1926 "Metropolis" is the first feature length film with a robot character. The movie takes place in the year 2026 in the city of Metropolis, a dreary highly industrial place with a huge class separation between the rich and the poor. An inventor creates a seductive robot which turns evil when the lead actress, Maria's soul is transferred into it.

1935 One of the first television robots appeared in "Phantom Empire". In the show, Gene Autry plays a singing cowboy who discovers a lost city 20 000 feet under his land. In the city of Murania dwells an evil queen with an army of clockwork robots who try to take over the world, thus bringing Autry into many underground adventures.

1936 The first of the "Flash Gordon" movies is released, starring Larry Crabbe. Flash is captured by several robots which look like mechanical men.

1951 "The Day the Earth Stood Still", a powerful movie delivering a message about the dangers of nuclear warfare and technological advancements, features the humanoid alien, Klaatu, accompanied by the seven foot tall robot "Gort".

1956 The movie, "Forbidden Planet" is released, featuring "Robby, the Robot", who is one of the most well known robots ever. In the movie a ship from Earth leaves in search of a missing expedition of which there were only two survivors. Robby also appeared in several other movies and TV shows including "The Twilight Zone" and "Lost in Space".

1962 The TV show, "The Jetsons" is the first futuristic cartoon with robot characters . The show takes place in the future where there man high-tech advancements such as personal space ships which have taken the place of cars for there are no roads, humanoid robots doing human work including the Jetsons' robot maid, Rosie.

1966 The TV show "Lost in Space" debuts, about the various adventures of the Space Family Robinson and the helpful robot a.k.a. "B-9".

1968 Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a visually stunning epic depicting man's first acquisition of technology to futuristic space travel. The Hal 9000 computer is featured, which shows the dangers of artificial intelligence. The movie is divided into four parts; the first being the dawn of man. It starts off 4 million years ago before the first humans had come into existence. Primitive apes roam the bleak land fighting the elements and other animals for survival. One morning the apes come across a tall, black, smooth slab, emitting an ominous buzzing sound. This event denotes the accomplishment of a technological advancement. When one ape in particular uses a bone as a weapon against a rivalling ape and kills him it is evident that ape has taken the first evolutionary step towards man. The next three parts of the film take place in the future from the year starting in the year 2000. Man has begun colonization on the moon. Scientists who are digging on the moon discover the same monolith as in the beginning of the movie, thus indicating another leap in evolution or technological advancement. Eighteen months later an expedition to Jupiter is under way, the purpose of the journey to follow a mysterious radio signal being sent from that direction. Aboard the spaceship Discovery is HAL, the talking artificially intelligent computer system with the unremittingly calm voice. Eventually HAL becomes defective and proceeds to kill everyone onboard, fearing that they are endangering the mission. Only Dave survives and so finishes the mission alone after destroying HAL, ultimately discovering his fate at the end of the universe.

1977 George Lucas' "Star Wars" is released, making R2D2 and C3PO two of the most loved droids. It is one of the most influential movies of all time, starting a new wave of science fiction movies, the idea of intergalactic space travel and battles with aliens has been used numerous times since the movie first came out. In addition, society's conception of robots as walking, talking androids was further indoctrinated. The movie centers around Luke Skywalker who joins a rebellion against the malevolent galactic empire after they kill his aunt and uncle. Luke allies with C3PO, R2D2, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess Leia in their quest to conquer evil by destroying the empire's Death Star as well as the half man, half machine Darth Vader.

1984 "Terminator", starring Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg from a future where humans are at war with the machines after artificial intelligence has gotten out of control. A T-800 terminator is sent back in time by Skynet, the computer which controls the evil machines of the future, to kill Sarah Connor who will be the mother of John Connor, the military leader who will lead the fight against the machines.

1991 The sequel "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" features a new kind of robot, the T-1000, which is made out of liquid metal and has the ability to change its shape as well as reconstruct itself. In this movie the T-1000 is sent back in time to kill John Connor who is now ten years old. Arnold plays a T-800 again, but this time he is sent to the past to protect John from the T-1000, the virtually indestructible chameleon-like terminator.

1993 Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" shows dinosaurs with more realism then ever before seen with a combination of animatronics and computer generated dinosaurs. On a small island off the coast of Costa Rica real life dinosaurs have been cloned by extracting dino DNA found in prehistoric blood-sucking insects preserved in amber. The dinosaurs are being used in a new theme park called Jurassic Park. During a thunder storm all the park's power goes out thereby allowing the dinosaurs to have free roam of the island, creating terror amongst the park workers and visitors.

1999 Robin Williams stars in "Bicentennial Man", which is about Andrew, a robot servant of the future who develops emotion and creative thought throughout his 200 years of existence and wishes to become human.