History Film / ShortCircuit

* ThatCloudLooksLike: Number 5 doing this provides one of the first clues that he's become truly intelligent and self-aware. Later his creator invokes the trope with an InkBlotTest.

* BreakTheCutie: Quite literally, in the second movie.

* CreatorCameo: During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.

* FailingATaxi: Johnny launches a grapple magnet to [[MundaneUtility capture a taxi]] for Ben.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Johnny Five's [[spoiler:[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ridiculously graphic maiming]] at the hands of the bank robbers]].

* FreudianSlip: In the film, when Stephanie Speck calls Nova Laboratories on the phone, saying that she would want to speak to "one of your head warmongers", (she is of course taking the piss), the person receiving the phone call calls Dr. Marner "Dr. Warmonger" before correcting himself and handing Dr. Marner the phone.

* IncrediblyObviousBug: On Number Five. At least in this case they weren't expecting the robots to try to get rid of them.

* MiraculousMalfunction: The lightning strike that gives Number Five sentience.

* OpportunisticBastard: When Sandy tries to make a lucrative deal to buy toys from Ben, Frank (who is just introducing himself to Ben) quickly cuts himself into the deal and talks up the price before Ben can figure out what's going on. On the other hand, it's only because of Frank that Ben gets the start-up money (albeit by visiting a LoanShark) and factory space necessary to start production.

* PlayingCyrano: Johnny Five to Ben during the latter's date.

%%* SpeaksInShoutOuts: Johnny Five.

%%* TheyWouldCutYouUp: "NO DISASSEMBLE!"

** Also happens to Johnny Five in the sequel once he's gotten Oscar into the vault.

* BreakTheCutie: Quite literally, in the second movie.

* CreatorCameo: During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.

* FailingATaxi: Johnny launches a grapple magnet to [[MundaneUtility capture a taxi]] for Ben.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Johnny Five's [[spoiler:[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill ridiculously graphic maiming]] at the hands of the bank robbers]].

* FreudianSlip: In the film, when Stephanie Speck calls Nova Laboratories on the phone, saying that she would want to speak to "one of your head warmongers", (she is of course taking the piss), the person receiving the phone call calls Dr. Marner "Dr. Warmonger" before correcting himself and handing Dr. Marner the phone.

* IncrediblyObviousBug: On Number Five. At least in this case they weren't expecting the robots to try to get rid of them.

* MiraculousMalfunction: The lightning strike that gives Number Five sentience.

* OpportunisticBastard: When Sandy tries to make a lucrative deal to buy toys from Ben, Frank (who is just introducing himself to Ben) quickly cuts himself into the deal and talks up the price before Ben can figure out what's going on. On the other hand, it's only because of Frank that Ben gets the start-up money (albeit by visiting a LoanShark) and factory space necessary to start production.

* PlayingCyrano: Johnny Five to Ben during the latter's date.

%%* SpeaksInShoutOuts: Johnny Five.

%%* TheyWouldCutYouUp: "NO DISASSEMBLE!"

** Also happens to Johnny Five in the sequel once he's gotten Oscar into the vault.

* EverythingIsOnline: Johnny Five can access any electronics remotely with a transmitter in his head. He can also control cars, cranes and other things that ([[TechnologyMarchesOn at the time the films were made]]) didn't even have any electronics controlling them.

''Short Circuit'' is a pair of films about a bleeding edge military robot who becomes self-aware. Dubbed "Number Five" (Tim Blaney), his first instinct as a sentient being is to {{invert|edTrope}} the KillerRobot genre: he doesn't want to kill, and is hunted by the weapons manufacturer that made him. It doesn't slot easily into any one genre, instead toying with hard sci-fi, romantic comedy, tragedy, revenge drama, and {{slapstick}} (Number Five ignoring his laser cannon to sling mud at people).

In the first film (1986), Number Five short-circuits during a routine maintenance check and flees his birthplace of NOVA Robotics. With mobile tank treads, hair-trigger tactile response, dodgy AI and packing serious heat, Five is the grandaddy of corporate liability. In a panic, NOVA deploys its private security force to recapture and/or destroy the robot while his original programmers (Creator/SteveGuttenberg and Creator/FisherStevens) try to stall them. Sure enough, Number Five pulls into a nearby town and befriends a GranolaGirl named Stephanie Speck (Creator/AllySheedy), who mistakes him for an extra-terrestrial and NOVA for an evil government agency. Meanwhile, Number Five is adapting... learning... and willfully ignoring commands.

The second film (''Short Circuit 2'', 1988) centers on Benjamin Jabituya (now inexplicably called Benjamin "Jahrvi"), who helped program Number Five and was blackballed as a result. Living out of a truck, Ben now hustles little NOVA-inspired toys in Manhattan, but he's having problems getting production up to speed. So, Stephanie sends Number Five, now calling himself Johnny Five, who is a one robot production line. Unfortunately, Ben's business partner Fred Ritter (Creator/MichaelMcKean) sees bigger opportunities. But all this takes a back seat to Johnny being manipulated by thieves to help in a bank heist, which shatters Johnny's naiveté and leaves him wanting revenge.

A third film was in talks afterwards, but was eventually canned due to scripts not meeting expectations. Johnny 5 would eventually return in a TV short named ''Hot Cars, Cold Facts'' with his having his own home and a car. Even though it was primarily an educational film regarding vehicle ownership and insuring, the comedy of the two movies remains.

!!The movies contain examples of:

* ActualPacifist: What Johnny wants to be, though NOVA trying to capture him in the first film and the bank robbers in the second push him into TechnicalPacifist when he's forced to defend himself. Tellingly, he only applies the absolute minimum amount of carefully-calculated force to preserve life, it's only after a positively ''brutal'' attempt on his life that he actively seeks to use violence to stop the robbers, and even then, still does so without causing unecessary harm.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Johnny Five is duped into tunnelling underground to break into a bank in the sequel. Following many robberies in the 70s, vault technology changed rapidly in the 1980s to make them resistant to such attack, being fitted with seismic sensors. Unless Oscar told him he switched them off (as part of an inside-job) Johnny would've set off alarms long before entering the safety deposit box. Johnny's tunnel boring parts would also be worn out halfway under the road, and need changing.

* AscendedExtra: While Ben was already part of the main cast in the first film, he got a bigger billing in the sequel.
* AwardBaitSong: The first movie has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1aTuVMFlMI Come and Follow Me]] by Max Carl and Marcy Levy.
* BadassBoast: From the second movie:
-->'''Los Locos''': Los Locos kick your ass! Los Locos kick your face! Los Locos kick your balls into outer space![[note]]In TV versions, this was changed to "Los Locos kick your '''teeth'''! Los Locos kick your face! Los Locos kick your '''butt''' into outer space![[/note]]

* BadassUnintentional: Johnny Five, in the second movie, since he's a TechnicalPacifist.
* BankRobbery: [[spoiler: Oscar]]'s scheme in the sequel.
* BecomeARealBoy: One of the plot points of the second movie is Johnny Five's quest to be recognized as sentient. [[spoiler:He eventually is, and becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen alongside Ben at the end.]]
* BerserkButton: Do not mistreat Johnny Five's friends, and do not treat him like a mere machine. He WILL find you, and he WILL deal the most humiliating yet nonviolent punishment imaginable. Stephanie's ex-boyfriend and [[spoiler:Oscar]] both found that out '''firsthand'''.
-->"You will '''not''' get away! I am '''[[IsThisWhatAngerFeelsLike really pissed off!!]]'''"
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Johnny and Ben. You do ''not'' want to be around Ben if something's happened to Johnny on your watch. Just see BerserkButton above to see why it's an equally bad idea to take Johnny lightly. With as nice and sweet as he can be, it's easy to forget Johnny is a military grade robot designed for combat.

