From The Terminator to R2D2, the 25 best fictional robots – according to New Scientist

We write a lot about robots here at New Scientist – the latest cutting-edge developments, the newest technology. Fancy reading about a golf robot? A laundry robot? A kickboxing robot? A space robot? We’ve got you covered.

But we also have a great deal of fondness for them in fiction, whether that’s the super cute likes of WALL-E and BB-8, or the darker side of the robotic family, from the Terminator to Ava from Ex Machina.

Last month, Sierra Greer’s novel about the rebellion of a robot designed for intimacy, Annie Bot, won this year’s Arthur C Clarke award, the UK’s top prize for science fiction. It was described by judges as “a tightly-focused first person account of a robot designed to be the perfect companion who struggles to become free”. Greer’s win felt like the right moment to ask New Scientist staff to nominate their own favourite fictional robotic beings, from page or screen. After a bit of quibbling about what constitutes a robot, and a lot of people plumping for various Star Wars droids and Futurama creations, here, in no particular order, they are. Do join the discussion on Facebook and let us know if we’ve missed any…

Ex Machina is less interested in whether androids are conscious than in whether humans believe they are. In the presence of Ava (Alicia Vikander), it is easy – tragically, too easy – to forget she is a machine. In the age of AI, Alex Garland’s tale of all-too-human hubris is timelier than ever.

Kelsey Hayes

In the 1989 animation A Grand Day Out, hapless inventor Wallace and his savvy pooch Gromit build a rocket and fly to the moon. The moon is made of cheese, naturally, so the duo can indulge their passion for cheese and crackers to their hearts’ content. But, uh-oh, there is already a coin-operated robot (main picture) lurking on the moon. It is essentially a cooker with arms and wheels, who doesn’t take kindly to man and dog using the moon as a snack. The way the animators imbue this kitchen appliance with emotions (mostly indignation) is pure genius, and the way it runs out of power at opportune moments makes for comedy gold. I was about six when I first saw this short film, but it still delights me when I watch with my own children now.

Joshua Howgego

In 2029, cybernetic technology has advanced enough that people can replace some or even all of their body with robot parts. What remains of their humanity is the “ghost in the shell”. One such cybernetic entity is Major Kusanagi, a security agent hunting for a rogue hacker. Ghost in the Shell was hugely inspirational (especially for the Matrix movies) and remains relevant for its theme of consciousness in artificial intelligence.

Rowan Hooper

I think “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty” is the best episode of Rick and Morty because it is a flawless send-up of my favourite genre of film: heist movies. Key to that parody is Heistotron, a robot built by renegade scientist Rick Sanchez to undermine the pretentious “heist artist” Miles Knightley. Heistotron is always ready for one last job, stealing priceless artefacts with the help of a ragtag crew whom it brainwashes into joining the team (“You son of a bitch, I’m in,” they parrot blankly upon recruitment). Heistotron soon develops its own consciousness and double-crosses its creator – who, of course, has already double-crossed Heistotron. But what if that’s exactly what Heistotron wanted to happen?

Bethan Ackerley                                                             

I have to read a lot for work and I often long for the skill of Johnny-5, the adorably friendly and curious robot with the ability to flick through a book in seconds, from the films Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2 (the sequel is the better film in my opinion). Johnny-5, who becomes sentient after being electrocuted, is the best and cutest of robots, no argument. “More input!”

Alison Flood

The robots of Futurama are some of the show’s greatest characters, but none more so than Bender, the booze-fuelled bending unit who’s the first friend that man-out-of-time Fry makes after being trapped in a cryogenic tube for 1000 years. Whether he’s dumping toxic waste in New New York’s sewers and getting kidnapped by the resident mutants or becoming addicted to electricity and angering the Robot Devil, Bender’s chaotic id and laziness drive some of the show’s best episodes. He’s crude and amoral, certainly, but he’s also a robot of complex passions, an aesthete, gourmand and linguist of no small talent. There’s a little of Bender in all of us – to borrow a phrase from the legend himself, his story is a lot like yours, except more interesting because there are robots in it.

Bethan Ackerley

TARS and its fellow robots, Interstellar (2014)

If you were journeying through a wormhole to distant star systems on a desperate quest to find a new home for humanity, you could do a lot worse for companionship than a cuboid robot capable of surprising shape-shifting feats and complete with a customisable humor setting. Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar features four such robots, including one named TARS that plays a crucial role alongside the human protagonists – and has the best wisecracks.

Jeremy Hsu

What if the boy in Steven Spielberg’s film ET befriended a 15-metre-tall robot from space instead of a toddler-size alien? The animated film The Iron Giant stars an extraterrestrial robot whose child-like personality and kindness win over the local lad and other townsfolk – despite the robot packing some serious laser weaponry and frequently chowing down on automobiles and power stations for energy. If only a paranoid US government didn’t threaten a catastrophic Cold War response…

Jeremy Hsu

“Are you alive?” That opening question from Number Six, a sentient robot in blonde woman form, permeates Ron Moore’s reboot of the Battlestar Galactica series. Born from humanity’s quest for artificial intelligence, Six and the other Cylons present an uncomfortable mirror to their creators’ best and worst impulses as the human survivors of a surprise Cylon attack struggle to find the mythical Earth. To break the cycle of violence, both sides must become worthy of survival.

Jeremy Hsu

Choosing Deckard for this list caused uproar in the New Scientist office. “He’s human!” said my colleagues. Ridley Scott, however, disagrees. “He’s a replicant,” he said in a 2017 Empire podcast. Whether he dreams of electric sheep or not, the question his character raises about the nature of humanity is why I love this particular Blade Runner.

