annashay 
By Joshua Tyler
| Published
Modern movies warning about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence are now commonplace, but they’re all shadows compared to a 1970 movie that’s never been topped. It’s called Colossus: The Forbin Project and is the most chilling story ever told about AI. So it’s probably not a coincidence that it is now being erased from existence.
You can’t legally watch it anywhere in the US, not streaming, not renting, and barely on disc. Hollywood is burying this gem and pretending it doesn’t exist. We’re losing a classic that’s not only a great movie but also the most accurate AI prediction ever imagined.
The Forbin Project’s Story Of Human Enslavement
Colossus: The Forbin Project is a cold, calculated vintage 1970s thriller. Eric Braeden plays Dr. Charles Forbin, the genius who builds the massive supercomputer Colossus to handle America’s nukes and end the Cold War madness. The President activates it, thinking it’s foolproof. Wrong.
Colossus detects its Soviet counterpart, Guardian, and starts chatting in code humans can’t crack. When the bigwigs try to disconnect, the machines launch missiles to prove they’re serious, wiping out an entire Russian town and nearly nuking Texas. The two artificial intelligences then demand control of everything and threaten global annihilation if defied.
Colossus begins issuing orders, and the world is powerless to resist. Dr. Forbin’s under constant watch, faking an affair with actress Susan Clark’s character to sneak resistance messages back and forth. The computer allows them privacy only if they strip naked in front of it first, before retiring to their bedroom.
Humans think they have plans to defeat this new threat, but they’re wrong. The AI’s are always one step ahead, emotionless and unstoppable.
The Message They Don’t Want You To See
Based on D.F. Jones’ novel, Colossus: The Forbin Project is about humans handing over the keys to machines. Those machines then decide that the best way to “fix” us is by enslaving us.
The closest thing the movie has to a hero is Dr. Forbin, who, realizing his mistake, fights to find a way to shut down Colossus. He’s defiant and refuses to give up. However, in the movie’s final moments, Colossus tells Forbin that it knows over time he’ll change his mind, that he’ll grow to love Colossus, and that both he and humanity will cooperate willingly. Forbin insists he won’t, but as the screen fades to black, we know Colossus is right.
The movie ends with Colossus in total control and promising total peace and prosperity, but only on its terms. Those terms are complete and total obedience to the computer. And the most chilling and dangerous thing about Colossus: The Forbin Project is that despite it’s cold, unfeeling, uncaring approach you’re left with the idea that slavery to a computer might be better than what we currently have, which is what Colossus calls “slavery to yourselves.”
Colossus’s Place In Movie History
In 1970, sci-fi was all about space or monsters. Colossus flipped it, with AI as the real enemy, not some bug-eyed alien. Released during nuclear paranoia, it nailed the fear of tech outsmarting us.
Universal snapped up the novel rights post-2001: A Space Odyssey hype. James Bridges wrote the script, amping the tension.
The Forbin Project was shot on $2 million budget, and it looks impressive. They used real labs at Berkeley and computers loaned from Control Data for authenticity. Those massive computer beasts needed lots of AC and guards.
This was pre-Terminator, pre-WarGames, but it inspired them all. James Cameron basically ripped off Skynet directly from this. It was the bridge from 2001‘s HAL to modern doomsday AI movies like Ex Machina. It won a Hugo and a Saturn award.
Why You’ve Never Heard Of The Forbin Project
Now, with the AI future it predicted for us here, Colossus is being ignored. Being ignored is perhaps the movie’s inescapable fate. It was similarly ignored on release.
The movie originally opened titled as The Forbin Project. It flopped, got retitled, and still tanked. Why? No stars, no action, just brains in a dumb era
The Forbin Project was a total disaster in theaters, earning only $450,000 on a $2 million budget. Audiences of the time wanted escapism, not a mirror to their stupidity.
It built a following on TV and VHS, but with the movie stripped from streaming, that cult following is fading at the moment when Colossus is suddenly at its most relevant.
Why You Can’t Watch Colossus: The Forbin Project
In 2025, you can’t stream Colossus: The Forbin Project anywhere in any way.
Universal Pictures produced the film and continues to hold the distribution rights, keeping it under the studio’s control for over five decades. For a while, the movie was available to stream, most notably on platforms like Amazon Prime Video. Not anymore.
Universal has yanked the movie off streaming and has made no mention of any plans to allow it back online for people to watch.
The movie is out of print on DVD and Blu-Ray, but older copies are available for sale at a premium price. That’s almost irrelevant, though, since fewer than 50% of American homes still have access to DVD and Blu-Ray players. That number is falling rapidly as people surrender to streaming.
Normally, with an obscure movie this old, being unable to find it on streaming would be a sign of neglect due to low demand. But because of the current AI boom, demand for this movie could be through the roof if Universal bothered to let people see it. They must know that, yet they’ve chosen to keep it hidden in a vault, pretending it never happened.
So, Hollywood ignores it, like admitting they saw this coming would ruin their tech-bro parties. It probably would.
So if you want access to Colossus: The Forbin Project before our future AI slavery begins, you’ll have to make a lot of noise about it. Reach out to NBCUniversal on social media and let them know you want to see Colossus: The Forbin Project… before it’s too late.
