Dystopian Futures: Colossus: The Forbin Project Review

Artificial Intelligence won't be like how it is in the films. It doesn't have a spirit. Expecting a machine to think like a person is like expecting a fighter jet to fly without a pilot. Nice idea for fiction, but it's only that, Fiction.

Fantastic movie, just seen it...

It's one of my favorite movies. I rewatch it quite often.

Good anayslsis

I did read the novels. This one of those rare occasions where the movie is better.

I have this movie. I saw this when I was a kid. Now that we have a.I this could be a possibility in the future. Right now we rely on internet, GPS, computers to do our calculations, we've grown dependent on technology and computers, AI is new and we might depend on it to do everything for us. The writer of this movie saw a pre-determination before AI was invented. We have to be cautious and depend on her own judgment. And not let computers run our life.

The voice of Colossus is so creepy!
I couldn't help but listen to what it had to say.
Thank you for your review :)

One of my favorite movies. I’ve read all three books. I didn’t think they were very good.

When I first saw this movie, I had the worst time trying to understand the dialogue because I am very hard of hearing. I bought the DVD version a year ago and was very disappointed with it because there were no closed captions in the DVD. I read the books, and extrapolated the dialogue from the lip reading of the characters. I wish Universal studios would KINDLY turn out a DVD with subtitles or Closed Captions of the film PLEASE...!!!!
And in the future sequels of this series to have a care for the Deaf and Hard of hearing communities...

Colossus is not really a dystopia... as the two AIs who take over the world really finally bring peace for humanity. Sure, at the price of an AI dictatorship, but if all humans have to do is to not start wars with each other anymore to not get nuked by the AIs, then I'd say things could be much worse. Possibly are much worse today.

Man, so many good ideas in the 70's and they are old school too! Is compliance to a dictatorship, even if it meant longevity and survival, worth while? Would you allow your life to be led by an entity that could be malevolent or benevolent provided you remained ignorant and compliant? Depending on your view, its a question since humans tasted the forbidden fruit but two of the memorable quotes that spring to my mind about the issue come from the era:

"The god of machine-logic was overthrown by the masses and a new concept was raised. Man may not be replaced." - Dune. (1965)

"On an historic day, which is commemorated by my species and fully documented in the Sacred Scrolls, there came Aldo. He did not grunt. He articulated. He spoke a word which had been spoken to him time without number by humans. He said, 'No'." - Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

All hail world control, I for one would prefer our robot overlords.
Maybe they would leave something left.

Interesting similarities to Mission Impossible 7.

I was about 12 or 13 years old when I saw this movie late one night. It scared the life out of me because even back in 1973 I thought this could be possible. (Little did I know I'd be a computer tech and AI has become a reality. I read the book for the first time in the 1980's. Of the 3 this one was the sanest. The other two were kind of out there.

This was a really good film based on a great novel by British author Dennis Feltham Jones (writing as D. F. Jones). It was almost a Michael Crichton type story before Crichton began his dystopian sci-fi trends. There were also two more sequels: The Fall of Colossus (1974) followed by Colossus and the Crab written in 1977.

Oddly enough, this has been pulled from every streaming service available

I saw this when it first came out and have reviewed it seveal time since then. I would not say that the computer became self aware or turned on its creators so much as it progmatically fulfilled its designed function of world peace. I got the ebook, Colossus, last week and have just started it. It will be interesting to see what insight that adds to the authors intent in the original. I did not know about the two sequels but look forward to reading those as well. Interesting summary - thank you.

Read the trilogy!!

Love this movie. "What a crafty guy he is." This is key to the movie. I expanded on this in my channel's take on Colossus which involves Voluntary Celibacy.

Poor Forbin. In the novels, he becomes an alcoholic wreck, crushed under the burden of unleashing Colossus on the world.

For me the line "Never" is man's defiance against the machine. In other words, Colossus may have won this round, but man will always fight the machine, even if it's a fruitless battle, there will "NEVER" be 100% compliance. Survival isn't enough, man needs to be free, man will always fight, it might take him awhile before he is willing to fight, but man will fight.

Am I the only person who watched this movie. And was actually cheering for the guardian colossus global control system to win? I must have been. Every other person seems to state that the concept of a global world of peace and prosperity under the control of an artificial system is evil. But is it really so evil? Is a world without war or Conflict. A world without starvation. A world where everybody can be fed well, live well and live up to their best Purpose. Regardless of what that might be.

