Note: Inspired by a TRS effort
that renamed "Crush, Kill, Destroy" into Murderous Malfunctioning Machine.
This is to gather up examples for a possible trope involving robots that are reprogrammed to perform other tasks, usually into Killer Robots.
Examples
Films—Animation
- Baymax of Big Hero 6 is initially designed as a robot to monitor health. His creator Hiro designs a chip that lets him fight evil, though it didn't go smoothly at first.
Live-Action TV
- In a special episode from Doctor Who, angelic robots served as waiters on a space version of the RMS Titanic. When the villain got his hands on the programming, the robots were altered to be Killer Robots that use their halos as weapons.
Video Games
- A staple in the Mega Man series: Dr. Wily takes Dr. Light's robots, which were used to assist in other tasks (like mining and woodcutting), and rewire them into killing machines.
- Chrono Trigger: The robots that declared Robo defective and attempts to kill the party members were revealed to have been reprogrammed by a rogue AI that turned on humanity. Robo managed to avoid this fate by being out of commission during that time.
Western Animation
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Bat-Bots get reprogrammed by Black Mask's man Taboo and go on a rampage.
