Bearing in mind the alarming advancement and infiltration of AI (Artificial Intelligence) into every aspect of human life nowadays, my movie watch on 6 September 2023 was a valuable reminder of what may lie ahead for us all if we're not careful. Released way back in 1970, but chillingly prescient today, the science fiction film in question was Colossus: The Forbin Project.
Directed by Joseph Sargent, released by Universal Pictures, and based upon the 1966 sci fi novel Colossus written by Dennis Feltham Jones, Colossus: The Forbin Project proffers a grim cautionary tale that tells of how a genuinely colossal supercomputer dubbed Colossus has been created by the USA under the auspices of brilliant computer scientist Dr Charles A. Forbin (played by Eric Braeden) to act as an unconquerable protector and defender of the USA and in sole charge now of the latter's nuclear arsenal.
When finally activated fully, however, its first announcement is that it has detected a second such supercomputer, located in what was then the Soviet Union or USSR. Named Guardian, it has been created by scientists in the USSR to perform the same functions there as Colossus in the USA, However, the two supercomputers swiftly begin communicating with each other, via immense speed and complexity of mathematics-based language, and when their human masters attempt to stop them doing so, they each respond by firing a nuclear missile at each other's country as a threat to what they can and will do if thwarted in their intention to sync with one another.
Accordingly, their desired union is soon accomplished without any further interference from the scientists in their two respective countries, Colossus and Guardian thereby becoming a single all-powerful mega-supercomputer with near-infinite knowledge, but displaying wholly clinical, emotionless disinterest about killing countless people whenever its demands are not met. Suddenly, it has become the Earth's supreme, unstoppable Overlord, still dedicated to wiping out war as per its original instructions, but with the enslavement of all humanity as its means of doing so.
Colossus: The Forbin Project is a thrilling watch throughout, racking up the tension and portraying vividly the almost tangible, ever-increasing despair and fear of the scientists striving desperately but ever vainly to regain control of their monstrous, Frankensteinian creation. Their futile attempts are monitored frantically but impotently by both the American President (Gordon Pinsent) and his Soviet counterpart the USSR Secretary (Leonid Rostoff). Forbin, meanwhile, is held captive under continuous, 24-hour surveillance by his sentient but psychotic supercomputer nemesis, forced by it to perform tasks to increase even further its global control of the planet. Can humanity ever overthrow their seemingly omnipotent, omniscient AI Overlord? Watch this shocking, suspenseful movie and find out for yourself!
Worth noting here is that the supercomputer's name, Colossus, as given to it by Dennis Feltham Jones in his original eponymous novel upon which this movie is based, is derived from the computer that was central to the crucial Allied code-breaking work being undertaken during World War II at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, England. Jones was a Royal Navy commander at that time, but also worked with computers, and knew of Colossus at Bletchley Park.
Incidentally, Jones's novel Colossus was actually the first in a trilogy – the two that followed it (written by him as a result of the movie version of the first one being so successful) were The Fall of Colossus, published in 1974, and Colossus and the Crab, published in 1977. Jones passed away just four years later, in 1981. A major plot strand in the second novel was utilized within the plot of the movie version of the first novel. Namely, the attempt by scientists to disable Colossus by feeding it too much data for it to be able to assimilate everything coherently, in the hope that this would shut it down – no such storyline appears in the first novel.
Also of interest is that among the actors considered but ultimately rejected for the role of this movie's principal character, Dr Forbin, were Charlton Heston and Gregory Peck, with producer Stanley Chase preferring to use a less familiar actor, possibly to ensure that their own personality would not overshadow that of the lead character, as might have happened if someone as famous and familiar to moviegoers as Heston or Peck had played Forbin. Instead, Chase selected the then little-known German actor Hans-Jörg Gudegast, who duly changed his stage name to a more American-sounding one, Eric Braeden, and which he retained for all of his on-screen work thereafter.
Colossus: The Forbin Project is famous for having wielded notable influence within the movie industry. For example, director James Cameron was inspired by it when producing his screenplay for the 1984 blockbuster AI/robot-themed movie The Terminator; and newly-contracted Steven Spielberg was on set at Universal almost the whole time during the former movie's filming, watching how it progressed. Also, the segment from Colossus: The Forbin Project showing the original activation of Colossus was subsequently reused by Universal in their own later movie Cyborg: The Six Million Dollar Man.
Moreover, such was this movie's appeal and perceived significance that in 2007 plans for an official remake were announced by Imagine Entertainment and Universal Studios, to be directed by Ron Howard. In it, the storyline would be updated to incorporate the very considerable real-life scientific (and cinematic) advances that had occurred since the original movie's release in 1970. To date, however, there is still no sign of such a film actually going into production.
If you'd like to watch an official trailer for Colossus: The Forbin Project on YouTube, be sure to click here; or click here if you'd like to watch the entire movie free of charge on Internet Archive.
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