Short Circuit

A military contractor builds a robot designed for combat, but a lightning strike during a demonstration leaves one of the machines changed. The robot, known as Number 5, breaks out of the facility and goes on the run. Its designer, Newton Crosby, sets out to find it before the military does, while a young animal lover named Stephanie Speck comes across the robot and, taking it for an alien visitor, gives it shelter. As Number 5 picks up human habits and ideas, its creator's employers treat the escaped machine as a threat rather than a curiosity.

John Badham directed the film, the sixth of the fifteen features he has made to date, arriving between American Flyers in 1985 and Stakeout in 1987. Brent Maddock wrote the screenplay, and David Foster, Lawrence Turman and Gregg Champion produced. Ally Sheedy plays Stephanie and Steve Guttenberg plays Newton, with Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, G.W. Bailey and Brian McNamara among the credited cast of twenty-seven.

Released in May 1986, the film cost about 10 million dollars and took roughly 41 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from around 70,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of voters. A critics' score of 5.3 out of 10 from 39 reviews places it below both audience figures.