesser computer programs fight for survival in gladiator-type games. But Kevin and TRON (Bruce Boxleitner), a kinder, more honest security program, kick MCP's butt, especially on the racing grid.
WarGames (1983): W.O.P.R., aka Joshua
Sometimes a top-secret military computer system just needs a lesson in futility in order to prevent nuclear annihilation. After hacker/obsessive game player David (Matthew Broderick) inadvertently triggers said system, known affectionately as Joshua, into playing Global Thermonuclear War for real, he has to teach Joshua the basics to convince him to stop playing a game he can't win.
The Terminator series: Skynet
Talk about the urge for world domination. From the time they take over to when they send Terminators back into the past to try to erase human resistance leader John Connor from existence, these Skynet techno bots want it bad. Here, despite great efforts to change the future, the inevitability of Judgment Day comes when Skynet goes online.
Star Trek: First Contact (1996): The Borg
Ah, the Borg – one of the more ingenious of the Star Trek villains. They are cybernetic organisms – part humanoid, part machine – who work together as an “interconnected collective” in order to conquer other races and force them to assimilate. But they don't take too kindly to being attacked by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise.
The Matrix series: Mr. Smith and the Machines
Speaking of assimilation, The Matrix is the mother of all assemblers – a massive computer grid that uses humans as batteries, while letting them believe they live in the “real” world. They certainly don't want a mere human named Neo (Keanu Reeves), who busted out of this fake reality, to ruin it all, so they send the big, bad “Mr. Smith” program (Hugo Weaving) after him.
I, Robot (2004): The Robots
In a future where robots are a common household item, there are a few people who are, well, creeped out by them. One such cop, Det. Del Spooner (Will Smith), doesn't trust them, and when a good friend ends up dead by what looks to be at the hand of a robot, he thinks there's trouble brewing. Oh boy, is there ever. These robotic law breakers are stone-cold badasses.
Eagle Eye (2008): ARIA
Even though at first you think the bad lady on the phone – making Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel's (Michelle Monaghan) life a living hell – is human, you quickly realize there's no way a single person, or even a group, could manipulate ALL the technology this chick does. And you indeed find out later ARIA is another top-secret military supercomputer gone rogue. Sigh.
Wall-E (2008): Autopilot
Again, if you give a computer program too much power, it's simply going to assume the life forms they are serving are quite beneath them. With shades of HAL, that's exactly what Autopilot believes, programmed to keep the people fat and happy and cluelessly in space forever. Only Wall-E can buck the system.
Kit Bowen is an entertainment journalist and movie critic. She was formerly the Managing Editor for Hollywood.com and is currently the Blogger-in-Chief for her site TheMovieKit.com.
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