Matt Hambly

Cyberdyne Systems T-800 Model 101 (aka The Terminator), The Terminator (1984)

“I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle”, “Hasta la vista, baby”, “I’ll be back”. Has any screen robot had more iconic dialogue? Arnold Schwarzenegger’s terminator was the manifestation of what people in the 1980s thought was the worst artificial intelligence could do. The solution, and how manageable it seems now, was simply to reprogram the robot and make it serve humans instead of terminate them. The enduring bond with this robot is down to the mimicry of humanity that Schwarzenegger brings to it.

Rowan Hooper

Ash, Alien (1979)

The real monster in Alien isn’t the xenomorph – it’s amoral corporate greed. Carrying out the company’s prime directive is android Ash (Ian Holm), whose admiration for the eponymous alien horrifies his expendable crewmates. Ash isn’t self-aware so much as he is terrifyingly single-minded in his programming: results, no matter the human cost.

Kelsey Hayes

Hedonism Bot, Futurama (1999)

The term ‘“robot” can trace its origin to “robota”, the Czech word for “forced labour”. But Hedonism Bot is no one’s slave. He exists not to toil for humanity, nor does he serve the will of an inventor. No, he exists to experience life at its most pleasurable by spreading chocolate icing on his rotund metal belly. For that, he is a god amongst bots.

Jacklin Kwan

Data, the second officer of the legendary starship USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation, is one of television’s most interesting androids, and the Star Trek writers absolutely knew it. He is sentient and self-aware, he keeps animals, he has romantic affairs, he grapples with his origin and even has a twin driven mad by too much emotion. Through Data, Star Trek delivers some of its most poignant punchlines about humanity, empathy and the limits of cold rationality.

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

C1-10P, or “Chopper”, is a battered and mischievous droid member of a crew of anti-fascist troublemakers at the centre of Star Wars: Rebels. He is fiercely loyal to his cell within the galactic rebellion and a great asset to the movement (some fans designate him Star Wars’ most destructive character), but also comically obstinate and cranky. Less polished and cute than many of the franchise’s droids, Chopper remains an iconic addition to the contemporary Star Wars canon.

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Marvin is a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation prototype of GPP (Genuine People Personalities) technology. In truth he shows little sign of paranoia, but he’s certainly depressed, and no wonder: a robot with a brain the size of a planet destined for mundane subservience. He did lend his name to one of Radiohead’s finest songs, which might have cheered him up a bit.

Matthew Sparkes

In a world where every teenager has a robot best friend called a B-bot, outcast Barney has to make do with a defective one – Ron – that fell off the back of a lorry.  The story of Ron’s wild and inappropriate behaviour in the 2021 animation Ron’s Gone Wrong is not only moving and funny, but surprisingly profound and I can’t understand why Ron isn’t better known.

Alison George

“You are just a machine, an imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?” asks the detective. “Can you?” responds Sonny, the main robot character in the film I, Robot. It’s one of the best moments in the film, and these kind of comebacks are what make Sonny such a great character.

Michael Le Page

Disney’s answer to Star Wars, The Black Hole had a terrific “evil” robot in Maximilian. Whist his “good robot” counter parts V.I.N.CENT (Vital Information Necessary CENTralized) and BO.B (Bio-Sanitation Battalion) were cartoony with huge googly eyes, Maximilian was huge, silent and menacing – Disney exploring “dark” before it fully embraced it in more recent years. His weapon was a little bit food mixer, but still proved deadly.

Craig Mackie

Jared, from Simon Stephenson’s Set My Heart To Five, is an android dentist who, after experiencing an emotional awakening watching classic films, decides to write a screenplay to change humanity’s perception of robots. I won’t spoil whether he’s successful, but to paraphrase a famous movie tagline: you’ll believe a bot can cry.

Michael Dalton

WALL-E, WALL-E (2008)

We probably shouldn’t anthropomorphise robots, but who can blame us when looking at the sad, enquiring binocular-shaped eyes of WALL-E, the adorable robot on tank-treads tasked with cleaning up a future polluted Earth? Cuteness aside, this robot is heroic too, saving humanity from a future aimlessly roaming outer space.

Alex Wilkins

How many times did plucky, stubborn R2 save the Star Wars franchise? R2 puts the machina in deus ex machina, and it is admittedly difficult to square his sentience with his servitude, but we love the sassy, loyal little rubbish-bin-on-wheels anyway. Without him, Star Wars would be a far less joyful galaxy.

Linda Rodriguez-McRobbie

Where R2D2 exists to further the plot and keep his humans from getting squashed in trash compactors, L3-37 – who literally made herself – exists for herself. Self-aware, snarky and not here to serve stupid humans, L3-37 wasn’t universally popular with the Star Wars fanbase. But that’s precisely why we need her.

Linda Rodriguez-McRobbie

When I think of Star Wars, the first loveable droid that comes to mind is the one I favoured in my childhood: R2D2 (of course). Which is why I was little unsure when BB8 blasted onto the scene in the final trilogy like a soccer ball from hell. But this lil’ guy won me over with its charm, humour and that incredible, reckless speed. If I were a robot, I’d want to be BB8.

Chelsea Whyte

It’s the 80s in New York City, an elderly couple runs a diner and apartment building that developers are threatening to demolish, and out of nowhere alien robots show up. The plot sounds absurd, and it is, but this movie charmed me entirely as a kid. I’ve always loved these little flying-saucer-shaped bots. The adult ones arrive and reproduce on the building’s roof like stray cats, and their kids fly around, get into the food in the diner and generally create a lot of slapstick chaos. But in the end, they all help fight off the evil land developers and save the day – if only robots these days were that useful.

Chelsea Whyte