Short Circuit (1986 film)
1986 film directed by John Badham
Short Circuit is a 1986 American science fiction comedy film directed by John Badham and written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. The film centers on an experimental military robot that is struck by lightning and gains a human-like artificial intelligence, prompting it to escape its facility to learn more about the world. It stars Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton, and G. W. Bailey; Tim Blaney is the voice of the robot Number 5.
Short Circuit was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on May 9, 1986, by Tri-Star Pictures. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing $40.7 million against a $15 million budget. It earned three nominations, including Best Science Fiction Film, at the 14th Saturn Awards. The film's sequel, titled Short Circuit 2, was directed by Kenneth Johnson and was theatrically released on July 6, 1988.
Plot
NOVA Laboratory robotics experts Newton Crosby and Ben Jabituya have developed a series of robotic soldiers called S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) for the U.S. military to use in Cold War operations, though they would rather seek peaceful applications of the robots. After a live demonstration for the military, one of the units, S.A.I.N.T. Number 5, is struck by lightning arcing through the lab's power grid. This scrambles the robot's programming and gives him rudimentary sentience, after which he escapes from the NOVA facility.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Short Circuit (1986 film)” as 1986 film directed by John Badham. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1986 film directed by John Badham. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q540125. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Short Circuit (1986 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.