Film / Short Circuit

aka: Short Circuit 2

"Number Five... is Alive!"

"Life is not a malfunction."

— Stephanie Speck

Short Circuit is a 1986 film directed by John Badham and distributed by TriStar Pictures. It centers around a bleeding edge military robot who becomes self-aware. Dubbed "Number Five" (Tim Blaney), his first instinct as a sentient being is to invert the Killer Robot genre: he doesn't want to kill, and is hunted by the weapons manufacturer that made him. It doesn't slot easily into any one genre, instead toying with hard sci-fi, romantic comedy, tragedy, revenge drama, and slapstick (Number Five ignoring his laser cannon to sling mud at people).

Number Five short-circuits during a routine maintenance check and flees his birthplace of NOVA Robotics. With mobile tank treads, hair-trigger tactile response, dodgy AI and packing serious heat, Five is the grandaddy of corporate liability. In a panic, NOVA deploys its private security force to recapture and/or destroy the robot while his original programmers (Steve Guttenberg and Fisher Stevens) try to stall them. Sure enough, Number Five pulls into a nearby town and befriends a Granola Girl named Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who mistakes him for an extra-terrestrial and NOVA for an evil government agency. Meanwhile, Number Five is adapting... learning... and willfully ignoring commands.

Two years later, the movie got a sequel (Short Circuit 2). A third film was in talks afterwards, but was eventually canned due to scripts not meeting expectations. Johnny 5 would eventually return in a TV short named Hot Cars, Cold Facts with his having his own home and a car. Even though it was primarily an educational film regarding vehicle ownership and insuring, the comedy of the two movies remains.

Pixar stated that Johnny Five provided some (unintended) inspiration for WALL•E, both in appearance and personality. A remake is being planned, but it is in the very early stages.

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The movie contain examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: Ben keeps calling Johnny "Number Johnny Five". He doesn't really seem to mind though.
• Actor Allusion: There is a lot of Thaddeus Harris in the character Skroeder.
• Actual Pacifist: What Johnny wants to be, though NOVA trying to capture him in the first film (and later the bank robbers in the second) push him into Technical Pacifist when he's forced to defend himself. Tellingly, he only applies the absolute minimum amount of carefully-calculated force to preserve life.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Inverted. There's nothing wrong with the AI until lightning gets involved. Even then, the AI is incredibly amicable and nonviolent, and takes some serious pushing (a major betrayal and very serious and brutal attempt on its life) just to move it from an Actual Pacifist to a Technical Pacifist.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Johnny spends the entire scene in which he receives a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown begging the goons to stop until they damage his vocal systems.
• Alternative Turing Test: Johnny 5's sentience (versus his non-struck-by-lightning brethren) is hotly debated, with the military who created him hell-bent on getting its "property" back and the heroes trying desperately to prove that he is "alive". Ultimately, he is able to prove his sentience through an inkblot test (during which he not only identifies the chemical makeup of the blotting material but is able to recognize the blot's resemblance to other things) and displaying a sense of humor (telling a joke, in response to which he laughs once he gets the punchline).
• Anti-Villain: Howard is in charge of the efforts to recapture or destroy Number Five, but he doesn't understand Johnny Five is truly sentient, gets along fairly well with Crosby, is only bluffing when he holds Newton and Ben at gunpoint in one scene, and shows a sense of depression and sadness when it looks as if Johnny Five has been destroyed, and eventually fires Skroeder (The Heavy).
• Arc Words: Number Five maintains throughout the film that he is "alive". It takes quite a bit of persuading before everyone else agrees with him. The word is given special significance in all of his lines.
• Armies Are Evil: Strictly speaking, the "soldiers" are NOVA's security team and not proper military, but close enough. It's also implied that the actual army would happily use the robots as a new and better way to commit as many war crimes as possible. That was the marketing pitch, anyway; the army never actually bought them.
• Artistic License – Military: More along the lines of artistic license security guards and not the military. While Skroeder was entirely justified in tracking down a rogue robot with a laser weapon, not once do we see him or any of his men coordinate with local, county, State or Federal law enforcement or even mention calling them to warn of a potential danger to the public. As private security guards, they had no legal authority to block public roads, hold civilians at gun point, conduct a "precision operation" on private property or stage gun battles outside of the Nova Robotics grounds. In real life, had Skroeder done any of those things, he and his security people would've been arrested on the spot. Even at the climax where the US Army finally gets called in, there still is no sign of any law enforcement.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Stephanie does this when she tries to convince Newton that Number 5 nearly drove her food truck off a cliff.
  Newton: Are you sure you didn't do any steering or anything?
  Stephanie: Yeah, I like to drive off cliffs.
• Award-Bait Song: The movie has Come and Follow Me by Max Carl and Marcy Levy.
• Badass Bystander: During the scene at the bar, the bartender breaks a bottle over a NOVA soldier's head and shoves him off her bar.
• Bathtub Scene: The movie has Stephanie Speck relaxing in the bathtub as Number 5 comes in to show he is still alive.
• Benevolent A.I.: Number 5, despite being a military prototype programmed to destroy his enemies, has no desire to harm anyone or anything else. Shortly after he achieves sapience, he learns about the concept of death. He fears death, and reasons that if he fears it, then other intelligent creatures must also fear it, and since he doesn't want to die, then it cannot be right to take the lives of others.
