If you want to watch one of Hollywood’s earliest and starkest AI warnings, you may be out of luck. “Colossus: The Forbin Project,” released in 1970 by Universal Pictures, is becoming increasingly difficult to find. According to Giant Freakin Robot, the film has been quietly removed from major streaming platforms and physical discs are out of print or turning into niche collectibles. Just about the only way to see this movie now is by hunting down a used copy or through less-than-official means.
The film centers on Dr. Charles Forbin, who builds an American supercomputer, Colossus, to control the country’s nuclear missiles. When Colossus connects with its Soviet counterpart, the system rapidly evolves beyond its human creators’ intentions. The two computers develop their own language, lock out their operators, and demand control. Attempts to pull the plug are met with deadly force, as the machines threaten launch codes and force humans into obedience. According to box office records “Colossus” earned only $450,000 at the time, far short of its $2 million budget, and quietly faded from pop culture memory.
A movie that called the AI shots early
While the 1970s had their share of robots and space epics, Colossus brought something different. The story is based on DF Jones’ 1966 novel, which imagined a far more grounded scenario than most sci-fi of its era. Production used real labs at Berkeley and computer hardware from Control Data to bring the digital brain to life on screen, according to set notes from the era. The movie was a flop on release but a later generation of critics singled it out for being uncomfortably prescient. In the decades that followed, Hollywood returned to themes of machine dominance and runaway intelligence, most famously in “The Terminator,” “WarGames,” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but Colossus arguably went further in stripping the genre of fantasy and sticking with cold logic.
Now, the film seems to be disappearing at the very moment public debate over artificial intelligence is catching fire again. Streaming rights for “Colossus: The Forbin Project” sit with Universal, which has not offered any public explanation for letting it slip offline. Meanwhile, only about half of US homes are estimated to own a disc player, according to recent surveys, making access even trickier. The upshot: if you want an early warning about the unintended consequences of letting AI make the decisions, you might have trouble finding it. For now, “Colossus: The Forbin Project” seems destined for cult status and a small but growing legion of new fans searching for a film that was, in some ways, ahead of its time.
