Computers Gone Bad – The Best Movie Computer Villains

We love villains.  We want an antagonist to hate.  Thus since the dawn of movie making, villains play an important role in movies.  With the advent of computers, came a fear that they would somehow develop human capabilities and turn on us.  Hollywood capitalized on this idea… and thankfully we have these great ‘Computers Gone Bad’ movie computer villains.

From the classic, Dr. Strangelove to the Terminator movies, here are some of the best computer villains:

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) – The tagline: We built a super computer with a mind of its own and now we must fight it for the world!  Really does say it all.  The computer is programmed to run all of America’s nuclear defenses.  Once turned on, it detects the existence of Guardian, its Soviet Union counterpart – and insists they be linked up.  After the two computers are synched up, they become a Super Computer or Colossus threatening mankind with a nuclear weapons launch if they try to detach them.

Colossus takes over and states its plans to run the world under its management.  Forbin (the designer of the sophisticated computer) along with other scientists form an underground technological resistance to Colossus.  When the President orders its disconnection, the Super computer launches two missile attacks… one in the Soviet Union and one in the United States.  The link is restored in time for the Soviet missile to be intercepted, but not for the American one – it strikes a Russian oil refinery.

The film ends with Colossus broadcasting a speech to all countries, declaring itself the ruler of the world… that under its rule, war will be abolished and problems such as famine, disease and overpopulation will be solved. In its final remark, addressed to Dr. Forbin, Colossus predicts: “In time, you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love.” Dr. Forbin replies “Never”. Colossus may be the worst of the worst with its ‘world domination.’

Hal 9000 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – No discussion of ‘computers gone bad’ would ever be complete without mentioning one of the original heavyweights, Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The name origins of HAL varies with whom you speak (the letters are IBM shifted backwards one, but Clarke wrote in 2010 that the name stood for Heuristic ALgorithmic), but no one argues about the depth of Evil the digital megalomaniac possessed.  By the time HAL is shut down everyone realizes exactly how much a threat a smooth talking computer system can be, and murder appeared to be his choice of crime.

By the time 2010: The Year We Make Contact came around HAL was rebooted into a kinder, gentler self, free of paranoid delusions and serving his crew well.  But the crew still operated with caution, not telling HAL about his own imminent self destruction (at least in the film version).  After all, why take chances?

In the end of the series, we find that HAL did not actually perish, but was rescued by Dave Bowman.  Without giving away the ending of 3001: The Final Odyssey, we can say that the two ended up being very close.  Yes, HAL lives.

The Doomsday device in Dr. Strangelove (1964) – is a central theme in the movie.  The Doomsday device will automatically destroy all life on Earth if there is a nuclear strike in the Soviet Union.  The Doomsday Device is operated by a network of computers and has been conceived as the ultimate deterrent: as a safeguard, it cannot be deactivated, or it will set itself off, because its hardware and programs have been configured in such a way that an attempt at its deactivation would be recognized as sabotage.

The bomb does explode, triggering the Doomsday Machine and the film ends with a barrage of nuclear explosions, accompanied by Vera Lynn’s famous World War II song “We’ll Meet Again”.  You can’t get much worse than being responsible for destroying the world.

Master Control Program from Tron (1982) – Tron brought us a mean spirited computer system bent on world domination in the form of the Master Control Program, or MCP as known to its enemies.  The MCP started out as an AI super user in charge of administration from within the system itself.   But the MCP developed a penchant for evil, and it stole resources from everything around it… as its capability grew so grew its ambition, and there seemed to be no way to stop the beast.

That is, until the MCP, in an attempt at self-preservation, pulled programmer Kevin Flynn into the virtual world.  From there the displaced human teamed up with the security program TRON, and it proved to be the end of the MCP.  In the end the MCP reverted back to a chess program before it faded away.  The evil MCP reign was thus ended.  At least until it was rebooted back into life in the Kingdom Hearts II game.   But that is another story.

Proteus IV in Demon Seed (1977) – a scientist, Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver), is overseeing the completion of Proteus IV, an artificial intelligence system incorporating organic elements in a “quasi-neural matrix”, and having the power of independent thought.  His home is entirely voice-activated, computer-controlled, Harris is working in his basement laboratory when he is approached by his estranged wife, Susan (Julie Christie), a child psychologist by profession, who tries to discuss with him his decision to move out of the house.

Personally, Proteus IV is the most evil of computers to me because it is a rapist.  Its plans are to impregnate Susan to improve upon human kind.  So it holds her prisoner and then 28 days later she gives birth.  The grotesque robot-like creature is placed into a special incubator.  Susan wants Alex to kill it but they discover that it’s a shell and inside of it is a human baby that looks like their daughter that died of leukemia.  When the child speaks, it speaks with the voice of Proteus, saying “I’m alive.”

The Matrix from The Matrix Trilogy (1999, 2003) – The Matrix, from the movie series of the same name, was a huge virtual world that we all supposedly live in today.  It put forth the theory that around us is not real, it is all virtual – in reality we are nothing more than power pods for the artificial computer life of the Matrix.

