Whether they're evil and intent on wiping out humanity or programmed to sacrifice themselves to save our life, robots have played a key role in many of our favorite pop culture moments. And today we will be pitting the greatest robots of all time against each other in a battle royal.
Robots are everywhere
This is not about who is the fastest or the strongest, it’s all about being lovable. The more popular the robot, the better are his chances. Even if we love to hate him.
And since there are so many robots in pop culture we will be limiting this list to 1 per franchise, otherwise we will be here all day comparing transformers. Let’s begin.
In 10th place - the vision - Marvel
Although he was created all the way back in 1968 by Roy Thomas, the vision didn't achieve mainstream recognition until his appearance in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since then he has appeared in several other MCU movies and even in his own TV show. The vision is extremely intelligent, extremely powerful and is even worthy of lifting Thor's hammer. And for that alone he deserves a spot on our list.
In 9th place - WALL-E
This Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth-Class unit captured all our hearts in Pixar's wonderful film about a small robot that was left all alone on a deserted earth. The idea for the story came to Andrew Stanton all the way back in 1994 but the movie wouldn't be finished for another 14 years when it finally released in 2008. And although Wall-e barely speaks a word throughout the film he manages to fall in love, go on a space adventure, lead a mini robot rebellion, save the entire human race AND recolonise the planet. All while being absolutely adorable.
In 8th place - Rosie the robot - The Jetsons
Out of all the robots on this list, Rosie is probably the one robot all of us dream of having one day in our home. She is the robotic maid for the Jetsons, she is hard working, loyal, does everything for the family and When at home by herself, she even functions as a security system. She does everything! We sure do have a lot of different robots in pop culture, but when people imagine the perfect robot for the house - rosie is the one everyone thinks of.
In 7th place - The iron giant
“You are who you choose to be” is the message behind this 1999 masterpiece by director Brad bird. A brilliant story about a boy that befriends a gigantic robot and teaches him that he doesn’t have to be what he was programmed to be. He can even be superman if he chooses to. The fact that an animated movie about a robot can make us understand what it means to be human is quite incredible. If you somehow missed this wonderfully deep movie, do yourself a favor and watch it. You will fall in love with the iron giant.
In 6th place - GLaDOS - Portal & portal 2
If the iron giant can make you cry, GLaDOS will make you laugh so hard your personality cores will fall off. If you are not a big gamer you might not have heard the name GLaDOS before, but if you played either Portal or Portal 2, you definitely remember this narcissistic, passive-aggressive, sinister, and witty robot. GLaDOS is responsible for testing and maintenance in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. her voice follows you around while you move from test chamber to test chamber, trying to find your way out without being killed by the deranged, yet eerily calm artificial intelligence. She is funny, deadly and endlessly quotable.
In 5th place. - DATA - star trek
Definitely the most human of all the robots on our list, data serves as the second officer aboard the starship Enterprise. He was actually found by the Starfleet in the rubbles of a destroyed colony and was made an officer thanks to his superior intellect and abilities. Much like Pinocchio, his biggest dream was to be human, and although he always remains a synthetic humanoid, he definitely grows more and more human as the series goes on. Much like the star trek series itself, data represents the most optimistic vision we have when it comes to robots.
In 4th place - Bender “Bending” Rodríguez - futurama
He smokes, he drinks and he loves to gamble. Bender is pretty much everything you don’t want a robot companion to be yet somehow he still manages to be lovable, charming, relatable and actually a good friend. Bender was first built as an industrial robot by a Robot Company in Tijuana, Mexico, however, he chose not to spend his life bending metal and instead joined the planet express crew on their crazy adventures. There is pretty much nothing this loud mouthed robot hasn’t done, from having an affair with a coworker to enslaving an entire planet to becoming an actual god. Bender is loud, obnoxious and completely self centered, and we wouldn’t have him any other way.
In 3rd place - The T-1000 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
After the success of the 1984 film “the terminator”, james cameron came back with a bigger, better, and even more successful sequel. In the first movie audiences were terrified of the unstoppable T-800 robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger but this time Cameron surprised everyone with a whole new type of robot, one that audiences have never seen before, made entirely of liquid metal. This robot, called the T-1000, was faster, smarter, pretty much indestructible and worst of all - a shapeshifter. Meaning he can take the shape of anyone around you, even your own mother! Now, that is scary.
In 2nd place - Optimus Prime - The Transformers
The leader of the autobots, Selfless and courageous and just inherently good. Optimus prime is one of the greatest leaders in pop culture history and his popularity hasn’t dwindled in the 38 years since he first appeared on television. If anything he just became even more popular since michael bay decided to make a live action version of the transformers. Over the years we have seen a lot of different versions of optimus prime and his fellow autobots, but be it on the big screen, on tv, in video games or in comics, this 36 foot cybernetic warrior has a special place in our hearts. We all cried like babies when he died in 1986’s Transformers movie.
Who's not entered to the list:
Before we get to our number one pick, here are a few robots we love that didn't make the list:
Johnny 5 - short circuit
Baymax - Big hero six
Kitt - knight rider
Marvin - the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
And in first place - R2D2 - Star wars
Who else can take the first place on our list but the most beloved robot in cinematic history?. He was there in the very first scene of the very first movie in the Star Wars franchise, and he was still there, 42 years later, when the Skywalker saga concluded. He is so popular that He even made an appearance in the mandalorian tv show. In fact, you might not have realized it but R2D2 is actually the most important character in Star wars, he saves every other important character multiple times during all nine movies. Without good old R2, Anakin would have died as a child in episode 1, Luke would have never been born, the emperor would have never been stopped and the empire would have won. Besides, he is just so darn cute!
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Until next time, stay curious.
