Miscategorized Media, or: Bummer, No Fembots.

[jolshefsky]

Watched Atlas (2024) ... it was okay at best. Pretty much by-the-book action design: overconfident military goes in; untrained advisor is left to save the day. There is a large part in the middle where Atlas (Jennifer Lopez) is reluctantly building a relationship with her "Arc" semi-autonomous AI exoskeleton. But most important, there are no fembots, aside from a three-second nudity-blurred-out "news" footage of a female android. Oh, and there's an "Arc" named Zoe, so there's a female voice in one of them if that's your thing.

[jolshefsky]

Almost not worth mentioning, but I was watching Frozen Scream on RiffTrax and it's kind of vaguely robot-related. Like a lot of low-budget horror films, the plot is scattered and nonsensical, but there was something about these electronic(?) devices stuck to the necks of dead people that make them immortal. Something something "cranial circuits need to be adjusted to keep the body temperature low enough..." More like half-alive zombies, but there are a few women.

[1986 Chevy S10]

I have an ear to the ground in the indie "mascot" horror sphere, and recently I came across a game called "Mint's Hints". As you can probably imagine by the title, it's another generic mascot horror title that basically boils down to "Blue's Clues but scary". Normally this wouldn't be worth bringing up; but as I played the game, I noticed something. Heavy spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

In one of the game's hidden tapes, you find out that the player character, a woman named Amelia (who was one of the show's main writers) was replaced by an AI program by the show's producers; along with the rest of the cast members. Right before the final boss fight, the boss gives some expository dialogue informing the player that you've been playing as an android doppelganger of the writer the whole time.

Obviously because this is a major plot point in the game that's only given to you by a hidden lore tape and some expository dialogue; I'm posting this here because it falls pretty squarely into GINO territory. You're only TOLD that you're playing as an gynoid; you never get to see what the player character looks like, nor are there any telltale sound cues.

I'm not sure if the game's developers will go anywhere with this revelation; but I'll keep an eye on this one. It would be nice if they really took advantage of this revelation in future DLC chapters; but I won't hold my breath.

[jolshefsky]

Just searching around, and I forgot all about Judy (2016) in which a guy gets a mysterious delivery of a fully functional sex robot. But *spoilers* she is actually a human woman pretending, and it all falls apart when her husband shows up...

[jolshefsky]

I'm on the fence about including Cassandra (Germany, 2025) ... it's a TV series about a family that buys a "smart home" made in the 1970s that includes a robot avatar with a female face on a screen. I guess it's kind of "fembot on wheels" if you will. The show is pretty good, actually, with an interesting story and a lot of suspense. I personally fault it for the AI computer with a rendered face from the 1970s that was just impossible, but that's just me being pedantic. I also thought the husband-and-wife dynamics were strained for the plot, with the husband believing his wife is crazy.

But yeah, is this "miscategorized"?

[jolshefsky]

Well one more official, and a second unofficial.

"Real Steel" (2011) is about giant remote-control boxing robots, but it doesn't have any human-like androids at all.

For the record, Saturn 3 (1980) doesn't have any androids either, only a vaguely-human-shaped mechanical robot which (spoilers) "becomes" one of the male characters through some kind of brain link. For the record, 23-year-old Farrah Fawcett spends a lot of the movie not wearing much at all.

[jolshefsky]

Another GINO disappointment in Like Friends (2025), an Italian film described on IMDb as "Achille, a successful, solitary broker, buys Kelly, the first woman android with a perfectly human body. After a period of cohabitation that is anything but simple, Kelly mysteriously disappears. This is only the beginning of a whirlwind of events that will upend his life." It's not even a very good movie at all.

[jolshefsky]

I'm reluctant to include short films because there are so many, particularly with GINO content, but The Mechanical (2021) was one of those (spoilers:) where the robots are actually just humans. Quite the deception from IMDb's "In an alternate now, a lifelike android stands at the heart of two stories - her owner's life of luxury and the struggles of the workers who created her."

[tdlsn]

You are doing us a GREAT service and I thank you.
I just wish to get even more general asfr related media reviews from you.

[jolshefsky]

I'll hopefully save someone else from disappointment with two from 1993.

First is Knights, described on IMDb as "in the future, a kickboxer and a robot lead a revolution against ruling cyborgs." Every single cyborg/robot is male. The main female (Kathy Long as Nea) is human. Bonus disappointment because this was directed by none other than Albert Pyun who gave us Cyborg, Nemesis (and Nemesises 2, 3, and 4), and Omega Doom.