* BloodlessCarnage: The attack against Johnny 5 in the second movie, although there is a lot of MachineBlood in the form of battery fluid.
* BollywoodNerd: Ben.

** Standard fare for Johnny-Five. With most of his fairly short[[note]]Four days by the time the first movie gets to the climax.[[/note]] life spent interacting with only about a half-dozen humans in any significant way, the majority of his experience and knowledge comes from the piles upon piles of books he's read.
* CallBack: Number Five's "Today, Crosby, today!" line in the first movie is a call back to two previous scenes in the same movie, where Skroeder ordered his men using a similar line ("Today, gentlemen, today!").
* TheCameo: Ally Sheedy has an uncredited [[CelebrityVoiceActor vocal]] one in the second one when Number Five reads the letter Stephanie sends Ben in her voice.

* CharacterDevelopment: Ben graduates from a ChivalrousPervert FunnyForeigner to a three-dimensional protagonist FunnyForeigner between films.

* ChromeChampion: Johnny's makeover in the epilogue of ''Short Circuit 2''. He looks like [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} R.O.B.]] mated with an Academy Award.

* {{Confessional}}: At one point in the sequel, Johnny rolls his way into a church confessional. He gets chased away by the priest, who assumes he's a telepresence device, and tells the "person on the other end" to come to church personally if he wishes to confess.

* CreativeClosingCredits: The first movie has a recap of the story behind the end credits, including several [[DeletedScene Deleted Scenes]] (like the one with Number Five and a coffee-cup bearing robot).
* CreatorCameo: During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.
* CuteMachines: Number/Johnny Five is intended as this, of course, but the little Johnny Five toys take the cake.
** Notable in that Johnny's appearance changes shortly after his accident, to differentiate him from the other four prototypes and make him look slightly less sinister. He loses an apparently-useless box on the top of his head and an armored cowling over the little blinky-light thing that he uses to talk. He also keeps his "eyelids" open, giving him an innocent, wide-eyed look in contrast to the other robots, who keep their eyelids closed, leaving only a slit to see out of, which makes them look like they're scowling or frowning.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Part II had some pure nightmare fuel moments. Such as Oscar and his gang destroying Johnny 5 and leaving him for dead. Then there is the fact that Part II was the one movie where it looked like his life was really in danger.
* DecoyGetaway: Dr. Crosby's NOVA van happens to have enough spare parts for SAINT robots that Number Five builds a decoy. [[spoiler:NOVA blows it up at the end of the first film, with everyone thinking it's the real Number Five.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Johnny 5 takes a lot of abuse in both movies, but always dispenses justice and emerges with a nonsensical catch-phrase and good attitude. He may not be indestructible, but his optimism is.
* DisneyDeath: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d, then {{averted|Trope}}.

* DoAnythingRobot: Let's see... in the first film Johnny has a parachute, an electric tool kit mounted on a "third arm" that can do everything from pick locks to whisk pancake batter, and a laser weapon powerful enough to blow up cars. In the second film he's retained the tool kit arm, upgraded the parachute to a ''hang glider'', swapped the laser for a [[SwissArmyWeapon "utility pack"]] featuring everything from an umbrella to a grappling hook to a plasma cutter powerful enough to cut through a bank vault wall, and added a "multi-frequency remote control" that lets him control almost anything electrical within range.
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Johnny, in the second movie. When he wants to push past someone (usually [[ConMan Fred]]) he tends to toss him halfway across the room. Not to mention the trouble he gives the two police officers when they arrest him for trashing the bookstore.
-->'''Johnny Five''': I am NOT stolen goods! ''(slams fists on the table, yanking the police officers down)''
* DumbMuscle: One of Oscar's lackeys from the sequel: Jones, who, despite being TheBrute of the group, impatiently ignores his genius partner's TechnoBabble advice before going after Johnny 5.

* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: Johnny develops this in ''Short Circuit 2'' after getting nearly beaten to death by the thieves and also getting a temporary repair job done to him.

* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** [[spoiler:Oscar]] and his goons may be willing do almost anything to get away with their diamond-stealing scheme, but they draw the line at murder, only imprisoning Ben and Fred in a restaurant freezer to get them out of the way. Unfortunately for them, the fact that they're still willing to savagely beat Johnny Five to death because [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman their standards don't extend to HIM]] is [[RageBreakingPoint the last straw]] that drives him into a state of vengeful fury. Possibly the only time this trope has functioned as a hero's BerserkButton.
*** Even then, while he went through with it, ultimately, one of said goons looked visibly uncomfortable with murdering Johnny 5.

** This is likely Skroeder's mistake, as "Huey" is a specific model of helicopter, not the catch-all term for helicopters Skroeder seems to think it is.
** Either that, or he did know the difference, but was too annoyed to explain it to Howard.
* EveryoneKnowsMorse: {{Subverted|Trope}} in the sequel; when Ben and Fred are locked in a freezer and rig a calculator to send a message to Sandy's answering machine, they discover that neither of them know Morse code. Instead, they send directions to their location using the tunes of popular songs.

* EvilOldFolks: [[spoiler:Oscar Baldwin]].

* [[{{Expy}} Expies]]: Newton Crosby and Skroeder, respectively played by Steve Guttenberg and G. W. Bailey, of Mahoney and Harris from Film/PoliceAcademy.

* EyepatchOfPower: Johnny during his quest for vengeance.

* FalseFriend: [[spoiler:Oscar]]. You really ought to see it coming, but he's so jolly that many viewers don't.
** Johnny thinks of Fred as this after Fred tries to sell him, but they patch things up later. In Fred's defence, he wasn't aware at the time that Johnny really was alive.

* FantasticRacism: Johnny seems to believe this is the reason [[spoiler:Oscar tried to kill Johnny, but only locked Ben and Fred in a freezer. .]] It's hard to say he's wrong.
-->'''Johnny Five:''' Oh sure, kidnap the humans, ''(angrily)'' '''destroy the machine'''!
* FireForgedFriends: Fred treats Johnny like he's his personal butler (partly because Ben kept him in the dark about Johnny's AI), then tries to sell him to some corporate bigwigs, prompting Johnny to unleash the white hot rage: "He is [[IFeelAngry NOT]] my friend!" However, after Johnny is [[spoiler: nearly killed by Oscar's mooks]], Fred [[PetTheDog scours the city]] for him and later [[IOweYouMyLife repairs]] him ''single-handedly''. By the end of the movie, they've become an AdventureDuo.
* FlippingTheBird: In the first movie, Newton Crosby does this to his co-worker Benjamin Jabituya with his robotic hand. [[InsultBackfire Benjamin asks Newton if he's showing the number of his IQ with that finger.]]

** [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s goons [[spoiler:destroying the Johnny 5 replica]] early in the second film.
*** Specifically, that it was done [[spoiler:with an axe]].
** And at the police station:

*** Before that, Johnny 5 mentions to Ben that he changed out his old battery for a new lithium-argon liquid battery.
* FreudianSlip: In the first film, when Stephanie Speck calls Nova Laboratories on the phone, saying that she would want to speak to "one of your head warmongers", (she is of course taking the piss), the person receiving the phone call calls Dr. Marner "Dr. Warmonger" before correcting himself and handing Dr. Marner the phone.

* FunnyForeigner: Benjamin Jabituya. In the first movie, he was more of a PluckyComicRelief character. In the second movie, they gave him the last name Jahrvi and tried to give him a more serious story, while still keeping him funny.

