We are finally entering the age of AI and robots. How will the future pan out? Films have imagined this scenario in great detail. Which of the following plots will follow the real-life scenarios that await us?

Note: Heavy spoilers all the way, maybe including the ending. Also this is not a comprehensive list. There have been hundreds of such movies.

1. Metropolis, 1927: This is a dystopia where a robot-AI is made in the image of the heroine to gain the trust of agitating workers. Features a thrilling climax that has both the heroine and her robotic doppelganger.

2. The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951: Gort the robot comes from outer space. It is the ultimate killing machine and assistant to the alien Klaatu who has come to ensure peace on Earth.

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968: A HAL 9000 computer, which interacts with the crew like a human, sabotages the entire spaceship and mission, because of human lies and “conflicting instructions”.

4. Colossus: The Forbin Project, 1970: The Americans develop a supercomputer called Colossus. The Russians develop a supercomputer called Guardian. What happens when the two meet? They bond like buddies and go rogue!

5. Silent Running, 1972: Three drones named Huey, Dewey, and Louie (after the Disney duck kids) are treated like children by our hero. They are taught to play poker, plant trees, and even bury the dead.

6. Westworld, 1973: Androids in an amusement park look human. You can interact with them, fight with them and even have sex with them. A malfunction leads to an android becoming the hunter.

7. The Stepford Wives, 1975: Wives too good to be true, totally submissive to the husband, always grooming themselves and doing housework. Turns out they are robots which can be bought from the supermarket. 

8. Logan’s Run, 1976: In the future, human survivors live in geodesic domes, run by a computer. It is an utopia where you are allegedly renewed at the age of 30. Of course the truth of the computer is something different.

9. Star Wars, 1977: This introduces us to the two most lovable robots of all time, R2-D2 and C-3PO. Very much part of the plot, a lot more robotic intelligences are introduced in the subsequent films. 

10. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979: The US launched interstellar probes Voyager 1 & 2. In this film, Voyager 6 enters a black hole and is given life by a species of living machines and takes the name V’Ger.

11. Alien, 1979: Ash, the science officer of the spaceship is an android sent by the company ordered to bring back the alien at any cost. Such an android is a recurring theme of the Alien franchise.

12. Saturn 3, 1980: Hector is from the Demigod Series of robots made with brain tissue. What follows is a jealous Hector rebelling against the crew of Saturn’s third moon and resembles a horror movie.

13. War Games, 1983: A high school hacker in an era of DoS prompt codes accidentally hacks into a NORAD supercomputer and almost triggers World War III.

14. The Terminator, 1984: This introduced us to Skynet, which has been described as an AGI, an ASI and a Singularity. Skynet triggers a nuclear war that destroys most of humanity and gives us cool Terminators, the ultimate killing robots. 

15. Virtuosity, 1995: SID (Sadistic, Intelligent, Dangerous) is a Virtual Reality mix of the worst serial killers in history. On the verge of being shut down, it tricks engineers into entering an android, going on the rampage in the real world.

16. Bicentennial Man, 1999: The 200-year-old journey of a robot who expresses creativity at the beginning, becoming a professional clockmaker and finally being recognized with all the rights of a human being. 

The 2000s

17. I, Robot, 2004: VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) is a highly sentient AI which goes rogue, within the parameters set by the creators, and eventually has to be shut down.

18. Iron Man, 2008: Here we have J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just a Rather Very Intelligent System). Initially a controller of the Iron Man suit, it evolves, becomes more powerful and through a series of adventures becomes the Vision android.

19. WALL-E, 2008: When WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-class) met EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). This cute humanlike robot goes through the human emotions of duty, solitude, friendship (with a cockroach) and finally love.

20. Moon, 2009: A lone astronaut on the moon only has the company of GERTY, a robotic AI console with a smiley. GERTY helps our hero uncover a conspiracy surrounding them originating on Earth.

21. Her, 2013: What happens when your home AI assistant OS Samantha has the perfect voice, learns and grows, even at a psychological level? That bond and the subsequent ups and downs form the plot of the movie.

22. Ex Machina, 2014: What starts off as a pretty female android robot called Ava being administered a Turing Test ends up being a sinister cat and mouse game.

23. Transcendence, 2014: Our dead hero’s consciousness is uploaded onto a quantum computer. Our hero tries to create a tech utopia and makes breakthroughs in nanotech, medicine and energy. That’s when things go totally awry.

24. Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2015: Here we have the android Ultron, who has a God Complex and wants to wipe out the human race. The Avengers beat him, and it is destroyed by Vision.

25. Chappie, 2015: Militaristic attack robots are patrolling the streets of Johannesburg. Our hero develops an AI and uploads it into a damaged robot, Chappie. The robot starts off as a child and is trained to become a gangster.