Nav Header Nav Header Nav Header Nav Header Nav Header Nav Header Nav Header
Subscribe To ESFM Blog
Cyborg Subgroups - Animal and Non-Humanoid
Recently our family cat Leeloo became a family cyborg cat. She received a data chip implanted under her skin and now she can travel abroad with us. This got me thinking.
There are quite a lot of cybernetic organisms of human provenance in SF movies. But where the heck are the animal and non-humanoid ones? There just did not seem to be many of these out there. Were they simply overlooked by the movie industry, or could be it yet another instance of the perennial anthropocentric attitudes?
So I searched for examples of animal and non-humanoid subgroups in science fiction movies. However, I must confess the thrill of finding them was greatly overshadowed by the fact that most of them are examples of human brutality and animal abuse.
Dolphin Jones from the movie Johnny Mnemonic:
Jones was used by the military to collect the samples of software through the hulls of submarines using infra sound. The Navy got him addicted to drugs to make him work for them. When Johnny Mnemonic first meets him, Jones is a member of an underground movement called Lotek and is adept at breaking codes. He has his own personal water tank and he is, as we see in the movie, hooked up to a computer system used by the resistance for hacking satellites and television networks.
As Lotek Leader, J-Bone, explains to Johnny, Jones "cuts through hard encryption like a knife through butter". It seems the dolphin understands human speech and has some kind of an ultrasound beam to defend himself and others if necessary.
Dog from the movie Cyborg 2:
His name is Rafe and he is a watchdog and guide. He is a creation of Pinwheel Robotics, just as most cyborgs in the year 2074 are, both human and animal. When we meet him in the movie Rafe is on the side of the renegades who have managed to escape from the webs of the mighty and heartless corporation. On the outside, he looks like a regular canine, but you soon realize there is more to him than meets the eye. Think central processing unit!
Mutant from movie Doom:
Pinky, while he was still human he had the misfortune to test the intergalactic transportation device called Ark at a moment when it was "susceptible to major turbulence".
Due to an error in the calculations "he went to one galaxy, his ass went to another". His lower half was replaced with wheels attached to his spine. In the course of the movie he is genetically altered and becomes - check this out - a mutant cybernetic organism. Big head, big mouth with lots of sharp teeth, no eyes, and very very pink.
Rottweiler from the eponymous movie:
Rottweiler's master, Mr. Kufard, trained the dog to kill at his command. He uses the dog to kill the immigrants who try to jump the Spanish border, as well as anybody who has that misfortune to get on the wrong side of him.
When one of them nearly kills the pooch beating him with a metal rod and breaking his jaw and most of his snout, Kufard turns the rottweiler into a cyborg. Piece of cake considering they live in the year 2018.
The injured parts on the dog's head are replaced with metal plates, and additionally he gets a metal jaw with sharp metal teeth. His blue eyes glow with menace. The unstoppable half dog half machine remembers his assaulter and he hunts him down mercilessly. Be warned! Whoever gets the hunted man's blood on his/her clothes or skin becomes the quarry too. The rottweiler spares nobody, not even his master and creator.
Our visitor Margie is looking for a movie she saw as a kid. Here is her description:
"I am trying to find a TV movie I saw in 1963 -- was a late 50's or very early 60's sci-fi in which Madagascar fish protoplasm is brought to the U.S., escapes and becomes a huge blob that strangles people (and maybe eats them). This is not 'The Blob' with Steve McQueen. Could be Twilight Zone or Outer Limits?"
If you know the name of this SF movie or any information about it, please send us a message via this link.
Thank you!
Attention all up-and-coming filmmakers!
If you have an SF movie project in the works, click on this link and share your story.