Like “Ever After” did for his sister Emma, the movie “Short Circuit II” resonated with and inspired our son Eric, and is another one of those diamonds in the rough stories that speak to the values both generations in our household hold so dear. Also like “Ever After” it is a compelling tale full of classic scenes that we all can watch over and over again, smile, even laugh, and be reenergized to keep on keeping on.

The movie is humble enough commercial fare, aimed at a younger audience. It is actually the sequel to the movie “Short Circuit” which tells the story of the creation by a U.S. military contractor of a series of artificially intelligent soldier-robots, designed by two young “uber-geek” engineers, Newton and Benjamin. Through the field testing process the series of prototypes prove out their capability as highly adaptable and effective killing machines, except for one (number 5) which has a glitch and somehow becomes sentient and refuses to continue following orders to seek and destroy. Rather than terminate the malfunctioning machine, the two young engineers quit the program and smuggle this wannabe consciousness into hiding. In the process of its own emerging self-awareness, the robot decides it needs a name, not just a number, and adopts the moniker “Johnny 5”.

I guess the original “Short Circuit” is worth watching, if only to provide some context, but the real gem is the story told in the sequel. Benjamin, one of the two robotic engineers has built a miniature toy version of the robot which he peddles on the streets of New York City in an attempt to earn a minimal living at his craft. He befriends Fred, a fast-talking con man who helps Benjamin get a contract with a major toy store chain to produce a thousand robots by the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Benjamin and Fred rent an old warehouse space and assemble the equipment to build the toy robots, but quickly realize they can never build the 1000 contracted quickly enough. This prompts Benjamin to contact Newton, who is living “off the grid” in the Northwest, and Newton ships him the original Johnny 5 to help with assembling the toy robots to meet the terms of the contract.

The robot soon arrives in a big crate, which he emerges from full of sparkling personality, naïveté, but with an all-consuming desire for “input”, to learn everything he can about the world and what it means to be sentient like human beings. If there ever was a metaphor for youth, this perky, quirky, hellasciously curious literal learning machine fits that bill. He begins the work of assembling his toy robot likenesses, but quickly becomes aware that there is a whole huge world of “input” out there that he longs to process.

Johnny 5 takes every opportunity to watch the little TV in the warehouse and absorb all the nuances and paradoxes of human culture that he can through this medium, including its seeming obsession with violence and war. Still he longs to get out of the warehouse, which he finally does, and in one memorable scene finds a book store and proceeds to attempt to read every one of the thousands of volumes on the shelves. He employs his capability of flipping through pages with lightning speed and absorbing a book’s contents in generally less than ten seconds, all the while excitedly crying out “Input!” Johnny 5’s actions bring the police, who arrest him, and rather than incarcerating him with the human beings, stow him in their warehouse with all the other stolen and recovered property. The symbolism is not lost on the emerging consciousness of the robot.

Through the course of the movie, due to his great capability and value combined with his naïveté and natural inquisitiveness, Johnny 5 is repeatedly exploited. Unbeknownst to Benjamin, his conman partner Fred tries to sell the robot to a major conglomerate. When Johnny 5 realizes he has been betrayed by his friend Fred, and again treated like a thing that can be bought and sold, he is devastated. He runs away only to be taken in by Oscar, who posing as the bank president, convinces the robot to help his “staff” dig a tunnel into the safe of the bank and steal multi-million dollar jewelry, thinking he is helping the poser give his customers easier access to their money.

Repeatedly duped and manipulated by the darker side of human nature, Johnny 5 becomes angry and cynical, but is determined to track Oscar down and bring him to justice. Even after being ambushed and severely damaged by Oscar’s henchmen (a scene that can be difficult for a young kid to watch), he doggedly pursues Oscar even while leaking the life-giving battery fluid that prevents the death of his electronic personality. Meanwhile Benjamin, searching for the AWOL robot, picks up the trail of dripping fluid, and desperately pursues the him, knowing that a dead battery means an end of Johnny 5’s electronic consciousness.

In the climactic scene the robot finally captures Oscar but is not found by Benjamin until moments after running out of juice. Luckily, using a defibrillator, Benjamin resuscitates the robot, barely managing to salvage his personality and underlying consciousness. Johnny 5 becomes an overnight celebrity, and in honor of his heroic acts and demonstrated sentience, despite his humble machine origins, the beaming robot (no longer to be considered just a machine) is granted a new status as the first “robotic citizen” of the United States.

Johnny 5’s parallel quest – for self-awareness and the respect of others as more than just a machine (a metaphoric child) with no rights – resonated with our son Eric, and particularly with his difficult school experience. It is a challenge to continue to summon the courage to fight for ones own need for input/learning and respect while being treated as someone incapable of taking ownership of their own existence. When we pulled Eric out of school in the eighth grade and let him chart his own educational course, find his own “input”, I feel now like we were acknowledging him and granting him some sort of “citizenship”.