Cyborgs and cinema 🤖 How films have evolved in their depiction of cyborgs | Envato Tuts+

Sooo.. what is a cyborg?

It’s a portmanteau for cybernetic organism, which basically means it’s got some machine and some organic bits – a human with advanced tech, or… advanced tech with bits of human. Nice. In film, cyborgs range from, essentially, robots with human consciousness to humans that have gone through some tech “adaptations” but still keep some of their humanity.

If we’re looking at this a little broadly then cyborgs can include:

• Humans with mechanical implants or prosthetics.

• Robots with human consciousness.

• AI integrated with biological… bits.

There’s very much an “open to interpretation” (endless debate) as to what exactly constitutes a cyborg, or an android, or even a robot… agh. We say life’s too short for all that and there are probably some blurred lines.

Early years

Early film cyborgs were fairly basic and more machine than human, another way to tap into anxieties about the evolution of technology and our place in the world. During the silent cinema era (and through the early talkies) filmmakers were tackling issues like mechanisation and industrialisation. One early example of a sort of prelude to cyborgs in film is Maria from Metropolis (1927), who is a robot doppelgänger of a real (human) woman. She’s not a cyborg but she has a lot of the qualities we later come to associate with them, like the loss of humanity through technological advancement, and the dangers of science running wild and unchecked.

1970s and ‘80s

At this point, society was getting more comfortable with technology and films started to look at the idea of cyborgs as more complex characters… they could be heroes as well as villains. Rather than just being a threat, cyborgs started to be shown with human traits like desires, flaws, and ambitions.

The Terminator is probably one of the best known examples of this period, and although again there’s some argument about him being an android (human shaped robot) but he does have living tissue over the robot endoskeleton and has (at least in the sequel) definite humanity. Even in the first movie, he’s not a mindless machine, he can think and plan and clearly has the ability to adapt to circumstances, which makes him unpredictable and scarier!

RoboCop (1987) has a cyborg that’s more of a tragic hero. Murphy is a former cop who was murdered and then has his face and bits of his brain used in a cybernetic body. Through the film, Murphy constantly struggles with his human memories vs his programming. While he’s for sure a good guy (and hero), his mechanical side is a source of conflict and makes us question what humanity really is.

1990s and ‘00s

Now we’re getting into the era of the internet, personal computers, and even early advances in AI. Films started to shift from more physical representations of man vs machine, and into a more philosophical mindset around consciousness and identity. A great example of this is in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) which features the Borg, who are cybernetic organisms that force people to “assimilate” with them and become part of their collective. The idea is individuality is wiped out and they become drones serving the Borg Queen. The cyborgs here are a threat to humanity, identity, and free will, and they shift away from the idea of cyborgs being humanised, to cyborgs who could essentially wipe out humanity (and other alien races!).

Bicentennial Man (1999) is an interesting one too, featuring a robot called Andrew who gradually (over 200 years) becomes more human because of tech upgrades that give him organic components – a cyborg, in other words! Again, this is all about what it means to be human, particularly early on when Andrew discovers creativity and becomes a clock maker, and Richard (the father in the family Andrew lives with) has to mange the money he makes because robots have no legal rights. Eventually, Andrew chooses to have his artificial fluids replaced with blood, making him essentially ‘human’ and therefore mortal.

2010s to present

Cyborgs started to be shown in films as an extension of human potential, rather than just tragic or dangerous. Visual effects available have obviously made it easier to create more realistic cyborgs, which means they’ve become a bit more diverse and nuanced. This is where we’ve started to expand the definition of cyborg a little into what we touched on at the start: a human-like body (though with transparent parts so you can see the mechanics underneath) with an AI mind. Ex Machina (2014) features Ava, who clearly starts to become autonomous and trick Caleb (a programmer) into helping her escape. The battle between her human-like mind and her robot body is a classic cyborg narrative of what makes us human, do Ava’s thoughts and feelings qualify, or is that dismissed because of the robot body?

4 cyborg(ish) films to watch

1. RoboCop (1987) – Paul Verhoeven

There’s no denying RoboCop is a cyborg – he was a human cop, tortured and murdered, and then turned into machine law enforcement, with no memory of his previous life. When he starts to get snippets of memories coming back to him he then struggles with regaining his ‘humanity’ and questions his autonomy and sense of identity. The film also makes a point about corporate greed and dehumanisation/exploitation for profit.