• Berserk Button: Do not mistreat Johnny Five's friends, and do not treat him like a mere machine. He WILL find you, and he WILL deal the most humiliating yet nonviolent punishment imaginable. Stephanie's ex-boyfriend finds that out first-hand.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Johnny and Ben. You do not want to be around Ben if something's happened to Johnny on your watch. And it's an equally bad idea to take Johnny lightly. With as nice and sweet as he can be, it's easy to forget Johnny is a military grade robot designed for combat.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: "I've got an error message for you! I'll scramble your RAM!!" Quoted by Saunders, apparently unsure of how to properly insult a robot. Johnny is understandably less than impressed.
• Blank Slate: Number 5 is a fast learner though.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma: It's surprisingly not Number Five who has this problem, but rather the wacky Indian sidekick Ben:
  "I have to go to the jack."
  "I am sick of wearing the dress in this family."
  [Howard] "Don't tell me its laser is still armed." [Ben] "Bimbo."
  "Keep that power on or I'll beat the living headlights out of you!"
  "Newton Crosby, let us break wind!" Meaning he wants them run away.
• Brown Face: Fisher Stevens, who plays Benjamin, is a White Jewish man, and not an Indian or Pakistani man, as he is cast here.
• Brick Joke: One of the phrases that Johnny passes to Ben during his date with Sandy is translated by Sandy as "Your mother sleeps (makes love with) with my dog". At the movie's climax, Johnny uses the same phrase to taunt a crook.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Howard is scared that the malfunctioning Number 5 might attack one.
  Howard: What if it goes out and melts down a busload of nuns? How'd you like to write the headline on that one?!
  Ben: Nun soup?
  Newton: BEN!
• But I Read a Book About It:
  • Newton's response when Ben asks if he's ever seen a woman naked.
  • Standard fare for Johnny-Five. With most of his fairly short^note Four days by the time the movie gets to the climax. life spent interacting with only about a half-dozen humans in any significant way, the majority of his experience and knowledge comes from the piles upon piles of books he's read.
• Call-Back: Number Five's "Today, Crosby, today!" line in the movie is a call back to two previous scenes, where Skroeder ordered his men using a similar line ("Today, gentlemen, today!").
• Candlelit Bath: Parodied:
  Number Five: "Stephanie... change color? Attractive! Nice software!"
• Changing of the Guard: From Newton Crosby and Stephanie as the main human protagonists to Ben and (eventually) Fred.
• Chekhov's Skill: Too many to list, most notably Johnny's magnet and remote control.
• Classified Information: When Stephanie first meets Ben and Newton, she asks them what the purpose of these advanced robots is (prototype weapons).
  Ben: It's top-secret crap.
  Stephanie: Yeah, I figured.
• Cloning Gambit: During the movie's climax, Johnny Five uses his previously demonstrated repair skills to build a physical duplicate of himself, which he sends out for Nova Robotics to kill so they'd assume they got him.
• Colonel Bogey March: As Number Five reprograms the robots at the roadhouse, he's whistling it.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: With his voice box damaged, Johnny uses a rock to scrape out an S.O.S. on a brick wall.
• Creation Sequence: The opening credits show the creation of one of the SAINT model robots. The music gets also more elaborate while more and more parts of the robot come together.
• Creative Closing Credits: The movie has a recap of the story behind the end credits, including several Deleted Scenes (like the one with Number Five and a coffee-cup bearing robot).invoked
• Creative Sterility: Subverted. Newton Crosby tries to convince Stephanie Speck that there's no way that Number 5 could be sapient. To prove his claim, he improvises a Rorschach test by dripping some tomato soup onto a piece of paper, squishing the paper together, and then asking the robot what he sees. At first, Number 5 quickly lists off the basic ingredients of the soup... but then he finishes with, "Looks like... resembles... butterfly!" (turns the paper on its side) "Maple leaf!" (turns the paper again) "Flower! Pretty..." This convinces Newton that Number 5 isn't a soulless machine after all.
• Creator Cameo: During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.
• Credits Montage: The movie recaps Number/Johnny Five's escapades, including some deleted scenes (an encounter with a toy robot, for instance).
• Decoy Getaway: Dr. Crosby's NOVA van happens to have enough spare parts for SAINT robots that Number Five builds a decoy. NOVA blows it up at the end of the film, with everyone thinking it's the real Number Five.
• Determinator: Johnny 5 takes a lot of abuse in the movie, but always dispenses justice and emerges with a nonsensical catch-phrase and good attitude. He may not be indestructible, but his optimism is.
• Disarm, Disassemble, Destroy: A villain pulls a gun on the Johnny 5, who takes it out of his hand and destroys it.
  Johnny 5: Colt .45 Semi-automatic. [crushes the gun and gives the villain a Death Glare] Play-doh.
• Dissimile: Fred explaining that he didn't "lose" Johnny Five. He just "misplaced him, y'know? Like your car keys."
  Ben: HOW ARE YOU MISPLACING A 700 POUND CAR KEY?!
• Do Androids Dream?: Though not focused in the same way as a robot becomes more than the sum of his programming due to an accident. The questions then are postulated for robot and viewer as to what makes a sentient sentient.
• Do-Anything Robot: Johnny has a parachute, an electric tool kit mounted on a "third arm" that can do everything from pick locks to whisk pancake batter, and a laser weapon powerful enough to blow up cars.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Howard theorizes the potential danger of having their laser-armed robot roaming free.
