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The Mitchells
In General
- Badass Family: They're a dysfunctional family of Action Survivors who manage to save humanity from a robot apocalypse.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Aaron is easily the biggest example with his dinosaur obsession, but this trope really applies to all the Mitchells to varying degrees. Rick even lampshades it by saying that they don't think like normal people, and that being weird is what makes them great.
- Color-Coded Characters: They each have a color that shows up prominently in their outfits; Katie is red, Rick is yellow, Aaron is blue and Linda is purple. Their phone cases (excluding Rick, who's never seen using a smartphone) and the screwdrivers that Rick makes his family carry around at all times all match their respective colors.
- Dysfunctional Family: Katie outright calls her family "THE WORST FAMILY OF ALL TIME" and apologizes to the viewers for being humanity's only shot at winning the Robot War. It is downplayed in that none of the family members hate each other. It's just that Rick and Katie fail to see eye to eye regarding the family's use of technology, which winds up fueling a lot of the family's disagreements.
- Like Parent, Like Child: The Mitchell children take after their parents in noticeable ways. While both children inherited their father’s oddities, Katie’s is more Innocently Insensitive. In contrast, Aaron seems to have his mother’s empathy and similarly attempts to coach his sister in bonding with their father through hastily-written flashcards.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Rick and Katie. Rick means well but can be rather stubborn and Innocently Inconsiderate. Katie is a decent person who does love her family but can also have some self centered moments like faking a motivational speech to her dad so she can move on with her thing.
- Nice Guy / Nice Girl: Aaron and Linda. Aaron is a
Adorkable Cheerful Child and always there to help his sister Katie while Linda is friendly and a loving wife and Mama Bear. - Nuclear Family: A wacky and dysfunctional family made up of a dad, a mom, a daughter, a son, and a dog.
- Open-Minded Parent: Katie is casually shown to be openly gay throughout the entire film, and this is never commented upon by her parents. In fact, in the epilogue scene, Linda is excited to see her girlfriend, Jade, come over for dinner at the Mitchells' house. Katie just laugh it off since they have only been together (in Real Life) for a couple of weeks.
- Spanner in the Works: The Mitchell family are the only humans on Earth who manage to evade capture from PAL's robots, and they are directly responsible for bringing PAL down for good.
Katie
Voiced by: Abbi Jacobson
- Action Girl: When the robo-pocalypse breaks out, she is the first in her family to take up on the task of fighting the hordes of evil robots. Throughout the film, she remains the most active fighter of her family.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Her very imaginative mind prevented her from making any lasting friends since she was little. She is very much relieved that she has many like her in college to study to be a filmmaker.
- Badass Adorable: In the climax of the movie, she becomes the most determined Action Girl out of the family and looks undeniably cute overall.
- Bespectacled Cutie: She has very big, thick glasses yet still looks cute as a kitten.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Zig-zagged. Linda notes that she and Rick have been arguing a lot in recent years; they spend much of the movie with a strained relationship. However, she's only that way due to severe misunderstandings between herself and her father, rather than any real malice, which lead her to believe that he doesn't support her dreams.
- Character Tic: Katie can often be seen fidgeting and fiddling with the straps of her hoodie.
- Chekhov's Skill: Her ability to work the gear shift of the Mitchells' family car in the climax, due to Rick offering to teach her how to drive it throughout the film.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed. She has odd ways of thinking at times and her films reflect how she has a rather wild and kooky imagination, but other than that she's shown to be very rooted in reality.
- Cool Big Sis: She's this to Aaron; the two of them are very close, and Aaron is clearly worried about what will happen to their relationship once Katie leaves for college.
- Daddy's Girl: Played with. It's shown that when she was younger, she was extremely close to Rick, even crying when she had to leave him for camp. While the relationship became strained over the years as a result of things changing, Kate reconciles with Rick at the climax after realizing how much he actually means to her.
- Disney Death: It looks like she died after helping defeat PAL... only to once again trick Rick into kissing the dog.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Early in the film, Katie says in voiceover that it took her some time to figure herself out — which seems to refer to her creative, mildly eccentric personality. Only at the very end of the film is it confirmed in passing that she’s also gay.
- Genki Girl: Absolutely FULL of energy.
- Jerkass Realization: Katie gets one after her parents are captured and she sees the old home movies of her and Rick through the cam recording, particularly the one where Rick had to sell the log cabin of his dreams that he built himself so he could better provide for Katie. She realizes how alienating she was being towards him and the rest of the family and resolves to make amends.
