The 15 Best Killer Robots from The Movies

With the release of M3GAN 2.0, the sequel to the bloody, tongue-in-cheek film about an android child gone rogue, it’s a great time to take a look back at cinema’s long history of killer robots, androids, automatons, and cyborgs. These machines are an allegory for our fear of technology, and deadly robots have never been more relevant in today’s age of advanced A.I. and large language models. In no particular order, here are 15 of the most memorable killer robots and the movies you can find them in. Refresh your memory on these monstrous machines, then go see M3GAN face down a new A.I. nemesis in the sequel on June 27, 2025. (Also, try and puzzle out in advance what they’re going to call the third movie since there’s already a 3 in the title…) No. 1 Protectors 1-3, Chopping Mall (1986) (Photo by ©Concorde Pictures courtesy Everett Collection) Chopping Mall, originally titled Killbots, is a classic Roger Corman-produced, satirical, low-budget horror film. The replacement title is a misnomer, though, as the trio of security robots that go rogue in a 1980s mall don’t do much chopping, preferring instead to shoot lasers and shove people over railings. This film, and the trio of malfunctioning mall robots, represent an ode to 1980s excess. No. 2 The Terminators, The Terminator Franchise This long-running humans vs. cybernetic killers movie series has featured many different models, as Skynet frequently upgrades itself and sends new versions of its latest robot through time. Though Reese mentions earlier, inferior models in the original 1984 Terminator, the first one we really see is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800, featuring a realistic human-like exterior. Of course, the one everyone’s fond of is the liquid metal T-1000 from Terminator 2, memorably played by Robert Patrick, but a special shout out goes to Kristanna Loken’s T-X in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines for proving a female version could be just as terrifying. No. 3 The Borg Queen, Star Trek: First Contact (1996) (Photo by ©Paramount Pictures) Up until Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s fan-favorite race of cyborgs were assumed to be a hive mind, with a shared consciousness and no real leader, as that would defeat the purpose. This all changed with Star Trek’s eighth film, when we were introduced to the Borg Queen, a slimy, devious creature that once seduced Jean-Luc Picard when he was turned into Locutus and then turned her sights on poor android Data. It would take everything this crew had to take out this Queen, but she would return again and again in Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Picard. No. 4 Ava, Ex Machina (2014) An allegorical Alex Garland film warning against the dangers of both tech billionaires and artificial intelligence (and therefore highly relevant today), Ex Machina stars Oscar Isaac in the former role and Alicia Vikander in the latter as Ava, a cyborg built and held captive for testing by Isaac’s character, Nathan. Of course, Nathan underestimates Ava, and she eventually kills him and escapes to the outside world, fully conscious and fully self-aware. No. 5 Grey Trace/STEM, Upgrade (2018) Like Ex Machina, Upgrade is a film that showcases the incredible dangers of artificial intelligence. This one’s an action epic, though, as the paralyzed Grey Trace (Logan Marshall Green) gets an implant called STEM to help him walk again. The catch? The programming contained within enjoys taking over his mind and turning him into a killing machine. It turns out the people responsible for the upgrade were the same ones who paralyzed Trace in the first place. In a rare film where the bad guys win, eventually STEM is all that’s left and Trace’s mind is trapped in a fantasy forever. No. 6 The Gunslinger, Westworld (1973) The classic dystopian Michael Crichton Western sci-fi film that inspired the equally classic TV series of the same name, Westworld has everything and Yul Brynner. He plays the unnamed Gunslinger robot in a Western-style theme park that allows park-goers to simulate fights to the death. As the park malfunctions and the androids, including the Gunslinger, become self-aware, the gunfights become real, much to the consternation of the attendees. The stone-faced Gunslinger then stalks the humans, one by one. No. 7 Autonomous Mobile Swords (AMS), Screamers (1995) (Photo by ©Columbia Tristar courtesy Everett Collection) The lesser known robot epic starring Peter Weller (we’ll get to the other one in a bit), Screamers is an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story (like so many other great sci-fi films), and is about a tense war between a mining company and former miners on strike. The mining company creates Autonomous Mobile Swords, or AMS (also known as Screamers), to kill the strikers, but after the miners successfully mask their heartbeats to avoid detection, new AMS are created that look human and infiltrate the base disguised as children. Weller’s character, Commander Hendricksson, must do everything he can to escape this diabolical new breed of Screamers. No. 8 Roy Batty, Blade Runner (1982) (Photo by ©Warner Bros. Pictures) Played convincingly by perennial sci-fi actor Rutger Hauer in the dystopian classic Blade Runner, Roy Batty is a replicant, or android that passes himself off as a human. Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard is a Blade Runner, a policeman who detects and eliminates replicants from society. Because he is afflicted with a genetic disorder that shortens his lifespan, Batty spends the film in pursuit of a way to extend his life, ultimately crushing the skull of the CEO whose company created him. By the end of the film, Batty and Deckard square off on a rooftop in the pouring rain, at which point Batty, his life coming to an end, gives one of cinema’s most memorable farewell speeches. No. 9 ED-209, RoboCop (1987) (Photo by ©Orion Pictures) OCP, the paramilitary police organization that controls New Detroit in the Robocop series of movies, is constantly seeking the next generation of police enforcement. Their first attempt is a giant robot with machine-gun arms called ED-209. Unfortunately, ED fails to follow simple instructions during a demonstration and ends up slaughtering an office worker in comical fashion, leading OCP to advance their next project, a cyborg called RoboCop, played by the aforementioned Peter Weller. Of course, as RoboCop is part human, he has free will, and eventually ED-209 is unleashed against him. It doesn’t go well for ED-209. No. 10 Mechagodzilla, The Godzilla Franchise (Photo by ©TriStar Pictures courtesy Everett Collection) Originally sent by aliens from outer space to fight Godzilla, the entirely mechanical replica of the giant lizard was created in 1974 for the movie Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. One of Godzilla’s main nemeses, this robotic beast has appeared dozens more times in Godzilla films since, most recently in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong. In that film, Mechagodzilla is a human creation, built by corporations to subdue Godzilla and blunt his reign of destruction. Most of the time, our inferior Godzilla replica doesn’t stand up to the real thing for very long, but he remains an iconic franchise villain for everyone’s favorite radioactive kaiju. No. 11 Ultron, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Perhaps the Avengers’ greatest folly and a personification of their hubris, Ultron is a joint creation of resident geniuses Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, initially designed as the ultimate artificial intelligence to aid all humankind. As is a running theme in this list of bad robots, Ultron eventually upgrades himself enough and decides that human beings are superfluous to his plans. It’s only by the creation of a second android being, Vision, and the assistance of the Soul Stone embedded in his forehead, that Ultron is destroyed for good, but not before he essentially destroys an entire city by lifting it off the ground in an attempt to end life on Earth. No. 12 General Grievous, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) (Photo by ©20th Century Fox Film Corp.) What’s cooler than a four-armed cybernetic villain who can go toe-to-toe with a Jedi? One that collects lightsabers from fallen foes and uses them in combat, of course! First appearing in the Genddy Tartakovsky-made Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, Grievous is severely injured by Mace Windu during that story and spends his live-action appearance in Revenge of the Sith coughing and weaker as a result. Ultimately betrayed by Darth Sidious, Grievous is slain in battle by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Further exploits of Grievous can be seen in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series that followed the movie. No. 13 Gort, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (Photo by ©20th Century Fox Film Corp.) Possibly one of the first scary robots in all of cinema, Gort is the robotic protector and servant to Klaatu, the first alien visitor to Earth in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Frightening more for his potential than what he actually does in the film, Gort seems to have unlimited power, as he brings Klaatu back to life after he’s shot to death by America’s military. We learn by the end of the film that an entire army of invincible Gorts exists, and if humanity fails to correct its violent tendencies, the entire planet will be obliterated by them. The 2008 remake of the film starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu is a bit more explicit in showcasing Gort’s capabilities, but the 1951 original, itself based on a short story, remains a chilling cautionary tale. No. 14 Samantha Pringle, Deadly Friend (1986) It’s the Wes Craven movie hardly anyone remembers. A clear precursor to M3GAN, Deadly Friend stars Kristy Swanson as Samantha Pringle, the next-door neighbor of a young robotics genius named Paul. When Samantha is rendered braindead from an assault by her abusive father, Paul revives her with the control microchip from his greatest robot invention. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned; Samantha’s movements are jerky and robotic, and she’s extremely protective of Paul to a dangerous, murderous degree. Sound familiar? This bloody film is best known for a gruesome scene in which Samantha kills grumpy neighbor Elvira (The Goonies’ Anne Ramsey) with a basketball to the face. No. 15 M3GAN, M3GAN (2022) and M3GAN 2.0 (2025) The first M3GAN film was wickedly funny and highly satirical. In it, a Seattle toy company creates an advanced prototype robot, which is tested as a grief counselor for a young girl named Cady after her parents are killed in a car accident. Of course, the sentient M3GAN has imprinted herself on Cady and is highly protective of her, first lashing out at a neighbor’s dog, then a bully at a summer camp, and finally Cady’s foster mother. She’s finally destroyed, or so we think; in the sequel, M3GAN is re-activated to take down an even scarier AI. Did we cover your favorite killer robot from the movies? If not, let us know in the comments! On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

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