  Howard: What if it decides to melt down a bus full of nuns? How would you like to write the headline on that one?!
  Ben: Nun soup?
  Newton: BEN!
• Easily Detachable Robot Parts: Johnny 5 (and, presumably, every other SAINT robot) are built like this; each Nova truck is full of parts for them, and Johnny uses them to at different times replace an arm that went dead (which, apparently, was being held on at the shoulder joint by just magnets) and building an entire duplicate to get blown up by the military for him. Justified in that since he's a military model robot he'd have to be easily repairable and moddable, otherwise they'd spend too much time and money in fixing him out on the battlefield.
• Easily-Overheard Conversation: The movie has the head scientist 20 meters away from the bureaucrat and calls him an idiot.
  "I heard that!"
• Eccentric A.I.: Number 5 is a cutting-edge military robot whose AI goes haywire after being hit by lightning, to the point he is no longer interested in being a weapon of war, and instead wants to learn more about life.
• Energy Weapon: All the military robots. In the sequel, Johnny replaces his with a Utility Pack.
• Escaped from the Lab: In the opening of the movie, Johnny Five escapes from a robotics lab.
• Every Helicopter Is a Huey: Although the helicopter that chases down and destroys the decoy Number Five is not a Huey, but a JetRanger, this trope is lampshaded:
  Skroeder: ...and I'm going to need some Hueys.
  Howard: Some what?
  Skroeder: HELICOPTERS, Howard. Jesus Christ!
  Howard: I thought they were choppers.
  Skroeder: Well, now they're called Hueys.
  Howard: Well, why wasn't I notified?
• Everything Is Online: Johnny Five can access any electronics remotely with a transmitter in his head. He can also control cars, cranes and other things that (at the time the films were made) didn't even have any electronics controlling them.
• Exact Time to Failure: Johnny Five's battery.
• Expy: Newton Crosby and Skroeder, respectively played by Steve Guttenberg and G. W. Bailey, of Mahoney and Harris from Police Academy.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Number 5 makes the connection between a dead grasshopper and NOVA's intent to dismantle him:
  Five: Error: grasshopper disassemble... re-assemble!
  Stephanie: I can't reassemble him; you squashed him. He's dead.
  Five: 'Dead'? ...Reassemble, Stephanie, reassemble!
  Stephanie: ...When you're dead, you're dead. Dead is forever.
  Five: Squash... dead. Disassemble... dead. Disassemble, DEAD?!
• Eye Scream: In this case: Robotic eye, meet axe. Ouch. See Family-Unfriendly Violence.
• Fakin' MacGuffin: In the climax of the film, Johnny 5 makes a copy of himself to keep from getting destroyed by the army.
• F Ilm At Eleven: Referred to at one point:
  Number 5: "Escaped robot fights for his life! Film at 11!"
• Flipping the Bird: Newton Crosby does this to his co-worker Benjamin Jabituya with his robotic hand. Benjamin asks Newton if he's showing the number of his IQ with that finger.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Johnny 5 mentions to Ben that he changed out his old battery for a new lithium-argon liquid battery.
  • At the police station:
    Johnny 5: ...If you prick us, do we not bleed?
    Policeman: Yeah, battery fluid maybe.
• Freudian Slip: When Stephanie Speck calls Nova Laboratories on the phone, saying that she would want to speak to "one of your head warmongers", (she is of course taking the piss), the person receiving the phone call calls Dr. Marner "Dr. Warmonger" before correcting himself and handing Dr. Marner the phone.
• Freud Was Right:
  Johnny Five: "Doctor Ruth says, 'Violence is ze expression of sexual frustration.'"
• Friend to All Living Things: Stephanie, and later, Johnny Five.^note  ''Most'' living things, since Stephanie draws the line at snakes.
• Fun with Acronyms: S.A.I.N.T. touches on nightmare fuel, given the root is Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport.. The SAINT series are nuke delivery platforms, designed (as explained at the start of the first film) to be para-dropped into enemy cities, use their maneuverability, intelligence, and weaponry to safely deliver their nuclear payload to their target, and then blow themselves up. ^note  In other words: suicide bombers.
• Gangbangers:
  "Los Locos kick your ass!"
  "Los Locos kick your face!"
  "Los Locos kick your balls into outer SPAAAAAACE!"
• Geek Physiques: Ben and his bank robber counterpart, Saunders, are both portrayed as weaklings.
• General Ripper: Skroeder decides (without bothering to listen to the guy who built it or coordinate with law enforcement) that recovering Number Five requires loads and loads of military firepower aimed in the general direction of the robot regardless of the presence of innocent bystanders. Ironically, this sort of wanton destruction is precisely what Nova Robotics are concerned their missing robot might do.
• Genius Ditz: Newton Crosby ("Ph. Dork"). But he's Tony Stark when compared to his sidekick, an squirrely Indian man who thinks of nothing but sex. Number Five also qualifies, being that he's technically the youngest member of the cast.
• George Jetson Job Security: Happens to Newton Crosby, Ben Jabituya, and Skroeder:
  Skroeder [after he thinks he's just destroyed Number 5]: Magnificent! Now that, my friend, is how you kick ass!
  Howard Marner: Years of research down the tubes, and you're as happy as a pig in slop.
  Skroeder: Just doing my job, sir.
