The first of Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics states that “a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” Funny how often the robots in movies don’t obey that law.
Take the rebelling replicants — artificially produced humans made for slave labor on distant outer worlds — who wreak havoc on Los Angeles in Ridley Scott’s 1982 science-fiction classic “Blade Runner.” Newer models of those replicants are back in “Blade Runner 2049,” opening this Friday in theaters everywhere.
In Fritz Lang’s science-fiction masterpiece, an imperious city planner, Joh (Alfred Abel), kills the working-class heroine Maria (Brigitte Helm) and replaces her with a robot double.