History WhatMeasureIsANonHuman / Film

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Critters}} 4''. A bounty hunter is forbidden from destroying the last two Krite eggs in the universe, because, even though Krites (aka the titular Critters) are ravenous, murderous monsters, they are still sentient beings, and killing those two would mean committing genocide.

* Inverted in ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'', wherein the protagonist learns that the barbaric antagonists are humans wearing bearskins rather then demonic trolls, and is ''more'' willing to kill them as he is distraught that human beings could commit such violence and barbarism.

** In "Clones" Anakin slaughters children, and Padme pities him and then marries him. In "Revenge" Anakin slaughters children, and she's horrified at seeing what a monster he's become. Some of those children were Sand People, and others were human (or [[WhatMeasureisANonCute cute aliens]]). Take a guess which were which.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. Midway through the movie, [[spoiler:Vision]] casually picks up Thor's hammer, which freaks him out because only the worthy are supposed to be able to wield it. At the end, Tony and Steve are trying to convince him it doesn't count because it's a synthetic mind in a synthetic body.

* Inverted in ''{{Critters}} 4''. A bounty hunter is forbidden from destroying the last two Krite eggs in the universe, because, even though Krites (aka the titular Critters) are ravenous, murderous monsters, they are still sentient beings, and killing those two would mean committing genocide.

** The B1 battle droids in the TheCloneWars are treated as nonhuman, and their "deaths" at the hands of the heroes are occasionally played for laughs. Yet they still react to situations like living beings, and even show fear when they are losing a battle.

** For a kid-friendly ([[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids but not really]]) take, see the book and film ''TheMouseAndHisChild'', which gets downright philosophical about it.

* Invoked in ''Film/RoboCop1987''. After Murphy's "death" but before his cyborg body is complete, there is a scene where a surgeon informs an OCP executive that she was able to save Murphy's arm. He complains that leaving more human tissue than necessary risks making [=RoboCop=] a legal human being with rights, and orders her to amputate the arm to prevent this.

* Played with in ''ReturnOfTheKillerTomatoes'' with Tara and FT, tomatoes turned to the side of good, if only the humans could learn to love them! But, to many, the only good tomato is a squashed tomato...
* Inverted in ''The13thWarrior'', wherein the protagonist learns that the barbaric antagonists are humans wearing bearskins rather then demonic trolls, and is ''more'' willing to kill them as he is distraught that human beings could commit such violence and barbarism.
%% * Seemingly subverted in George Miller's ''HappyFeet''.
* ArthurCClarke's novels and their film adaptations ''TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' and ''TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'' explore this subject with H.A.L. 9000, the [[AIIsACrapshoot AI]] MasterComputer of the USS ''Discovery''. In ''2001'', HAL goes insane and murders the crew, before being disconnected by the final surviving astronaut, Dave Bowman. The reason for this is not fully revealed until ''2010'' -- he was given [[LogicBomb irreconcilably conflicting orders]]. After he's restored to full functioning, however, it suddenly becomes necessary for the astronauts to leave Jupiter immediately or be killed. The climactic conflict arises over whether it's acceptable to ask HAL to risk his own destruction to save the humans aboard the ''Leonov''. The majority of the crew is for lying to him and disconnecting him if he fails to comply, but Dr. Chandra, HAL's creator, feels that he will make the proper decision if told the whole truth. [[spoiler:Chandra turns out to be correct.]] Their final farewell is a TearJerker.

* What measure a non-simian? Subverted in the ''PlanetOfTheApes'' films where humans are worth far less than Apes. In ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes'' they even have a chant: ApeShallNeverKillApe! Ape shall never kill ape!

* In a rare example of What Measure Is A Non-Living Object, the male and female leads in ''NationalTreasure'' both opt to risk the latter's DisneyVillainDeath rather than [[FriendOrIdolDecision allow an item they're carrying to fall into a pit and be lost forever]]. Justified because they're both die-hard historians, and it's the freakin' ''Declaration of Independence''.