** [[{{Malaproper}} Busters. Gang]]''[[{{Malaproper}} busters.]]''

* GlassCannon: the SAINT units sure can dish it out with their lasers, but they lack any armor to speak of - probably due to being early prototypes; one expects actual military units would be encased in rather more protective shells without exposed equipment. They rely on effective offense to prevent damage before it can be dealt, and Johnny himself has pretty effective ways of protecting himself from a single threat using whatever's lying around; however, if there are multiple threats, or if an attack comes from an unforeseen location, they're surprisingly easy to take out - a few bullets damage Johnny 5 enough that he can be reached and shut down in the first film, and all it takes to take him out in the second is an axe from a direction he isn't expecting. Johnny himself has an easy time disabling the other SAINT units - some mud in the eyes, a basic rope trap and a sudden maneuver get them all out of the fight.
* GoodCostumeSwitch: In the first movie, Number Five loses the plate covering his [[TalkingLightbulb "mouth"]] during his escape, making him look much less intimidating than the other SAINT prototypes.

* HappilyEverAfter: The letter from Stephanie in the second film implies this to be the case for her and Newton after the first film.

* HeroicRROD: After his brutal beating, Johnny pursues Oscar's gang despite being badly damaged and leaking battery fluid. He eventually catches them but loses power and nearly dies.

* HilariousOuttakes: The first film's credits play over snippets of various scenes, including scenes that were cut from the final movie, including Number Five playing with a model airplane, escaping a car crusher in a junkyard, and encountering an Omnibot 2000 (a toy robot that was made during that time) trying to serve him orange juice.
* HonestCorporateExecutive: Howard Marner, as [[HeroAntagonist he only sent out his military forces to capture Number Five as he believed him to be a dangerous robot with a laser cannon]]. Howard also overlaps with CorruptCorporateExecutive in a downplayed sense, for viewing the sentient Number Five as another robot of his assembly line that has gone rogue and needs to be recaptured to reprogram and that fact he is OnlyInItForTheMoney.
* HopeSpot: During the first film's finale. [[spoiler:Until the helicopter shows up. Fortunately, it isn't the real Number Five they blew up.]]

** Also befalls the other S.A.I.N.T. robots and the bank robbers in the second film multiple times. Basically anyone who goes up against Johnny Five is doomed to suffer one of these.
** Johnny himself essentially gets one through the entire second movie, as it's brutally pointed out to him at every turn that, aside from Newton, Stephanie, and Ben, ''not a single human being'' believes he's truly alive. A Catholic priest shoos him out of a church believing him to be nothing more than a telepresence device, the police impound him as stolen property instead of arresting him, and Los Locos, Fred, and [[spoiler:Oscar]] all take advantage of his naive and trusting nature to get what they want out of him.
* IAmNotAGun: In the second movie, Johnny has his laser weapon removed in favor of a ComicBook/{{Batman}}-esque utility pack.

* ImprovisedBandage: Towards the end of the second film, Johnny is "[[MachineBlood bleeding]]" battery acid after nearly being beaten to death by some thugs after they've tricked him into helping their robbery. Fred Ritter (who'd previously tried to sell Johnny to a company) finds him, and sacrifices his prized silk shirt to staunch it.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: In the second film, after seeing Johnny easily overpower [[spoiler: Jones]], [[spoiler: Saunders]] immediately surrenders.
-->'''Johnny''': Excuse me, could you put your arms down please?
-->'''[[spoiler:Saunders]]''': ''(immediately complies)'' Sure.
-->'''Johnny''': Thank you.
-->'''[[spoiler:Saunders]]''': You're welcome.
* LampshadeHanging: In the first movie Newton asks Ben where the hell he's from, since he's clearly not ethnically Indian despite the exaggerated accent. He claims he's from Bakersfield and his family is from Pittsburgh. This could be read as an admission that he's a white guy who's just eccentric, but the ending of the second movie shows he isn't an American citizen up to that point.

* LetsGetDangerous: Two examples from the second film:
** The first time [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s goons try to beat him up, Johnny grabs the pipes they are using and shouts, "'''Bad''' humans!" (complete with RedEyesTakeWarning) before swinging them around and launching them out of the warehouse door.
** After [[spoiler:the goons successfully beat him up and Fred repairs him]], Johnny fixes a mohawk to his head and growls, "All right, let's party!" before going out for revenge.

* LiteralMinded: Double subverted in a rather beautiful way with the inkblot turing test mentioned above. When first asked "What do you make of this?" Five gives the literal answer: a chemical analysis of soup poured on paper, seemingly demonstrating CreativeSterility. But then...

** Other times, of course, Johnny 5 falls headlong into this. Memorably, in the first film, he tries to cook Stephanie breakfast, literally following the instructions. He beats pancake batter until smooth (not caring that he's splattering it all over the kitchen and himself), and "for crisp yet moist potatoes, brown on one side then turn over." He browns the cardboard box the potatoes are in on one side, then turns the entire frying pan over.

* LockAndLoadMontage: Johnny Five goes through this after [[spoiler:being beaten and left for dead by the villains, out of sheer anger that they merely kidnapped his friends, but flat out tried to KILL him]]. He even dons a mohawk-like set of spikes for the occasion.
* LockedInAFreezer: Ben and Fred in the second movie.
* MachineBlood: In the second film, Johnny 5 is leaking battery fluid after being damaged by the villains. His friend Ben outright says he's bleeding to death, and he even applies a makeshift tourniquet.

* {{Malaproper}}: Ben, ''constantly''.

* MoodWhiplash: Like the first film, ''Short Circuit 2'' is a light comedy. That is, till the scene where [[spoiler: [[BigBad Oscar]]]] has his goons brutally [[spoiler:[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown smash up Johnny 5 in near slow-motion]]]]. There's even a scene where one of the attackers is hit in the ass with a toy RC plane and goofily hobbles away, then the movie immediately cuts back to [[spoiler:Johnny 5 dying on the sidewalk]].
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler: Oscar and his men do this on Johnny in the second movie.]]

** Johnny 5's realization that disassemble equals death in the first film.
** Fred's reaction in the sequel when Johnny realizes he is in a city, and Fred again when Johnny finds a bookstore.

** [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s face right before Johnny runs his car off the road, somersaulting it into a parked van.

* AnOddPlaceToSleep: Ben inherited the NOVA truck from the first movie and drove it to NYC. It doubles as his toy factory and living space. Even after Fred leases a warehouse, Ben continues to nap in a hammock in the truck (which is now parked indoors).

* PigLatin: Used by the sequel's villains to fool Johnny -- the ''one'' language he doesn't know how to translate. He's managed to work it out by the second time they try this trick on him.
--> '''Johnny 5''': Ew-scray ou-yay, ozo-bay.

* ReCut: When ''Short Circuit 2'' plays on television, it cuts a lot of scenes for time. Many of the cut scenes are the ones where Johnny wanders around New York observing things for himself, including a scene where he trashes a bookstore. This is jarring because he refers to visiting a bookstore at least twice in later scenes.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Probably originally meant for combat mode, Johnny's back-lit red "eyes" are usually a telltale sign you've managed to tick off the normally happy-go-lucky pacifist robot.

** When [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s goons first attack him in the warehouse:
--->'''Johnny Five''': ''(catches crowbar midswing)'' '''Baaad humans!'''''
** Later when prepping for his RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
---> '''Johnny Five:''' Oh sure, ''kidnap'' the humans, '''''destroy'' the machine!''' ''(fixes punk-like accessories to his body)'' [[LetsGetDangerous Let's party.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: A relatively-nonviolent one being a good summation of the climax of the second film, with Johnny Five hunting down Oscar.]]