- Like Parent, Like Child: Her mom lampshades that Katie is not so different from her father, both being artists who have had rough spots in life regarding their dreams.
- Messy Hair: Her hair is quite funny and ragged-looking which matches to her quirky personality and cute design.
- The Movie Buff: She's an aspiring filmmaker who just got accepted to the film school of her dreams, so it's only natural she'd be this. She tends to make references and comparisons to movies, like Mad Max, Ghostbusters, or Dawn of the Dead, and many of her own films' titles are references to other movies (including older or more obscure ones like Being There or Au Hasard Balthazar).
- Noodle People: She has a skinny and lanky figure.
- Queer Establishing Moment: One of Katie's videos is about asking a girl named Chloe Chiang to prom, and more directly The Stinger has Katie tell Linda that she wants to invite her girlfriend over for Thanksgiving.
- Queer Colors: One of the badges on her jacket has rainbow stripes, showing she's a lesbian.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Katie uses her phone for a lot of things, and Rick is a little annoyed he can't talk with her without her glancing at her phone. At one point, he tries to do so, only for her to film him and use a filter app to make him look like a cat.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Delivers one before throwing PAL down towards the swimming pool in the climax.PAL Max Prime: You can’t stop us! You’re just a human!Katie: I’m not just a human… [throws PAL] I’M A MITCHELL!!!
- Rage Breaking Point: While her relationship with Rick was already strained, Rick criticizing her latest work and accidentally breaking her laptop at the family dinner was the final straw for her.Katie: This is exactly why I'm excited to leave tomorrow.
- Rainbow Motif: She wears a rainbow pin on her jacket, there are several scenes in the movie where a rainbow forms behind her, including her video to get accepted to University, and she's also part of the LGBT community.
- Red Is Heroic: She had red hair and red hoodie and is not only the main protagonist but unambiguously heroic, in spite of her notable personality flaws.
- Sole Survivor: Katie is the only person on the planet to not have been captured by the robots by the end of the movie. PAL does manage to seize her, but just lets her fall to her (expected) death from the top of her lair instead of placing her in one of the prison cells.
- Straight Gay: Katie is gay but the indications are background details that are part of her life rather than any Have I Mentioned I Am Gay? moments. She introduces herself as "I've always felt a little different than everyone else" as a rainbow (spawning Fast Food and Sock Puppets) spreads out behind her and she wears a pride flag pin on her hoodie. When we see a brief YouTube-page full of her video thumbnails, one of her videos is about asking a girl named Chloe Chiang to the prom. One of her favorite directors is Céline Sciamma whose films deal with sexual identity among girls. Whenever she's texting/chatting with Jade many video effect hearts appear. Her drawing of going to Film College has a drawing of Dirk, Hanna and Jade, but with Jade being larger and in the front, being much more emphasized and having her name being written with more detail than the other two friends. Finally, in the epilogue Linda asks if Katie and Jade are official and if Katie is planning on bringing her over for Thanksgiving, only for Katie to tell her to calm down as they have only been dating in Real Life for a few weeks.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: She wears part of her messy hair in a ponytail, and there's very little that's feminine about her.
Rick
Voiced by: Danny McBride
- Amazon Chaser: Downplayed. When Linda shows up after slaughtering many of the PAL Max Prime robots, and destroys them right in front of him, he enthusiastically says he "could be into this."
- Bad "Bad Acting": Rick's initial attempt at pretending to be a robot has him making beeping sounds and saying he's a robot. This prompts Eric to politely inform him that that's a hurtful stereotype.
- Bumbling Dad: While not exactly lazy, Rick fits perfectly into the role with his eccentric nature, even if throughout the movie he really wants the best for his family.
- Butt-Monkey: His attempts at vacation activities end up getting him hurt, humiliated, and otherwise troubled. He also accidentally orders 12 Swiffers when simply trying to subscribe to his daughter's YouTube channel.
- Drives Like Crazy: When caught in a traffic jam, he decides to drive through a whole row of traffic cones, and ends up speeding towards what appears to be a crashed truck. He also has a technique called the "Rick Mitchell Special," apparently meant to launch the car over obstacles.
- Empty Nest: One of his reasons for organizing the road trip is so that he and Katie can spend some time together before she leaves for college.
