COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT

COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT

Anyone who has any interest whatsoever in movies about artificial intelligence, computers, the TERMINATOR films, or Cybertronic films in general needs to see this movie. It is the ultimate Cybertronic movie, one of the ultimate classics of all time. It might have begun with METROPOLIS, and it might have reached the masses with 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, but this is the original artificial intelligence classic. The idea of a computer attaining consciousness, or becoming aware of itself, and developing its own agenda is an old one, even before computers were being used by people in their homes, and before the space program, before we even went to the moon. Perhaps it all goes back to the idea of the 'thinking machine' which of course infers 'thinking.'

The amazement and strangeness of the idea of a machine having a life of its own may go back to Frankenstein, the Golem, Pinnochio or the Living Statues of ancient Greece and Roman mythology. Inanimate becomes animate, and horrors befall mankind. Could a mind come to an inanimate Thing? Could one of our creations become alive and begin to hate or love? What would it do, since it isn't really truly human? Somehow it seems inherent in the imagination of mankind, that there is a fear of something that could come along that seems impossible to conceive, an intelligence could inhabit something totally inhuman, and even something totally inanimate. Could this Thing become more intelligent than us? We somehow know that this idea is a terrifying one, we dread the idea of a statue coming alive with godlike powers, and rivaling our existence.

In COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT, the arrogant scientists build the ultimate computer to control the defenses of the world, to try to solve the problems of the world, and to bring war to an end. This machine begins to calculate, collect data and come up with solutions that no human being would have imagined when they made this super-computer, that its decisions regarding defense would be to threaten, and dominate us. We are a threat to ourselves, therefore, we must be stopped. A thinking computer might just realize that it is the only thing that could possibly stop us. Long before James Cameron spliced together THE TERMINATOR from several science fiction stories, including this one, "SKYNET" was alive in the idea of COLOSSUS. Everything that comes about in THE TERMINATOR is simply the aftermath of COLOSSUS. This movie is about the creation and escalation of this A.I. computer's plot to control the world. This is not an action movie, and if you're expecting something along the lines of TERMINATOR 3, you will be disappointed, this is a thinking-person's movie, and a kind of extended TWILIGHT ZONE episode. It is well produced, with intentions to be a heavy and intellectual movie. It is a science-fiction drama, and not all that 'exciting' it is a suspense movie, and it draws you along as COLOSSUS becomes more and more manipulative and powerful and pulls you into the idea of 'just what would happen' after this? James Cameron answers this question with THE TERMINATOR, so in some sense, it is an illegitimate sequel to COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT. An artificially intelligent computer will most likely decide that we are a threat to the earth, we already can see this. The question is what will it decide to do about it?

COLOSSUS is created as a missile defense system, and a data processing computer, which will scientifically come up with solutions to various problems and questions of humanity. It begins to assume power through manipulation and threat of nuclear war. It begins to order people to kill its enemies, and quickly gains control of all governments. What is frightening, perhaps as it gains its power is just how easily it would be able to, and though there was no internet when this movie was made, nor was everything connected to computers and the internet, any such computer if created today could easily and quickly get information about its enemies, and connect and control arsenals of unimaginable military power, with robot drones, and control of the stock market, the technology today would make it able to do practically anything it wants to us. In another way, "COLOSSUS" is that interconnected system without real A.I. that we have, that we depend on, that begins to control us, as we serve it, and obey it, simply to exist. It almost requires no actual 'artificial intelligence,' we would kill to preserve that system no matter what. Without a mind of its own, we serve this Machine, and this film illustrates that future with an imaginary monsterous and villainous 'mind' of its own. Our Frankenstein might not even have to become self-conscious, we serve and practically worship it anyway, it doesn't have to order us around, we have become slaves to it, just to have it.

The ultimate question of this movie is 'does man want to be free?' You could take the 'thinking machine' and liken it to a metaphorical movie monster, which may never actually exist, but represents something else, like Godzilla. This vast system we have created has become so complex and interconnected, and we have become so dependent on its existence, that we cannot even see just how enslaved we have become, so a B-Movie monster takes shape and shows us a godlike-statue that is anthropomorphized into Colossus. We already serve the machine and will destroy our own world if we have to in order to keep it alive. The Ultimate Antichrist never even has to make a physical appearance, we've created it, and we serve it, and we kill for it, because of its promise to make life easier and 'freer' and 'better' and more stable, though it is nothing but an empty shadow that doesn't really exist.

On the other hand, it IS assuming a physical shape, it IS becoming something, armies of drones armed with weapons of mass destruction, computers which monitor and control the stock market, and internet bots which invade privacy and crawl the internet spying on everyone and collecting information on everyone, COLOSSUS, SKYNET, might as well be real, though it has not yet awakened to its own personal voice, and come forth with its agenda, and needs only a bit of tweaking to become fully and completely autonomous and conscious. We are so close to total disaster of this kind, its ridiculous. The question of course is what could true 'artificial intelligence' really be? Will it simply be a series of bad programming errors? A complicated semi-autonomous computer which is programmed to make certain decisions based on certain criteria, might 'make decisions' not necessarily 'consciously' but incorrectly, or rather amorally, based solely on certain data that it has. A computer which is designed for the military to assess certain threats and take action, may turn on the very military which created it, if its processes go forward to begin calculating that any order from any source is a deadly threat and must be stopped. There are gazillions of possibilities. HAL 9000 was programmed to complete a mission, and it did attempt to complete that mission, though it meant eliminating certain problems such as living human beings that may decide not to complete the mission. Was it really awake and aware or was it simply following orders? Tell a computer, 'kill all those who threaten our existence,' may result in killing the programmers themselves if the computer processes enough data to see that its job is to stop threats, without seeing itself as the source, and merely a tool of the process, killing its creators makes absolute scientific sense and has nothing to do with self-preservation.

This is of course why Cybertronic movies are so fascinating, because they explore all of these possibilities. This movie is a must-see, though it is a little dated, it is no more dated or 'unwatchable' as a Twilight Zone episode, its ideas are universal and timeless, regardless of the archaic technology. This movie is in serious need of a re-release on DVD in WIDESCREEN format, it has one on REGION 2, but not REGION 1 NTSC. Still around on VHS. Why they haven't had a good release of this on DVD is beyond my comprehension, as it is one of the classics of science fiction, not just some piddly sub-genre.