* RunForTheBorder: [[spoiler:Oscar]] and his cronies devise a clever plot to smuggle the jewels into South America. Each one is hidden inside a cheap, plastic toy dinosaur; "Our gift to the Brazilian National Orphanage."
* RunningGag: Skroeder seems rather obsessed with food...
-->'''Skroeder''': What I've got is trouble, which I don't need because my wife is at home cooking a steak that's going to be dried out by the time I get there!\\

* ShoutOut: The movie playing on the TV (in the scene where Number Five and Stephanie dance) is Film/SaturdayNightFever, one of John Badham's previous movies.
* ShellGame: Johnny Five learns it from a street performer in ''Short Circuit 2''.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Rosy idealism.
* SpeaksInShoutOuts: Johnny Five.
* StealthPun: Probably unintentional, but in the second film, Johnny Five, the self-aware robot who insists he's alive, embraces [[TheEighties the late Eighties]] street gang aesthetic when he begins his RoaringRampageOfRevenge. He uses bits from the Radio Shack Fred fixed him up in to fashion a mohawk, [[SpikesOfVillainy spikes]], [[ChainedByFashion chains]], and other electronic accoutrements that serve no purpose but to make him look edgy and cool. In otherwords, he becomes a CyberPunk.
* StarringSpecialEffects: Despite the films' relatively low budget, the animatronics used for Johnny Five were top of the line and very impressive for the time. He was designed by ''Film/BladeRunner'' legend Syd Mead.
* StereotypicalSouthAsianEnglish: Part of Ben Jabituya's joke is that he speaks with such an exaggerated accent despite being born and raised in the US to American-born parents. The sequel retcons him into an Indian immigrant. Stevens researched the role quite extensively, hiring a dialect coach and even traveling to India to get the accent right, but today considers the role something of an Old Shame.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Johnny [[spoiler:after getting mutilated by Oscar's mooks]].
* SuicidalOverconfidence: [[spoiler:Johnny heatedly goes after Oscar, ignoring the fatal gash in his battery. He doesn't bleed to ''death'', but he cuts it pretty close.]]
-->'''Fred''': Come on now, man, these are serious guys! You're not in top form a-and your back-up battery's used up!?\\
'''Johnny''': [[ElectronicSpeechImpediment Derf]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rains_of_Ranchipur a life-form's gotta do what a life-form's gotta do.]] Stand aside.

* SuperSpeedReading: Johnny can breeze through books at a frightening rate, though apparently he's not programmed to re-shelve them. Set him loose in a bookstore and, [[OhCrap well]]...

* SuperStrength: It's not overtly shown in the first film, as Johnny 5 rarely ever uses his physical strength, but the sequel shows he's ''far'' stronger than a human and capable of benchpressing a car and easily overpowering multiple humans at once. Makes sense as he and the S.A.I.N.T.s were originally designed to carry 25 megaton nuclear bombs, which weigh more than a large van or pickup truck.
* SymbolicBlood: [[spoiler:As Oscar's henchmen attempt to destroy Johnny 5, either battery acid or hydraulic fluid splashes on one of the goons.]]

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Not ''evil'' of course, but Johnny 5 spends a large part of the second movie trying to be human. After [[spoiler:Oscar's henchmen smash him up and leave him for dead]], Johnny finally decides he's had enough of that fruitless project because, if humans are going to mistreat him that badly, he doesn't ''need'' to be human.
-->'''Johnny:''' Am not human, but ''am a life form!''
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: "NO DISASSEMBLE!"
* ThreeStoogesShoutOut: Johnny Five re-programmed three of the pursuing prototypes in the first film so they acted like Larry, Moe, and Curly.

* TrailOfBlood: While it's not technically blood, near the end of the second film, Johnny 5 [[spoiler:suffers damage to his battery before going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, forcing the rest of the protagonists to follow the trail of battery acid and help him.]]

* UnwittingPawn: Johnny, in the second movie. ''Twice.'' In the beginning he steals just about a dozen car radios after being deceived by a gang to believe that he was helping them do their jobs as the "Department of Car Stereo Repair"; and later when [[spoiler: Oscar tricks him into digging into the bank vault, thinking it was to create a safe place for Ben]]. Don't worry, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge he fixes it.]]
** Skroeder uses Newton Crosby as one of these in the first film:
--->'''Crosby''': Let me tell you something: I don't like those N.O.V.A. guys any more than you do. In fact, I don't care if they ever get Number 5 back, but I want to see it.
--->'''Stephanie''': If I show you where he is, do I have your word you will not experiment on him, you will not flip the switches and you will not take him apart?
--->'''Crosby''': Absolutely, you have my word.
--->'''Stephanie''': Okay, he's out back, I'll take you to him.
--->'''Skroeder''': Well, while you're at it, young lady, you can take me, too.
--->'''Crosby''' [shocked] Skroeder!
--->'''Skroeder''': Terrific job, Crosby, thanks for the help.
--->'''Crosby''': No! I had nothing to do with this!
--->'''Stephanie''': You bastard, you're a liar!

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlFriend: Maybe not violent, but Sandy [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] when she believes Ben is in trouble, impressively decoding his voiceless-phone messages to use as directions, and demanding that the taxi driver break the law to move faster.

* WhamShot: In ''Short Circuit 2'', there's the [[spoiler:maiming]] scene: Johnny has gotten the drop on Oscar, popping down from a tree to grab him. Oscar's goons show up and (with prompting in pig latin from Oscar) circle around Johnny.[[spoiler:.. and the one wielding a crowbar ''chops into Johnny's back'', causing an ''explosion'' of electrical sparks as he's dislodged from the tree.]] [[FromBadToWorse And it doesn't end there.]]

* WhosOnFirst: Stephanie and Number 5 in the first movie:

** Skroeder's actions and attitude throughout the original movie would all be completely within reason - if this were a sci-fi thriller, rather than a family comedy.

* [[YouAreNumberSix You Are Number Five]]: He starts as just a number, but gives himself the name Johnny Five. Ben calls him "Number Johnny Five".
* YouCanBarelyStand: discussed in the second movie after Five decides he's repaired enough to get revenge.
--> '''Fred:''''' Wait a minute J5, waddaya think you're gonna do?''
--> '''Five:''''' Pursue...capture...'''incarcerate'''!''
--> '''Fred:''''' Come on now man, these are serious guys! You're not in top form, your backup battery's used up...!''
--> '''Five:''' ''[[BlatantLies I'm okay-kay.]] Just a few billion-billion bugs bugging the works out-in-out-in. Perfectly functionality. '''[[AssuranceBackfire Functionality!]]'''''
--> '''Fred:''''' Yeah, sure! Listen to yourself, you can't even talk straight!''
--> '''Five(picking Fred up by the collar):''''' [[AccidentalMisnaming derF]], [[Creator/JohnWayne a lifeform's gotta do what a lifeform's gotta do.]] Stand aside.''

* YourMom:
** Invoked in the first movie as a taunt to Number Five's pursuers.
--->'''Number Five''': Hey, laser lips! Your momma was a snowblower! ''(makes a digital Bronx cheer)''
** And in the second:
--->'''Johnny Five''': [[BilingualBonus "Tu mama hace el amor con mi perro."]] [[spoiler:Your mother makes love with my dog.]]