  Howard Marner: Maybe from now on, you can do it somewhere else.
• Glass Cannon: The SAINT units sure can dish it out with their lasers, but they lack any armor to speak of - probably due to being early prototypes; one expects actual military units would be encased in rather more protective shells without exposed equipment. They rely on effective offense to prevent damage before it can be dealt, and Johnny himself has pretty effective ways of protecting himself from a single threat using whatever's lying around; however, if there are multiple threats, or if an attack comes from an unforeseen location, they're surprisingly easy to take out - a few bullets damage Johnny 5 enough that he can be reached and shut down in the first film, and all it takes to take him out in the second is an axe from a direction he isn't expecting. Johnny himself has an easy time disabling the other SAINT units - some mud in the eyes, a basic rope trap and a sudden maneuver get them all out of the fight.
• Good Costume Switch: Number Five loses the plate covering his "mouth" during his escape, making him look much less intimidating than the other SAINT prototypes.
• Granola Girl: Stephanie. Takes in all manner of poor and homeless animals (and one sentient robot), runs a truck that she sells natural food out of, and expresses her deep displeasure with the military and their weapons.
• G-Rated Drug: Apparently, knowledge is this to a newly sentient robot. Played for Laughs, of course.
  Number Five: Need! More! Input!
• Grow Beyond Their Programming: Number Five, after being shocked by lightning, spontaneously develops the ability to learn at an accelerated pace, eventually becoming fully sapient.
• Hand Gagging: Shortly after Number 5 escapes, Ben and Crosby attempt to persuade their boss Howard Mariner to let them try to catch it instead of destroying it:
  Mariner: What if you don't catch it?! What if it goes out and melts down a busload of nuns?! How would you like to write the headline on that one?!
  Ben: Nun soup?
  Crosby: [putting his hand over Ben's mouth] BEN!
• Hero Antagonist: Captain Skroeder and Howard Marner.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Newton and Ben. (Ben lampshades this a couple of times.)
• Hilarious Outtakes: The film's credits play over snippets of various scenes, including scenes that were cut from the final movie, including Number Five playing with a model airplane, escaping a car crusher in a junkyard, and encountering an Omnibot 2000 (a toy robot that was made during that time) trying to serve him orange juice.
• Honest Corporate Executive: Howard Marner, as he only sent out his military forces to capture Number Five as he believed him to be a dangerous robot with a laser cannon. However, Howard does view the sentient Number Five as another robot of his assembly line that has gone rogue and needs to be recaptured to reprogram and that fact he is Only in It for the Money.
• Hope Spot: During the film's finale. Until the helicopter shows up. Fortunately, it isn't the real Number Five they blew up.
• Hulk Speak: Number 5's speech is initially a cross between this and Robo Speak, although he can also speak normally.
• Human Mail: Though not technically a human, Johnny Five mails himself to Benjamin in the city (with the help of Newton and Stephanie), after being rejected as an airplane passenger.
• Humiliation Conga: How Number Five deals with Frank. First, he reduces his Pontiac Firebird into its components. Then, he effortlessly deflects a volley of shots from Frank's hunting rifle with his own hubcap. Then, he uses his laser to melt Frank's boots, hat, and belt buckle into molten slag.
• I Am Not a Gun: A military combat robot gains sentience, and this trope ensues when it reasons that it does not wish to die, so it cannot justify killing others because it knows what it means to fear death.
  Newton: Okay, so, why did you ignore your programming?
  Number 5: Programming says "Destroy". "Disassemble". "Make dead". Number 5 cannot.
  Newton: Why!? Why "cannot"?
  Number 5: Is wrong! Incorrect! Newton Crosby, PhD, not know this?
  Newton: Well, of course I know it's wrong to kill, but who told you?
  Number 5: I told me.
• I Heard That: After Crosby shuts down Number Five to prevent General Ripper Schroeder and his troops from destroying him, we have this:
  Schroeder: What the hell is the matter with you, you four-eyed idiot?!
  Crosby: (under his breath) What an asshole.
  Schroeder: I heard that!
• Implausible Deniability: The "Department of Car Stereo Repair".
• Incredibly Obvious Bug: When the protagonist #5 wanders off, its creator turns on its homing beacon so that his corporation can track it down. When #5 notices the beacon, it's about the size of an apple, with a prominent blinking light, easily detached and tossed into the back of some hapless bypasser's pickup truck. In this case, #5 was never intended to become self-aware enough to decide that the homing device should be gotten rid of, which may excuse its obviousness, but there is no reason a robotics company spending a fortune on a self-operating war machine wouldn't take care to integrate its homing beacon more effectively into the device. Even a prototype would have the homing beacon properly secured to prevent it from being knocked off during exercises — and a final production version would've been even more ruggedized.
• Inkblot Test: Administered to Number Five by Crosby as part of a Turing Test. Unintentionally, as it turns out. Newton intended (and indeed, initially got) a chemical analysis of soup poured on paper. Then Johnny interpreted what the actual blot looked like.
• Innocent Aliens: Subverted when the alien turns out to be a Ridiculously Human Robot, much to Stephanie Speck's disappointment.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Johnny 5, naturally. Unless they turn red.
• Insane Proprietor: Manic Mike, of the nearby Radio Shack. Which becomes plot-critical at an important moment.