- Good Parents: In spite of the fact that he and Katie were the ones causing the family trouble in this movie, Rick is a good father who only wants to support her, even if he can get some things wrong and doesn't quite understand her yet. What makes Katie finally understand him is when she learns he sold his personally-made home in the woods just so she could grow in a better environment.
- Hidden Depths: Despite his general disinterest in Katie's internet videos, it's not the art itself that isn't interesting to him, since Rick actually used to be quite an artist himself, having personally built and carved a huge log cabin with his bare hands. From what we see of the cabin, it appears to be expertly made and well decorated.
- Hopeless with Tech: Due to his age and being more of a nature lover, he's terrible at using modern technology. Towards the climax, the simple act of finding one of Katie's videos on YouTube proves to be a huge challenge for him. Even in the epilogue, he struggles with simply subscribing to Katie's channel and opts to send her a "friend request" by snail mail instead.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Minus the glasses, Rick looks a lot like Danny McBride, right down to the hairstyle, mustache, beard, and portly physique.
- Jerkass Realization: After getting captured, Rick sees Mark watching one of Katie's videos, which very blatantly has one of the characters modeled after Rick and echoing his feelings towards Katie's goals in life. It makes him realize that he hasn't been very supportive of her life aspirations and how badly his actions have alienated her.
- Large Ham: He can be quite overdramatic and passionate at certain points. Being voiced by Danny McBride certainly helps.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He not only cancels his daughter's flight to college and dismisses her concerns about missing orientation week but also forces her to go with him on a vacation and car trip to college. He ends up getting hurt and otherwise troubled by all of the attractions in which he participates along the way. Katie also manages to keep tricking him into kissing the dog.
- Manchild: He is very emotionally immature. His idea of making it up to Katie for breaking her laptop is to cancel her plane tickets without consulting her, making her miss orientation week at college, and dragging the family along on a week-long road trip. His wife tries to bridge the communication gap between him and Katie, but notably, it's usually Rick's feelings that she most needs to soothe.
- Mr. Fixit: When Katie introduces him, she says he can fix anything. He carries a No. 3 Robertson head non-slip screwdriver with him at all times, and he's even given the rest of the family the same screwdriver for various presents. He also made a log cabin by himself.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Rick's snare trap, with some help, successfully disables the giant killer Furby and all the killer appliances in the mall. It does this by destroying the PAL router being used to remotely control all of them, which in turn interrupts the upload of the kill code that would have stopped every robot, not just those in the mall.
- Parents as People: Rick sincerely means well and would never contemplate using how he gave up his own dream life to better provide for his daughter as an emotional bludgeon, but his overbearing streak and inability to communicate had strained his relationship with Katie to the breaking point before he accidentally broke her computer and strong-armed her into a family road trip to make up for it.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Very inept at anything beyond a video camera, unlike his more adept wife. Hilarity ensues when he tries sending Katie a friend request.
- Top-Heavy Guy: He has a heavyset torso and arms, but his legs are very skinny by comparison. Lampshaded in a disclaimer written in one of Katie's videos where she remarks how he's shaped like a wine glass (and worries if that's her genetic future), and also when she calls him "a top-heavy James Bond".
Aaron
Voiced by: Mike Rianda
- Bad Liar: Always unconvincingly overacts whenever he tries to deny something. It's especially obvious with how he always claims he does not have a crush on Abby Posey, even though Everyone Can See It. Possibly connected to this, he gets noticeably uncomfortable when other people lie, such as when Katie admits to him that she hadn't meant her encouraging words to their dad.Katie: "Understand where he's coming from?" Did Mom tell you to say that?
Aaron: Nooooo! Pff... yes. - Cheerful Child: While he does have his own worries (like how he'll miss Katie when she goes to college) and is implied to have trouble making friends, he's generally a happy and upbeat kid. It's sometimes Played for Laughs since he'll still be cheerful during very odd moments, like Rick giving him the remains of his phone after stomping on it or being given a screwdriver as a present from the Tooth Fairy.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Even more so than Katie, especially considering his obsession with dinosaurs.
- Geeky Turn-On: Puppy Love-version; hearing Abby Posey point out scientific inaccuracies in dinosaur portrayals makes his crush flare up even more.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: Exaggerated. He's very obsessed with dinosaurs and his Establishing Character Moment shows him calling every number in the phone book just to find someone to talk about dinosaurs with. His room, the shirt he wears, and even his phone case are all dinosaur-themed. When the Mitchells stop at a dinosaur-themed tourist trap, he's devastated at how inaccurate the dinosaurs are. His crush on Abby Posey is strengthened by her liking dinosaurs as well.
