10 Movies That Will Make You Fear AI

That’s a good clickbait title. This list really just contains movies that touch on AI, not exclusively those that depict it as a threat, though many of them do. In the ever looming landscape we currently find ourself in, I decided it was an apt list to write. And if you’re curious this article (just like every other thing I write on here) was not written using AI, just my own brain power. That explains why so many of them don’t make sense.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning- The penultimate M:I film, ‘Dead Reckoning’ introduces us to the all powerful Entity, an AI model that can hack pretty much anything & do pretty much anything. That film ends with the Entity spreading across the globe with Ethan Hunt & Co. not sure what to do about it. That then leads us into this 2025 film, that I don’t want to spoil. I will just say that the film takes place a few years later so the Entity has run rampant across the world & most of this film is us seeing the repercussions of that.

I, Robot- A lot of movies on this list & that touch on AI do so by showing us an artificially intelligent robot that goes crazy. Luckily, that’s not something we are currently dealing with at least as far as I know. Though Alexa is always listening to me so… Based on the 1950 Isaac Asimov novel, this film shows a world that is heavily reliant on robots (think ‘WALL-E’ but not everyone is obese). We become introduced to Sonny, a robot who is uniquely able to feel emotions and we see the implications that has on the world at large in the film.

The Matrix- I’m not a big fan of ‘The Matrix.’ But it is an incredibly thought provoking film that plays with the idea of our world being a simulation created by thinking machines to prevent people from learning about the real dystopian world that exists. While this film leans more into simulated realities & dystopia then AI, I think it certainly still deals with the topic and is one of the most prevalent examples of it.

Ex Machina- This Academy Award-winning 2014 film follows a programmer who is brought in by his CEO to administer the Turing test on an android created by their company. Alicia Vikander plays the android, Ava, in an award nominated chilling performance. I don’t want to spoil too much of the film for those that haven’t seen it, so I’ll leave it at that.

2001: A Space Odyssey- The oldest film on this list, the antagonist of this 1968 Stanley Kubrick film is famously the AI entity known as HAL. The film was truly revolutionary and dived into aspects of AI that were previously unexplored. Admittedly, I still don’t understand the ending & would love if someone wanted to clear it up for me.

Blade Runner- Another film that depicts artificially intelligent humanoid robots, this film really is less about the threat that these androids pose & more about the humanity that could exist within them. Which is perhaps even scarier?

The Creator- Another film that shows a world fully immersed in AI, this 2023 film is set in 2070 during a war between humans & AI. An incredibly underrated film, this one is definitely worth watching if you haven’t, honestly for the visuals alone.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence- A film that is INCREDIBLY similar to some of the previous entries. Well I guess it came out before some of them, so they are similar to it. It follows a child-like android (like ‘The Creator) who is specifically designed to love (like ‘I, Robot’), oh and also it came from the mind of Stanley Kubrick (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey). The film was passed over to Steven Spielberg who successfully helmed it and many consider it one of his best, which is saying a lot.

The Terminator- This whole franchise (now made up of 6 films, 1 television series, and a ton of expanded media) centers on the war against Skynet, a ‘synthetic intelligence’ who is at war with humans in the future. The first film focuses on the titular robot being sent back to kill Sarah Connor, whose son John is the leader of the resistance of Skynet, with subsequent film focusing on the Connors in a variety of ways.

Her- The final film on this list does not focus on the question ‘What if AI was scary?’ but rather, ‘What if someone fell in love with their AI assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson?’ which is really a great question that needs to be addressed.