''Short Circuit'' is a pair of films about a bleeding edge military robot who becomes self-aware. Dubbed "Number Five" (Tim Blaney), his first instinct as a sentient being is to {{invert|edTrope}} the KillerRobot genre: he doesn't want to kill, and is hunted by the weapons manufacturer that made him. It doesn't slot easily into any one genre, instead toying with hard sci-fi, romantic comedy, tragedy, revenge drama, and {{slapstick}} (Number Five ignoring his laser cannon to sling mud at people).

In the first film (1986), Number Five short-circuits during a routine maintenance check and flees his birthplace of NOVA Robotics. With mobile tank treads, hair-trigger tactile response, dodgy AI and packing serious heat, Five is the grandaddy of corporate liability. In a panic, NOVA deploys its private security force to recapture and/or destroy the robot while his original programmers (Creator/SteveGuttenberg and Creator/FisherStevens) try to stall them. Sure enough, Number Five pulls into a nearby town and befriends a GranolaGirl named Stephanie Speck (Creator/AllySheedy), who mistakes him for an extra-terrestrial and NOVA for an evil government agency. Meanwhile, Number Five is adapting... learning... and willfully ignoring commands.

The second film (''Short Circuit 2'', 1988) centers on Benjamin Jabituya (now inexplicably called Benjamin "Jahrvi"), who helped program Number Five and was blackballed as a result. Living out of a truck, Ben now hustles little NOVA-inspired toys in Manhattan, but he's having problems getting production up to speed. So, Stephanie sends Number Five, now calling himself Johnny Five, who is a one robot production line. Unfortunately, Ben's business partner Fred Ritter (Creator/MichaelMcKean) sees bigger opportunities. But all this takes a back seat to Johnny being manipulated by thieves to help in a bank heist, which shatters Johnny's naiveté and leaves him wanting revenge.

A third film was in talks afterwards, but was eventually canned due to scripts not meeting expectations. Johnny 5 would eventually return in a TV short named ''Hot Cars, Cold Facts'' with his having his own home and a car. Even though it was primarily an educational film regarding vehicle ownership and insuring, the comedy of the two movies remains.

!!The movies contain examples of:

* ActualPacifist: What Johnny wants to be, though NOVA trying to capture him in the first film and the bank robbers in the second push him into TechnicalPacifist when he's forced to defend himself. Tellingly, he only applies the absolute minimum amount of carefully-calculated force to preserve life, it's only after a positively ''brutal'' attempt on his life that he actively seeks to use violence to stop the robbers, and even then, still does so without causing unecessary harm.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Johnny Five is duped into tunnelling underground to break into a bank in the sequel. Following many robberies in the 70s, vault technology changed rapidly in the 1980s to make them resistant to such attack, being fitted with seismic sensors. Unless Oscar told him he switched them off (as part of an inside-job) Johnny would've set off alarms long before entering the safety deposit box. Johnny's tunnel boring parts would also be worn out halfway under the road, and need changing.

* AscendedExtra: While Ben was already part of the main cast in the first film, he got a bigger billing in the sequel.
* AwardBaitSong: The first movie has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1aTuVMFlMI Come and Follow Me]] by Max Carl and Marcy Levy.
* BadassBoast: From the second movie:
-->'''Los Locos''': Los Locos kick your ass! Los Locos kick your face! Los Locos kick your balls into outer space![[note]]In TV versions, this was changed to "Los Locos kick your '''teeth'''! Los Locos kick your face! Los Locos kick your '''butt''' into outer space![[/note]]

* BadassUnintentional: Johnny Five, in the second movie, since he's a TechnicalPacifist.
* BankRobbery: [[spoiler: Oscar]]'s scheme in the sequel.
* BecomeARealBoy: One of the plot points of the second movie is Johnny Five's quest to be recognized as sentient. [[spoiler:He eventually is, and becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen alongside Ben at the end.]]
* BerserkButton: Do not mistreat Johnny Five's friends, and do not treat him like a mere machine. He WILL find you, and he WILL deal the most humiliating yet nonviolent punishment imaginable. Stephanie's ex-boyfriend and [[spoiler:Oscar]] both found that out '''firsthand'''.
-->"You will '''not''' get away! I am '''[[IsThisWhatAngerFeelsLike really pissed off!!]]'''"
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Johnny and Ben. You do ''not'' want to be around Ben if something's happened to Johnny on your watch. Just see BerserkButton above to see why it's an equally bad idea to take Johnny lightly. With as nice and sweet as he can be, it's easy to forget Johnny is a military grade robot designed for combat.

* BloodlessCarnage: The attack against Johnny 5 in the second movie, although there is a lot of MachineBlood in the form of battery fluid.
* BollywoodNerd: Ben.

** Standard fare for Johnny-Five. With most of his fairly short[[note]]Four days by the time the first movie gets to the climax.[[/note]] life spent interacting with only about a half-dozen humans in any significant way, the majority of his experience and knowledge comes from the piles upon piles of books he's read.
* CallBack: Number Five's "Today, Crosby, today!" line in the first movie is a call back to two previous scenes in the same movie, where Skroeder ordered his men using a similar line ("Today, gentlemen, today!").
* TheCameo: Ally Sheedy has an uncredited [[CelebrityVoiceActor vocal]] one in the second one when Number Five reads the letter Stephanie sends Ben in her voice.

* CharacterDevelopment: Ben graduates from a ChivalrousPervert FunnyForeigner to a three-dimensional protagonist FunnyForeigner between films.

* ChromeChampion: Johnny's makeover in the epilogue of ''Short Circuit 2''. He looks like [[Creator/{{Nintendo}} R.O.B.]] mated with an Academy Award.

* {{Confessional}}: At one point in the sequel, Johnny rolls his way into a church confessional. He gets chased away by the priest, who assumes he's a telepresence device, and tells the "person on the other end" to come to church personally if he wishes to confess.

* CreativeClosingCredits: The first movie has a recap of the story behind the end credits, including several [[DeletedScene Deleted Scenes]] (like the one with Number Five and a coffee-cup bearing robot).
* CreatorCameo: During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.
* CuteMachines: Number/Johnny Five is intended as this, of course, but the little Johnny Five toys take the cake.
** Notable in that Johnny's appearance changes shortly after his accident, to differentiate him from the other four prototypes and make him look slightly less sinister. He loses an apparently-useless box on the top of his head and an armored cowling over the little blinky-light thing that he uses to talk. He also keeps his "eyelids" open, giving him an innocent, wide-eyed look in contrast to the other robots, who keep their eyelids closed, leaving only a slit to see out of, which makes them look like they're scowling or frowning.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Part II had some pure nightmare fuel moments. Such as Oscar and his gang destroying Johnny 5 and leaving him for dead. Then there is the fact that Part II was the one movie where it looked like his life was really in danger.
* DecoyGetaway: Dr. Crosby's NOVA van happens to have enough spare parts for SAINT robots that Number Five builds a decoy. [[spoiler:NOVA blows it up at the end of the first film, with everyone thinking it's the real Number Five.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Johnny 5 takes a lot of abuse in both movies, but always dispenses justice and emerges with a nonsensical catch-phrase and good attitude. He may not be indestructible, but his optimism is.
* DisneyDeath: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d, then {{averted|Trope}}.

