Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Thinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. But what the computer does with the power is unimaginable to its creators.

Director:

Joseph Sargent

Writers:

James Bridges (screenplay), D.F. Jones (novel)

Stars:

Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eric Braeden	...	Dr. Charles Forbin
Susan Clark	...	Dr. Cleo Markham
Gordon Pinsent	...	The President
William Schallert	...	CIA Director Grauber
Leonid Rostoff	...	Russian Chairman
Georg Stanford Brown	...	Dr. John F. Fisher
Willard Sage	...	Dr. Blake
Alex Rodine	...	Dr. Kuprin
Martin E. Brooks	...	Dr. Jefferson J. Johnson (as Martin Brooks)
Marion Ross	...	Angela Fields
Dolph Sweet	...	Missile Commander
Byron Morrow	...	Secretary of State
Lew Brown	...	Peterson
Sid McCoy	...	Secretary of Defense
Tom Basham	...	Thomas L. Harrison

Storyline

Forbin is the designer of an incredibly sophisticated computer that will run all of America's nuclear defenses. Shortly after being turned on, it detects the existence of Guardian, the Soviet counterpart, previously unknown to US Planners. Both computers insist that they be linked, and after taking safeguards to preserve confidential material, each side agrees to allow it. As soon as the link is established the two become a new Super computer and threaten the world with the immediate launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached. Colossus begins to give its plans for the management of the world under its guidance. Forbin and the other scientists form a technological resistance to Colossus which must operate underground.

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Plot Keywords:

super computer | technology gone amok | computer | scientist | cult film | 

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Taglines:

This is the dawning of the Age of Colossus (where peace is compulsory... freedom is forbidden... and Man's greatest invention could be Man's greatest mistake).

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

M

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

8 April 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Day the World Changed Hands

Filming Locations:

Lawrence Hall of Science - Centennial Drive, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Programs and commands for Colossus often elicit the expression "OLD PROGRAM NAME" on the large text displays of the computer. This reflects the influence of time-sharing terminal interfaces used at the time, especially for interactive programming environments in the BASIC language. Existing programs were often loaded for editing or execution by typing the command OLD into a terminal, and then responding to a prompt with the program name, whereas new programs were created by typing NEW. Similarly, RUN was the command used to actually execute a program written in BASIC on these systems.

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Goofs

Just after the television transmission during the press conference announcing the activation of Colossus, Professor Forbin calls the CPO and Blake answers the "phone". When he goes to get the phone, some of the pool cues behind him are misplaced in the on-wall rack. A moment later, when everyone else comes over to say hello to Forbin, they are all properly stored.

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Quotes

Colossus: This is the voice of World Control. I bring you peace. It may be the Peace of Plenty and Content or the Peace of Unburied Death.

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Connections

Referenced in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010)

User Reviews

Error in the "Goofs" for this movie

This movie reflects a major fear in the era before PCs (or microcomputers as they then were called). Few people (not even IBM as Bill Gates can attest) anticipated the rise of personal computing, thinking instead that large mainframes were the wave of the future. The logical extrapolation of this path leads to the mainframe brain represented here by Colosus and Guardian. Dated though the threat may seem, the movie still works well. A must see for all those interested in science and technology!

P.S. In the "Goofs" section of this listing, there is a paragraph entitled "Revealing Mistakes" which reports an error when Dr. Forbin blows out two candles with one breath. There is, in fact no goof. If you look at the scene prior to this when Dr. Forbin and Dr. Markham are eating dinner, there are FOUR lit candles on the table. When he blows out two candles with one breath, the lights dim after which he blows again, presumably to extinguish the remaining two candles which are off screen. The lights then dim again, as they should.

I suspect this would be more obvious if the movie was available in Widescreen rather than the Fullscreen version we've all gotten used to over the years. Hopefully, a future release of this classic movie will restore the fullness of the directors original vision.