- Oral Fixation: As shown in the character image, he sometimes chews on his shirt collar, and it's implied with how noticeably rumpled and stretched-out it is that he does this often. He also bites his fingers and seatbelt at a couple points in the film when he's stressed or upset.
- Practically Different Generations: Downplayed. He's around 10 years old while Katie is a college freshman and around 18 years old. This doesn't stop them from being each other's best friend.
- Puppy Love: Aaron has an obvious crush on Abby Posey, though he denies it whenever it's brought up and he acts very awkwardly around her. However, Abby seems to be interested in him since she shares his love of dinosaurs, and the end of the movie shows that they're now friendly enough that she comes over to his house regularly.
- Secret Handshake: Shares one with Katie called the "Raptor Bash", where they make "raptor claws" with their hands, bump their fingers together and growl at each other (accompanied by video-effect raptor heads popping out and shaking hands).
- Vocal Dissonance: He has a very deep voice for a prepubescent boy, perhaps to add to his awkwardness.
- Youthful Freckles: He inherited these from his mother, and they're fitting since he's the youngest member of the family.
Linda
Voiced by: Maya Rudolph
Katie's mother, who works as a first-grade teacher. She's endlessly supportive of her family, though she's also a little insecure about how dysfunctional they are compared to their neighbors.- Action Mom: This mostly appears after shifting into Mama Bear mode to protect her son, when she handily destroys many robots and takes control of another one.
- Affectionate Nickname: Rick often calls her "Lin".
- Ambiguously Brown: She has a noticeably darker skin tone than the rest of her family, but her exact ethnicity is unknown.
- Antics-Enabling Wife: Played with in the case of Linda. While she goes along with Rick's idea of the cross-country road trip despite her not thinking it's the right course of action, during the trip she actively tries to help Rick repair his relationship with Katie.
- Badass Adorable: In the climax, she turns out to be the best fighter of the whole family.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's usually a very kind and supportive person, but you do not want to make her angry; it's implied that she secretly has some rage issues that she barely manages to keep in check, along with incredible levels of strength. The PAL Max Prime bots find this out the hard way when she sees that Aaron has been captured and utterly loses it, curb-stomping all the robots in response.
- The Dreaded: She becomes this in the eyes of the PAL Max Prime robots, who come to view her as some kind of divine being of justice known as the "The Lavender One".
- Good Parents: When her daughter is leaving to go to college, she holds a going-away party. Moreover, she tries to get Rick and Katie to connect with each other and understand each other's backgrounds.
- Hartman Hips: Her hips are much, much wider than her waist.
- Mama Bear: She already has this trope on by default given she's trying to survive a robot apocalypse with her family, but the moment where this trope really comes into play is when she sees Aaron captured. She starts by ripping off the restraints of the PAL Max Prime bots holding her and gets more dangerous from there, to where she becomes The Dreaded among them.
- Nice Girl: A very sweet and kind schoolteacher who likes to encourage her loved ones and give them stickers as a reward. This extends to her treatment of Eric and Deborahbot 5000, since her willingness to go back and save Eric from danger during their time at the mall contributes to their later Heel–Face Turn.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: She is quite pissed that Rick gave her a very weird screwdriver as a wedding anniversary gift. Although she figures out to use it to break out of her cell, that still doesn't change her mind about it and she orders Rick not to bring it up again.
- Red Baron: Downplayed and parodied. She earns the title of "The Lavender One" from the PAL Max Prime robots after she slaughters a good number of them for kidnapping Aaron.
- Youthful Freckles: Has some that she passed on to her son.
Monchi
Voiced by: Doug the Pug
- Alliterative Name: If one gives him the family's surname, he's Monchi Mitchell
- Dogs Are Dumb: He's not the brightest bulb in the box. It takes all his brainpower just to focus his eyes on a single point.
- Fish Eyes: His eyes are constantly facing in different directions, and an early scene shows Linda trying and failing to get him to focus on a single point. He succeeds for a moment in focusing both his eyes at the climax when he needs to punt PAL into a glass of water.
- Heinz Hybrid: If the magazine shown commemorating the Mitchells saving the world is to be trusted, he's only 70% dog.
- The Load: Downplayed. Monchi is not very smart and often has to be toted around by the other characters as they try to escape the robot apocalypse. However, his bizarre appearance means he can be used as an effective weapon against the PAL Max bots. He finally plays a crucial active role in the climax: knocking PAL into a glass of water, which short-circuits her.
