Why, Robot? 80 years of Hollywood technophobia

Transformers: Age of Extinction is the latest in a long line of Hollywood movies about the dangers of technology. What are we so afraid of?

Transformers
(Image credit: (Facebook.com/Transformers))

Transformers: Age of Extinction arrives in theaters on Friday. Picking up four years after the events of the last film, Michael Bay's quasi-reboot of the franchise sees mankind turn on the transforming robots that were the world's saviors for the first three outings. It's something of a departure for the franchise, but for Hollywood — which has trafficked in thrillers about evil machines for the better part of a century — it's just a return to the norm.

If there's a single unifying theme in the blockbusters released this year, it's technophobia. There were drones in February's Robocop; Johnny Depp's insidious OS in Transcendence; and, most recently, the sinister sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

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Daniel is a freelance writer, an Englishman abroad, and a pop culture junkie. He writes about film, TV, and lifestyle for outlets including MSN, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Evening Standard, and Yahoo.