# Short Circuit (1986 film)

Short Circuit is a 1986 comedy science fiction film about a robot, #5, who short circuits during a thunderstorm and escapes from Nova Robotics. He has been designed as a weapon, and his designer Newton Crosby (played by Steve Guttenberg) and the others at Nova are concerned he might be dangerous. Meanwhile, #5 is being protected by Stephanie Speck (played by Ally Sheedy).

## Number 5

* Number 5... is alive!
* Malfunction! Need input!
* [repeated line] Input! [sometimes] More!
* Attractive. Nice software!
* Squash, dead. Disassemble, dead. Disassemble...! [panics] DEAD!! No disassemble!
* Disassemble! [in mock-Italian accent] Frankie, ya broke the unwritten law. Ya ratted on your friends. You do that, Frankie, your enemies don't respect ya. You got no friends no more. You got nobody, Frankie. [normal voice] Pretty good, huh?
* Jerk of the world, turkey, idiot, pain in the ass!
* Colt 45, semi-automatic. [crushes gun] Clay dough.
* Hey, Laser Lips! your mama was a Snow Blower! [blows a raspberry]
* [repeated line] Newton Crosby, Ph.D.!

## Stephanie Speck

* [sees Number 5 in her truck at night] Oh, my God! I knew they'd pick me. I just knew it!

## Newton Crosby

* Originally I had non-military purposes in mind. I designed it as a marital aid.
* [tells a joke to Number 5] There's a priest, a minister, and a rabbi. They're out playing golf, and they're trying to decide how much to give to charity. So the priest says, "We'll draw a circle on the ground, we'll throw the money way up in the air, and whatever lands inside the circle, we give to charity." The minister says, "No. We'll draw a circle on the ground, throw the money way up in the air, and whatever lands outside of the circle, that's what we'll give to charity." The rabbi says "No, no, no. We'll throw the money way up in the air, and whatever God wants, he keeps!"

## Ben Jabituya

* Eat my dust, Newton Crosby. Let us break wind! [retreats]

## Dialogue

    Ben: "Unable. Malfunction".
    Howard: How can it refuse to turn itself off?
    Skroeder: Maybe it's pissed off.
    Crosby: It's a machine, Skroeder. It doesn't get pissed off. It doesn't get happy, it doesn't get sad, it doesn't laugh at your jokes.
    Ben and Crosby: It just runs programs.
    Howard: It usually runs programs.
    Howard: [after Number 5 refuses to return to base] Oh, my God. It's not coming back. We've gotta destroy it.
    Crosby: No. Howard, you're overreacting. You can't.
    Ben: Look, let us at least try to catch it first.
    Crosby: Yeah. We'll panic later. Okay?
    Howard: What if you don't catch it? What if it goes out and melts down a busload of nuns?! How would you like to write the headline on that one?!
    Ben: "Nun Soup"?
    Crosby: BEN! [covers Ben's mouth]
    Number 5: Beautiful! Lightbulb!
    Stephanie: No; sunrise!
    Number 5: Beautiful! No, sunrise!
    Stephanie: No: beautiful sunrise!
    Number 5: Beautiful! Sunrise! [turns] Beautiful animal! Mammal! Canine! Dog! Mutt!
    Stephanie: Beasley!
    Number 5: Beasley!
    Stephanie: We have to get you home.
    Number 5: This, home! Stephanie, home!
    Crosby: Where are you from, anyway?
    Ben: Bakersfield, originally.
    Crosby: No, I mean your ancestors.
    Ben: Oh, them. Pittsburgh.
    Howard: Hey! Who told you you could take Number 1?!
    Crosby: Howard, logically, if we need protection from Number 5, this is the best weapon we could have.
    Howard: Great. Great! So, instead of $11,000,000 on the loose, we're gonna have 22.
    Ben: And plus, we are needing gas money.
    Howard: I got a phone call from that loony in the lunch wagon. She wants to see you. Only you.
    Crosby: She does?
    Ben: Oh, her pants are blazing for you, Newton Crosby!
    Crosby: Will you grow up?!

## About ̺Short Circuit (1986 film)

* The thing that makes it so relevant is that we live in this age of robots, particularly when it comes to war. We have drones that do our fighting for us, do all these jobs men and women don’t want to do. And that’s what makes this so interesting—things like this moment in the story when [Number 5] realizes he’s going to be disassembled and contemplates death, and whether it’s right to terminate someone else. … These are heavy themes for a family movie. But I think they can have their place.
** Tim Hill,
* My personal theory is that he is this babe in the woods with a real problem. I think he resonates in the way that a really good kid film…I think he resonates because he’s like a little kid, and he has this enormous problem because people are trying to kill him, and his problem is that he can’t convince him that he’s alive. That’s my feeling, is that kids relate to Johnny 5 because he’s got this problem and nobody will listen to him and I think that’s how kids feel.
   * S.S. Wilson

## Taglines

* Something wonderful has happened...No. 5 is alive.
* Life is not a malfunction.

## Cast

* Ally Sheedy as Stephanie Speck
* Steve Guttenberg - Newton Crosby
* Fisher Stevens - Ben Jabituya
* Austin Pendleton - Dr. Howard Marner
* G. W. Bailey - Captain Skroeder
* Tim Blaney - Number 5 (voice)
* Brian McNamara - Frank
* Marvin J. McIntyre - Duke
* John Garber - Otis
* Penny Santon - Mrs. Cepeda
* Vernon Weddle - General Washburne
* Barbara Tarbuck - Senator Mills
* John Badham - Cameraman (uncredited)

## External links

* Short Circuit quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Find me a robot
* #5ALIVE by KLJ