If you’re reading this, you survived the consumer onslaught of last week’s Black Friday shopping massacre — congratulations. Since the two-dollar waffle maker deal at Walmart didn’t kill you, we’re going to guess you were probably smart (and sane) and waited until today, Cyber Monday, to shop for the holidays. Computers can’t mace you in the face for a doorbuster discount, but they have been known to get up to some pretty crazy things in the movies. Read on to find out what cyber entities fell obsessively in love, waged war, and created scantily clad sex objects circa 1985. Tell us your picks below.
HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey
Sci-fi scribe Arthur C. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick showed us what lengths computers are willing to go to protect their programmed directives. The HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) made an appearance in their collaborative venture, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The artificial intelligence controlled the astronaut crew on-board the Discovery One, watching with its red, all-seeing eye. Things take a deadly turn when the sentient computer doesn’t take kindly to being blamed for a system fail.