* DoAnythingRobot: Let's see... in the first film Johnny has a parachute, an electric tool kit mounted on a "third arm" that can do everything from pick locks to whisk pancake batter, and a laser weapon powerful enough to blow up cars. In the second film he's retained the tool kit arm, upgraded the parachute to a ''hang glider'', swapped the laser for a [[SwissArmyWeapon "utility pack"]] featuring everything from an umbrella to a grappling hook to a plasma cutter powerful enough to cut through a bank vault wall, and added a "multi-frequency remote control" that lets him control almost anything electrical within range.
* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Johnny, in the second movie. When he wants to push past someone (usually [[ConMan Fred]]) he tends to toss him halfway across the room. Not to mention the trouble he gives the two police officers when they arrest him for trashing the bookstore.
-->'''Johnny Five''': I am NOT stolen goods! ''(slams fists on the table, yanking the police officers down)''
* DumbMuscle: One of Oscar's lackeys from the sequel: Jones, who, despite being TheBrute of the group, impatiently ignores his genius partner's TechnoBabble advice before going after Johnny 5.

* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: Johnny develops this in ''Short Circuit 2'' after getting nearly beaten to death by the thieves and also getting a temporary repair job done to him.

* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** [[spoiler:Oscar]] and his goons may be willing do almost anything to get away with their diamond-stealing scheme, but they draw the line at murder, only imprisoning Ben and Fred in a restaurant freezer to get them out of the way. Unfortunately for them, the fact that they're still willing to savagely beat Johnny Five to death because [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman their standards don't extend to HIM]] is [[RageBreakingPoint the last straw]] that drives him into a state of vengeful fury. Possibly the only time this trope has functioned as a hero's BerserkButton.
*** Even then, while he went through with it, ultimately, one of said goons looked visibly uncomfortable with murdering Johnny 5.

** This is likely Skroeder's mistake, as "Huey" is a specific model of helicopter, not the catch-all term for helicopters Skroeder seems to think it is.
** Either that, or he did know the difference, but was too annoyed to explain it to Howard.
* EveryoneKnowsMorse: {{Subverted|Trope}} in the sequel; when Ben and Fred are locked in a freezer and rig a calculator to send a message to Sandy's answering machine, they discover that neither of them know Morse code. Instead, they send directions to their location using the tunes of popular songs.

* EvilOldFolks: [[spoiler:Oscar Baldwin]].

* [[{{Expy}} Expies]]: Newton Crosby and Skroeder, respectively played by Steve Guttenberg and G. W. Bailey, of Mahoney and Harris from Film/PoliceAcademy.

* EyepatchOfPower: Johnny during his quest for vengeance.

* FalseFriend: [[spoiler:Oscar]]. You really ought to see it coming, but he's so jolly that many viewers don't.
** Johnny thinks of Fred as this after Fred tries to sell him, but they patch things up later. In Fred's defence, he wasn't aware at the time that Johnny really was alive.

* FantasticRacism: Johnny seems to believe this is the reason [[spoiler:Oscar tried to kill Johnny, but only locked Ben and Fred in a freezer. .]] It's hard to say he's wrong.
-->'''Johnny Five:''' Oh sure, kidnap the humans, ''(angrily)'' '''destroy the machine'''!
* FireForgedFriends: Fred treats Johnny like he's his personal butler (partly because Ben kept him in the dark about Johnny's AI), then tries to sell him to some corporate bigwigs, prompting Johnny to unleash the white hot rage: "He is [[IFeelAngry NOT]] my friend!" However, after Johnny is [[spoiler: nearly killed by Oscar's mooks]], Fred [[PetTheDog scours the city]] for him and later [[IOweYouMyLife repairs]] him ''single-handedly''. By the end of the movie, they've become an AdventureDuo.
* FlippingTheBird: In the first movie, Newton Crosby does this to his co-worker Benjamin Jabituya with his robotic hand. [[InsultBackfire Benjamin asks Newton if he's showing the number of his IQ with that finger.]]

** [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s goons [[spoiler:destroying the Johnny 5 replica]] early in the second film.
*** Specifically, that it was done [[spoiler:with an axe]].
** And at the police station:

*** Before that, Johnny 5 mentions to Ben that he changed out his old battery for a new lithium-argon liquid battery.
* FreudianSlip: In the first film, when Stephanie Speck calls Nova Laboratories on the phone, saying that she would want to speak to "one of your head warmongers", (she is of course taking the piss), the person receiving the phone call calls Dr. Marner "Dr. Warmonger" before correcting himself and handing Dr. Marner the phone.

* FunnyForeigner: Benjamin Jabituya. In the first movie, he was more of a PluckyComicRelief character. In the second movie, they gave him the last name Jahrvi and tried to give him a more serious story, while still keeping him funny.

** [[{{Malaproper}} Busters. Gang]]''[[{{Malaproper}} busters.]]''

* GlassCannon: the SAINT units sure can dish it out with their lasers, but they lack any armor to speak of - probably due to being early prototypes; one expects actual military units would be encased in rather more protective shells without exposed equipment. They rely on effective offense to prevent damage before it can be dealt, and Johnny himself has pretty effective ways of protecting himself from a single threat using whatever's lying around; however, if there are multiple threats, or if an attack comes from an unforeseen location, they're surprisingly easy to take out - a few bullets damage Johnny 5 enough that he can be reached and shut down in the first film, and all it takes to take him out in the second is an axe from a direction he isn't expecting. Johnny himself has an easy time disabling the other SAINT units - some mud in the eyes, a basic rope trap and a sudden maneuver get them all out of the fight.
* GoodCostumeSwitch: In the first movie, Number Five loses the plate covering his [[TalkingLightbulb "mouth"]] during his escape, making him look much less intimidating than the other SAINT prototypes.

* HappilyEverAfter: The letter from Stephanie in the second film implies this to be the case for her and Newton after the first film.

* HeroicRROD: After his brutal beating, Johnny pursues Oscar's gang despite being badly damaged and leaking battery fluid. He eventually catches them but loses power and nearly dies.

* HilariousOuttakes: The first film's credits play over snippets of various scenes, including scenes that were cut from the final movie, including Number Five playing with a model airplane, escaping a car crusher in a junkyard, and encountering an Omnibot 2000 (a toy robot that was made during that time) trying to serve him orange juice.
* HonestCorporateExecutive: Howard Marner, as [[HeroAntagonist he only sent out his military forces to capture Number Five as he believed him to be a dangerous robot with a laser cannon]]. Howard also overlaps with CorruptCorporateExecutive in a downplayed sense, for viewing the sentient Number Five as another robot of his assembly line that has gone rogue and needs to be recaptured to reprogram and that fact he is OnlyInItForTheMoney.
* HopeSpot: During the first film's finale. [[spoiler:Until the helicopter shows up. Fortunately, it isn't the real Number Five they blew up.]]

** Also befalls the other S.A.I.N.T. robots and the bank robbers in the second film multiple times. Basically anyone who goes up against Johnny Five is doomed to suffer one of these.
** Johnny himself essentially gets one through the entire second movie, as it's brutally pointed out to him at every turn that, aside from Newton, Stephanie, and Ben, ''not a single human being'' believes he's truly alive. A Catholic priest shoos him out of a church believing him to be nothing more than a telepresence device, the police impound him as stolen property instead of arresting him, and Los Locos, Fred, and [[spoiler:Oscar]] all take advantage of his naive and trusting nature to get what they want out of him.
* IAmNotAGun: In the second movie, Johnny has his laser weapon removed in favor of a ComicBook/{{Batman}}-esque utility pack.

