The Best TV & Movie Robots Ever
Entertainers usually hate to be called robotic, but mechanical acting isn’t a problem for the characters below. Ahead of the new Apple TV+ series Murderbot, we’re counting down our picks for the best robots from film and TV.
Based on a Hugo Award-winning book series by Martha Wells, Murderbot is a comedic thriller starring Alexander Skarsgård as a security robot that hacks its programming to do whatever it wants, which, as it turns out, is to watch soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.
So, will Skarsgård’s Murderbot become one of our favorites? While we wait to find out, scroll down to see our current ranking of TV and film robots. And note that we’re sticking strictly to robots, so no androids (sorry, Data), cyborgs (apologies, Terminator), supercomputers (maybe next time, HAL 9000), or tin men (how could we be so heartless, Wizard of Oz fans?).
Murderbot, Series Premiere, Friday, May 16, Apple TV+
10. Rosie the Robot, The Jetsons
She’s not the shiniest model U-Rent A Maid offers, but the Jetson family’s helper bot the funniest housekeeper on two wheels. As long as her master cylinder is operational, Rosie (Jean Vander Pyl) helps out along the house, though not always in the way that the family expects.
9. Optimus Prime, Transformers
“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings,” says this leader of the Autobots. Whether he’s in robot mode or semi-trailer truck mode, Optimus (Peter Cullen) is noble, pacific, and compassionate, caring for humans on planet Earth as much as his fellow Autonomous Robotic Organisms back on the planet Cybertron.
8. The Robot, Lost in Space
Lost in Space without a robot character along for the ride? Does not compute! Especially because, well, Robot Model B-9 inadvertently got the family lost in space to begin with, thanks to a mad scientist’s sabotage. But the Robot, played by Bob May and voiced by Dick Tufeld, proved to be a trusty automaton to the humans, Will Robinson in particular.
7. Bender, Futurama
He’s a chain-smoking boozehound, a kleptomaniac, a narcissist, a pathological liar, and maybe even a sociopath. But Bender Bending Rodríguez, the Planet Express worker voiced by John DiMaggio, is more a softie than he lets on. “Being a robot’s great, but we don’t have emotions,” he says at one point, “and sometimes that makes me very sad.”
6. TARS, Interstellar
This Marine Corps bot was one of the robotic members of the Endurance mission, with settings for honesty, humor, and discretion that offered comic relief. “I have a cue light I can use when I’m joking, if you like,” the Bill Irwin-voiced bot tells the human astronauts. “Yeah, you can use it to find your way back into the ship after I blow you out the airlock.”
5. The Giant, The Iron Giant
To the residents of 1950s-era Rockwell, Maine, this massive, Vin Diesel-voiced robot could very well be a Cold War weapon. But as one young boy discovers, the metal-chomping Giant actually eats weapons for lunch, and the bot’s climactic act of heroism reminds us all that we are who we choose to be.
4. The robots of Mystery Science Theater 3000
“Robot roll call!” If the human test subjects aboard the Satellite of Love are forced to watch awful B movies, at least they have these bots with whom to commiserate and commentate: the snarky Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu), the intellectual Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy), the mediating GPC (Jim Mallon), and the all-seeing Cambot. We can’t imagine watching cinematic schlock without them.
3. Number Six, Battlestar Galactica
Sure, one copy of Number Six seduced a scientist for his access to the humans’ defense system. But this humanoid model of Cylon, played by Tricia Helfer, wasn’t just a “robot chick” programmed to kill. She believes in her cause — thinking, along with the rest of the monotheistic Cylons, that it’s God’s plan — until her various copies start to question their role in the war.
2. WALL-E, WALL-E
WALL-E (Ben Burtt), a trash compactor from the Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class line, has had a lot of time to achieve sentience, befriend cockroaches, and binge-watch Hello, Dolly! in the 700 years since humans left Earth. And even as he blasts off into an adventure of galactic proportions, he never loses his curiosity or charm.
1. R2-D2, Star Wars
C-3PO is a master of etiquette and communication, true, but if we’re to have any (new) hope in our rebellion against a Galactic Empire, we’re sticking with good old R2-D2 (originally played by Kenny Baker). Artoo isn’t just a Swiss army knife in droid form, he’s also a brave, courageous, and cunning companion.
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