Short Circuit

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This article is about the 1986 movie. For other uses, see Short Circuit (disambiguation).

Short Circuit
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Badham
Produced by	David Foster Lawrence Turman
Written by	S.S. Wilson & Brent Maddock
Starring	Ally Sheedy Steve Guttenberg Fisher Stevens Austin Pendleton G.W. Bailey Brian MacNamara Tim Blaney
Music by	David Shire
Cinematography	Nick McLean
Editing by	Frank Morriss
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	May 9, 1986 (USA)
Running time	98 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	Unknown
Gross revenue	$40,697,761 (USA)
Followed by	Short Circuit 2
IMDb profile

Short Circuit is a 1986 comedy science fiction film starring Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg and directed by John Badham. Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, and G. W. Bailey co-star, with Tim Blaney providing the voice of robot "Number 5".

The story revolves around an intelligent, sentient, and sapient robot named "Number 5". The robot later takes the name "Johnny 5".

A sequel, Short Circuit 2, was released in 1988.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Video game
4 Sequel
5 End credits
6 Remake
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Plot

Number 5 is one of five prototype robots proposed for use by the US military, although the scientist mainly responsible for creating them, Dr. Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg), is more interested in peaceful uses of their artificial intelligence, like playing musical instruments. A demonstration is under way in the grounds of the company that makes them and other robots, Nova Laboratories, in Damon, Washington. After a lightning storm shuts down the presentation of the prototypes, a power surge hits Number 5 while it is recharging and alters its program, causing a malfunction. An associated accident causes it to be taken outside company grounds and it wanders off, unable to communicate and not knowing where it is.

Number 5 ends up at the home of animal-lover Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy) in Astoria, Oregon, who initially thinks it's an extraterrestrial visitor, but then determines the robot to be built by Nova. She decides that the robot is sentient and subsequently tries to help it escape from its creators, who only see it as a very dangerous, expensive and wayward machine. At the same time, Number 5 develops an understanding about the value of life and, realizing that he himself is sentient, develops a fear of his militaristic programming and the disassembly that awaits him back at Nova, believing it to be the same as death for him.

There are several escapes made from a small army of armed guards and regular soldiers led by the head of security at Nova, Captain Skroeder (G.W. Bailey). He defies orders from Nova head Dr. Howard Marner for some reasons and successfully destroys what he believed to be the wayward robot, though he does not realize it was only a copy and not the real thing, but he gets fired anyway. Number 5 (who renames himself "Johnny 5" after hearing the song "Who's Johnny?" throughout the movie) takes off to Montana with Stephanie and Newton, who has quit his job after siding with the robot.

[edit] Production

According to the commentary in the DVD, Johnny 5 was the most expensive part of the movie, requiring several different versions to be made for different sequences. Almost everything else in the movie was relatively inexpensive, allowing them to allocate as much money as they needed for the robot character.

Most of the arm movements of Johnny 5 were controlled by a "telemetry suit," a metallic skeleton carried on the puppeteer's upper torso. Each joint in the suit had a separate sensor, allowing the puppeteer's arm and hand movements to be transferred directly to the machine. He was also voiced in real-time by his puppeteer, the director believing that it provided for a more realistic interaction between the robot and the other actors than putting in his voice in post-production, although a few of his lines were redubbed later.

During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, one can see a cameo appearance by director John Badham as the news cameraman.

[edit] Video game

A video game developed by Ocean Software for ZX Spectrum [1], Commodore 64 [2] and Amstrad CPC [3] was also made based on the movie. It featured two parts, one arcade adventure where Johnny 5 had to escape from the lab, and one action part where Johnny 5 runs across the countryside avoiding soldiers and bunnies. The second part looped infinitely, and was actually impossible to complete.

[edit] Sequel

There is a sequel, Short Circuit 2. There was a script for a possible third movie written in 1989 and rewritten in 1990, but it was found unsatisfactory by the producers, and the project was subsequently scrapped in early pre-production.

[edit] End credits

Johnny 5 meets an Omnibot 2000 in Short Circuit (1986)

The ending credit sequence features parts of scenes cut from the final product, a gimmick that predated the advent of director's cuts and optional deleted scenes in later DVDs. The scenes shown in the credits include an extended SAINT demonstration sequence, which would have included the robots flying remote-controlled airplanes, an encounter with a white, commercially-made Omnibot 2000, and a close encounter with "death" at a scrapyard. The latter two were from a cut sequence set between Number 5's theft of the Nova van in which he was being carted back by Ben, and his second arrival at Stephanie's house. In that sequence, the Nova van would have run out of fuel near the scrap yard, forcing Number 5 to abandon it and look for another suitable mode of transportation. The Omnibot in the former of the two scenes would have belonged to the scrap yard owner's children, who were to frighten Number 5 away with their comparisons between him and the Omnibot.

[edit] Remake

In April, 2008, Variety reported that Dimension Films, famous for such films as Sin City, Scream and Spy Kids, was acquiring the rights to remake the original film. ^[1]