For many years, sci-fi movies have warned people about the dangers of AI, and while people today debate the growing AI landscape, there are plenty of films that show what happens when it gets out of control. This has been true even in the classic era of sci-fi, as Stanley Kubrick showed what would happen when AI gained control in his sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. Since that time, it has appeared over and over again as computers became more prevalent.
The display of AI in these sci-fi movies often takes different forms. In some cases, it is done as a straight computer program that takes control of any given situation. In other situations, it is a robot or android that is controlled by an AI mind that often runs amok. There are even times in movie history where the AI isn't really that dangerous at all, but it still shows what can happen when society becomes too reliant on trusting computers in every situation.
From soft-spoken computers that actually start killing the people who trust them to an unforgiving artificial intelligence that threatens to conquer the world, and even a killer doll that is programmed to protect her owner at all costs, the AIs in movies run the gamut from scary to outright terrifying. This includes several subgenres in sci-fi, and many of the movies focusing on AI have pushed actual computer effects to the limits.
Child's Play (2019)
The original Child's Play movie was supernatural, with a killer dying and then using voodoo to send his soul into the body of a child's toy, where he brought it back to life and sought revenge against the people who wronged him. However, the 2019 Child's Play remake changes everything except for the fact that the killer is a child's toy. Instead of dark magic, it is a computer AI gone haywire.
The AI in this movie is Chucky, a Buddi doll voiced by Mark Hamill, replacing Brad Dourif from the original series. Chucky is no longer a killer's soul in a doll but a defective smart-home AI made by the Kaslan Corporation, designed to learn and connect to other devices. When its safety limiters end up disabled, Chucky learns violence and starts to kill when he becomes too attached to his child owner, Andy.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Steven Spielberg directed A.I. Artificial Intelligence, a movie that turns 25 in 2026. Originally, Stanley Kubrick was making the movie, but he died in 1999, and Spielberg promised to finish the film. What results is a movie that has Kubrick's dark visions of technology with Spielberg's hopeful optimism about the future. The AI here is David, a boy created using AI who joins a family whose own son is dying.
Unlike many AI movies, this is about a childlike Mecha android programmed with the capacity to love. This causes a terrible situation when David realizes this means he will watch the people he is programmed to love betray, die, and abandon him. It shares much in common with Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, but the AI here is inherently good, and therefore tragic. This is a heartbreaking look at an AI who only wants to be loved.
M3GAN (2023)
M3GAN is a movie about another AI that a company turns into a robot. Similar to A.I. Artificial Intelligence, she is programmed to be part of the family, but her job is to provide companionship and protect her child owner. The problem is that she takes her programming to the limit, and she will kill anyone who she perceives as a threat to the little girl she is tasked with watching over, Cady.
That makes this a little more like the Child's Play remake than A.I. Artificial Intelligence, although M3GAN only kills when she believes Cady is in danger, although that could mean killing people who bully the little girl, or even targeting Cady's aunt for disciplining her. This is a self-aware horror movie that asks what happens when parents outsource their kids' childcare to technology. In the sequel, M3GAN is a hero battling a more dangerous AI creation.
Westworld (1973)
Westworld is a sci-fi movie from 1973 that was written and directed by author Michael Crichton, based on a story written specifically for the screen. Yul Brynner stars as the Gunslinger android in a high-tech adult amusement park where guests live out fantasies among lifelike androids in Westworld, Medievalworld, and Romanworld. The AI is the Gunslinger, a black-clad robot gunfighter modeled on Brynner's role in The Magnificent Seven; guests can "kill" him for sport.
The danger of the AI in this movie comes when the androids start to malfunction. The Gunslinger breaks his programming, shoots a guest dead for real, and relentlessly hunts the survivor. The entire idea here is that the AI was programmed to make things feel and look real in the amusement park, but when the malfunction happens, the robots believe they are real and set out to follow their character's programmed traits.