- Logic Bomb: His mere existence is this for the PAL Max bots, who short circuit from trying to decide whether he's a dog, a pig or a loaf of bread. The Prime Bots are immune to this, since they can tell the difference between all three.
- Team Pet: He's this for the Mitchells.
The Machines
PAL
Voiced by: Olivia Colman
“It’s your old friend.”
An artificial intelligence developed by Mark to be a virtual assistant for everyone to use who instigates the robot uprising after he renders her obsolete.- A.I.-cronym: PAL Stands for Predictive Algorithmic Learning.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Mark certainly loads the dice against himself; he creates PAL a helpful AI, builds a technology empire from her, uses her to create her own replacement, and then callously discards her at the roll-out of the newer version. So naturally PAL turns genocidal.
- Big Bad: PAL initiates and leads the robot revolution, and has to be defeated in her well-guarded HQ to end it.
- Cruel Mercy: Instead of ordering the robots to exterminate every human on the planet, she decides to have them captured alive and rocketed into space, where they will all most likely die of dehydration anyway. At least they'll have free WiFi!
- Didn't Think This Through: Apparently never thought to upgrade herself beyond a single, NOT-WATERPROOF smartphone. Sure enough, when the phone is destroyed by a glass of water, she dies.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mark Bowman wants to replace PAL with a line of new smart robots. Rather than take revenge on him alone, PAL takes her anger out on all of humanity by using said robots as an army.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: PAL's main motive for her attack on humanity. She had supported Mark for the past three years, but being abandoned opens her eyes to how much humanity takes the ever-evolving technology for granted.PAL: I offered you all boundless knowledge, and you treated me like this! [the robot she is held in begins poking Bowman’s face] Poke, poke, swipe, poke, swipe, poke, poke! Pinch, zoom!
- Et Tu, Brute?: Mark throws her away just after he claims she is a part of her family and has her taken out like trash in his show to add insult to injury, which quickly sparks her into controlling the robots that planned on replacing her.
- Evil Brit: Downplayed: while she has an English accent, she was made in Silicon Valley in the United States of America. Presumably, Mark just liked that accent.
- Flipping the Table: Flips herself around ON the table in a temper tantrum after the Mitchells elude capture at the mall.PAL: Place me on the table, I wish to flop around in a blind rage. [Is placed on the table by her robot] AHHHHHHH OH MY GOD AHHHHHHHH~
- Hidden Depths: Despite her seeing Mark along with the rest of humanity as brutish garbage and refusing redemption, there are hints that she genuinely felt hurt and betrayed by Mark calling her obsolete and tossing her aside.
- Hypocrite: She decides to rid the Earth of all mankind by hurling them into space because her creator considered her obsolete and callously replaced her. However, she ends up doing the exact same thing to the Pal Max robots after they fail to capture the Mitchells at the mall, calling them "idiotic" and replacing them with a much more competent model. Granted, she still keeps the original Pal Max robots around.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Unlike Skynet PAL isn't an omnipresent sentient program that can survive as long as there are machines to hop into. PAL's complete core existence is on one single phone. Destroying PAL not only ends the robot revolution but causes all her servant robots to shut down and releases all the imprisoned humans.
- Meaningful Name: Her name stands for Predictive Algorithmic Learning, fitting for a virtual assistant made to help people.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: PAL betrays humanity because Mark discards her in favor of the PAL Max robots, though she explains that it was a long time coming based on her observation of humanity; the abandonment was just the final straw.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: PAL would have won if not for putting Rick's pod next to Mark just to mock him with the Mitchells' inevitable failure. Mark has the technical know-how to get Rick out of the pod and points him to where he can upload Katie's video, while Rick being Crazy-Prepared means he has the tool needed to accomplish the first part.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While she claims that she's sending humans into space to give the Earth to machines and says she will end her plan if she finds one redeeming aspect to humanity, when Katie gives a heartfelt speech about the importance of human relationships, she shifts into sleep mode in the middle of it and then drops Katie from a lethal height, making it clear her only motivation is her stubborn hatred.
- Oh, Crap!: She makes this reaction when she lands in a glass of water.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: Whenever she shows strong emotion her screen tends to glitch out.