* ImprovisedBandage: Towards the end of the second film, Johnny is "[[MachineBlood bleeding]]" battery acid after nearly being beaten to death by some thugs after they've tricked him into helping their robbery. Fred Ritter (who'd previously tried to sell Johnny to a company) finds him, and sacrifices his prized silk shirt to staunch it.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: In the second film, after seeing Johnny easily overpower [[spoiler: Jones]], [[spoiler: Saunders]] immediately surrenders.
-->'''Johnny''': Excuse me, could you put your arms down please?
-->'''[[spoiler:Saunders]]''': ''(immediately complies)'' Sure.
-->'''Johnny''': Thank you.
-->'''[[spoiler:Saunders]]''': You're welcome.
* LampshadeHanging: In the first movie Newton asks Ben where the hell he's from, since he's clearly not ethnically Indian despite the exaggerated accent. He claims he's from Bakersfield and his family is from Pittsburgh. This could be read as an admission that he's a white guy who's just eccentric, but the ending of the second movie shows he isn't an American citizen up to that point.

* LetsGetDangerous: Two examples from the second film:
** The first time [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s goons try to beat him up, Johnny grabs the pipes they are using and shouts, "'''Bad''' humans!" (complete with RedEyesTakeWarning) before swinging them around and launching them out of the warehouse door.
** After [[spoiler:the goons successfully beat him up and Fred repairs him]], Johnny fixes a mohawk to his head and growls, "All right, let's party!" before going out for revenge.

* LiteralMinded: Double subverted in a rather beautiful way with the inkblot turing test mentioned above. When first asked "What do you make of this?" Five gives the literal answer: a chemical analysis of soup poured on paper, seemingly demonstrating CreativeSterility. But then...

** Other times, of course, Johnny 5 falls headlong into this. Memorably, in the first film, he tries to cook Stephanie breakfast, literally following the instructions. He beats pancake batter until smooth (not caring that he's splattering it all over the kitchen and himself), and "for crisp yet moist potatoes, brown on one side then turn over." He browns the cardboard box the potatoes are in on one side, then turns the entire frying pan over.

* LockAndLoadMontage: Johnny Five goes through this after [[spoiler:being beaten and left for dead by the villains, out of sheer anger that they merely kidnapped his friends, but flat out tried to KILL him]]. He even dons a mohawk-like set of spikes for the occasion.
* LockedInAFreezer: Ben and Fred in the second movie.
* MachineBlood: In the second film, Johnny 5 is leaking battery fluid after being damaged by the villains. His friend Ben outright says he's bleeding to death, and he even applies a makeshift tourniquet.

* {{Malaproper}}: Ben, ''constantly''.

* MoodWhiplash: Like the first film, ''Short Circuit 2'' is a light comedy. That is, till the scene where [[spoiler: [[BigBad Oscar]]]] has his goons brutally [[spoiler:[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown smash up Johnny 5 in near slow-motion]]]]. There's even a scene where one of the attackers is hit in the ass with a toy RC plane and goofily hobbles away, then the movie immediately cuts back to [[spoiler:Johnny 5 dying on the sidewalk]].
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler: Oscar and his men do this on Johnny in the second movie.]]

** Johnny 5's realization that disassemble equals death in the first film.
** Fred's reaction in the sequel when Johnny realizes he is in a city, and Fred again when Johnny finds a bookstore.

** [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s face right before Johnny runs his car off the road, somersaulting it into a parked van.

* AnOddPlaceToSleep: Ben inherited the NOVA truck from the first movie and drove it to NYC. It doubles as his toy factory and living space. Even after Fred leases a warehouse, Ben continues to nap in a hammock in the truck (which is now parked indoors).

* PigLatin: Used by the sequel's villains to fool Johnny -- the ''one'' language he doesn't know how to translate. He's managed to work it out by the second time they try this trick on him.
--> '''Johnny 5''': Ew-scray ou-yay, ozo-bay.

* ReCut: When ''Short Circuit 2'' plays on television, it cuts a lot of scenes for time. Many of the cut scenes are the ones where Johnny wanders around New York observing things for himself, including a scene where he trashes a bookstore. This is jarring because he refers to visiting a bookstore at least twice in later scenes.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Probably originally meant for combat mode, Johnny's back-lit red "eyes" are usually a telltale sign you've managed to tick off the normally happy-go-lucky pacifist robot.

** When [[spoiler:Oscar]]'s goons first attack him in the warehouse:
--->'''Johnny Five''': ''(catches crowbar midswing)'' '''Baaad humans!'''''
** Later when prepping for his RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
---> '''Johnny Five:''' Oh sure, ''kidnap'' the humans, '''''destroy'' the machine!''' ''(fixes punk-like accessories to his body)'' [[LetsGetDangerous Let's party.]]

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: A relatively-nonviolent one being a good summation of the climax of the second film, with Johnny Five hunting down Oscar.]]

* RunForTheBorder: [[spoiler:Oscar]] and his cronies devise a clever plot to smuggle the jewels into South America. Each one is hidden inside a cheap, plastic toy dinosaur; "Our gift to the Brazilian National Orphanage."
* RunningGag: Skroeder seems rather obsessed with food...
-->'''Skroeder''': What I've got is trouble, which I don't need because my wife is at home cooking a steak that's going to be dried out by the time I get there!\\

* ShoutOut: The movie playing on the TV (in the scene where Number Five and Stephanie dance) is Film/SaturdayNightFever, one of John Badham's previous movies.
* ShellGame: Johnny Five learns it from a street performer in ''Short Circuit 2''.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Rosy idealism.
* SpeaksInShoutOuts: Johnny Five.
* StealthPun: Probably unintentional, but in the second film, Johnny Five, the self-aware robot who insists he's alive, embraces [[TheEighties the late Eighties]] street gang aesthetic when he begins his RoaringRampageOfRevenge. He uses bits from the Radio Shack Fred fixed him up in to fashion a mohawk, [[SpikesOfVillainy spikes]], [[ChainedByFashion chains]], and other electronic accoutrements that serve no purpose but to make him look edgy and cool. In otherwords, he becomes a CyberPunk.
* StarringSpecialEffects: Despite the films' relatively low budget, the animatronics used for Johnny Five were top of the line and very impressive for the time. He was designed by ''Film/BladeRunner'' legend Syd Mead.
* StereotypicalSouthAsianEnglish: Part of Ben Jabituya's joke is that he speaks with such an exaggerated accent despite being born and raised in the US to American-born parents. The sequel retcons him into an Indian immigrant. Stevens researched the role quite extensively, hiring a dialect coach and even traveling to India to get the accent right, but today considers the role something of an Old Shame.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: Johnny [[spoiler:after getting mutilated by Oscar's mooks]].
* SuicidalOverconfidence: [[spoiler:Johnny heatedly goes after Oscar, ignoring the fatal gash in his battery. He doesn't bleed to ''death'', but he cuts it pretty close.]]
-->'''Fred''': Come on now, man, these are serious guys! You're not in top form a-and your back-up battery's used up!?\\
'''Johnny''': [[ElectronicSpeechImpediment Derf]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rains_of_Ranchipur a life-form's gotta do what a life-form's gotta do.]] Stand aside.

* SuperSpeedReading: Johnny can breeze through books at a frightening rate, though apparently he's not programmed to re-shelve them. Set him loose in a bookstore and, [[OhCrap well]]...

* SuperStrength: It's not overtly shown in the first film, as Johnny 5 rarely ever uses his physical strength, but the sequel shows he's ''far'' stronger than a human and capable of benchpressing a car and easily overpowering multiple humans at once. Makes sense as he and the S.A.I.N.T.s were originally designed to carry 25 megaton nuclear bombs, which weigh more than a large van or pickup truck.
* SymbolicBlood: [[spoiler:As Oscar's henchmen attempt to destroy Johnny 5, either battery acid or hydraulic fluid splashes on one of the goons.]]