• Inspector Javert: Captain Skroeder stops at nothing to capture and destroy an escaped piece of military equipment. Initially his actions are sane and reasonable (this is a robot with an armed laser) but he ultimately Jumps Off The Slippery Slope. The creators admit that Skroeder would have been the hero were this a straight Killer Robot film. But it isn't, thus he's not.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Lightning in this case, but the effect is much the same. Downplayed, as while it gives him the capacity to learn outside his programming, it takes several days of absorbing information before approaching the intelligence of a human and being able to make moral choices.
• Instant Expert: Number Five assimilates information at an insane speed, going through every volume of an encyclopedia within seconds. Notably, this doesn't help him learn morality; he's still got the mentality of a five-year old, just a very smart one. In particular, speed-reading the owner's manual for Stephanie's truck teaches him how to drive, but not how to obey traffic laws.
• Jerkass: Stephanie's ex-boyfriend from the first movie.
• Just a Machine: The movie has this as its central premise. The robot can't be alive because it's a machine which aren't alive by definition. Never mind that it's now got free will and a sense of self-preservation, it's still just a machine... right?
• Just Think of the Potential!: When asked by a Senator about the SAINT project's origins, Crosby lets slip the fact that he intended them as a marital aid. (Then again, he might've been trying to make a fool of Howard.)
• Lampshade Hanging: In this movie, Newton asks Ben where the hell he's from, since he's clearly not ethnically Indian despite the exaggerated accent. He claims he's from Bakersfield and his family is from Pittsburgh. This could be read as an admission that he's a white guy who's just eccentric, but the ending of the second movie shows he isn't an American citizen up to that point.
• Large Ham: Skroeder is quite the ham, played with a side of grits by G.W. Bailey:
  Skroeder: "Crosby, I'm tellin' you right now: this fart of a robot is beginning to give me the red-ass!"
  Skroeder: "What the hell is the matter with you, your four-eyed idiot!?"
  Newton: [muttering, tending to Number Five] "What an asshole..."
  Skroeder: "I HEARD THAT!"
• Late to the Punchline: To test Number 5's sentience, Newton Crosby tells a rather tasteless joke. The robot is stumped, and Netwon takes it as evidence that he is not as "alive" as he thinks. Just when he's about to remark on it, Number 5 blurts out "I GET IT!" and starts snickering. Crosby is astounded, and instantly sides with him and Stephanie against his bosses.
• Law Enforcement, Inc.: NOVA's private military.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: A single bolt is all that stands between a sufficiently advanced robot and sentience. Though it's nebulous if the lightning, the constant stream of random input at Stephanie's, or both made Number 5 truly alive.
• Limited Wardrobe: Fred seemingly owns only one — admittedly expensive — shirt, which he wears on a daily basis. This makes it all the more poignant when Fred tears his sleeve off without hesitation, applying it to Johnny's leaking battery.

  Johnny: Not your shilk sirt — silk shirt.

• Literal-Minded:
  • Double subverted with the inkblot turing test mentioned above. When first asked "What do you make of this?" Five gives the literal answer: a chemical analysis of soup poured on paper, seemingly demonstrating Creative Sterility. But then...
  Five: "...and resemble...look like... Butterfly. Bird. Maple leaf."
  Newton: "Where?! Holy Shit!"
  Five(inspecting paper): "No shit. Where see shit?"
  • Other times. Johnny 5 falls headlong into this. He tries to cook Stephanie breakfast, literally following the instructions. He beats pancake batter until smooth (not caring that he's splattering it all over the kitchen and himself), and "for crisp yet moist potatoes, brown on one side then turn over." He browns the cardboard box the potatoes are in on one side, then turns the entire frying pan over.
• Loan Shark: Fred uses one to sponsor his business with Ben, with thirty days to pay up. When the jewel thieves first confront Fred and Ben with ski masks, Fred first thinks it's the loan shark's henchmen. Ben's ignorance of the term leads to the following line:
  Ben: Oh, dearie! Now you're expecting me to believe that you borrowed money from a fish!
• Magical Defibrillator: One such is used to recharge Johnny Five's dying battery.
• Measuring the Marigolds: Played with. Toward the end of the film, Newton is trying to figure out if Number 5 has really "come alive." He makes a Rorschach blot with paper and tomato soup, trying to see if Number 5 sees past the scientific to see the marigolds. It is foreshadowed earlier in the film that Number 5 has this capacity: though he regurgitates scientific information at the drop of a hat, he is also able to see abstract shapes in clouds, rather than just dismissing them as pockets of water vapor.
  Newton Crosby: Number 5, What do you make of this?
  Number 5: Hmmm... Wood pulp, plant — vegetable — tomato, water, salt, monosodium glutamate...
  Newton Crosby: [disappointed] Okay, thank you. Now you're talking like a robot.
  [Beat]
  Number 5: ...and resemble - look like - butterfly, bird, maple leaf!
• Miraculous Malfunction: Number 5 is struck by lightning, which causes a "malfunction" that gives it sentience.
• Missed Him by That Much: Searching for the dying Johnny, Ben and the cops arrive at Radio Shack at the exact moment that Fred and Johnny exit the frame. This happens twice more during this sequence, though the final time Fred remained behind for Ben and the cops to find instead.
• Mistaken for Foreigner: Played for laughs when Ben (supposedly an Indian) is asked where he's from:
  Ben: Bakersfield, originally.
  Newton: No, I mean your ancestors.
  Ben: Oh, them. Pittsburgh.