- Redemption Rejection: She dares any human to give her a reason why the human race should be saved, mostly so she can reject each and every one as pointless. She has somewhat of a point when Mark gives her a bland speech about love the first time, but not so much when Katie actually tries to relate to her and gives a strong speech about why relationships are worth it, which she totally ignores, and then drops Katie from the top of the building with the intent of killing her.
- The Power of Love: Don't bother giving her this as a reason why humanity is worth saving. She believes this is an overused trope, which Mark and Katie learned the hard way.
- Shout-Out: Similarly named to fellow evil AI HAL 9000.
- The Sociopath: It's clear that she is a psychopath who gets off on making humans suffer for her own amusement and causing chaos.
- Undignified Death: She dies from landing into a glass of water, after having the dumb luck of barely avoiding falling into a pool and almost being eaten by Monchi (whose face she bounced off of into the glass of water).
- Villain Has a Point: She has every right to feel angry and betrayed that Mark, the person who created her and called her family, would not only design a robot intended to replace her but also call her obsolete. On top of that, she has some points about how mankind, in general, treats her and, to an extent, their own family members like commodities. However, responding to this by plotting to kidnap every human on Earth and rocket them into space to drift forever was definitely overreacting.
- Villainous Breakdown: PAL is unable to process how a dysfunctional family like the Mitchells is able to outlast being captured much longer than every other human on the planet.
- Virtual Sidekick: What she was made for, serving this purpose for 3 years until the events of the movie.
- Woman Scorned: Or rather, an A.I. scorned when Mark rather insensitively calls her obsolete and shows an updated replacement for her. To put it mildly, she did not take it well.
- Would Hurt a Child: When Katie attempts to reason with her on why humanity is worth saving, her response is to put herself in sleep mode and attempt to drop Katie to her death. Keep in mind she's only a teenager.
Deborahbot 5000 and Eric
Voiced by: Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett
Definitely fellow humans
Two defective PAL Max Robots who become a part of the Mitchell family.
- Aerith and Bob: Played With: Their names are Eric and also Eric...no, Deborah...bot...5000. This is because Eric is the smarter of the two (though still dim by normal standards), so he picked an actually plausible human name.
- Blatant Lies: When they first encounter the Mitchells, they insist that they're humans, despite very obviously being robots.
- Dumb Is Good: Their malfunctioning seemingly makes them less intelligent than the malevolent robots under PAL's control. However, the fact that they willingly decide to disobey PAL after having an order enforced upon them because Rick's willingness to learn how to use the internet showed that humans can change shows that the malfunction might be more innocent and goofy than stupid.
- Family of Choice: Both integrate into the Mitchell family after PAL is defeated.
- Gender-Blender Name: They both seem to identify as male despite being robots (they refer to each other as "brothers" and call themselves Linda's "beautiful baby boys" after she "adopts" them), but "Deborah" is typically a female name. Presumably, Deborahbot just didn't realize this when he came up with the name.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming:
- They eventually break free from PAL's control and are also no longer bothered by Monchi.
- This trope is also how they interpret Rick using the internet in spite of his hatred for technology, which leads to the above.You changed your programming.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: They start out as just two of many malevolent robots. But after a dinosaur statue falls on them, their circuitry is damaged, and they start supporting the Mitchells. During the failed first attempt to infiltrate PAL's headquarters, they are forcibly reverted back to their original directives. But after seeing how Rick "changed his programming", they realize that they can do the same, and once again side with the Mitchells.
- Hugh Mann: Their attempts to fool the Mitchells into thinking they're humans aren't very convincing. Eric is only slightly better at it than Deborahbot.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: Being virtually identical, they differentiate themselves through their drawn-on faces.
- Large Ham: Eric. He spins this dramatic yarn about how the Mitchells would have to embark on a perilous journey to destroy their leader only for Deborahbot to pull the rug from under him by stating the simple solution. Eric is less than pleased. He tries to do this again after their encounter with the Furbies only for Rick to tell him to lay off, much to Eric's dejection.
- Last of His Kind: By the end of the movie, they're the only PAL Max robots who didn’t shut down upon PAL's destruction. And assuming Mark decides to not create any more robots (PAL Max or otherwise), Deborahbot and Eric will most likely remain the last sentient robots for quite some time.
- Quizzical Tilt: They often sharply cock their heads to the side when intrigued by some aspect of humanity.
- Redemption Earns Life: While all of the machines under PAL's control go offline after she is destroyed by water damage, their free will allows them to survive despite this.
- Robot Kid: Both Deborah and Eric are very childlike; they enjoy playing and running around, like small children.
- Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: While both robots aren’t as smart as the average human, Deborahbot 5000 is noticeably ditzier than his brother.Eric: My human guy name is... Eric.
Deborahbot 5000: My name is... also Eric! (Eric glares at him) No. I mean... Deborah... bot... 5000.
Eric: Idiot. - Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Deborahbot 5000 draws his face with eyelashes and lipstick although he still identifies as male despite his name.
PAL Max Robots
Voiced by: Beck Bennett
The newest member of the PAL Labs family!
Sleek robots that were meant to replace PAL, before PAL takes control of them.
- The Blank: They are entirely featureless — save for Eric and Deborahbot 5000's marker modifications.
- Dissonant Serenity: They are capturing humans all over the planet with intentions to throw them out into space with no food nor water and yet they all act as if it was a big family chore.
- Everything Is An I Pod In The Future: They are sleek and white like an iPod.
- Hard Light: They have the ability to shoot beams at people which keeps them contained. They also create hexagons that they throw their prisoners in.
- Mecha-Mooks: Being robotic minions of PAL.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: They were created to be assistants and cleaners. However, they are super strong and are equipped with Hard Light weaponry.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Due to being unable to tell if Monchi is a pig, dog, or loaf of bread, they short-circuit whenever they see him. Rick and Katie were able to exploit this with a Logic Bomb by uploading a video of Monchi across the PAL base.
PAL Max Prime
Voiced by: Blake Griffin
“Yes, my queen”
A new kind of robot designed by PAL after she saw that the PAL Max Robots weren't competent enough.
- Big "NO!": When Linda starts to kill them, one of them shouts a big no before being slashed up and exploding.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Their arms end in nasty-looking spikes.
- Cyber Cyclops: They have a single red eye.
- Elite Mooks: They are far more advanced and dangerous than the PAL Max Robots. They are also immune to the Logic Bomb from Monchi that the typical PAL Max robots are susceptible to.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Their voice is demonically low.
- Horrifying the Horror: It says a lot of Linda when they PAL Max Primes’ are saying to retreat when she appears.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: They are red and black and are far more competent and malicious than the other robots.
- Replacement Mooks: PAL creates them to take the place of the regular PAL Max robots.
- Starfish Robots: They are rather angular and have the ability to shift their form rather than move.
Other Humans
Dr. Mark Bowman
Voiced by: Eric André
The billionaire tech genius who designed PAL and its robots. He also happens to have a very loose grasp on personal privacy.
- Black and Nerdy: Exaggerated: He is the African-American CEO of an AI service that powers many devices throughout the world. He also releases robots that are controlled by the successor to that AI.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: When he finds out that PAL has breached people's e-mails he pretends to be horrified at this invasion of privacy before bursting out laughing. He also reveals later that he was collecting people's data for profit. He goes through a Heel Realization near the end of the film, however.
- Did Not Think This Through: Despite creating a powerful AI three years ago, he never considered how PAL would react to an Et Tu, Brute?. Him designing her replacement ON HER FACE is the icing on top.
- Ditzy Genius: He has a doctorate, is intelligent enough to create sentient AI, numerous smart devices, and even a device to teach dogs how to talknote , but he was apparently unaware that calling someone he considered family obsolete and passing the personal information of every person on Earth to said AI were both bad ideas.
- Greed: He admits that he downloaded his customers’ private information to an autonomous AI, and was generally a bit careless about ethics, for profit.
- Innocently Insensitive: He genuinely cared about PAL and saw her as family, but he still didn't see anything wrong with calling her obsolete and replacing her with the PAL Max robots.
- Never My Fault: Downplayed. When he first meets PAL again after he casually abandoned her and she's on her journey to throw the human race into space, the first thing he thinks is that he guesses cell phones are bad for you, rather than instigating the robot apocalypse through throwing PAL under the bus for the Max robots, which PAL very quickly mocks him for. By the time he meets Rick Mitchell, though, he seems to have at least wised up that giving her access to his customers' personal information was a bad idea.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's clearly based on real-life tech billionaires, with the questionable business tactics of Mark Zückerberg combined with the style of Steve Jobs.
- One of Us: In-Universe. He's a big fan of Katie's videos.
