10 Coolest Sci-Fi Movie Robots

Robots have been a staple of sci-fi movies from the very beginning. From the black-and-white silent era to the digital age, automatons have been walking, rolling, and floating across the silver screen, providing countless hours of entertainment for moviegoers everywhere. Robots can be villains, comic sidekicks, and occasionally even heroes. We scoured the Internet to find the very best mechanical humanoids we could, but it wasn’t easy. Hollywood loves robots so much that making a list of just 10 was almost impossible. To make things slightly easier, we stuck to full robots. No half-human, half-machine hybrids.

Anyone hoping to see Darth Vader or RoboCop on this list will have to wait for us to write a list of the “10 Coolest Sci-Fi Movie Cyborgs.” Until then, enjoy our ranking of the 10 coolest robots in sci-fi cinema.

10) Good Robot Bill and Ted — Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

The second Bill & Ted movie begins with evil robot versions of Bill and Ted showing up at the duo’s door and promptly murdering them. The underrated sequel only gets weirder from there. Luckily, while on tour through Heaven, Bill and Ted find a couple of aliens willing to build them a pair of good robots to defeat the bad ones. Using only off-the-shelf parts from an electronics store, the aliens manage to construct two robots that look, well, like they were thrown together from off-the-shelf parts from an electronic store.

While they certainly aren’t the prettiest robots on the list, Good Robot Bill and Good Robot Ted more than make up for it with plucky charm and a killer uppercut.

9) Bishop — Aliens

Lt. Ellen Ripley’s first run-in with an android almost resulted in death. Ash was under secret orders in Alien to bring a live xenomorph back to Earth with instructions to kill any crew members who got in his way. So it’s understandable that when Ripley finds out in Aliens that she is going on a mission with another android, she’s immediately suspicious. Thankfully, Bishop is nothing like his predecessor. Brave, helpful, and strangely empathetic, Bishop is everything anyone could ask for in an artificial human.

Even after being ripped in two by the alien queen, Bishop still manages to save Newt from being sucked out of an open airlock. If that’s not enough to earn a spot on this list, we don’t know what is.

8) Robby the Robot — Forbidden Planet

Created for the mostly forgotten ’50s sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot looks like what you’d see if someone told you to close your eyes and picture an old-timey robot. Even if you don’t recognize the name Robby the Robot, you’ve definitely seen him around. That’s because the iconic robot has made over 30 appearances in various movies, TV shows, and even commercials. From ’60s television staples like The Twilight Zone and The Addams Family to more modern films like Gremlins and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Robby has earned a reputation as the hardest-working robot in show business and was even inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004.

7) Johnny 5 — Short Circuit

Johnny 5 has one thing that sets him apart from all the other robots on this list: he’s alive. No. 5 was created as a weapon by the United States military. One day, in a freak accident, No. 5 is struck by lightning and gains sentience as a result. Worried that the military will “disassemble” him if he tells them he no longer wants to be a weapon, Johnny sets off on his own to explore his newfound autonomy and learn as much as he can about the world around him.

6) The Iron Giant — The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is proof that people can be anything they want, regardless of their origins. Created by some unknown extraterrestrial source, the Giant crash lands on Earth armed with enough weaponry to obliterate the planet twice over. Instead of doing that, though, he befriends a kid and becomes a huge comic book nerd. Much like his favorite superhero, Superman, the Iron Giant comes to Earth with the capacity to destroy it and ends up saving it instead.

From living weapon to hero, the Iron Giant isn’t just a cool sci-fi movie robot but an inspiration for people — and robots — everywhere.

5) Maschinenmensch — Metropolis

The Maschinenmensch is considered by many to be the first movie robot ever. With a timeless design that inspired several other sci-fi robots, including C-3PO, the Mashinemensch has been around for almost a century and still looks amazing. Much like with Robby, you may not recognize this robot by its proper name, but you’ve definitely seen it. Countless movies have paid homage to the Maschinenmensch, either by using the design as inspiration or just straight-up ripping it off. However, none of those other versions can hold a candle to the original. Some classics just can’t be improved upon.

4) T-800 — The Terminator

This list is for cool robots, and it doesn’t get much cooler than a leather-jacket-wearing, motorcycle-riding, shotgun-carrying robot that spouts one-liners. What can we say about the T-800 that hasn’t already been said before? He’s a character so badass that he made the leap from villain to hero just because fans loved him so much. The T-1000 might be more advanced, but the good old T-800 will always be the coolest robot in the Terminator franchise, hands down.

While the last three movies to feature the T-800 have been less than stellar, his first two outings are so good that the Terminator will forever be one of pop culture’s favorite sci-fi movie robots.

3) Optimus Prime — Transformers

The Transformers didn’t get their start in movies but rather on TV — or, if you want to get really technical, on toy shelves. Regardless of their origin, the franchise found its biggest success on the big screen, thanks in no small part to Optimus Prime. A gang of techno-organic shapeshifting aliens is only as good as their leader, and Optimus Prime is one heck of a leader. Over the course of seven live-action movies and two theatrically released animated films, Optimus has proven himself over and over again. Prime is wise, noble, and not afraid to lay the smackdown when there are no other options.

If we had to pick one movie that best showcases what makes Optimus Prime not only one of the coolest Transformers but also one of the coolest movie robots, period, it would have to be Transformers: The Movie. The final battle to the death between Optimus Prime and Megatron is one of the most brutal in the series — even more impressive considering its a cartoon!

2) Wall-E — Wall-E

There’s a reason Wall-E is the only Pixar film in the Criterion Collection. The tale of a scrappy, trash-compacting robot on a fruitless crusade to clean up a wasteland future version of Earth is a darn near perfect film. Wall-E himself is a big part of why Wall-E the movie works. Somehow, the wizards at Pixar managed to take a machine crafted from unfeeling metal and plastic and imbue it with more emotion and grace than most humans.

Truth be told, Wall-E is actually kind of a dork, but that’s actually what makes him cool. He’s so earnest that you can’t help but love him and that’s why he gets the second-to-last spot on our list.

1) R2-D2 — Star Wars

Look, we could have filled this whole list with just droids, but we decided to be fair and limit the number of Star Wars entries to one. With only room for one droid on the list, it was pretty obvious who we had to choose. R2-D2 is arguably the most important character in the entire Skywalker Saga. Anakin and Obi-Wan, along with Han, Luke, and Leia, would have died a hundred times over if not for the ingenuity of R2-D2. He’s like the little droid that could. Computer hacking, piloting, combat — R2 can do it all. He’s the Swiss Army Knife of sci-fi movie robots, with a gadget for every obstacle you can think of.

While we felt bad separating R2-D2 from his BFF C-3PO, we had to give everyone’s favorite astromech droid a chance to shine on his own. Congratulations, R2-D2, you are officially the coolest sci-fi movie robot ever.

Did we miss your favorite movie robot? Let us know in the comments!