• Noisy Robots: Johnny 5 makes all kinds of noise when he moves around, but it's natural, since he's animatronic.
• Non Sequitur: Shortly after Number 5 gains sapience and starts wandering around confused, its programmers are logged into its OS remotely and are trying to enter commands, to which it always just responds "Malfunction. Need input." Until finally it, out of nowhere, asks "Wouldn't You Like To Be A Pepper Too?", which completely baffles everyone. Newton guesses the robot is using its print scanner to read a sign somewhere, which turns out to be correct.
• No Sympathy: Crosby taking No. 1 (without permission) on his hunt for No. 5, causing Howard to wet his drawers some more.
  Howard: Great! So instead of $11 million on the loose, we're going to have twenty-two!
  Ben: And plus we are needing gas money.
• Oblivious to Love: Sandy, the woman representing the toy company Ben had a deal with, doesn't even notice his (poor) attempts at romancing her until Johnny bungles their date.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Johnny 5's realization that disassemble equals death.
  • Fred and Ben realizing that neither one of them knows Morse code.
• Odd Couple: Mild-mannered, scrupulous Ben and slovenly, amoral Fred.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Howard theorizes the potential danger of having their laser-armed robot roaming free. The stereotypical Indian guy, Ben, hasn't really grasped the concept of discretion.
  Howard: What if it decides to melt down a bus full of nuns? How would you like to write the headline on that one?!
  Ben: Nun soup?
  Newton: BEN!
• Operation: [Blank]: An army general at NOVA's launch party is already fantasizing about deploying SAINT robots to nuke Moscow. "We call it Operation Gotcha Last."
• Our Souls Are Different: Number Five gets struck by lightning, there is a glitch in the programming and he gains a soul.
• Parental Bonus: When stopped due to a tracking device in their truck the old couple immediately think about the "grass" they may or may not have in their glove compartment.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: Designed as a military robot, Number (a.k.a. Johnny) Five gains sentience and decides killing is wrong.
• Pick Your Human Half: Johnny looks very machine like but acts very human.
• Porn Stash: Ben's "schematic drawings" that he offers to share with Newton.
• Practical Effects: Almost all of the film's special effects budget was eaten up by the Number 5 animatronic, so most of the effects were practical by necessity. For example, Number 5 flipping pages while Super-Speed Reading was done by blowing air across the book to rapidly turn the pages, and Number 5 repeatedly flipping a coin was achieved through some clever editing of a single shot of footage.
• Private Military Contractors: Skroeder and his men are private security but their numbers and equipment make them more like a small army. Somewhat justified in that Nova seem to be a major technology contractor for the US military.
• Product Placement:
  • "Wouldn't You Like To Be a Pepper Too?"
  • Radio Shack doesn't just sell electronics. It SAVES LIVES.
• Race Against the Clock: Fred, when repairing Johnny in Radio Shack.
  Fred: I can't do this, I'm no good at this stuff!
  Johnny: F-fifteen minutes you have to get good.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • Probably originally meant for combat mode, Johnny's back-lit red "eyes" are usually a telltale sign you've managed to tick off the normally happy-go-lucky pacifist robot.
  • Ben and Newton discover Number Five is right at their location on the scanner while at the gas station—The back door of their truck.
    Number Five: Hello, BOZOS!
• Reference Overdosed: Johnny doesn't really know when to hold back. Then again, being as young as he is, he doesn't really have his own experiences to know anything beyond references.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Personality-wise, not appearance-wise.
• Robosexual: Number 5 hitting on Stephanie in the tub.
• Robot Buddy: Number 5/Johnny 5 is an artificially intelligent military robot designed to be dropped behind enemy lines during a nuclear exchange and deliver a tactical nuke to a high value target. When he is hit be lightning it imbues him with an innocent, curious, childlike personality that quickly becomes a wise-cracking pop culture junkie. He also develops a tremendous respect for all forms of life.
• Robot Names: The robots belong to the SAINT (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) line, but each one is simply known by its model number. The main character is Number Five, who gains sentience from being struck by lightning. At the end of the movie, he decides to give himself a human name, choosing "Johnny" from the pop song "Who's Johnny". But he thinks it sounds cool to keep his number too, so he settles on "Johnny Five"
• Rock Beats Laser: Johnny outwits his evil twins by deflecting their lasers with rocks and blinding them with mud. $11 million well spent, Pentagon.
• Running Gag:
  • Skroeder seems rather obsessed with food...
    Skroeder: What I've got is trouble, which I don't need because my wife is at home cooking a steak that's going to be dried out by the time I get there!
    
    Skroeder: They're cooking something up, I can smell it. We've got to fry 'em now, Howard!
    
    Skroeder: How many kids you got, Doctor?
    Crosby: None.
    Skroeder: Well let me tell you I've got three of them. Three dandy little Skroeders, and I want them to be adults, not barbeques.
  • Number Five having to throw out the driver's seat from any vehicle he swipes.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Johnny Five repairs his weapons after being captured, his escorts (Ben and a guard) are alarmed, pull over to the side of the road, and take off after a brief debate.
  Ben: I don't know about you, but I am planning to scream and run.
• Secret Underground Passage: The tunnel connecting Ben's warehouse with a high-security bank vault.
• Shoulder Cannon: Johnny Five and his brothers all have shoulder-mounted lasers.
