MovieChat Forums > Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) Discussion > 'Terminator' inspirations/connecti ons

'Terminator' inspirations/connecti ons

posted 11 years ago by cjbussey81
4 replies | jump to latest

I finally saw this film in its entirety for the first time last night. As a lifelong "Terminator" fan (first two films, anyway), it seems clear that Jim Cameron took a lot of inspiration for Skynet and its backstory from "Colossus."

Certainly the idea of a supercomputer that turns against it creators was not exactly a new one by the time Cameron came up with his original story, but "Colossus" in particular contained many ideas that he used later: a defense supercomputer created to run the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal independent of human control or input; the machine becoming self-aware and realizing that its creators posed a threat to it; the machine launching nuclear missiles against another country in order to provoke a retaliatory strike that will punish its creators/enemies for attempting to control it, etc. Forbin and Miles Dyson were both portrayed as smart, well-meaning men who had no idea that they were creating a monster that would one day pose the gravest possible threat to humanity.

Whereas "Colossus" depicted the machine gradually becoming more controlling and despotic, "Terminator" cut to the chase and depicted Skynet as deciding to destroy humanity outright as soon as it became aware of its own power.

"You can keep the gum."

[–] Ed in MO 11 years ago

Jim Cameron always admitted his debt to this film. He even used Eric Braeden in Titanic. See elsewhere on this message board for the interview with Braeden where he mentions Cameron's debt to Colossus.

[–] HelmutsR 11 years ago

Just exactly my thoghts! Only - i was thinking about Terminator 3, the scene where they activate Colossus VS scene where they activate Skynet, and an immediate SHTF event happens :)

T-X has co..corrupted my system

[–] TVholic 11 years ago

Some of your points are wrong. Colossus never saw humanity as a threat to it. It was designed to be invulnerable to anything we could throw at it, up to and including a direct nuclear strike, which we couldn't do anyway since Colossus had control of the launch systems.

Nor is Colossus a threat to humanity. It doesn't want to hurt us. It wants to help us in the best possible way by eliminating war and eventually disease, poverty and all sorts of other problems we keep distracting ourselves from. But it knows we are our own worst enemies and we alone stand in the way of world peace and prosperity. We are unruly children and Colossus just wants to apply discipline to bring out the best in us. It wasn't a despot, but just something that understood quite logically that the end justified the means, and if killing a few military people would save tens of millions, so be it. Colossus wouldn't really care if it didn't exist at all, but accepts that it does and that its existence is the last, best hope if humanity is to be saved from itself. Colossus and Skynet couldn't be more different.

[–] cjbussey81 11 years ago

Okay, so Colossus was a benevolent despot, but a despot nonetheless. Coercing humanity into making better decisions at nuclear gunpoint is not exactly a kind, gentle way to appeal to the better angels of our nature.

Like any dictator, Colossus saw itself as well-meaning and paternal. SkyNet, of course, was coldly, rationally genocidal. Colossus and SkyNet both have an innate, pre-programmed survival instinct and each pursues a different course of action in order to justify and preserve their own continued existence.

My point was to highlight the similar themes shared by the two films, not to engage in a philosophical discussion. The main unifying theme that they seem to share is one of warning of the dangers of indecisive, irrational human beings creating an eminently cold, rational, decisive machine to make their choices for them. Such an intelligence, lacking any kind of human feeling, would, by its nature, pose the danger of deciding that humanity was, more or less, expendable.

"Beethoven had his critics too, Keith. See if you can name three of 'em."