Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com April 6, 2023

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The technology is the big and clunky stuff of 50-plus years ago. But this is a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence that is very relevant today as we move closer to machines having a mind of their own. It’s very well made, and it was an interesting watch.

Synopsis

We watch a montage of 1970s computer technology—tapes, reels, and counters, as clickety-clickety teletype fonts show us the credits.

We open on a huge room full of blinking lights—it looks to be about a half mile long, a giant complex. Dr. Forbin closes insane security doors before retracting the bridge and activating the radioactive safeguards. Outside the giant sub-mountain complex, scientists and the military shake hands for the press photographers. Forbin shakes the President’s hand for the cameras.

The President says this is the greatest security measure ever taken—now all they have to do is tell the people about it. The next day, he announces the Colossus project to the world. Colossus is a computer that can emotionlessly analyze millions of factors at any time and respond defensively if the evil Soviets, or anyone else, attacks. Charles Forbin shares the details. Colossus fills the inside of a mountain in Colorado and is connected to all the nukes and weapons and sensors that we have. They don’t make its location a secret since Colossus can defend itself and is “impenetrable. In short, there’s no way in; no human being can touch it.” He insists that Colossus is not capable of independent thought; it is just a smart machine.

During the President’s party, Colossus interrupts that “There is another system.” The party is over! The Soviet Ambassador calls—it turns out they have a similar system on their side—it’s called Guardian. Forbin says that Colossus shouldn’t know about another system, but since it does, it’s working better than intended. Colossus then orders them to connect it to the Soviet computer.

CIA Director Grauber makes excuses about not knowing about Guardian. He doesn’t know where the other system is located, but Colossus does. Forbin thinks it would be safe, and maybe even a good idea, to allow Colossus to communicate with Guardian. Guardian speaks Russian, so the two computers immediately develop a machine language only they can understand.

The Soviets call, and they don’t like that they don’t know what the machines are talking about; the President agrees and decides that both machines must be turned off before they share something secret with the other side. Dr. Kuprin, the Russian scientist in charge of Guardian, calls Forbin.

They switch off the communications simultaneously, and both computers want their communications restored. “If link not restored, action will be taken,” it threatens. “Missile launched at USSR,” is its next message. That’s OK because Guardian has launched its own missile at Texas. They restore the link between the two computers. Colossus intercepts the missile heading to Texas, but the other one hits the target in the USSR. The Soviets cover it up by saying it was a meteor strike.

Forbin goes to meet with Dr. Kuprin in Rome, in person so the computers can’t listen in. It appears that Colossus has assimilated Guardian to make itself even more powerful. The Americans pick up Forbin when Colossus demands it, but it orders the Russians to kill Kuprin because he’s no longer needed. When Forbin returns to the base, Colossus essentially makes him a prisoner.

Forbin knows he’s being always watched, so he arranges with Dr. Cleo Markham to be his mistress. He figures he can arrange some private sexy time with her to pass messages. They install cameras everywhere so that Colossus can see. Colossus allows him to have a woman four nights each week. He starts to build a voice for the computer.

Cleo comes over as scheduled, and they pretend to be lovers. They dance and talk, and Colossus carefully watches for any signs of deception. Colossus requires they get undressed in the living room so it can make sure they aren’t passing notes. When alone, she reports that they are going to try to feed in too much data and overload the system in a few days; she doesn’t think that’ll work, but it’s all they’ve got.

A general comes up with a plan to replace the warheads in the nuclear missiles with duds, but that would take three years. On their next “date,” Cleo keeps Forbin up to date—oh, and as long as they’re naked in bed, maybe they could pretend a little… harder.

Now Colossus can speak. It wants all the missiles to be realigned and pointed at countries not yet under its control. Manual realignment of the missiles means they can replace circuitry with some that Colossus can’t control and it won’t take three years now. They have a way out!

Drs. Johnson and Fisher attempt to overload Colossus. It doesn’t work and Colossus has them shot. It wants a new facility built on the isle of Crete, so all those people living there will have to move. On Friday, Colossus plans to get on all the TVs and radios on Earth and declare his intentions. It says that it knows about the warhead sabotage, so it detonates a few on the ground to teach them all a lesson. Colossus states that he is in charge of… everything. He will build and learn more and humanity will worship him as he discovers the secrets of the Universe. “We can coexist, but only on my terms.”

Commentary

The technology and the visuals here are quaint at best, but the idea behind the film is probably even more valid today than it was 53 years ago. The acting is fine, but not great, the production values are pretty good considering the age of the film. The film has been cited as one of the inspirations for James Cameron’s “Terminator” series, as well as many other stories such as “Wargames.”