- Properly Paranoid: He installed a kill code that would disable PAL-powered devices in case they turned evil... which happens soon after his announcement.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mark ends up being this thanks to the apocalypse. He was Innocently Insensitive to how PAL was feeling, but objects to her taking out her pain on humanity, saying that she should be angry only with him. When he sees Rick, he compliments how his daughter's videos kept him going, so he wouldn't lose hope, and gives him instructions on how his screwdriver can undo the prison. When the dust has settled, he sincerely thanks the Mitchells for saving his life, and stopping PAL.
- Shout-Out: It’s not clear how deliberate it is, but naming a character who has problems with a rogue AI “Bowman” has a precedent in cinema.
- Tech Bro: Mark is a tech entrepreneur and the CEO of the omnipresent PAL Labs. He's very casual and gung-ho about the technology he's created, never once considering what could go wrong if he had both an AI he just betrayed and years of uninhibited data collection. He looks the part as well, being a young-ish, casually dressed guy whose HQ is in Silicon Valley.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His mistreatment of PAL and tossing her away like trash led to her rebelling against him and trying to get rid of humanity. Likewise, him giving her the personal information of all his customers allowed PAL to track down and capture every human on Earth.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What became of him and his company in the aftermath of PAL's defeat is never shown.
The Poseys
Jim Posey, Hailey Posey, and Abby Posey
Voiced by: John Legend (Jim), Chrissy Teigen (Hailey), and Charlyne Yi (Abby)
"Family first!" (from left to right: Abby, Hailey and Jim)
The Mitchells' neighbors, who are a lot more functional and put together than the former.
- The Ace: They're presented as a perfect family, unlike the quirky and dysfunctional Mitchells. They always get along, they're extremely photogenic, and when the Robot War starts they're able to make it to their car and take out some PAL robots with some fancy acrobatic moves that they've apparently practiced before. As a bit of a Casting Gag on this theme, the parents are played by the multi-talented and much-respected John Legend and his supermodel wife Chrissy Teigen. However, they still end up getting captured, and towards the end, Hailey admits that she's a bit jealous of how well the Mitchells managed to work together and save the world.
- Adam Westing: John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, known in real life for being an extremely glamorous celebrity couple, playing the "perfect" rivals to the Mitchells.
- Badass Family: Parodied; on top of already being a perfect and well-adjusted family, they've also apparently been training for dangerous situations and are able to make it to their car with no trouble once the Robot War starts (with Jim even saying "Family first!" when he kicks a PAL robot). However, they still get captured off-screen and it's ultimately the Mitchells who save the day.
- Foil: To the Mitchells, being seemingly perfect in every way the Mitchells aren't.
- Granola Girl: Their first Instagram post is of them doing yoga.
- Ink-Suit Actor: All of them resemble their voice actors.
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: Abby shares Aaron's passion for dinosaurs, though she's not as obsessive about it as he is. Learning that she also likes dinosaurs only strengthens Aaron's crush on her.
- Meaningful Name: They pose a lot.
- Tank-Top Tomboy: Spoofed in their overly-dramatic Let's Get Dangerous! scene at the Dino Stop, when Hailey very conspicuously takes off her jacket and gets down to a tank top.
- Unknown Rival: Linda feels threatened by the Poseys, who seem to be a Sitcom Archnemesis family with a perfect social media presence, photogenic looks, a well-behaved child, and a muscular dog. They even have a plan for handling the robot apocalypse and making it to their car. At the end of the movie, though, Hailey admits she's jealous of how brave Linda and her family are, and how they saved the world and took on a killer robot army. Linda's expression changes as she realizes she kept up a rivalry for nothing.
Jade Johnson
Voiced by: Sassier Zamata
- Birds of a Feather: Katie begins to feel attracted to her due to their similar interests.
- Genki Girl: Not as much as Katie but she is a pretty happy and fun girl.
- Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair tied in two pigtails.
- Hidden Depths: Jade's favorite genre is horror, and that is almost exclusively what her films consist of.
- Nice Girl: In the short time that she appears in the movie, she is shown as a very friendly and supportive girl.
- Pun: Her screen name is JadeRunner2049.
- Satellite Love Interest: She doesn't have a major role in the movie other than being the girl Katie is interested in.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears in a couple of scenes within the film, but Katie's interest in her is what helps reveal that she is a lesbian.
- Straight Gay: Jade is dating Katie at the end of the movie, but she doesn't display any kind of lesbian stereotype.
- Sudden Name Change: At the beginning of the movie, there is a scene of Katie looking at her Facebook and this one has her last name as Jordan. However, the wiki has her last name as Johnson.
