History Main / RoboticTortureDevice

--> I have said that the room in which M. le Vicomte de Chagny and I were imprisoned was a regular hexagon, lined entirely with mirrors. Plenty of these rooms have been seen since, mainly at exhibitions: they are called "palaces of illusion," or some such name. But the invention belongs entirely to Erik, who built the first room of this kind under my eyes, at the time of the rosy hours of Mazenderan. A decorative object, such as a column, for instance, was placed in one of the corners and immediately produced a hall of a thousand columns; for, thanks to the mirrors, the real room was multiplied by six hexagonal rooms, each of which, in its turn, was multiplied indefinitely. But the little sultana soon tired of this infantile illusion, whereupon Erik altered his invention into a "torture-chamber." For the architectural motive placed in one corner, he substituted an iron tree. This tree, with its painted leaves, was absolutely true to life and was made of iron so as to resist all the attacks of the "patient" who was locked into the torture-chamber. We shall see how the scene thus obtained was twice altered instantaneously into two successive other scenes, by means of the automatic rotation of the drums or rollers in the corners. These were divided into three sections, fitting into the angles of the mirrors and each supporting a decorative scheme that came into sight as the roller revolved upon its axis. The walls of this strange room gave the patient nothing to lay hold of, because, apart from the solid decorative object, they were simply furnished with mirrors, thick enough to withstand any onslaught of the victim, who was flung into the chamber empty-handed and barefoot. There was no furniture. The ceiling was capable of being lit up. An ingenious system of electric heating, which has since been imitated, allowed the temperature of the walls and room to be increased at will. I am giving all these details of a perfectly natural invention, producing, with a few painted branches, the supernatural illusion of an equatorial forest blazing under the tropical sun, so that no one may doubt the present balance of my brain or feel entitled to say that I am mad or lying or that I take him for a fool.

[[quoteright:259:[[http://www.christrevas.com/starwars/egf_15torture.html https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/StarWarsTortureBot_1906.jpg]]]]

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' has a robotic surgery machine in one of the research labs. Gordon Freeman has to turn it off for some scientists to follow him...starting from the other side of the room.
** Due to the early graphics, this machine only looked like two arms with spinning spurs on their ends, but the ''Black Mesa'' remake shows it with several dozen attachments: Clamps, buzz saws, chain saws, and blades, two of each on the whole mechanism.

* The Machine in ''Film/ThePrincessBride''. Made all the more horrifying with the eleven fingered man politely asking for Westley to describe the sensation ForScience.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' gives us Painbot.

[[caption-width-right:259:[[BlindIdiotTranslation Do not want.]]]]

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* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' with the Probulator who is implied to be a robot.

* The torture device Kafka thought of in the short story ''InThePenalColony'', which carves a description of the crime into the victim's skin over and over again. In its final use it malfunctions and just killed the victim brutally and quickly, rather than killing them slowly and agonizingly like it's supposed to.

* Creator/GeneWolfe's ''BookOfTheNewSun'' mentions several of these in its scenes regarding the local Torturers' Guild. Two are described in detail: Allowin's Necklace is a mechanical garrote tightened by the tidal motion of its victim's breathing (a victim breathing shallowly can last for hours), while the Revolutionary painfully awakens an unconscious urge toward self-destruction. These urges can be overridden consciously, but in unguarded moments its victims revert to scratching at their own skin or trying to claw out their eyes; they weaken as the victim does, however, and strong-willed individuals can take months to die. (There's also a brief mention of a device that will carve slogans into a victim's flesh, which is a ShoutOut to [[Creator/FranzKafka The Penal Colony]], though modern readers might be thinking of [[TheUmbridge another writer altogether]].)
* ThePhantomOfTheOpera: In the original book (1911) there is a torture chamber completely automated: when the victim falls in the room, it activates and gives him the illusion of a tropical forest. When the victim cannot endure more, [[DrivenToSuicide there is also a rope to hang himself]]. The Phantom uses it as a defense against curious people. The first victim of the book was already dead when the Phantom found him.

