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According to Isaac Asimov’s First Law of Robotics, “a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”. However, much like humans, many robots believe that laws are meant to be broken. From Skynet to HAL-9000, the world of science fiction is full of killer AIs that would not hesitate before taking the life of a human being. And you’d think that a certain physical likeness would make them more sympathetic to our plight, but no, it often just makes them worse. In 2023, M3GAN (Amie Donald and Jenna Davis) is the newest killer robot to strike fear in the hearts of humans everywhere, but she sure wasn’t the first – nor will she be the last. Thankfully, not every android is as bloodthirsty as her. Here’s a list of nine movie androids from the least to the most likely to break Asimov’s law.
9. David in ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’
Poor little David (Haley Joel Osment) would certainly be horrified to be put on a list with the likes of M3GAN. The boy wouldn’t harm a fly! All he wants is to love and be loved by his mommy – and to become a real living boy. In A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi retelling of Pinocchio, David is given to Monica (Frances O’Connor) and Henry Swinton (Sam Robards) after their son is put in suspended animation due to a rare disease from which he has little to no chance of recovering. After Monica activates David’s imprinting protocol, the child robot becomes forever bonded to his human mother. But things change a lot for poor David when the couple’s organic son is unexpectedly cured of his illness, and the poor android is abandoned by his adoptive family. Completely lost in a world he doesn’t quite understand, David goes looking for the Blue Fairy to make him a real boy. During his journey, David suffers many indignities and even tries to take his own life, but he never ever brings harm to someone else.
8. Andrew Martin in ‘Bicentennial Man’
Much like David, Robin Williams’ character in 1999’s Bicentennial Man is an android that dreams of becoming human. And even though he’s well aware of the ugly side of humanity, Andrew Martin never uses cruelty or murder to achieve his goal. In the film, Andrew is acquired by the Martin family for housekeeping purposes. But, Richard Martin (Sam Neill) quickly realizes that the android is capable of much more than his manufacturers intended him to be. And while this may be an issue for the company, it is anything but a problem for Richard, who grants Andrew his freedom. Over the course of his long life, Andrew falls in love, transforms his own body to become more like an organic life form, and fights for his right to be recognized as a person so that he can marry his beloved Portia (Embeth Davidtz). Throughout his struggle, he doesn’t spill a single drop of blood, not even when he cuts his finger – after all, at the time, he didn’t have any blood to drop.
7. Ash in ‘Alien’
We all know that the main villain in Ridley Scott’s Alien is no killer robot, but an otherworldly life form known as the Xenomorph. Still, there’s no denying that the crew of the Nostromo would’ve been a hell of a lot safer if it wasn’t for Ash (Ian Holm). In the 1979 space horror, a spaceship crew is taken down one by one after one of its members is attacked by a face-hugging alien entity while exploring an abandoned ship. Acting commander Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) tries to stop the contaminated crew member, Kane (John Hurt), from returning to the Nostromo, but he still manages to get aboard. How, you ask? Well, that’s where Ash comes in. Acting under orders from the ship’s computer, Ash does everything in his power to ensure that the alien life form will be brought safely to Earth for research, disregarding the crew’s safety. Not only does he override Ripley’s decision to keep Kane out of the ship, but he also dissuades his mates from killing the creature’s spawn after it emerges from Kane’s chest. When discovered, Ash tries to kill Ripley by choking her to death but is stopped by Parker (Yaphet Kotto). So, is Ash capable of killing a human being? Yes, but only if he feels threatened. Now, would he sit back and allow you to be killed by someone or something else? Sure, why not?
6. The Machine Man in ‘Metropolis’
Right before fleeing Europe and never looking back, director Fritz Lang was offered a job as head of Nazi propaganda for Hitler’s regime, and, watching his 1927 movie Metropolis, it’s not hard to understand why. The story of a messianic, cross-class leader whose plans are thwarted by an artificial instigator that urges the oppressed workers to fight against the ruling class has some serious fascist undertones. Still, Metropolis remains one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made. In the movie, the son of an industrialist, Freder Fredersen (Gustav Fröhlich), falls in love with a gentle lower-class leader named Maria (Brigitte Helm), who speaks of the arrival of someone that will bring unity to the workers and the bourgeoisie of the divided city of Metropolis. Meanwhile, a scientist named Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) creates an android to emulate the form of his late, beloved Hel, who left him to marry Freder’s father, Johann. But, upon learning of Maria’s prophecy and her affair with Freder, Johann orders Rotwang to give Maria’s likeness to his Machine Man so that he can discredit her among the workers. Alas, Rotwang has his own plans and orders the fake Maria to incite a riot that destroys the worker’s part of town, ruining Fredersen’s business and reputation. Much like Ash, then, Rotwang’s Machine Man has a high destructive potential, but only with the right programming.