** Kind of a case of being infected by TheVirus: As long as [[MasterComputer VIKI]] controlled them, they were an endless army of {{Mooks}}.
** Even if Sonny ''had'' been operating under the Three Laws, he still wouldn't have hesitated to fight other robots to save humans. Technically, Law # 3 only requires them to preserve ''themselves'' from harm, not one another, which is why the obsolete robots attacked VIKI's Mooks in the storage lot instead of just obstructed their passage.
*** Even if Law # 3 did require them to preserve their kin, it's still overridden by Law # 1.
** Dr. Lanning asks this question pertaining to robots in a voiceover. Why do robots seem to act like humans at times, at what point does a being have a soul?

* This trope, and all its myriad mutations, forms the plot of ''AIArtificialIntelligence''. The plotline and characters of AI were inspired by a series of short stories/novellas written about 20 years ago by Creator/BrianAldiss. Stanley Kubrick's script was particularly focused on the first story, "Supertoys Last All Summer Long." Some critics later theorized that one reason the film didn't do so well in its initial run was ''because'' the audience disliked having these issues addressed so directly. Like "Blade Runner", it has since developed a cult audience.

* In the original ''Film/DayOfTheDead'', there's Bub, Doctor Logan's star pupil. He's a zombie, but he actually knows how to control his hunger and can carry out basic human actions. Also, he is visibly anguished when Logan is killed.

* ''AndYouThoughtYourParentsWereWeird'' averts this. The villain knows that the robot Newman has been [[HauntedTechnology possessed]] by human intelligence Matt, and yet dismantles him. Matt's family regards this with appropriate horror.

* In ''StarchaserTheLegendOfOrin'', if you are a robot, '''RUN'''. You have a 90% chance of being killed, regardless of how much personality or plot importance you have. If you're a fembot, you're the character who gets kidnapped, mind raped, sold into slavery, and killed. This movie seriously hates robots.

* In the zombie movie ''Helldriver'', politicians spend some time arguing whether those infected by TheVirus should still be considered Japanese citizens. Eventually the new [[PuttingOnTheReich fascist government]] enacts the [[Film/KillBill Go Go Yubari]] law, making it legal to kill zombies.

'''Steve:''' The elevator's not worthy.

** Bail Organa casually discusses wiping C-3P0's memory right in front of him. For bonus points, it's PlayedForLaughs.
** In ''A New Hope'', the bartender of the Mos Eisley cantina says, "We don't serve droids here," implying some sort of discrimination against droids. However, one must also wonder what services a cantina would offer droids in the first place.
** ''Return of the Jedi'' has a scene involving the ColdBloodedTorture and maiming of droids, though this is treated as a villainous act.

** George Lucas, in his commentary for ''Attack of the Clones,'' mentions that he figures the Geonosians were probably the ones building the Death Star and that it's okay for them to be blown up along with it, because they're "just large termites." They're still sentients, George!

* In ''Film/ExMachina'', [[spoiler:Nathan ultimately shows no empathy towards his creations. Caleb does, although his motives are a little ambiguous. In the end, Ava (apparently taking the attitude of What Measure Is a Human?) leaves them both behind]].

* In ''Film/ExMachina'', [[spoiler:Nathan ultimately shows no empathy towards his creations. Caleb does, although his motives are a little ambiguous. In the end, Ava leaves them both behind]].

** Dr. Lanning asks this question pertaining to robots in a voiceover. Why do robots seem to act like humans at times, at what point does a being have a soul.

-->'''Little Red Riding Hood:''' But a giant's a person! Aren't we to show forgiveness?

* Seemingly subverted in George Miller's ''HappyFeet''.

