He was also voiced in real-time by his puppeteer, the director believing that it provided for a more realistic interaction between the robot and the other actors than putting in his voice in post-production, although a few of his lines were re-dubbed later. Each joint in the suit had a separate sensor, allowing the puppeteer's arm and hand movements to be transferred directly to the machine. Most of the arm movements of Number 5 were controlled by a 'telemetry suit', carried on the puppeteer's upper torso. John Badham named Eric 'the most valuable player' on the film. Mead's design was greatly influenced by the sketches of Eric Allard, the Robotics Supervisor credited for 'realizing' the robots. Number 5 was designed by Syd Mead, the 'visual futurist' famous for his work on Blade Runner and Tron. Almost everything else in the film was relatively inexpensive, allowing them to allocate as much money as they needed for the robot character. Studying other films with a prominent robot cast (like the Star Wars series) for inspiration, they decided to question human reactions to a 'living' robot, on the premise that no one would initially believe its sentience.Īccording to the commentary in the DVD, Number 5 was the most expensive part of the film, requiring several different versions to be made for different sequences.

This film was conceived after the producers distributed an educational video about a robot to various colleges. Original Number 5 robot from the first Short Circuit film. As they drive off, Number 5 asserts that his name should now be 'Johnny 5' based on the El DeBarge song ' Who's Johnny' which had been playing on the van's radio. Crosby decides to take Number 5 to his father's secluded Montana ranch where there will be much 'input' for the robot, and Stephanie agrees to come with them.

Howard is dismayed over the loss of his research and dismisses Skroeder for insubordination.Ĭrosby and Stephanie are surprised to discover that Number 5 had hidden himself under the van, having assembled a decoy of himself from spare parts to confuse the warmongers. Stephanie is devastated as Skroeder's men scrounge the remains of Number 5 as trophies, prompting Crosby to resign from NOVA and drive away with Stephanie in the NOVA van. To protect his friends, Number 5 leads the Army away and appears to be destroyed by a helicopter missile. They find that Skroeder has called in the United States Army to capture Number 5, and on his orders, restrain Crosby and Stephanie so he can open fire. Number 5 “captures” Crosby, takes him back to Stephanie and is able to convince Crosby of his sentience. Number 5 is able to outwit the other robots, reprograms them to act like The Three Stooges, and escapes. prototypes to recapture Number 5 by force, ignoring Crosby's concerns. Howard instead sends their security chief Captain Skroeder and three other S.A.I.N.T. During transport, Number 5 is able to reactivate himself and remove the tracking device, and flees back to Stephanie.īecause of these unusual actions, Crosby tries to convince Howard that something has changed with Number 5's programming and that they should take care not to damage it in their recovery efforts so that he can examine them later. However, NOVA uses a tracking device on Number 5 to corner him and deactivate the robot for return to the facility. While waiting for NOVA to arrive, Number 5 learns about death when he accidentally crushes a grasshopper, and concludes that if NOVA disassembles him, he will die, and escapes in Stephanie's truck. Howard Marner, orders Crosby and Ben to recover him, so they can disassemble and rebuild him. She eventually discovers that Number 5 was built by NOVA, and contacts them about the lost robot. Stephanie continues to help the curious Number 5 robot learn about the world. She takes the robot into her home, where she provides him with 'input' in the form of visual and verbal stimuli, allowing the robot to improve its language skills, and eventually names itself 'Number 5', being the fifth prototype produced. The robot finds itself in Astoria, Oregon, and is found by Stephanie Speck, an animal care-giver, who mistakes him for an alien. This scrambles its programming and makes it sentient. Number 5, is struck by lightning arcing through the lab's power grid. After a live demonstration for the military, one of the units, S.A.I.N.T. military to use in Cold War operations, though Crosby and Ben would rather seek peaceful applications of the robots. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) for the U.S. NOVA Laboratory robotics experts Newton Crosby and Ben Jabituya developed several prototype robots called S.A.I.N.T.

Film about phonebox