The Forbin Project (1970) – Nostalgia Central

“This is the voice of world control . . . “

Dr Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) is the designer of ‘Colossus’ – an incredibly sophisticated self-sufficient, self-protecting, self-generating computer sealed in an impenetrable Colorado mountain that will run all of America’s nuclear defence systems.

Shortly after being turned on, Colossus announces, “There is another system”  – it has detected the existence of ‘Guardian’, its Soviet counterpart, previously unknown to the US.

Both Colossus and Guardian demand to be linked and threaten to launch all their missiles if their demand is not met.

After taking safeguards to preserve confidential material, each side agrees to allow it.

As soon as the link is established, the two become a new supercomputer and threaten the world with the immediate launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached.

Colossus/Guardian begins to outline its plans for managing the world under its guidance, enforcing orders and ensuring compliance through punitive missile launches.

Forbin and the other scientists form an underground technological resistance, but by the end of the film, the world is united by the dire threat now facing it.

Gordon Pinsent as the unnamed President of the United States – looking like a cross between John F Kennedy and Johnny Jupiter – does a sterling job.

Dr Charles Forbin
Eric Braeden
Dr Cleo Markham
Susan Clark
President
Gordon Pinsent
CIA Director Grauber
William Schallert
Russian Chairman
Leonid Rostoff
Dr John F. Fisher
Georg Stanford Brown
Dr Blake
Willard Sage
Dr Kuprin
Alex Rodine
Dr Jefferson J. Johnson
Martin Brooks
Angela Fields
Marion Ross
Missile Commander
Dolph Sweet
Secretary of State
Byron Morrow
Peterson
Lew Brown
Secretary of Defense
Sid McCoy
Thomas L. Harrison
Tom Basham
First Scientist
Robert Cornthwaite
Dr Chin
James Hong
Translator
Serge Tschernisch
Colossus (voice)
Paul Frees

Director
Joseph Sargent