“Short Circuit” is a science-fiction comedy about a robot that malfunctions and gains a human-like sentience. The SAINT robots are designed to be deployed on the battlefield, driven by caterpillar tracks and with a shoulder mounted laser they are a formidable force (as we see in the opening scenes of a military demonstration). When lightning strikes one of the robots, Number 5, he manages to free himself and escape from NOVA Laboratories. Leaving his life of military service behind he embarks on a journey of discovery, reading everything he can in an insatiable desire for “input”, and finds a friend in the person of Stephanie, a young woman who agrees to allow him to stay with her. Meanwhile, the robotics engineers are doing their best to recover the expensive piece of hardware before it does serious damage in the outside world. John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, War Games) directs from the screenplay by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, who also wrote the Tremors series of films.
The Film Blog 