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Not ''evil'' of course, but Johnny 5 spends a large part of the second movie trying to be human. After [[spoiler:Oscar's henchmen smash him up and leave him for dead]], Johnny finally decides he's had enough of that fruitless project because, if humans are going to mistreat him that badly, he doesn't ''need'' to be human.
-->'''Johnny:''' Am not human, but ''am a life form!''
* TheyWouldCutYouUp: "NO DISASSEMBLE!"
* ThreeStoogesShoutOut: Johnny Five re-programmed three of the pursuing prototypes in the first film so they acted like Larry, Moe, and Curly.

* TrailOfBlood: While it's not technically blood, near the end of the second film, Johnny 5 [[spoiler:suffers damage to his battery before going on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, forcing the rest of the protagonists to follow the trail of battery acid and help him.]]

* UnwittingPawn: Johnny, in the second movie. ''Twice.'' In the beginning he steals just about a dozen car radios after being deceived by a gang to believe that he was helping them do their jobs as the "Department of Car Stereo Repair"; and later when [[spoiler: Oscar tricks him into digging into the bank vault, thinking it was to create a safe place for Ben]]. Don't worry, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge he fixes it.]]
** Skroeder uses Newton Crosby as one of these in the first film:
--->'''Crosby''': Let me tell you something: I don't like those N.O.V.A. guys any more than you do. In fact, I don't care if they ever get Number 5 back, but I want to see it.
--->'''Stephanie''': If I show you where he is, do I have your word you will not experiment on him, you will not flip the switches and you will not take him apart?
--->'''Crosby''': Absolutely, you have my word.
--->'''Stephanie''': Okay, he's out back, I'll take you to him.
--->'''Skroeder''': Well, while you're at it, young lady, you can take me, too.
--->'''Crosby''' [shocked] Skroeder!
--->'''Skroeder''': Terrific job, Crosby, thanks for the help.
--->'''Crosby''': No! I had nothing to do with this!
--->'''Stephanie''': You bastard, you're a liar!

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlFriend: Maybe not violent, but Sandy [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] when she believes Ben is in trouble, impressively decoding his voiceless-phone messages to use as directions, and demanding that the taxi driver break the law to move faster.

* WhamShot: In ''Short Circuit 2'', there's the [[spoiler:maiming]] scene: Johnny has gotten the drop on Oscar, popping down from a tree to grab him. Oscar's goons show up and (with prompting in pig latin from Oscar) circle around Johnny.[[spoiler:.. and the one wielding a crowbar ''chops into Johnny's back'', causing an ''explosion'' of electrical sparks as he's dislodged from the tree.]] [[FromBadToWorse And it doesn't end there.]]

* WhosOnFirst: Stephanie and Number 5 in the first movie:

** Skroeder's actions and attitude throughout the original movie would all be completely within reason - if this were a sci-fi thriller, rather than a family comedy.

* [[YouAreNumberSix You Are Number Five]]: He starts as just a number, but gives himself the name Johnny Five. Ben calls him "Number Johnny Five".
* YouCanBarelyStand: discussed in the second movie after Five decides he's repaired enough to get revenge.
--> '''Fred:''''' Wait a minute J5, waddaya think you're gonna do?''
--> '''Five:''''' Pursue...capture...'''incarcerate'''!''
--> '''Fred:''''' Come on now man, these are serious guys! You're not in top form, your backup battery's used up...!''
--> '''Five:''' ''[[BlatantLies I'm okay-kay.]] Just a few billion-billion bugs bugging the works out-in-out-in. Perfectly functionality. '''[[AssuranceBackfire Functionality!]]'''''
--> '''Fred:''''' Yeah, sure! Listen to yourself, you can't even talk straight!''
--> '''Five(picking Fred up by the collar):''''' [[AccidentalMisnaming derF]], [[Creator/JohnWayne a lifeform's gotta do what a lifeform's gotta do.]] Stand aside.''

* YourMom:
** Invoked in the first movie as a taunt to Number Five's pursuers.
--->'''Number Five''': Hey, laser lips! Your momma was a snowblower! ''(makes a digital Bronx cheer)''
** And in the second:
--->'''Johnny Five''': [[BilingualBonus "Tu mama hace el amor con mi perro."]] [[spoiler:Your mother makes love with my dog.]]

* WrongGenreSavvy: Skroeder's actions and attitude throughout the original movie would all be completely within reason - if this were a sci-fi thriller, rather than a family comedy.

* SuperReflexes: Besides being able to read a full book in seconds, Johnny can also react quickly enough to deflect incoming bullets with a hub cap. He doesn't do so good against any attacks he doesn't see coming, though.

* SuperStrength: It's not overtly shown in the first film, as Johnny 5 rarely ever uses his physical strength, but the sequel shows he's ''far'' stronger than a human and capable of benchpressing a car and easily overpowering multiple humans at once.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: Johnny Five is duped into tunnelling underground to break into a bank in the sequel. Following many robberies in the 70s, vault technology changed rapidly in the 1980s to make them resistant to such attack, being fitted with seismic sensors. Until Oscar told him he switched them off (as part of an inside-job) Johnny would've set off alarms long before entering the safety deposit box. Johnny's tunnel boring parts would also be worn out halfway under the road, and need changing.

''Short Circuit'' is a pair of films about a bleeding edge military robot who becomes self-aware. Dubbed "Number Five", his first instinct as a sentient being is to {{invert|edTrope}} the KillerRobot genre: he doesn't want to kill, and is hunted by the weapons manufacturer that made him. It doesn't slot easily into any one genre, instead toying with hard sci-fi, romantic comedy, tragedy, revenge drama, and {{slapstick}} (Number Five ignoring his laser cannon to sling mud at people).

* {{Dissimile}}: Fred explaining that he didn't "lose" Johnny Five. He just "[[FromACertainPointOfView misplaced]] him, y'know? Like your car keys."

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/WarGames'', also directly by John Badham and starring Ally Sheedy. In both films, Ally Sheedy's character comes across a military AI that learns the value of life.

* PinocchioSyndrome: He even picked a copy of the novel of ''Pinocchio'' while at a bookstore, determining that it required a more careful read.
** Along with ''Frankenstein.'' Doubles as sort of a BrickJoke. . . the two books aren't revealed until Johnny is rescued from Police impound by Ben, where he was seen ''very'' slowly (for him, at least) reading them. Used to highlight how out-of-place he suddenly feels in the human world, and that not all humans are as understanding as Stephanie, Newton, and Ben have been.

* ThreeStoogesShoutOut: Johnny Five re-programmed three of the pursuing prototypes in the first film so they acted like Larry, Moe, and Curley.

-->"You will '''not''' get away! I am '''[[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry really pissed off!!]]'''"

-->"You will '''not''' get away! I am '''[[IFeelAngry really pissed off!!]]'''"

-->'''Crosby''': Let me tell you something: I don't like those N.O.V.A. guys any more than you do. In fact, I don't care if they ever get Number 5 back, but I want to see it.
-->'''Stephanie''': If I show you where he is, do I have your word you will not experiment on him, you will not flip the switches and you will not take him apart?
-->'''Crosby''': Absolutely, you have my word.
-->'''Stephanie''': Okay, he's out back, I'll take you to him.
-->'''Skroeder''': Well, while you're at it, young lady, you can take me, too.
-->'''Crosby''' [shocked] Skroeder!
-->'''Skroeder''': Terrific job, Crosby, thanks for the help.
-->'''Crosby''': No! I had nothing to do with this!
-->'''Stephanie''': You bastard, you're a liar!

* HollywoodNerd: Newton isn't exactly smooth with the ladies.