Short Circuit 1986 2 ½ Sweet Pickles
The 80’s had a lot of themes, but some of the major movie themes were war with the Soviet Union, artificial intelligence, and the dangers of technology. This movie encompassed all, making for both a light-hearted and cheesy ride.
Our movie opens with US leaders viewing and celebrating the innovation and excitement of technology at it’s finest, and what hopes to be the beginning of an exciting adventure in artificial intelligence. Five robots, all designed by S.A.I.N.T (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) to operate and perform to the programmer’s specifications, are the technology in question. Things take an interesting turn when one of the robots is struck by lightning, scrambling the programming and it escapes, and not only that, seems to reprogram itself. They lose track of it, which causes no end of anxiety, and the government pulls in creator Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenburg) and his eccentric partner Ben to aid in the search.
Number 5, as the robot is known, ends up at the house of Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), a crazy but sincere animal savior who isn’t known for the soundness of her life choices. Number 5 comes into her life, at first terrifying and frustrating her, but eventually she recognizes beyond belief that he seems to be alive. The government is eager to get him back, and the tracker they embedded him with leads them to Stephanie’s house, but he evades their capture by quickly reading a driver manual and taking off in Stephanie’s food truck. He adapts, grows, and becomes more relational through the input he takes in, becoming more and more “alive”.
The rest of the movie is a journey of Stephanie defending and trying to convince Newton and the others of Number 5 and his ability to relate, with plenty of crazy corniness to carry it along. The government is not convinced, and they destroy him in spite of what both Newton and Stephanie share. Number 5, however, is a smart robot, and he fakes his own destruction and rides off to a new life with his new family.