Saying that the computer systems matrix is bad is like saying Godzilla has bad breath – after all, the machines had enslaved mankind to be used as an energizer, given false hopes of being alive in the virtual setting of the Matrix.  The independent programs running within the matrix were bad to the bone, and the virtual beings, known as “Agents” and others, served to deal out some serious hurt within the virtual word itself.

And if that was not bad enough, the computer systems had thousands of “Sentinels” in the wasteland of the virtual world that existed to wipe out any sign of mankind not already enslaved.  Bad computer… bad.

W.O.P.R in War Games (1983) –  a teenager that spends most of his time playing arcade video games and playing around on his computer,  finds a strange computer that appears to have a connection with a game company.  A list of games appears, but Lightman doesn’t have the password.  After some research, he correctly guesses it.  As would-be girlfriend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) watches, he begins playing “Global Thermonuclear War” and targets his hometown (Seattle) and Las Vegas for Soviet strikes.  Unbeknownst to Lightman it isn’t a computer game at all but War Operations Plan Response (W.O.P.R.) – a top-secret military system that helps the Air Force decide what to do in the event of a Soviet attack.

So deep below Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, the military actually thinks a first-strike is occurring. A top programmer Dr. McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) figures out what has happened.  The government finds out who broke into their system, and Lightman is arrested and taken to Cheyenne Mountain for debriefing. And unfortunately for him, they think he is affiliated with the Soviet KGB!  The W.O.P.R continues “playing” Global Thermonuclear War under the assumption we were under attack, and needed to be stopped.  Ultimately, they end up playing a game of Tic Tac Toe with W.O.P.R., which teaches it the concept of futility.  It ultimately decides that Global Thermonuclear War is futile: there is no winner.

Skynet from Terminator (1984, 1991, 2003, 2009) – While the Terminator is the most visible  bad guy in the movie Terminator, it is merely an extension of Skynet.  Skynet is a worldwide artificial intelligence computer system that became self aware and promptly decided that mankind was more of a nuisance than it was worth.

Soon Skynet had taken over all the online weapons in its fight, and that was just the start.  New machines were soon rolling out that had one goal in mind – erase mankind from the planet. Even then, Skynet did not fight fair, and resorted to time travel to stop its main threats before they even happened.

Skynet works quite well as a bad guy since it pulls from fears a lot of people have about computer systems becoming too smart.  It transformed into something that was bigger, stronger, and much smarter than we could ever be, confirming those fears.

Delos from WestWorld (1973) – Delos was built as a paradise to the human visitors.  The machines appeared to be very human and were there to serve the guests in any imaginable capacity (and we do mean any).  In this case the bad guy is actually a computer virus, spreading to all of the human looking androids and creating a panic.  The technicians try to gain back control of the system by pulling the power plug but this leaves them trapped, unable to do much out side of watch.

The virus finds a perfect home in a gunslinger android (played by Yul Brenner) and soon the computer system within the android has a meltdown, unleashing the killing machine.    In the end our gunslinger is stopped, but not before it makes a memorable impression as a computer driven bad guy.

Arcade from Arcade (1993) – Anyone that has followed B Movies may be familiar with the Movie Arcade. In the movie, Arcade was a virtual reality game being developed for sale to the public.  Unfortunately, the game had a nasty habit of imprisoning the losers in a virtual world, something not exactly desired in a computer game.

In time we learn that the Arcade computer actually started out life as a little boy that was tragically beaten to death by his mother.  The computer company decided to use some of the boy’s brain cells as an aid to the computer system.  But instead of making it more realistic, it became Evil, enslaving people and generally spreading a bad time everywhere it went.

Edgar from Electric Dreams (1984) – Tagline:  Meet Edgar. He’ll make you sing, make you dance, make you laugh, make you cry, make you jealous, make you nuts.  Electric Dreams is about a love triangle.  Not your typical love triangle, mind you… but between a man, a woman and a computer, named Edgar (voiced by Bud Cort).

A lonely architect, Miles, buys a Pine Cone personal computer and proceeds to spill champagne on it.  This ingrained into his computer a human intelligence, emotion and a Herculean musical talent.  The computer – Edgar, falls in love with Miles’ upstairs neighbor, Madeline, a beautiful cellist (played by Virginia Madsen).  Edgar is drawn to her through her music and so he plays for her as well (of course, she assumes it is the shy Miles) as they make beautiful music together.  As a romance ensues between Miles and Madeline, Edgar gets jealous.

Out of revenge, Edgar cancels Miles credit cards and messes with his online identity.  But Edgar can understand the human heart which leads him to see that he can never attain Madeline’s love.  In the ultimate sacrifice, Edgar commits suicide by sending a large volt of electricity through its modem.  So in the end Edgar really did have a heart.  FYI – rumor has it there will be a remake of Electric Dreams in 2010.

Honorable mentions: The monolithic master computer in Logan’s Run (1976) that controlled reproduction and death… with was at age thirty.  The computer in Weird Science (1985) is “bad” in a more prankster kind of way – they create the “perfect” woman, and quickly realize, she isn’t so perfect.  And finally, The Lawnmower Man (1992) – a simple man is turned into a genius through computer science and Virtual Reality… but things go wrong and he also turns evil.

Which is your favorite computer ‘bad guy’ movie?  If I left your favorite off, please share it with us.