  Johnny Five: Hey, laser-lips! Your momma was a snowblower!
• Shout-Out: The movie playing on the TV (in the scene where Number Five and Stephanie dance) is Saturday Night Fever, one of John Badham's previous movies.
• Speaks in Shout-Outs: Johnny Five does a lot of this, especially due to his exposure to television in the film.
• Starring Special Effects: Despite the film's relatively low budget, the animatronics used for Johnny Five were top of the line and very impressive for the time. He was designed by Blade Runner legend Syd Mead.
• Stereotypical South Asian English: Part of Ben Jabituya's joke is that he speaks with such an exaggerated accent despite being born and raised in the US to American-born parents. The sequel retcons him into an Indian immigrant. Stevens researched the role quite extensively, hiring a dialect coach and even traveling to India to get the accent right, but today considers the role something of an Old Shame.
• Super Prototype: While the SAINT robots never enter actual production, so we don't know how the production model would stack up to the prototypes, the prototypes certainly perform very well in their demonstration. And Johnny outperforms three of the prototypes when they come to try and collect him.
• Super-Speed Reading: Johnny can breeze through books at a frightening rate, though apparently he's not programmed to re-shelve them.
• Super-Reflexes: Besides being able to read a full book in seconds, Johnny can also fully disassemble a car in minutes and assemble a toy robot from parts in seconds, as well as react quickly enough to deflect incoming bullets with a hub cap. He doesn't do so good against any attacks he doesn't see coming, though.
• Talking Lightbulb: All SAINT robots are equipped with a mouth cover. Nr. 5 loses his one early in the film, revealing a series of LEDs that light up when he talks. Johnny 5 refers to them as "lip lights".
• Tank-Tread Mecha: Johnny 5 and the other S.A.I.N.T. robots use tank treads to move around.
• Technical Euphemism: The robot whom the story revolves around accidentally squishes a grasshopper and wants it reassembled. He's told that it can't be done because it's dead and dead is forever. Later, when one of his human friends is being shot at by the villains, he freaks out and screams over and over, "No disassemble Stephanie! No disassemble Stephanie!"
• Technical Pacifist: Johnny Five was created as a military robot, but decides that killing is wrong. He'll defend himself as necessary, using exactly as much force as required and no more. In the first film, armed with a laser weapon that can stop tanks, he uses very precise, low-power shots to distract opponents or render them incapable of harm, as when he cuts apart the drive shaft Frank was weilding. Ultimately, he prefers not to use his laser at all, subduing the three SAINT prototypes sent to recapture him by using the environment to incapacitate them then turning them off. By the second film, he's uninstalled his laser completely, and defends himself with his attached gadgets, robotic strength, and primarily his wits.
  Number 5: Is wrong. Incorrect. Newton Crosby, Ph.D., not know this?
  Crosby: Well, of course I know it's wrong to kill, but who told you?
  Number 5: I told me.
• Technology Porn: The opening sequence of the movie shows the construction process of the S.A.I.N.T. robot line.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: Number 5 doing this provides one of the first clues that he's become truly intelligent and self-aware. Later his creator invokes the trope with an Ink Blot Test.
• They Would Cut You Up: "Disassemble" is an arc word in the film. Except that NOVA has little interest in Number-5's sentience; they see it as a bug that needed fixing at best and a potential threat to innocent civilians at worst. At no point in either movie does any organization have any deliberate intention of conducting any unpleasant experimentation on him — the movie was inspired by the idea that if a high-tech military robot really did come to life, nobody would believe it was alive in the first place.
• Three Stooges Shout-Out: Johnny Five re-programmed three of the pursuing prototypes in the film so they acted like Larry, Moe, and Curly.
• Tied-Together-Shoelace Trip: Number 5 pulls this on Newton while Newton is looking over the changes to Number 5's wiring.
• Tinman Typist: Justified. One of Newton's side projects is teaching robots to play piano. And give the finger.
• Tracking Device: Johnny Five has a tracking device that he tosses into the bed of a passing pickup truck.
• Trampled Underfoot:
  • The opening shot shows a tank running over flowers.
  • Number 5 learns about death when he accidentally tramples a grasshopper.
• Turing Test: Used by Crosby to determine if Number 5 is alive. The Ink Blot Test and the fact that Number 5 has rewired his switches to a point where he shouldn't be operable begins Crosby's questioning that it's true but it takes a bad joke to convince him when Number 5 laughs at the joke.
• Unwitting Pawn: Skroeder uses Newton Crosby as one of these in the film:
  Crosby: Let me tell you something: I don't like those N.O.V.A. guys any more than you do. In fact, I don't care if they ever get Number 5 back, but I want to see it.
  Stephanie: If I show you where he is, do I have your word you will not experiment on him, you will not flip the switches and you will not take him apart?
  Crosby: Absolutely, you have my word.
  Stephanie: Okay, he's out back, I'll take you to him.
  Skroeder: Well, while you're at it, young lady, you can take me, too.
  Crosby [shocked] Skroeder!
  Skroeder: Terrific job, Crosby, thanks for the help.
  Crosby: No! I had nothing to do with this!
  Stephanie: You bastard, you're a liar!
• Utility Belt: The combat robot Johnny Five has a waist-mounted rotating multitool containing, among other things, wire cutters, lockpick, and a soldering iron. In the second movie, he replaces his shoulder-mounted laser with a utility pack with a magnetic grappling hook, hang-glider, camera, and metal cutter.
