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  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

The 25 greatest movie robot battles

Features
By Gem Seddon
Published 2 September 2014

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6. Real Steel (2011)

The Robots: Hodge-podge old-school 'bot Atom, led by his trainer Max, built to sustain a lot of blows without succumbing to them, and the all-powerful Zeus, a slick, powerful 'bot that holds the title of world champion.

The Battle: The two take to the ring and pummel seven shades out of each other in the robo-boxing showdown of the year. Atom the underdog dishes out more punishment as usual, but when his controls are damaged he resorts to shadowing the moves of his coach, Charlie (Hugh Jackman).

The Victor: Technically, Zeus wins the fight - declared the victor due to his total number of blows inflicted. However, his near-defeat brings shame upon his team and Atom is crowned the Peoples Champion.

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5. Blade Runner (1982)

The Robots: Retired police officer and Nexus-6 bio-robotic replicant (according to director Ridley Scott), Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and blonde-haired, blue-eyed replicant, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer).

The Battle: Moments after murdering his maker and realising his replicant body is breaking down, Roy pursues Deckard onto a rooftop, where the cop leaps and misses. Deckard dangles precariously at the mercy of one of the 'droids he was sent to butcher.

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The Victor: Turns out Roy wasn't quite so batty after all, as he grabs Deckard and pulls him to safety. Then dies. Who knows who won that scuffle?

4. Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003)

The Robots: The T-850 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) - one of Cyberdynes upgraded (from the T-800) terminators - hosts a metal endoskeleton beneath its flesh and blood exterior, which looks kinda old school compared to the TX (Kristanna Loken). Equality reigns in the post-apocalyptic HR department at Skynet, as the T-850's foe is The Terminatrix, a composite of the T-800 and the T-1000. Meaning, it has a metal endoskeleton covered with liquid metal.

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The Battle: At the Air Force base moments after Skynet has gone live, the two 'bots duke it out. Standard gunfire is included of course, but the standout comes when they wind up in a bathroom. The T-850 grabs the T-X and drags her through a row of toilet cubicles, before slamming her head into the porcelain bowl.

The Victor: It's a draw. The T-800 still has to protect John Connor and Katherine Brewster, and the TX still has to kill them.

3. Iron Man (2008)

The Robots: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in one of the first iterations of his Iron Man suit, and bad guy-turned-bad bot Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), also known as the Iron Monger.

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The Battle: After Stane's henchmen realise they cannot duplicate Stark's new high-powered arc reactor, he breaks into Tony's home and steals it. Stark dons his suit and battles Stane, in his reverse-engineered suit complete with the stolen reactor. After a few rounds of suit-to-suit combat, Tony lures Obadiah atop the Stark Industries tower while his assistant Pepper overloads the huge arc reactor.

The Victor: Iron Man wins, as Stane falls into the reactor and dies.

2. Terminator Salvation (2009)

The Robots: A prototype infiltration cyborg, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) and the first official one of its kind: the flesh-coated endoskeleton T-800 model 101.

The Battle: The T-800 chucks Marcus around a fair bit, until Marcus lobs him into a wall and proceeds to smack him with a steel rod and a massive brick... before getting sucker punched right in his tender, human heart. Meanwhile John Connor takes over battling the Terminator, who drives the steel rod right through his chest.

The Victor: With Marcus revived, he yanks the rod from Johns chest, wraps it around the Terminator's neck and spins until its head flies off.

1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The Robots: The Cyberdyne Systems Series 800 Model 101; commonly referred to as the T-101, T-800 or simply The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a metal endoskeleton surrounded by living tissue with a fondness for biker garb. A newer, shinier Cyberdyne creation, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) is a mimetic poly-alloy, meaning its capable of shapeshifting due to its liquid metal component.

The Battle: The robot finale to end them all, the two terminators come head to head at a steel mill. After much sparring, shooting and shattering into thousands of pieces, the T-1000 gains the upper hand and shuts down the T-800's CPU. Seconds away from turning Sarah and John into knife racks, The T-800 locates an alternate power source and surprises the T-1000 with a grenade that gets him all bent out of shape (tee-hee). The shapeshifting son-of-a-gun falls to his termination in a vat of molten steel.

The Victor: The T-800 wins outright, but it's a bit of a tie, as the Terminator has ensured Judgment Day never happens by also meeting the same molten fate as his enemy. Which is incredibly sad.

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Gem Seddon
Gem Seddon
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Freelance Writer

Gem Seddon is a freelance writer working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.

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