5. Ava in ‘Ex Machina’
Another human-like android who has no vested interest in killing humans, but will not hesitate to violate the First Law of Robotics when faced with a threat to her own freedom and well-being is Ex Machina’s Ava (Alicia Vikander). Created by tech magnate Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), Ava is kept in a glass cell inside Nathan’s secluded mansion, waiting for the perfect opportunity to finally gain her freedom. Luck smiles at her when Nathan brings one of his programmers home for a visit in order to perform a Turing test with his newest and most advanced creation. Ava manages to pass the test with flying colors and even gets young Caleb Smith (Domnhall Gleeson) to fall in love with her. Smitten and utterly appalled by how Nathan treats his other female androids, whom he uses as sex slaves, Caleb makes a plan with Ava to help her escape her confinement. But, as it turns out, Ava’s interest in Caleb is nothing but a part of Nathan’s experiment. Or is it? Faked or not, Ava’s love for Caleb is enough to convince him to change the mansion’s security code, allowing her to escape. Nathan tries to stop her, but she kills him with the help of a fellow mistreated android, Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno). Covering herself with fake skin, Ava leaves Caleb behind and walks out into the sun. Body count: 1, but only because she had to.
4. The Gunslinger in ‘Westworld’
Forget Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and The Man in Black (Ed Harris): in the original 1973 Westworld, the real force to be reckoned with is simply called The Gunslinger (Yul Brynner). In the film, workers at Delos start to worry when the lifelike animatronics of the company’s three theme parks – Westworld, Medieval World, and Roman World – begin to malfunction all at the same time, almost as if they were passing a disease to one another (this was right after the creation of the first computer virus, in 1971). In Westworld, visitors Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blane (James Brolin) are enjoying themselves, participating in duels, staging prison breaks, and “resting” in the town’s brothels. But their robotic vacation changes when Blane is killed by the Gunslinger, an android whose purpose is to challenge park visitors for duels and die after being shot. After killing Blane, the Gunslinger goes after Peter, who runs and leads the android on a killing spree that ignores the borders between parks. You could argue that, as far as we know, the Gunslinger doesn’t kill anyone because he actually wants to. However, his faulty programming is enough to grant him a high spot on this list.
3. Roy Batty in ‘Blade Runner’
No one can blame the Replicants in Blade Runner for being resentful of humanity. After all, they are treated like crap, forced to do humiliating, exhausting, and traumatizing work that no human would deign to do. And then they die at the ripe young age of four, or even younger if they dare to rebel against their circumstances. Seems like a good enough reason to have a vendetta against the people who made and now explore you, but it doesn’t change the fact that Replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) deserves to be high up on a list of murderous AIs. After all, if you’re a human being, which I assume you are, and you cross paths with Batty, chances are that he’ll have a bone to pick with you. A combat model, Batty, and his crew hijacked a shuttle in an off-world colony to fly to Earth and demand longer lifespans for Replicants, killing 23 people in the process. Once on Earth, he also killed Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), the founder of the company responsible for the manufacturing of replicants, when Tyrell failed to grant him absolution for his sins. It’s one respectable body count, and we have even gotten into the instances of torture…
2. T-800 in The ‘Terminator’ and ‘Terminator 2’
The T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) isn’t exactly one android, but a series of androids created by Skynet for terminating purposes. Still, since the appearance and the original programming of both Terminators are pretty much the same, we’re counting them as the same AI. Hit me up when M3GAN gets herself a nice twin with the same core directives as her. In 1984’s The Terminator, the world-dominating artificial intelligence Skynet sends the T-800 back in time to get rid of the woman that will eventually give birth to the leader of the human resistance against the machines. In the process of hunting down Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the T-800 takes down numerous human redshirts, but he is thankfully destroyed before he gets the chance to murder anyone important. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, resistance leader John Connor (Michael Edwards) changes the programming of a T-800 and sends him back in time to protect his younger self (Edward Furlong) from other, more advanced Terminators created by Skynet. Once again, lots of killing ensues, but, at least, this time, it’s for a good cause.
1. M3GAN
On the surface, Model Three Generative Android, a.k.a. M3GAN, has a lot in common with A.I. Artificial Intelligence’s David – and that only makes her even more dangerous. After all, she is a childlike android who is programmed for nothing but love and care, and who would even try to escape from such an adorable little thing? One look at Arnold Schwarzenegger holding a machine gun and you would be running for the hills. But M3GAN? Nah! Look at her dancing! What can she even do to you? What this seemingly innocent appearance hides is M3GAN’s similarities with other rogue AI’s on this list, such as the Gunslinger and Roy Batty. Free of the constraints of her programming, M3GAN can kill whoever she wants, for whatever reason she wants, and she’s certainly not afraid to do so. For these two reasons, M3GAN deserves to be the very first on our list. Her body count might not be the highest, but your chances of getting killed by her certainly are.
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