2025 R.U.R (Rossom's Universal Robots)

R.U.R. a 1920 play written by Czech writer Karel Capek.

This cautionary play, for which Čapek invented the word robot (derived from the Czech word for forced labour), involves a scientist named Rossum who discovers the secret of creating humanlike machines. A factory is built on a remote island to crank out enough robots to meet demand and Around the world, robots quickly replace humans in what are considered menial tasks: assembly lines, domestic labor, secretarial work, etc. Another scientist decides to make the robots more human, which he does by gradually adding such traits as the capacity to feel pain.

A young woman journeys to the island to free the robots, but in her naive enthusiasm, becomes deeply embroiled in the fate of the robots, and ultimately, the fate of the human race. Years later, the robots, who were created to serve humans, have come to dominate them completely. R.U.R. is a sci-fi melodrama before the genre existed.