John Landis on COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT

[Tarantidow]

This was an AWESOME movie. One of my faves. My only complaint is that it wasn't just ONE super computer. It was TWO. Colossus and Guardian. C being the Americans and G being the Russians. The two supercomputers found each other and that's when the fun began. Poor Dr. Forbin! Excellent Movie!!!

[VincentValdemar]

I love this film. It's too bad hardly anyone has ever heard of it. I wish they had made the sequels from the other books! :(

[alonenjersey]

It is indeed a "Very smart movie."

[Tokalafox]

I have no mouth and i must scream

[jci10]

It is not Fascism if an "ultracomputer" controlled mankind. "Absolute power, corrupts absolutely" does not pertain to a computer that has no ego, superego or Id and is answerable to none except its own logic.

[ericcox2]

@Morgethein Umm, no. Sorry, but "people can't be trusted to run their own affairs," is definitely liberals in this country.

[dymchurch1]

Landis makes an excellent point that never occured to me. Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Colossus. Same choice for the human race. But one film implies it's good and the other implies it's bad.

[rabates123]

I actually love the clunky technology of vintage sci-fi like this. It gives these movies tremendous character and presence. Any remake will of course fail - like all of them. The 70s had one thing we don't have now - likeable and charismatic actors.

[lbexdodger]

Shame nobody mentions the book "Colossus"  by Dennis Jones it was all based on - a fantastic read at the time ! Sadly he passed away in 1981.

[rutabagasteu]

Scary. Even if some don't think so.

[SuperSkrull191]

sounds cool but way too dated for a reboot.

p.s. yes i said reboot cuz the fans of this would kill me if you even think about a remake.

[JohnnyGameGuy]

This movie got name dropped in the video game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The game's plot is set in 1974 and touches on the topic of AI. One of the characters talks about this movie as well as 2001: A space odyssey.

[maureencora1]

I heard Ron Howard is doing a remake of this sci-fi movie. Good Luck.

[jci10]

@maureencora1 Suposedly, the two "Ultracomputers" are located in the US and now PRC (China).

[ericcox2]

Wow - liberals always have to bring it back to George W. Bush. What's amazing is that the narrator links Bush to "people can't be trusted to run their own affairs."

Does "people can't be trusted to run their own affairs," sound like liberals or conservatives? Hmm.

[plazpastic]

I've not read the book this is based on but loved the movie. I learned from somewhere there was a second book so I got that from the library becuase I wanted to know if we win against Colossus. It drops interest in Forbin, Colossus moves to Mars.. But I think we somehow pull off a reversal.

[Hendo56]

There were 2 follow-up books. They were not very good. Collosus and the Crab, and the Fall of Collosus.

[CharlyForbin]

Don't blame Colossus. It wasn't that he came to the conclusion that humans couldn't handle the situation. The president's press release states that mankind can no longer afford to make mistakes and that is why Colossus was created. To take the responsibility. But the 1'st minute Colossus takes the responsibility, then the president wants it back in his own hands. Typical humans :)

[cinecrazedotcom]

An underrated gem of a film. People tend to remember the movies with similar storylines much moreso, unfortunately. "WarGames" is another film that owes a lot to "Colossus: The Forbin Project".

[p717]

War games is great and was inspirational to kids like me at the time. It was more "plausible" than "Hackers" which came out years later, but I think the Forbin project pretty much set the standard, not to mention that it strikes me as the most plausible of the whole genre next to 2001. War games ended with a very silly anti-climax, but of course, they had to "hollywood" it up a bit.