Second is Mandroid ("In his hidden laboratory deep in Russia, Dr. Karl Zimmer has invented the Mandroid, a humanoid robot which follows the motions of a man in a special control suit.") At least expectations were pretty much zero, I mean, come on, the movie is called Mandroid, not Womandroid...

[jolshefsky]

Dark Future (1994) is described on IMDb as "A plague ravages Earth, forcing survivors underground as cyborg slaves. When a rare birth occurs, a bartender sparks rebellion against the ruling human-machine hybrids who want the child for themselves." However, all the cyborgs are male.

[tdlsn]

Thanks

[jolshefsky]

Having seen a movie with Juliette Lewis, I wondered what she was up to, and found "By Design" on IMDb with the cryptic description "A twist on the body swap genre." Turning to Wikipedia, though, it has nothing to do with body swapping but two women trying to have a baby together. I don't think there's any point adding it to the big list so I'll just mention it here.

[jolshefsky]

Another one down: Singularity (2017).
IMDb says, "Earth 2020, 3/4 of it's households have a robot. The AI supercomputer, Kronos, considers humans the biggest threat to Earth. A century later, few humans are left. Calia seeks the last human stronghold as does Kronos."
Spoilers: the guy who goes with Calia is a robot (but she is human). It's also a slog of a terrible movie.

[tdlsn]

One to avoid.

[jolshefsky]

I started poking around a the DUST short films and found a few that were titled like they might have androids but didn't:

• Augmented: A corporate investigator interrogates a man who invited a woman to see the secret projects, only for her to steal a valuable prototype. Nothing to do with androids at all.
• CTRL-Z: Comedy about a time machine device. It's not bad, I guess.

And also some with GINO content that I'll add to the main list (perhaps until it gets all plugged up with DUST GINO content.)

• The Cage: An artist has a female helper android that doesn't get a necessary software update and (spoilers) kills him. Full on GINO in this one.
• Extent: It's very cerebral, but I gathered that a man has made artificial beings (in flashback, a woman is likely to be one of them). One of the artificial people wants to not be immortal so he can appreciate moments of life.
• Ryoko's Qubit Summer: A woman enters a simulated AI universe about to be shut-down; it is populated by autonomous people and she wants to visit her female friend one last time. AI women and special effects, but not really androids.
• Valentine: In this arbitrary future, people have virtual assistants wired to their brains. A young woman visits her boyfriend who hacks the device and causes her to pass out (and worse...) Robotic-adjacent, but definitely supposed to be human beings.

[tdlsn]

Thanks for this. Btw, I find that a lot of DUST content to be hit or miss so I'll always look for your review first.

[jolshefsky]

Checked out Starcrash (1978) which is a Roger Corman Star Wars wanna-be with a cute woman, but no androids. There is a brief scene with a giant mecha-Amazon woman but all metal and mechanical if you're into that. "An outlaw smuggler and her alien companion are recruited by the Emperor of the Galaxy to rescue his son and destroy a secret weapon by the evil Count Zarth Arn."

Robowar (1988) was even worse, with a single female character, and no androids to speak of. The "cyborg" they mention is male, by the way: "A special forces unit known as BAM is tasked with a mission: tracking down the rogue Omega-1 cyborg unit in a dense jungle, without being told their exact objective. Soon they find themselves the hunted rather than the hunters."

[jolshefsky]

FYI, the recent DUST release "Reprogrammed" doesn't have any androids ... it's about a woman reconciling a relationship with her father while she makes a toy-like AI assistant.

[jolshefsky]

A few more DUST GINO films from the archive:

• Prototype: An inventor of androids is trying to make one that has emotions. Yes, female androids, but at best the "glowing eyes" effect.
• How To Be Human: Two female androids try to escape humanity to reach an android society haven.
• Loop: A female android is exposed to an emotionally traumatic event in an attempt to get her to regulate her emotions.
• Propagation: Stepford Wives like music video with a female android that kills her owner. She has blank eyes, though.
• Custom Order: A guy buys a sex robot to replace his ex-girlfriend. Robotic acting and audio.

Going through things, I found a couple more that were fembot related:

• Marie: A woman is hiding from alien invaders, only to discover that she is synthetic with a powerful weapon. It's not exactly clear if she's human with cyborg parts, though.
• New Man: Silent film black-and-white film where an android gets plugged into a machine. Obviously made on a very tight budget, the effects are very cheap.

[tdlsn]

Much appreciated Honestly, it's fun to read your synopsis of GINO and miscategorized content.