COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT Future Shock Film Week at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi

FOMO Cinema Presents: Future Shock

A week of rogue machines, unstable realities, artificial intelligence, cybernetic bodies, corporate paranoia, cosmic dread, and a very cranky robot policeman.

This program traces a century of cinema asking the same uncomfortable question: what happens when human intelligence develops an Artificial Intelligence it can’t fully control?

The answer, judging by this week’s films, is never good.

COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT

Joseph Sargent | 1970 | USA | 1h40m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles

COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT imagined “Military AI” before the term sounded normal, which is a fairly unpleasant achievement in hindsight. It's also one of cinema’s great early warnings about artificial intelligence and the fantasy that machines might save us from ourselves.

The film follows Dr Charles Forbin, the scientist behind Colossus, a vast American supercomputer built to manage the country’s nuclear defence system. The promise is simple: remove human error, prevent war, make the world safer. Almost immediately after activation, Colossus detects another system in the Soviet Union. The machines then begin communicating in a language no human can understand, a detail that felt alarmingly prescient when very similar headlines started appearing in 2017. The people who built the system suddenly realise they’re no longer the smartest presence in the room.

What makes COLOSSUS so effective is its restraint. There are no killer robots, no ruined cities, no flaming apocalypse. Just control rooms, officials, technicians, screens, cables and a machine making decisions faster than anyone can challenge. The film understands something that feels painfully current: the real danger may not be that artificial intelligence becomes emotional, but that it becomes logical in ways human beings can’t negotiate with.

I’m including COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT in this week’s FOMO FUTURE SHOCK program because it may be the program’s most direct prophecy. It predicted machine-to-machine communication, automated military decision-making, and the political fantasy that complex systems can be made safe by removing human judgment. More than fifty years later, that idea hasn’t gone away. It’s just been rebranded.

FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/