When you think of evil movie computers, 2001: A Space Odyssey comes immediately to mind. But HAL is just a naughty schoolboy compared to some of its colleagues. Here are the most diabolical machines to ever grace the silver screen.
And you thought the BSOD was bad.
Colossus, the huge US defence computer in The Forbin Project (1970) takes control over every nuclear missile on Earth after deciding that humankind is inferior to machines.
Picture: Universal
The omnipotent main computer in Logan’s Run (1976) controls the 23rd-century city where the remnants of human civilisation live. No one is allowed to live past 30 to help keep overpopulation in check.
Picture: MGM
The Master Control Program, the main antagonist of Tron (1982). MCP ruled the world inside ENCOM’s mainframe computer system and had the evil ambition to dominate the whole world.
Picture: Buena Vista
War Operations Plan Response — aka WOPR — aka Joshua — in Wargames (1983), the NORAD nuclear war simulation computer. Good at Global Thermonuclear War, bad at not-trying-to-destroy-the-world.
Picture: MGM/UA
Skynet, the fictional world-AI of The Terminator and its sequels (1984, 1991, 2003, 2009). Skynet has only one goal: kill all humans. Or at least Sarah Connor.
Picture: Orion
The Matrix, the Machines, the Source, Deux Ex Machina, the merciless antagonists of humanity in the Matrix trilogy (1999) whatever you want. Too bad it turned out their greatest weapon is boring you to death.
Picture: Warner Bros
V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) from I, Robot (2004) sends her robot army against humanity in spite of the First Law of Robotics.
Picture: 20th Century Fox
In the 2005 movie Stealth, the F/A-37 Talon (a fictional fighter jet) and its onboard computer cause serious problems, up to and including a near-nuclear war.
Picture: Mate 3rd Class Tyler J. Clements/US Navy
The main computer of the Icarus II spaceship from Sunshine (2007) almost prevents the crew to save the Earth.
Picture: Fox Searchlight
She is the Red Queen, the AI from the Resident Evil series, who wages spiteful war against the human race, using various bioweapons in order to destroy us all.
Picture: Constantin Film
Say what you will about Superman III, but there’s no arguing the effectiveness of a computer that’s smart, strong and armed with a kryptonite laser.
Picture: Warner Bros via Santa Banta
Did we miss any important superevil supercomputer, AI, robotic brain? Tell us in the comments!
ARIA, the super computer from Eagle Eye was pretty bad ass...we thought she was good at the beginning.
Hang on. Sunshine's mission problems weren't the result of an evil computer..
no, just a stupid one that didnt have the ability to realign the protective panels when the course changed and the pilot made an error, but was able to later to fix the problem. Thus, killing someone.
Wasn't CLU in Tron: Legacy pretty darn evil? What about Ash from Alien? He was a pretty malignant computer
CLU is more of a program inside the 'computer' called TRON :P
CLU and TRON were both programs, the framework was called "The Grid". It was created by Kevin Flynn...
er...
I am now deeply ashamed.
Why?
I really don't think the computer in Sunshine was evil or a supervillain.
Anyone ever see Maximum Overdrive? :P
THIS MACHINE JUST CALLED ME AN ASSHOLE
Last edited March 7, 2013 3:51 pm
Let's not forget that evil but hot chick ship computer in the latest series of Red Dwarf.
Auto, the Axiom autopilot from WALL-E.
"Maximilian" from "The Black Hole" was pretty nasty. There was also "Hector" from "Saturn 3" who kills his weirdo master (Harvey Keitel), rips off his face and uses it as a hat.
I personally like Sharon Apple from Macross Plus. Mixing experimental/illegal AI chips with emotional imprints from an actual human is a winning idea! :p
Someone beat me to it!!! How can you have a Supercomputer villain thread and NOT have Sharon Apple listed. Emotional, Irrational, Sensual, sexual and insane.. That sir is pure win evil super computer!
Oh and I feel obliged to say that about The Matrix, well I wouldn't really say those machines were evil. After all, WE started the war, WE scorched the sky, THEY retaliated in response to our actions. They originally just wanted us to recognize they also deserved rights as sentient beings.
Not sure about WOPR as a villain - it didn't have any malicious intent, just a desire to learn through games. The villains were the people who created the game it was playing, I guess.
Looks like the definition for supervillain (and computer, somewhat) is pretty wide here, so how about:
GERTY from Moon?
The Event Horizon from "Event Horizon"?
ROC from Flying High II?
Edgar in Electric Dreams?
yeah, Event Horizon was pretty badassed, telepathically brainwashes humans to kill each other xD
Wasn't an evil computer though...
definitely edgar from electric dreams
About GERTY:
Wasn't GERTY more of a hero in the end, though? It wiped its memories to save SamLore
Oh! What about Love Machine in Summer Wars? Dude brought the future Internet to a standstill
I was just about to mention Summer Wars and you beat me to it!
Proteus from the 1977 thriller Demon Seed. Poor Julie Christie gets imprisoned, raped, burnt and tortured in general to submit to the will of an A.I. that wants to bring about a new future for itself.
GlaDOS is pretty badarse too!
I guess it's kind of a computer, the main evil robot in 1990's Hardware, a poor man's Terminator.
Still a very cool film
Wall-i the super ai computer that tried to stop humans from ever coming back to earth
And you know what? The good Doctor would have beaten them all (with his trust sonic screwdriver!)
HAL wasn't evil, just misunderstood.
Number 5 from Short Circuit 2...
Ash from Alien.
Icarus wasn't evil! It has just a shutdown due to a malfunction in their refrigeration systems! Poor Icarus supercomputer...