Colossus: The Forbin Project

Classic Science Fiction from 1968 (released in 1970)

It is based upon the 1966 science-fiction novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones.

The film is about an advanced American defense AI system, named Colossus, becoming sentient. After being handed full control, Colossus' draconian logic expands on its original nuclear defense directives to assume total control of the world and end all warfare for the good of humankind, despite its creators' orders to stop.

In 1980, the film was second in Cinefantastique's list of the top films of the decade, after The Exorcist and beating Alien.

Frederick S. Clarke, the magazine's editor, wrote that the film was "a superb adaptation of the D.F. Jones novel of world domination by a supercomputer, a perfect example that literate, thought-provoking science-fiction films need not be obscure, esoteric, or boring.

Wins: Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Golden Scroll of Merit, Stanley Chase, for theatrical motion picture production; 1979

Nominations: Hugo Awards: Hugo, Best Dramatic Presentation; 1971.

A remake was being being planned in 2007 but never got off the ground.

This film is definitely up there with 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes (original), Alien, Demon Seed and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.