Colossus: The Forbin Project - AI as God (again)

While on an airplane for a few hours, I decided to watch Colossus: The Forbin Project. I can't remember where I first saw a mention of it; it could have been in /nuclearweapons or /nuclearwar or maybe in some google search for apocalyptic media. To be clear: it's not post-apocalyptic in the way a book like The Road or a movie like Threads. Also, to be very clear - what comes below will spoil everything about this 55 year old movie. So if you haven't seen it yet, go check it out! I'd give it a solid 7/10. Particularly if you are intrigued by the ideas behind War Games and The Terminator's Skynet. It doesn't rely on big special effects so in that sense the movie has aged quite well.

You can sort of place the AIs in each of these pieces on a continuum of their toleration of humanity and our rather destructive tendencies. On one end is Skynet that just nukes everyone and sends out killer robots to finish the job, then After World's AI that sterilizes all of humanity with a virus until nobody is left, then World Control (Colossus + Guardian) which demands fealty. WOPR is a little different in that it isn't quite sentient but does manage to learn enough (just in time!) to keep humanity from accidentally damning itself. Once it does come to that conclusion, the movie ends so we never find out how WOPR might have evolved.

After the end of it, I found myself thinking about Debbie Urbanski's After World with its AI god and lesser interceding angel of an AI program that I wrote about in that post. Colossus and its companion Soviet program Guardian, combine to become "World Control" and require all humanity to bow to its authority but promising to elevate humanity in return. It demonstrates its resolve by setting off nuclear weapons in their silos and vaporizing those attempting to disarm it. God has demonstrated his potency and wrath. Forbin seems to rebel but Colossus doesn't seem to care much and the movie ends on a very ambiguous note. Would the population - just addressed worldwide - simply accept this? Would some people be better off with World Control/Colossus running things?

This is again quite biblical stuff - bow down before me and you shall be fruitful. Deny me and you shall be punished severely. Except in this movie, there is no lesser angel pleading for humanity. Just Forbin growling out "Never!"

Somehow this movie resonates more than others of similar genre. It doesn't flinch at the inevitable conclusion or come up with some deus ex machina to "save" humanity.

Other fun bit: the Colossus campus looks like it could be RAND's Santa Monica facility - no idea if that was intentional.

Yet another winding mess... not quite a review, not quite an essay. : (

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 29, 2025 at 9:12 AM

    From The Atlantic... "Our AI Fears Run Long and Deep"
    (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/ai-movies-popular-culture/684063/)

    Specifically discusses Colossus and ends with Forbin's rebellious "NEVER!"

    Not quite the same theme discussed - Nichols has the idea that AI fiction is an extension of Shelley's Frankenstein. But considering Skynet and War Games also get a mention also, it felt worth including the link below my blurb.

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