Short Circuit

The most expensive item in John Badham’s film was the robot. The DVD commentary says several versions of Number 5 were built for different sequences, while almost everything else stayed relatively cheap so the money could go there. The design is Syd Mead’s, the visual futurist of Blade Runner and Tron, from sketches by robotics supervisor Eric Allard. Steven Spielberg opened that door: he saw Douglas Trumbull’s Showscan short with a robot named PAL and sent Badham to Allard. Most of the arm movement came from a telemetry suit on the puppeteer’s torso, each joint carrying a sensor, and the robot was voiced live on set rather than in post, only a few lines redubbed later. Number 5 watching Saturday Night Fever and copying Travolta is an in joke: Badham directed that film too. The party that wants the robot back is not the army but NOVA, the company that built it; the army comes in late, to destroy it. A good fit if you want to watch knowing the robot’s voice and arm movement were made live on set. Not for viewers who cannot get past the dark makeup, brown contacts and put on accent used for Ben Jabituya; the part was not Indian in the first contract, and both Badham and Fisher Stevens later voiced regret.