** Some EU sources starte that IT-O droids often attack their victim's ''[[GroinAttack genitals]]''. You may cringe now.

{{Evil Empire}}s can't just [[SlouchOfVillainy slouch around]] on a [[OrcusOnHisThrone throne]] all day, they have {{Muggles}} to oppress and {{Doomed Hometown}}s to [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed raze!]] So not every EvilOverlord can take the time out of their busy schedule to personally interrogate a captive (which, let's face it, is the only [[TortureAlwaysWorks surefire way to get them to break).]] So instead they will delegate the use ColdBloodedTorture... to something without the blood. The Robotic Torture Device [[DeathTrap is a torture device]] with various bits of torture equipment, including but not limited to: knives, poison filled syringes, blades, [[ElectricTorture electric shock prods]], {{Agony Beam}}s, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or worst of all]], ''[[TickleTorture feathers]].''

* In ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters: Future Perfect'' the player could kill a bunch of restrained mutants with one of these. This gets you a WhatTheHellPlayer comment from [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Anya]].

* Warhammer 40,000's Dark Eldar Haemonculi (thoroughly evil virtuoso torture technicians with almost magical high technology at their disposal) have a chilling variety of biomechanical "pain engines" to play with. These are often taken to the battlefield and used as mobile war machines by Dark Eldar raiding forces. The two most common such engines are the "Talos" pain engine - which can be fitted with giant razors, chain flails, ichor injectors and all manner of fiendish equipment (it generally renders down its victims into constituent parts and stores them for later) - and the "Cronos" parasite engine, which slowly siphons off the souls of its victims using a series of eldritch probes, vanes and hypnotic discs.
* TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} has a torturer robot from a crashed spaceship that is essentially a ShoutOut to the Star Wars example. Though it can also be used as a CombatMedic.

Depending on how you want to look at it, it either makes the torture more or less dehumanizing by having a cold and unfeeling robot administer it. At least, we ''[[AIIsACrapshoot hope]]'' it's [[TheStoic cold and unfeeling]], because otherwise [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters it could get]] [[AndIMustScream much,]] ''[[AFateWorseThanDeath much worse.]]''

* The hilariously inventive torture machine from the original ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper''. In it's dormant state it consisted of a pedestal backed by a hooded and cowled automaton; when active the automaton inflicted a different torture on almost every one of the different unit classes, including: whipping the kinky Dark Mistresses, rib-tickling giants and barbarians, spinning fairy folk around by their wings, strangling archers with their bows, transforming wizards into frogs and back again, and attacking armoured paladins with can openers.

* Devices of this description appear in ''Film/TheHobbit'' in Goblin Town, inspired by a passing reference in Tolkien's original novel.

* According to the latest video blog, devices of this description will appear in ''Film/TheHobbit'' in Goblin Town, inspired by a passing reference in Tolkien's original novel.

The robot itself may require the victim be StrappedToAnOperatingTable, or be motile. It can be programmed to torture captives, or it might just be a swiss army knife for a TortureTechnician. For extra NightmareFuel, the torture implements will be on arms that hack and stab blindly, with the promise of mauling the victim indiscriminately and ''never tiring''.

* Let's not forget the device Edmund gets strapped to in the final episode of ''TheBlackAdder [I]''.

* In ''EmperorBattleForDune'', the civil war of the Harkonnen brothers ends with the victor putting the defeated in an Ixian torture chair.
* ''HalfLife'' has a robotic surgery machine in one of the research labs. Gordon Freeman has to turn it off for some scientists to follow him...starting from the other side of the room.

* TabletopGames/{{Pathfinder}} has a torturer robot from a crashed spaceship that is essentially a ShoutOut to the Star Wars example. Though it can also be used as a CombatMedic.

** "TabletopGames/Pathfinder" has a torturer robot from a crashed spaceship that is essentially a ShoutOut to the Star Wars example. Though it can also be used as a CombatMedic.

