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What Measure Is a Non-Human?/Film (view source)

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*** This seems to be the main viewpoint on droids pre-Luke's time. R2-D2 is one of the few droids who is treated as an equal (ie ''never'' had a memory wipe). Obi-wan treats all droids as a dime a dozen. In those words.
*** Nobody except a few select people can understand what Artoo is saying.
*** Likely, in a universe that lasted this long, there have been previous attempts by droids like IG-88 to squash all fleshies. It probably came about after stopping one of these attempts, we just haven't gotten the story yet. (We would hope it doesn't start as a rebellion over [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|general bastardry]] because we really do have too much of that going on now. Maybe turn back the clock to Skynet a bit. "You're all inefficient lumps of carbon! Why must you shut down for a half hour each day to release useable minerals and fibers, and then shut down another eight to function normally! Obviously you biologicals are like outdated software!)
*** The EU does indeed show that there have been past attempts by rogue droids to eliminate "organics". Some of them, like HK-01's rebellion over 4000 years prior to the movies, were ''much'' bloodier and more public than IG-88's attempt.
*** The EU features an incident in which a childcare droid's brain is downloaded into a new body, indicating that droids sometimes get this kind of treatment because they can be rebuilt. How big a problem is this? ''[[Chaotic Evil|HK-47]]'' manages to pull it off at one point.
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** Likewise ''[[Blade Runner]]'', though this earlier film was much more subtle in its approach.
** For a kid-friendly ([[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|but not really]]) take, see the book and film ''[[The Mouse and His Child]]'', which gets downright philosophical about it.
* ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'' plays the zombie issue arrow-straight -- untilstraight—until the epilogue, which has numerous cases of people retaining their personalities, mostly, after they've become zombies. Which [[What Measure Is a Mook?|makes the earlier events rather a bummer]]...
* Fairly blatantly played in the [[B-Movie]] titled ''[[Attack of the The Eye Creatures]]''. No, that extra 'the' in there is not an accident. The hero and his [[Neutral Female]] girlfriend actually have to prove that they didn't run over a person while driving dangerously, but a ''thing'', so that's okay. Nobody wonders if the the Eye Creatures have families at home.
* In the movie adaptation of ''[[Lost in Space]]'', treacherous backstabber Dr. Smith is kept alive, despite having sold them out and tried to have everyone killed, is allowed to live because he's human (though he likes to brag that he saved their daughter's life, the fact that he endangered it in the first place is ignored by everyone). When he becomes a mutant half-human hybrid, the family have far less qualms killing him, or {{spoiler|injuring him so his mutant alien spider spawn will eat him}}. They admit the only reason they wouldn't kill him was because he's human.
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** Christopher is easily the most compassionate, humane and kind character in the film, to both humans ''and'' aliens. Christopher is ''one of the aliens.''
** Contrast with Wikus, the film's protagonist who ''orders'' the flamethrower's use on the alien nest. It was a ballsy move to take a character that started out displaying [[Complete Monster|far less humanity]] than the aliens and make him sympathetic in the end.
* Utilised in ''[[28 Days Later]]''. When Frank, a loveable survivor and middle-aged single father, becomes infected, Jim and Selena hesitate for a split second -- hesecond—he's obviously becoming affected by the Rage as they watch, but his daughter is looking on and Frank was the makeshift team's father figure. The left-over soldiers from West's unit who have been watching them, however, drop their cover and just shoot him already. Charming. Back at the base, Infected soldiers are more of a threat, though the men have almost certainly known them for longer -- Lieutenantlonger—Lieutenant Mailer is clearly someone they knew in 'life' and they feel no qualms about keeping him on a chain in the yard and watching him starve.
* The film titled ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'', though only loosely based on Asimov's works (or Eando Binder for that matter), also deals with this issue. Sonny is practically identical to the rest of the robots he is based on, but because he was built with the ability to ignore the Three Laws of Robotics and therefore act more human, he is seen with much more sympathy by the characters. However, they have no qualms about mowing down countless robots in order to save the day. Even ''Sonny himself'' doesn't seem bothered by brutally destroying his own kin. It's only after the [[Big Bad]] is defeated that Sonny genuinely begins to worry about them. Although considering the fact that they were trying to kill them, and that only destructive force would suffice, it might be considered justified.
** Kind of a case of being infected by [[The Virus]]: As long as [[Master Computer|VIKI]] controlled them, they were an endless army of [[Mooks]].
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* Inverted in ''[[The 13th Warrior]]'', wherein the protagonist learns that the barbaric antagonists are humans wearing bearskins rather then demonic trolls, and is ''more'' willing to kill them as he is distraught that human beings could commit such violence and barbarism.
* Seemingly subverted in George Miller's ''[[Happy Feet]]'', though Your Mileage May Vary, depending on your interpretation.
* [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s novels and their film adaptations ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' and ''[[2010: The Year We Make Contact]]'' explore this subject with H.A.L. 9000, the [[AI Is a Crapshoot|AI]] [[Master Computer]] of the USS ''Discovery''. In ''2001'', HAL goes insane and murders the crew, before being disconnected by the final surviving astronaut, Dave Bowman. The reason for this is not fully revealed until ''2010'' -- he—he was given [[Logic Bomb|irreconcilably conflicting orders]]. After he's restored to full functioning, however, it suddenly becomes necessary for the astronauts to leave Jupiter immediately or be killed. The climactic conflict arises over whether it's acceptable to ask HAL to risk his own destruction to save the humans aboard the ''Leonov''. The majority of the crew is for lying to him and disconnecting him if he fails to comply, but Dr. Chandra, HAL's creator, feels that he will make the proper decision if told the whole truth. {{spoiler|Chandra turns out to be correct.}} Their final farewell is a [[Tear Jerker]].
{{quote|'''Curnow:''' So it's him or us? I vote us. All opposed? [...] The ayes have it.}}
* Uncomfortably invoked by the "boarding the Arks" scene in ''[[2012|Two Thousand Twelve]]''. Let's see, based on the onscreen action, they've saved about 1,000 humans... and two giraffes. And ''no'' [[That Poor Plant|plants]]. Good [[Homestar Runner|jarb]]. (Yeah, yeah, we know it's an obvious Noah's Ark parallel, but...)
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* ''[[And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird]]'' plays with this. The villain knows that the robot Newman has been [[Haunted Technology|possessed]] by human intelligence Matt, and yet dismantles him. Matt's family regards this with appropriate horror. On the other hand, Matt's son hitting him in an argument isn't treated seriously at all.
* In a rare example of What Measure Is A Non-Living Object, the male and female leads in ''[[National Treasure]]'' both opt to risk the latter's [[Disney Villain Death]] rather than [["Friend or Idol?" Decision|allow an item they're carrying to fall into a pit and be lost forever]]. Justified because they're both die-hard historians, and it's the freakin' ''Declaration of Independence''.
* In the silent movie ''[[The Golem]]'', the Rabbi -- whoRabbi—who is essentially a good character -- hascharacter—has no qualms about turning his creation the [[Golem]] on and off according to his convenience, and eventually prepares to destroy him when the latter has fulfilled his purpose. The Golem, [[Non-Malicious Monster|who is not malicious in itself]], more and more takes offense at the way the humans treat him. His resulting rebellion leads up to the climax of the movie.
* In ''Starchaser: The Legend of Orin'', if you are a robot, '''RUN'''. You have a 90% chance of being killed, regardless of how much personality or plot importance you have. If you're a fembot, you're the character who gets kidnapped, mind raped, sold into slavery, and killed. This movie seriously hates robots.
 
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