Skip to main content

The best A.I. movies of all time

Silver screen machines: These are the all-time best movies about A.I.

There are some great tech documentaries out there, but sometimes you just need a good feature film. But which one to choose for the discerning A.I. fan?

Combing through the cinematic archives, we’ve made our picks for the best A.I.-themed movies you have to see before you die. Or, at least, before the machines take over and we’re put to work in the dung mines with no time for frivolous entertainment.

Recommended Videos

Metropolis (1927)

Metropolis (1927) - Official Trailer

Artificial intelligence wasn’t formed as its own official discipline until the mid-1950s, but the first “must watch” movie on this list pre-dates this by more than a quarter century. Made by German expressionist filmmaker Fritz Lang, Metropolis is an epic science fiction film which has inspired countless other movies in the genre.

It tells the story of a dystopian near-future society in which technology has helped the gulf between rich and poor to grow unimaginably vast. The movie’s iconic Maria robot was clearly the inspiration for Star Wars’ later C-3PO. However, another fascinating aspect of the film is the way in which the high tech city is portrayed as an enormous living organism: a glimpse at the future reality of connected smart cities.

Westworld (1973)

Westworld (1973) Movie Trailer

Today, the HBO series of the same name is probably where people’s minds go when they hear the title Westworld. However, this 1973 movie — written and directed by techno-thriller master Michael Crichton — remains worth watching.

Like the HBO series, Westworld depicts a kind of dystopian Disneyland where society’s wealthiest can indulge their fantasies by interacting with robots in a Western-themed amusement park.

It’s a great high concept thriller, but what makes it interesting in the context of this list is the way it explores what happens when science and technology is used frivolously by unprincipled business-people wanting to make a quick buck. Crichton explored the same topic, with a focus on genetic engineering instead of robots, in his most famous work, Jurassic Park.

Ex Machina (2015)

Ex Machina | Official Trailer HD | A24

Ex Machina does what science fiction does best: take complex philosophical and technological ideas and give them fictitious form. Ex Machina brings a semi-Apocalypse Now vibe to proceedings. Programmer Caleb Smith is invited to the isolated home of intense and unhinged CEO Nathan Bateman, who lives miles from anyone.

Bateman reveals that he has created a robot, Ava, who has passed the Turing Test. Smith’s job is to judge whether she possesses genuine consciousness. Then things take a dark turn. A taut, capable thriller that doesn’t feel like it’s dumbing down its subject matter.

I, Robot (2004)

I, Robot - Official Trailer [HD]

Based on a story by sci-fi writer extraordinaire Isaac Asimov, I, Robot is set a few decades in the future, in a world where robots are commonplace. Will Smith plays a cop investigating the death of a robotics professor, who may have been killed by one of his creations.

Like Ex Machina, I, Robot does a good job of exploring the philosophical questions in A.I. (in this case, the conundrum of machine ethics) in a way that remains engaging as a story.

Plus, it has one of the greatest interactions regarding the thin line between humans and machines, when Smith’s character asks: “Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?” The robot responds, “Can you?” That’s a robo-mic drop right there!

The Terminator (1984)/Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The Terminator (1984) Official Trailer - Arnold Schwarzenegge Movie

“[Skynet] goes online August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m.” Okay, so that timeline might have been missed (although the Terminator movies do make clear that the future is malleable), but Skynet remains one of our most enduring reference points for A.I. run amok.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - Theatrical Trailer [HD]

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, T1 and T2 tell the story of cyborgs sent back from the future to influence an unfolding war between machines and humankind. The series went to hell after the first two James Cameron movies, but these two entries in the franchise are masterpieces. They’re both five-star classics, so we couldn’t help but put both on this list.


 

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix (1999) Official Trailer #1 - Sci-Fi Action Movie

The Matrix makes a fascinating counterpoint to the Terminator movies. It echoes the idea of machines overthrowing humanity, but with a twist. Whereas Skynet set out to destroy humanity, the machines in The Matrix instead imprison mankind and sets about harvesting their bodies for energy, while trapping them in a simulated reality.

A.I. might not be the only idea the movie is grappling with, but it’s interesting enough to warrant a place on this list.

Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner (1982) Official Trailer - Ridley Scott, Harrison Ford Movie

Set in the dystopian far future of, err, 2019, Blade Runner is a neo-noir sci-fi directed by visionary director Ridley Scott. Its protagonist, played by Harrison Ford, is a world-weary cop whose job involves hunting down synthetic humans called replicants.

At the risk of *SPOILERS* the question of whether Deckard is, himself, actually a replicant has caused many, many, many late night conversations among fans over the years. A brilliant movie which explores the “uncanny valley” divide between human and machine. Its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, is brilliant, too.

Her (2013)

Her TRAILER 1 (2013) - Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson Movie HD

Arriving two years after the debut of Siri on the iPhone 4s, Spike Jonze’s Her tells the near future story of a lonely depressed man whose life changes after he purchases a talking A.I. assistant. Named Samantha, they build up a relationship of sorts, bonding over discussions about love and life.

Unlike many of the other movies on this list, Her doesn’t ever come close to tipping over into action or hard sci-fi, but rather remains a soulful, affecting drama. It’s like a much, much better version of 1984’s Electric Dreams, an admittedly prescient movie about a love triangle involving a human and an A.I.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey - Original Trailer #1

More than half a century after it was made, 2001’s HAL 9000 remains the most famous A.I. in movie history. The film was remarkably accurate at predicting the future of everything from iPads to voice-based computer interactions. That’s not too surprising considering how many future engineers were inspired by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s vision.

HAL’s chilling delivery of the line “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” has been endlessly parodied, but his hyper-rationality in the face of astronaut Dr. David Bowman’s growing panic remains the perfect encapsulation of many people’s fears about machine intelligence.

WarGames (1983)

WarGames Official Trailer #1 - Dabney Coleman Movie (1983) HD

There are some superb movies about intelligent computers gone awry, but WarGames remains a sentimental favorite. It arrived at the time that personal computers were just starting to become a fixture in American homes, and tells the story of a kid hacker who manages to accidentally break into a military supercomputer in control of the United States’ nuclear weapons system.

While this is a kids’ movie, the questions about the usage of A.I. in warfare are increasingly relevant in today’s world of military robots and battle drones.

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Groundbreaking A.I. brain implant translates thoughts into spoken words
ibm-chip-human-brain-robot-overlord

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, have developed a brain implant which uses deep-learning artificial intelligence to transform thoughts into complete sentences. The technology could one day be used to help restore speech in patients who are unable to speak due to paralysis.

“The algorithm is a special kind of artificial neural network, inspired by work in machine translation,” Joseph Makin, one of the researchers involved in the project, told Digital Trends. “Their problem, like ours, is to transform a sequence of arbitrary length into a sequence of arbitrary length.”

Read more
A.I. could help spot telltale signs of coronavirus in lung X-rays
using ai to spot coronavirus lung damage lungs x ray

There are many pain points when it comes to the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19. One of them is how exactly to test people for it when the necessary testing kits are in short supply. One possible solution could be to allow artificial intelligence to scrutinize chest X-rays of patients’ lungs to spot signs of potential coronavirus-caused lung damage.

That’s the basis for several exciting and promising attempts to develop a neural network that could be used to give a strong indication of whether or not a patient likely has COVID-19. Researchers at Chinese medical company Infervision recently teamed up with Wuhan Tongji Hospital in China to develop a COVID-19 diagnostic tool. It is reportedly now being used as a screening tool at the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital in Rome, Italy.

Read more
Worried about bills during the coronavirus pandemic? This A.I. lawyer can help
Paying bills 1

Anyone who says they’re not worried about the future right now isn’t telling the truth. But while we’re all worried about the health implications of the COVID-19 coronavirus, for many the economic ramifications run an extremely close second. Especially for those without savings, or those in low-paid gig economy jobs, anxieties about how to pay the next bill are pretty darn scary. Even if it’s a type of scary that no Hollywood pandemic movie is ever going to touch.

Give a round of applause, then, to Joshua Browder: The 24-year-old legal-tech whiz kid behind DoNotPay, a growing arsenal of free automated A.I. tools that everyday consumers can use to do everything from disputing parking tickets to suing robocall scammers. His latest creation is tailor-made for those fretting about the impact that the coronavirus crisis is going to have on their ability to pay the next time they face demands.

Read more