Although Colossus, as a character, is never as memorable as HAL 9000 in 2001, it still is a chilling villain that hearkens back to the more innocent-minded 1950s foray into similar territory, The Invisible Boy, even if it is as out of date as its predecessor. It is the typical supercomputer of that era, the size of a vast building, with tape machines, a synthetically tinny robotic voice (done by the incomparable voice artist Paul Frees), and a missionary zeal to fulfill its stated mission - to bring peace to mankind, by whatever means necessary.
This is not unlike the sort of benignly dictatorial peace that is offered by the alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) in The Day The Earth Stood Still. And, unlike HAL, in 2001, Colossus cannot emote through vocal inflection. Also, several of the shots that reveal the immense size and scope of the computer, hidden away under a Colorado mountain, are a direct quotation from the vast planetary-scaled machinery the Krel, in Forbidden Planet, constructed. And the supercomputer Skynet, from The Terminator series, is a direct descendant of Colossus, even if the earlier film is much more judicious in its showing of death and carnage, therefore more suspenseful, relying almost totally on the reaction shots of horror from its human characters.
The film also trusts its audience, for by film’s end, when the supercomputer has outwitted the humans that frantically try to undo it, we are never told how it did so. This is unlike many films which blatantly tip off the way something to be kept ‘secret’, diegetically, is learnt. Also, Colossus displays a logic that is without emotion. When it discovers the first of two major sabotage attempts it order the two scientists responsible to be executed, lest it will nuke major cities. Then, after the scientists are shot dead, Colossus commands that their corpses be left in its view, then cremated.
But, it is not a villain acting out of personal gain, it seems. Colossus displays a cold rationality, until the film’s end, where it announces to the world its intent on subjugating humanity into a forced peace. Then, it seems the computer has progressed beyond mere sentience and ego and into full blown hubris - if not a God Complex, declaring that, in time, the world, and its maker, Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) will come to not only love and respect Colossus, but be in awe of it.
Yet, all seemingly starts out wonderfully, with the cerebral Forbin celebrated as a genius who has created the secret supercomputer that will protect the United States from a nuclear attack with flawless precision. But, upon its announcement to the world, the Soviet Union announces it has its own supercomputer, Guardian. Colossus, however, has detected this before the announcement by stating simply, ‘There is another system’ - a sly comment on the Capitalism-Communism debate.
Article comments
1 - Ray Ellis
You are kidding, aren't you?
2 - Dan Schneider
No. More specifics?