Westworld (film)

''Westworld'' is a 1973 American science fiction Western film written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film follows adult guests visiting an interactive amusement park containing lifelike androids that unexpectedly begin to malfunction. The film stars Yul Brynner as an android in the amusement park, with Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.

The film was from an original screenplay by Crichton and was his first theatrical film as director, after one TV film. It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view.A Brief, Early History of Computer Graphics in Film
, Larry Yaeger, August 16, 2002 (last update). Retrieved March 24, 2010 Critical reception was largely positive by contemporary and retrospective critics and ''Westworld'' was nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Saturn awards.

''Westworld'' was followed by a sequel, ''Futureworld'' (1976), and a short-lived television series, ''Beyond Westworld'' (1980). A television series based on the film debuted in 2016 on HBO.

Plot

In 1983, a high-tech, highly realistic adult amusement park called Delos features three themed "worlds": Western World (the American Old West), Medieval World (medieval Europe) and Roman World (the ancient Roman city of Pompeii). The resort's three "worlds" are populated with lifelike androids that are practically indistinguishable from human beings, each programmed in character for their historical environment. For $1,000 per day, guests may indulge in any adventure with the android population of the park, including sexual encounters and a simulated fight to the death. Delos's tagline in its advertising promises "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!"

Peter Martin, a first-time Delos visitor and his friend John Blane, on a repeat visit, go to Westworld. One of the attractions is the Gunslinger, an android programmed to instigate gunfights. The firearms issued to the park guests have temperature sensors that prevent them from shooting anything with a high body temperature, such as humans but allow them to "kill" the cold-blooded androids. The Gunslinger's programming allows guests to draw their guns and kill it, with the android always returning the next day for another duel.

The technicians running Delos notice problems beginning to spread like an infection among the androids: the androids in Roman World and Medieval World begin experiencing an increasing number of breakdowns and systemic failures, which are said to have spread to Westworld. When one of the supervising computer scientists scoffs at the "analogy of an infectious disease", he is told by the chief supervisor "We aren't dealing with ordinary machines here. These are highly complicated pieces of equipment, almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they've been designed by other computers. We don't know exactly how they work."

After a night spent with two robotic ladies, Blane is accosted by the same gunslinger Martin killed in the saloon the previous day. Martin bursts into the room and once again shoots the gunslinger dead. Martin is jailed awaiting trial, so Blane breaks him out and the two head out of town.

The malfunctions become more serious when a robotic rattlesnake bites Blane in Westworld and against its programme, a female android refuses a guest's advances in Medieval World. The failures escalate until Medieval World's Black Knight android kills a guest in a sword fight. The resort's supervisors try to regain control by shutting down power to the park. The shutdown traps them in central control when the doors automatically lock, unable to turn the power back on and escape. The androids in all three worlds run amok, operating on reserve power.

Martin and Blane, recovering from a drunken bar-room brawl, wake up in Westworld's brothel, unaware of the park's breakdown. When the Gunslinger challenges the men to a showdown, Blane treats the confrontation as an amusement but the android shoots and kills him. Martin runs for his life and the android implacably follows.

Martin flees to the other areas of the park but finds only dead guests, damaged androids and a panicked technician attempting to escape Delos, who is soon shot and killed by the Gunslinger. Martin climbs down through a manhole in Roman World into the underground control complex and discovers that the resort's computer technicians suffocated in the control room when the ventilation system shut down. The Gunslinger stalks him through the underground corridors, so he runs away until he enters an android-repair laboratory. When the Gunslinger enters the room, Martin pretends to be an android, throws acid into the Gunslinger's face and flees, returning to the surface inside the Medieval World castle.

With its optical inputs damaged by the acid, the Gunslinger is unable to track Martin visually and tries to find Martin using its infrared scanners. Martin stands beneath the flaming torches of the Great Hall to mask his presence from the android, before setting it on fire with one of the torches. Martin hears a call in the dungeon and finds a chained woman begging for help. He gives her water but this causes her to short-circuit and shutdown; Martin is shocked as he did not realise she was a robot. The burned shell of the Gunslinger attacks him once again on the dungeon steps before succumbing to its damage. The movie ends with him sitting on the dungeon steps in a state of near-exhaustion and shock, as the memory of Delos' marketing slogan resonates: "Boy, have we got a vacation for you!"

Cast

* Yul Brynner as the Gunslinger
* Richard Benjamin as Peter Martin
* James Brolin as John Blane
* Norman Bartold as Medieval Knight
* Alan Oppenheimer as the Chief Supervisor
* Victoria Shaw as the Medieval Queen
* Dick Van Patten as the Banker
* Linda Gaye Scott as Arlette, the French saloon prostitute
* Steve Franken as the Delos technician shot dead by the Gunslinger
* Michael Mikler as the Black Knight
* Terry Wilson as the Sheriff
* Majel Barrett