Apparently i'm the only person who wants to have heaven on earth. That's what he was offering us. Me I'll gladly take it and be his finest officer.

All praise The guardian colossus..

First of all, it's funny how the first disaster movie of the '70s predicted Skynet. Also when Colosis asked a guy how often he needed a woman he said 4 times a week, wouldn't that have shamed Colosis into only communicating with his Russian girlfriend counterpart 4 times a week because if a human can do it why can't a computer

I'm quite familiar with this movie and the reviewer made several comments that suggests he hasn't actually seen it...

A disturbing thing about this movie: in 2024, it is not available on any streaming services. . . .
Now, it may be that a 53-yo movie might be a big hit on a streaming service.
Or is its message about sinister AI too uncomfortable for the world of 2024?

This wasn’t just the inspiration for The Terminator series, but also KOMPLEX in Bucky O’Hare.

Awesome movie!

on vimeo.... besides .this movie makes zero sense I have worked in the computer industry for 30 plus years and anyone that has knows you need to be able to reboot and power off a computer now and then. ... no computer scientist would EVER build a machine without a off switch.......never happen.....the second Colossus started to act up, someone would reboot it's ass.

this movie has had some kind of re-imagining which makes sense but when two chatbots start talking it normally will escalate depending on the developers intention for the AI.

In the words of the immortal Dr. Leonard McCoy: "Fantastic machine, ...... no off-switch."

For me, the true horror of this film was the possibility that Colossus might be right.

How can I watch it? Can’t find it anywhere.

Wargames

I've read the other two books in the trilogy. Don't bother. To me, he jumped the shark. But I LOVE Colossus: The Forbin Project.

What is that artwork?

Colossus is HAL 9000 with nuclear weapons.

Believable: How Colossus takes over (perfect). Unbelievable: They left it in charge of the nukes with no kill switch, no questions asked.

Thanks fore the review Dave. It Sounds Good, I'll check it out soon.
You should check out Demon Seed, a similar type of movie from the 70's that not only was it way ahead of it's time, again serves as a warning, especially with how similar things are now.

I saw this on TV about 2 years after it came out! It really creeped me out!!
I was 14 in 1972!!

Ok fine where can I find a good copy of it

I'D LOVE COLOUSUS TO RULE THE WORLD.
NO WARS
NO EVIL SCUMBAGS WORKING IN GOVT
HE CAN CREATE NEW TECH
ALL HAIL COLOSSUS.
THAT IS NO JOKE.
a loving sky net.

SKYNET

Did anyone think ... that "Colossus" was from the self-conscious of Forbin, and he was really angry at himself?, By saying "NEVER!" was Colossus exact prediction , Forbin' emotion of PRIDE, which is one of the 7 deadly sins. i also believe the ending is ambiguous. It isn't control, really, it is merely a machine running humanity with advanced computing to the point of anticipating every move to destroy it. Do we need Colossus? Do we need AI? No.

We need mutually beneficial cooperation without ending the individual sovreingty of nations. The issue again, comes to greed and power, and to that end, Colossus was absolutely correct. Colossus is a precautionary tale of mankind gently ending its own fault/weakness by its OWN INTELLECT. It is the New World Order achieved. By man's own intellect.

Why has it been removed from all streaming services?

I was in film school at Loyola Marymount University in the mid-1970s. One of our teachers was Gene Polito, the cinematographer of this film. He showed us the film in class one evening and asked us to pay attention to see if anything was unusual. We all looked to see if it had something to do with the lighting. He revealed that Erik Braeden (who portrayed Forbin) had to dub his own voice for the entire film because he originally spoke with a German accent. Test audiences did not like that, so he went with an American accent.

I first saw this movie ten years ago and by the end of it, it could 1000% be a pre-equal to the Matrix. The robot factories and all at the end. This is one of my all-time favorite movies

When I saw this in 1970 as a kid I thought it was up there with The Day the Earth Stood Still on the coolness factor. Even at 11 years old I also thought it kind of stupid that they didn't have a kill switch. This is why automatic trains still have drivers.

Wizard of Oz, the man behind the curtain is pushing all the buttons; AI is a fallacy being sold to you it will never be sentient.