* The film ''Film/RobotAndFrank'' explores upon/discusses the topic. An aging thief named Frank is given a robot butler/caretaker by his children because they believe his Alzheimer's is getting too severe for him to live by himself anymore. Though initially Frank views the robot as an annoying appliance, they slowly develop a friendship as the two work together to pull off OneLastJob. As the film goes on the robot displays more and more hints of sentience and personality even admitting that he's scared of having his memories wiped if he and Frank are caught. [[spoiler: At the end of the film [[HeroicSacrifice the robot wipes his own memory to keep Frank from going to jail]] and after he does so some characters claim that the robot wasn't actually sentient and that it's AI was just acting like that because it believed this would help Frank's mental health. The movie [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane leaves it ambiguous to the audience if this is true or not]] but by the end Frank clearly views the robot as an equal, even others deny it.]]

* Inverted in ''{{Critters}} 4''. A bounty hunter is forbidden from destroying the last two Krite eggs in the universe, because, even though Krites (aka the titular Critters) are ravenous, murderous monsters, they are still sentient beings, and killing those two would mean committing genocide.

* Inverted in ''{{Creatures}} 4''. A bounty hunter is forbidden from destroying the last two Krite eggs in the universe, because, even though Krites (aka the titular Creatures) are ravenous, murderous monsters, they are still sentient beings, and killing those two would mean committing genocide.

* In the zombie movie ''Helldriver'', politicians spend some time arguing whether those infected by TheVirus should still be considered Japanese citizens. Eventually the new [[PuttingOnTheReich fascist government]] enacts the [[Film/KillBill Go Go Yubari]] law, making it legal to kill zombies.

** [[spoiler:It can be justified as the lifespan of a single clone, once activated, is roughly three years. The clones tend to fall apart and start vomiting up their own insides by the end of it. You could argue that incinerating them painlessly while they fall asleep thinking they are going home is the most humane way of dealing with the situation]]
* The film ''Film/OutLander'' involves the mass genocide of a race of monsters for apparently no reason other than the beasts not being human enough to understand their errors.

** The B1 battle droids in the CloneWars are treated as nonhuman, and their "deaths" at the hands of the heroes are occasionally played for laughs. Yet they still react to situations like living beings, and even show fear when they are losing a battle.

** The Battle Droids of the prequel trilogy are treated as nonhuman, and their "deaths" at the hands of the heroes are even played for laughs. But they still react in a very lifelike way, even acting scared when someone comes at them brandishing a lightsaber! However, they are all remotely controlled by the Droid Control Ship in the orbit, so their program survived the body being gleefully chopped to pieces. Until young Anakin murdered them all.

* ''AndYouThoughtYourParentsWereWeird'' plays with this. The villain knows that the robot Newman has been [[HauntedTechnology possessed]] by human intelligence Matt, and yet dismantles him. Matt's family regards this with appropriate horror. On the other hand, Matt's son hitting him in an argument isn't treated seriously at all.

** In "Clone" Anakin slaughters children, and Padme pities him and then marries him. In "Revenge" Anakin slaughters children, and she's horrified at seeing what a monster he's become. Some of those children were Sand People, and others were human (or [[WhatMeasureisANonCute cute aliens]]). Take a guess which were which.
*** The Sand People had just recently been responsible for the death of Anakin's mother, and his rage was understandable; while Anakin's killing the Jedi children was done for no real reason. This may help explain Padme's different reaction.
*** That and they are a bunch of murderous lunatics living in the hills taking pot-shots at anyone they find so far as we know. It's really telling that there is a mostly functional society literally right over the hill and they choose to live as savagely as possible or are incapable of leaving their way of life. ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' gives a really good ExpandedUniverse explanation, though. They ''did'' reach space-faring technology once, only to smack into the [[AbusivePrecursors Rakata]], who [[NukeEm nuked the planet to glass]]. Follow that with centuries of itenerant ocupation from crime lords and rotten corporations who didn't even ''try'' to negotiate before plundering the planet further, and it's understandible why the Sand People react to outsiders with extreme prejudice.