{{Evil Empire}}s can't just [[SlouchOfVillainy slouch around]] on a [[OrcusOnHisThrone throne]] all day, they have InnocentBystanders to oppress and {{Doomed Hometown}}s to [[WhereIWasBornAndRazed raze!]] So not every EvilOverlord can take the time out of their busy schedule to personally interrogate a captive (which, let's face it, is the only [[TortureAlwaysWorks surefire way to get them to break).]] So instead they will delegate the use ColdBloodedTorture... to something without the blood. The Robotic Torture Device [[DeathTrap is a torture device]] with various bits of torture equipment, including but not limited to: knives, poison filled syringes, blades, [[ElectricTorture electric shock prods]], {{Agony Beam}}s, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or worst of all]], ''[[TickleTorture feathers]].''

* ''ElfQuest'' has a simple but very nasty device, designed by Two-Edge for the human warlord Grohmul Djun. The victim is strapped between two large metal urns in the shape of birds, which are slowly filled with water through their upturned beaks. They are pivoted in such a way that as the weight of water increases they begin to tip outward, placing increasing pressure on the victim's limbs. If the victim doesn't surrender they're torn limb from limb.

* The [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/IT-O_Interrogator IT-O interrogation device]] the Empire used offscreen on Princess Leia in ''StarWars''. Thankfully, BeautyIsNeverTarnished. And in fact, in the {{novelization}} and the radio play, we see that Vader sent the droid away and instead performed a rather disturbing MindProbe.

** The torture device Darth Vader used on Han Solo in ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''.
** There's also the EV series, which came about when a line of supervisors were fitted with torture droid motivators. Jabba employed one, known as EV-9D9, for a while. It's the droid in ''Return of the Jedi'' that assigns jobs for R2-D2 and C-3PO, while in the background her assistant is holding a hapless power droid's feet to a red-hot wire.

* In Ayn Rand's ''Atlas Shrugged'', there is a device designed to deliver electrocution to cause maximum pain but stopping just before the point of death.
* Creator/GeneWolfe's ''BookOfTheNewSun'' mentions several of these in its scenes regarding the local Torturers' Guild. Two are described in detail: Allowin's Necklace is a mechanical garrote tightened by the tidal motion of its victim's breathing (a victim breathing shallowly can last for hours), while the Revolutionary painfully awakens an unconscious urge toward self-destruction. These urges can be overridden consciously, but in unguarded moments its victims revert to scratching at their own skin or trying to claw out their eyes; they weaken as the victim does, however, and strong-willed individuals can take months to die. (There's also a brief mention of a device that will carve slogans into a victim's flesh, which is a ShoutOut to [[FranzKafka The Penal Colony]], though modern readers might be thinking of [[TheUmbridge another writer altogether]].)
* ThePhantomOfTheOpera: In the original book (1911) there is a torture chamber completely automated: when the victim falls in the room, it activates and gives him the illusion of a tropical forrest. When the victim cannot endure more, [[DrivenToSuicide there is also a rope to hang himself]]. The Phantom uses it as a defense against curious people. The first victim of the book was already dead when the Phantom found him.

[[caption-width-right:259:[[WesternAnimation/RobotChicken "Good God man, I'm a doctor not a savage! This is a flu shot! Good day sir!"]]]]

* In SheriSTepper's ''Six Moon Dance'' there's a sexual bondage device which is set to inflict sadistic pleasure at first... before it just gets sadistic. And deadly.

* In the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "War Stories," Niska has some sort of robotic spider thing that buries itself in Mal's skin. Of course, Niska is not opposed to using his hands and other instruments as well.

* GeneWolfe's ''BookOfTheNewSun'' mentions several of these in its scenes regarding the local Torturers' Guild. Two are described in detail: Allowin's Necklace is a mechanical garrote tightened by the tidal motion of its victim's breathing (a victim breathing shallowly can last for hours), while the Revolutionary painfully awakens an unconscious urge toward self-destruction. These urges can be overridden consciously, but in unguarded moments its victims revert to scratching at their own skin or trying to claw out their eyes; they weaken as the victim does, however, and strong-willed individuals can take months to die. (There's also a brief mention of a device that will carve slogans into a victim's flesh, which is a ShoutOut to [[FranzKafka The Penal Colony]], though modern readers might be thinking of [[TheUmbridge another writer altogether]].)