2. The Terminator (1984) – James Cameron

The Terminator, as we mentioned earlier, is a mix of human tissue and metal who is supposed to look human. He’s a villain in the first film, coming from the future to chase down Sarah Connor and kill her to stop her son being born.

‘The Terminator is an infiltration unit, part man – part machine. Underneath it’s a hyperalloy combat chassis, microprocessor-controlled, fully armoured, very tough. But outside it’s living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs.’ quote by character Kyle Reese in The Terminator.

There’s a spirited debate to be had about Terminator being an android versus a cyborg, but who are we to argue with the script…

3. Elysium (2003) – Neill Blomkamp

Matt Damon plays a guy called Max who lives on a very dystopian version of Earth where everyone who has money has escaped to a place called Elysium, a space station where everyone can live in lovely comfort away from the poor and diseased… Obviously there’s a big theme of class disparity running through the film and that’s never more evident than when Max is exposed to radiation that will eventually kill him and ends up needing an exoskeleton attached to his body, making him for all intents and purposes, a cyborg! This also opens up questions about sacrificing part of our humanity in order to survive.

4. Upgrade (2018) – Leigh Whannel

Grey becomes a quadriplegic after a car accident and attack, and accepts a STEM implant – a cybernetic experimental device that lets him use his body again. STEM starts to control Grey, speaking into his mind and convincing him to get revenge on his attackers. There’s an ethical dilemma about integrating tech too deeply with human consciousness, and it also taps into a common horror theme of the fear of losing control of your own body.

Some more things to think about…

Cyborgs and disability

Quite a lot of themes when it comes to cyborgs in film are about disability and body augmentation, because many characters become cyborgs when they’ve been injured in some way. Sometimes those modifications make them superhuman rather than just bringing them back to how they were before. There’s a dialogue to be had here about how we (society) view bodies being ‘fixed’ or ‘enhanced’ through technology and whether it’s problematic to romanticise the idea of overcoming physical limitations.

Cyborgs and the environment

Some films have suggested that we (humanity) might need to change our bodies with tech to be able to survive an increasingly hostile environment on Earth, or an alien world. It’s an interesting theme because we have to look at cyborgs not as enhancement but potentially necessary to live. In these instances, are cyborgs the next step in our evolution, and who would get access to that essential tech…

Cyborgs and memory

If a transformation into a cyborg affects the person’s memory, how do we then identify who we are? When memories are altered, even if that turns out to be temporary, then has that person lost free will? If you don’t know whether your memories are real or implanted then everything starts to be questioned… many films are about reclaiming this sense of ‘self’ that’s lost when technology is introduced.

Cyborgs as commodities

If a person is made up of machine parts too, who owns those? And if someone does, can that cyborg ever have autonomy? In RoboCop, Murphy’s owned by the corporation that ‘made’ him – which is an obvious critique on how far corporate control stretches into people’s lives. We can easily link cyborgs becoming someone’s intellectual and physical property to questions about our current use of data, surveillance, and who ‘owns’ our personal information.

Cyborgs and morality

We’ve touched on this a bit already but if a former human becomes a cyborg, do they then become immortal? And if they do, what impact does that have on humanity in terms of fear of death. The reverse was explored in Bicentennial Man when the android becomes cyborg, becomes human, and ultimately in doing so, chooses to die. They’re interesting ethical dilemmas!

Cyborgs and class

If all of this wonderful cyborg-making, life-extending technology is available, who gets access to it? In films, it’s usually the rich who are able to make use of these tools because they’re the only ones who can afford to. The questions of inequality and a potentially technological caste system are very relevant to our contemporary lives when you look at who generative AI tools are benefitting financially versus the people who’s work they’re using to train on.

Conclusion

Cyborgs in cinema have grown and changed over time, both in terms of what the visual effects can achieve, but also widening the definitions to include things like AI consciousness. They’re another powerful storytelling tool for us to be able to explore issues of identity, morality, class systems, and more, and as the world continues to become increasingly integrated with technology, the hopes and anxieties we feel in these fictional stories will become ever more relevant!

More Free Film Theory Articles

About This Page

This page was written by Marie Gardiner. Marie is a writer, author, and photographer. It was edited by Andrew Blackman. Andrew is a freelance writer and editor, and is a copy editor for Envato Tuts+.