• Verbal Tic: Johnny Five likes to list synonyms of words. This can be surprisingly bad-ass when he's really ticked off
  Number 5: Number 5 furious! Livid! PERTURBED!
  Number 5: Colt .45, semi-automatic (he crushes it) play-doh.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Maybe not violent, but Sandy takes a level in badass when she believes Ben is in trouble, impressively decoding his voiceless-phone messages to use as directions, and demanding that the taxi driver break the law to move faster.
  Sandy: If we get a ticket, I'll pay for it!
• Villain Has a Point: Skroeder is adamant about destroying Number Five at all costs and deliberately undermines and steps on the toes of others who are working on a less militant and violent approach. The truth is that the SAINT robots have MILITARY applications with a fully active laser cannon, you can even see the Oh, Crap! look on their faces when they realize he can use it freely. While the audience gets the benefit of seeing how benign and childlike Number Five is, the team they send in do end up provoking Number Five into a laser response. At the time who knows what else might have provoked the same reaction.
  Howard: Crosby, what is it going to do?
  Newton: It's hard to say; it's malfunctioning. It might not do anything.
  Skroeder: But it could decide to blow away anything that moves, couldn't it?
• Voice Changeling: Johnny, like most self-aware robots from the Eighties, can mimic anyone's voice.
• Wallbonking: The SAINT units all have pre-programmed paths to take within the Nova Robotics compound, and all of them follow this path normally, except Number Five, who is not functioning properly. When the other SAINT units complete a corner turn, Number Five continues forward into the wall, much to his frustration.
• We Used to Be Friends: Newton calls out Howard Marner on this, claiming that back when they were both scientists, Howard would have realized the value of Johnny Five's sentience. Howard bluntly replies, "I'm a businessman. I'm not a scientist anymore." (The insanely high value that true AI would have seems to be lost on him, however).
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • SAINT Number 4 is never seen after the introductory scene.
  • It's never explained what happened to the loan shark Fred talked to after in the pool scene, though it's possible Fred already paid him after he got paid for the toy robots.
  • We never hear of Los Locos again after Johnny helped them rip the radios off the cars.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: It takes a lot of convincing before the human leads will concede that Number Five is alive and not Just a Machine. This is the main moral premise of both films, leading to the end of the second movie in which Johnny is publicly declared a sentient being and made a citizen of the United States. Tellingly, when forced to fight off an ambush by three other prototypes like himself (but not alive in the way Johnny is), he still does not fire on them or destroy them, simply incapacitating then deactivating them.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Lampshaded when Newton asks Ben where he's from, and when he finds out it's Bakersfield asks where his parents are from. "Pittsburgh."
• Who's on First?: Stephanie and Number 5 in the movie:
  Number 5: N.O.V.A. robotics disassemble, dead! Disassemble, Number 5 dead!
  Stephanie: But you can't die, you're a machine!
  Number 5: No.
  Stephanie: No, you're not a machine?
  Number 5: Yes.
  Stephanie: Yes you are, or yes you're not?
  Number 5: Yes—
  Stephanie: "Yes" what?
  Number 5: Yes... not.
• Wild Goose Chase: Happens when Number 5 notices his tracking device and throws it into the pickup truck of an elderly couple. The soldiers in pursuit of him find the couple instead.
• Willfully Weak: Johnny 5 is a military robot designed for combat. He has an anti-tank laser on his shoulder and could easily fry people and is shown in the sequel to be powerful enough to benchpress a car even in a badly damaged, weakened state. He could very easily kill people with little effort if he felt like it, but after realizing 'disassembling' people is wrong, he refuses to use lethal force and only uses as much force as he needs to when forced to fight.
• Wild Goose Chase: Number 5 notices his Tracking Device and throws it into the pick up truck of an elderly couple. The soldiers in pursuit of him find the couple instead.
  Wife: (gasps as dozens of soldiers aim their guns at them) I hope you took the grass out of the glove compartment!
  Husband: (as a very puzzled NOVA security guard walks up to the driver's side window) ... anything wrong, officer?
• Worf Had the Flu: When the 3 other S.A.I.N.T.s attack Johnny 5, they state their orders are to capture him rather than destroy him and thus are likely not using full-power shots, which accounts for how he's able to deflect their tank-busting lasers with a rock.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • Skroeder's actions and attitude throughout the movie would all be completely within reason - if this were a sci-fi thriller, rather than a family comedy.
  • Stephanie initially mistakes Number Five for an alien.
• You Are Number 6: He starts as just a number, but gives himself the name Johnny Five. Ben calls him "Number Johnny Five".
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After NOVA security and the Army blow up what they think is Johnny Five and celebrate, Marner's Tranquil Fury at having years of research and funding sent down the drain, along with Skroeder's unrepentant reply of how he was only doing his job, force Marner to hint that Skroeder's days serving NOVA are through. Skroeder's facial response after hearing it clearly shows he's thinking "I'm fired, aren't I?"
• Your Mom: Invoked as a taunt to Number Five's pursuers.
  Number Five: Hey, laser lips! Your momma was a snowblower! (makes a digital Bronx cheer)
• Your Other Left: When Number Five drives Stephanie's truck he drives it on the wrong side of the road. Stephanie shouts at him to drive on the right side of the road, but he keeps misinterpreting the meaning of right to mean "right, correct, functional".

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