The Big Picture HAL 9000 is one of the scariest robots in cinema, racking up a body count without a body. Of course, his film 2001: A Space Odyssey holds an ultimately optimistic view of humanity’s future, where transcendence awaits upon the mastery of our technological offspring. Colossus: The Forbin Project, released two years later, is the HAL 9000 sequence writ large, and with a far darker outcome.
Our first glimpse of the titular Colossus comes early in the film when Dr. Forbin is securing the massive facility housing the computer. It’s a brutalist space, reminiscent of a prison, where every cell on each floor is another component of the machine. Colossus is then embodied in remote terminals, chiefly the readout screens at Forbin’s laboratory. If it’s said to have a face, it’s these multiple displays, which scroll text across with a horrible chugging sound.
Like a child on the edge of a temper tantrum, Colossus becomes increasingly demanding and holds the world hostage for its petty desires. In a chilling scene right out of a ‘70s spy thriller, Dr. Forbin rendezvouses with his Soviet counterpart in Rome to discuss next steps when the pair are suddenly ambushed. Americans pull Dr. Forbin away as if from a trap, and he watches from beneath the whirring blades of a helicopter as the Soviet scientist is gunned down by his own countrymen.
The Horror of the ‘Colossus’ AI is Still Relevant Today In an early scene, the president half-jokingly refers to Dr. Forbin as the father of Colossus, and however twisted, this is very much the relationship that emerges: a human bond, vulnerable to human flaws. Dr. Forbin notes that Colossus was designed to be an extension of his will as a rational-minded scientist, but that perhaps it’s modeled his human traits, too. Dr.
By tapping into fears of the moment in 1970, Colossus: The Forbin Project is a time capsule from a historical moment of raw humanity. The film is a cautionary tale and bristles with terrible purpose. In the end, two different attempts to stop Colossus fail — a sabotage of missiles and an overload of the system. The first effort is cut short when a mushroom cloud scorches the horizon, and the second when American agents take the would-be assassin-scientists outside for execution.
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