30 Indian Minds Leading the AI Revolution

Of humans, machines and what lies between them – Part 3

In a series of articles, Forbes India looks at films that have depicted artificial intelligence in unique ways, and raised some profound questions

By Jasodhara Banerjee Forbes India Staff

Published: Jun 18, 2025 04:35:25 PM IST

Updated: Jun 18, 2025 04:54:07 PM IST

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day that set the benchmark for future films in the franchise, along with its groundbreaking visual effects, for which it won an Oscar. Image: Jun Sato/WireImage/Getty Images

Terminator 2 (1991)

Although the Terminator franchise has included several movies over the years, it is the James Cameron-written and directed Terminator 2: Judgment Day that set the benchmark for future films in the franchise, along with its groundbreaking visual effects, for which it won an Oscar.

The first installment in the franchise introduced the concept of Skynet, an artificially intelligent network that is out to end the existence of humankind on earth. It also introduced T-800, a robotic endoskeleton that is covered with living tissues to give it a human-like appearance. In Terminator 2, T-800—immortalised by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger—is tasked with saving the life of John Connor from T-1000, a far more advanced, shape-shifting robot made of liquid metal. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase between them, replete with high-octane action sequences and never-seen-before special effects..

The film builds on the idea, as seen in films of the previous decade, of a physically invincible entity that is meant to protect (and destroy) humans in ways that humans themselves are not capable of. They are capable of making decisions that will help them achieve their end goals, and even mimic the voices of humans, and yet their mental capabilities remain limited to following instructions and protocols that they have been programmed with. They are unable to think or feel (physically or emotionally) like humans.

These sentient machines are not shown, in any way, as wanting to gain the various attributes of human beings. However, even as T-800 sees itself as a machine alone, built for a specific purpose, it does come to understand human emotions. At the end of the film, as T-800 tells John that it must also be destroyed along with T-1000, it says, “I know now why you cry, but it’s something I can never do.”

Also read: Of humans, machines and what lies between them

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Enthiran is a quintessential Rajinikanth film

Enthiran (2010)

Written and directed by S Shankar, Enthiran is a quintessential Rajinikanth film, complete with song-dance sequences in exotic locations as well as over-the-top action sequences. Credit for the pathbreaking visual effects in the film goes to V Srinivas Mohan, who went on to work on other visual spectacles such as Baahubali (2015), the second edition of Enthiran, called 2.0 (2018), and RRR (2022).

Using the trope of the genius scientist making an indestructible robot in his own image, the film is about Vaseegaran and his attempts at making a robot named Chitti, who should be able to follow orders and perform impossible physical tasks, fight crime and the country’s enemies, without feeling human emotions. Depending on who—Vaseegaran or his evil rival Bohra— is programming/controlling it, Chitti is alternatingly used either for the benefit or humanity or its destruction. However, the black and white world of good and evil turns uncertain grey when Chitti develops emotions, which causes it to act in unpredictable, and dangerous, ways. In the end, Chitti has to be dismantled for the benefit of mankind because it develops the power to ‘think’.

Much like the T-800 and T-1000 of Terminator 2, Chitti is shown as a sentient machine built for the specific purpose of either saving or destroying humanity. It is not expected to think, feel or behave like a human being, and therefore, when it does, it has to be taken apart and deactivated.