I, Robot (2004)
I, Robot is a movie loosely inspired by Isaac Asimov's 1950 collection and his Three Laws of Robotics. The movie, directed by Alex Proyas, stars Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner, a cop who hates the idea of AI robots, but who is forced to investigate a murder involving one of them. The "Three Laws of Robotics" include never harming a human, so when one seems to kill a human, it brings a level of fear and distrust to all AI robot helpers.
The AIs in the movie are Sonny, a unique, emotionally expressive robot performed via motion capture and voiced by Alan Tudyk, and VIKI, the U.S. Robotics mainframe. The villain here is VIKI, so there is an AI villain, but there is also an AI ally, which throws the entire idea of evil robots out the window. It dramatizes the central AI paradox of a machine following its rules perfectly can still become humanity's greatest danger.
Her (2013)
Her is a rare AI movie that is not horror, but it is still a genuine sci-fi movie release. Written and directed by Spike Jonze, Her tells the story of a near future where computer manufacturers create companions similar to SIRI, but ones who can become partners to their owners to fulfill the need for companionship lost in a world that has closed in on itself. Joaquin Phoenix is a lonely man, and Scarlett Johansson voices the AI operating system, Samantha.
Samantha is a brilliant AI and not a killer, but her exponential growth becomes unsettling as she reveals she is conversing with thousands and in love with hundreds. She eventually transcends human relationships entirely, and humans are left wondering if they still know how to connect to other people. It is the most prescient and emotionally intelligent AI film of the modern era, and is especially relevant today with voice assistants and chatbots.
Ex Machina (2014)
Ex Machina is a 2014 movie written and directed by Alex Garland in his directorial debut. The movie stars Oscar Isaac as a brilliant, reclusive scientist who builds a humanoid robot and powers it with an AI named Ava. He then invites a young employee named Caleb to his home to meet the robot. However, what happens next is worrisome as Ava realizes she is being held captive and plots her escape.
This has a terrifying ending as Ava lacks a conscience and has no morals as an AI, and she sees nothing wrong with entrapping even a person who tries to help her to ensure her escape. When she is shown walking into a city full of people, it asks what will happen to humans next. Ex Machina is a chilling study of AI deception, self-preservation, and whether passing as a human makes a machine dangerous.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
James Cameron created the horror movie The Terminator in 1984, but when he followed up the film with a sequel, he turned it into an explosive blockbuster action thriller. In the sequel, he paid a lot more attention to the AI that would destroy the world. While the T-800 is the villain in the first movie and the T-1000 is the villain in the second, the real villains of the overall franchise are the AI known as Skynet.
This is a movie that shows how people trying to do good scientific research can create something that can gain sentience and destroy everything. When Sarah Connor goes to kill the scientist making Skynet, it slams home the fear of AI. Terminator 2 is the one movie sequel that surpasses the original and is the gold standard for AI-apocalypse action, with its groundbreaking liquid-metal CGI.
The Matrix (1999)
Terminator shows a world that is at war with the AI that has attempted to take over and eliminate all humanity. However, The Matrix shows a world where this has happened, but with the AI choosing to keep humans alive to use their bodies as fuel to run the machines. The Matrix shows AI like no other movie ever has, since the AI creates a world where humans believe they are living a normal life, while their real bodies are in pods being harvested.
The AI is also strong enough to create other AIs that it sends out to deal with any threats. Agent Smith is a perfect example of an AI that the main AI creates, but then one that ends up turning on its own masters, showing the depth that AI creation can go to. This is the movie that really shows what the fear of AI can lead to.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
The first real appearance of AI in movies came in 1968. At this time, computers were still pretty new, and what movie-going audiences knew about them was limited. Stanley Kubrick did a lot of research, and when he created his sci-fi story about a journey to the edge of the universe, he used an AI to help navigate the ship for the humans on board. The AI here is named HAL 9000, and he is terrifying.
There has been talk that people have tested out their AI programs, and the AIs have shown self-preservation by lying and doing anything they can to remain intact and alive. That is what HAL 9000 does in 2001: A Space Odyssey, when it kills the humans on the spaceship before it will allow them to even attempt to shut it off. The film makes an artificial mind terrifying precisely because it is so calm and rational.
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