Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60s – Volume 5: “Mind-Blowing Rise of the Machines” (FREE eBook)

Sci-Fi Film Fiesta:

The Swingin’ 60s –

Volume 5:

“Mind-Blowing Rise of the Machines”

Step into a decade where the future didn’t just arrive—it loomed.

In Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60s – Volume 5: “Mind-Blowing Rise of the Machines”, the optimism of the Space Age collides head-on with a growing unease: what happens when our creations begin to outthink us… and outgrow us?

This electrifying new volume dives into three provocative classics—The Creation of the Humanoids (1962), Cyborg 2087 (1966), and Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)—each exploring the rise of intelligent machines at a time when computers still filled rooms and the idea of artificial minds felt both thrilling and deeply unsettling. From questions of identity and coexistence to chilling visions of control and domination, these films tap into anxieties that feel more relevant now than ever.

But this isn’t just a nostalgic trip through retro sci-fi. It’s a journey into the cultural psyche of the 1960s—a world of beatnik cool, countercultural rebellion, and technological wonder tinged with existential dread. Expect sharp insights, evocative commentary, and a celebration of the era’s unique cinematic voice.

And then… step inside The Poets’ Groovy Brew Café—your bonus destination. Here, the neon glow softens, the coffee flows, and the ideas turn inward. Through a collection of the author's original poems, the themes of the films are reimagined on a more personal, reflective level—human versus machine, soul versus circuitry, freedom versus control, fears for the future of humanity—served with a distinctly groovy twist.

If you’ve ever wondered when our fascination with AI first took root—or how the Swingin’ Sixties first dared to imagine a world run by machines—this volume is your ticket.

Plug in, tune out, and prepare for a mind-bending ride.....

All of it completely.....

FREE!!

(Note: Colossus The Forbin Project was released in 1970, so it depends if you think that a decade begins with a '0' and ends with a '9' or begins with a '1' and ends with a zero. Either way I love this film and its my eBok, so there!)

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Also now available on Google Play Books

Previous volumes in the series:


Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60’s - Volume 1
“Eve of Destruction”


Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60’s - Volume 2
“Far Out Battles Without and Within”


Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60’s - Volume 3
“Freaky Future Shocks”


Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60’s - Volume 4
“Purple People Eaters and Trippy Creatures”

The Creation of the Humanoids (1962)

A deceptively intelligent early sci-fi film that relies quite heavily on dialogue that contain ideas of even more relevance today as we hurtle toward a future in which we will have to come terms with our relationship with our “smarter” technology.

Directed by Wesley Barry
Written by Jay Simms
Produced by Wesley Barry, Edward J. Kay
Cinematography: Hal Mohr
Edited by Ace Herman
Music by Edward J. Kay
Distributed by Emerson Film Enterprises
Running time: 84 minutes


Cast

Don Megowan as Capt. Kenneth Cragis
Erica Elliot as Maxine Megan
Don Doolittle as Dr. Raven
George Milan as Acto, a clicker
Dudley Manlove as Lagan, a clicker
Frances McCann as Esme Cragis Milos
David Cross as Pax, a clicker
Malcolm Smith as Court
Richard Vath as Mark, a clicker
Reid Hammond as Hart, Chairman of Surveillance Committee
Pat Bradley as Dr. Moffitt
William Hunter as Ward, Surveillance Committee Member
Gil Frye as Orus, a clicker
Alton Tabor as Kelly's Duplicate
Paul Sheriff as Policeman

Trailer

The setting: 23rd century post nuclear war holocaust society.

The surviving population suffers from a decreasing birth rate.

The human race is headed for extinction.

People have become dependent on humanoid robots (‘Clickers’) for assistance.

The ‘Order of Flesh and Blood’ fear that the robots will take over and supplant human beings.

The Order tasks itself with preventing the robots from becoming too human and with ensuring that human beings remain dominant.

A scientist experiments with creating human replicas that have genuine emotions and memories.

Two central characters, Kenneth Cragis and Maxine Megan form a close relationship and make a discovery that will call into question all that they thought they knew about the basis of their society and themselves.

And now prepare yourself for “The Creation of the Humanoids” and to have your ideas challenged on what it means to be human along with the possible future direction of our human civilization……..

Read on for more....... 

Blade Runner (1982)

A significant sci-fi film that holds a mirror up to humanity and forces us to ask some uncomfortable questions about ourselves

Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by Hampton Fancher, David Peoples
Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Produced by: Michael Deeley
Cinematography: Jordan Cronenweth
Edited by Terry Rawlings
Marsha Nakashima
Music byVangelis
Production companies: The Ladd Company, Shaw Brothers Blade Runner Partnership
Distributed by Warner Bros. (Worldwide), Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong)
Running time: 117 minutes
Language: English
Budget: $30 million
Box office: $41.8 million

Cast

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty
Sean Young as Rachael
Edward James Olmos as Gaff
M. Emmet Walsh as Bryant
Daryl Hannah as Pris
William Sanderson as J.F. Sebastian
Brion James as Leon Kowalski
Joe Turkel as Eldon Tyrell
Joanna Cassidy as Zhora Salome
James Hong as Hannibal Chew
Morgan Paull as Dave Holden
Hy Pyke as Taffey Lewis

Trailer

What is set down here does not involve a future in which machines have risen up to take over and subjugate humanity. Nor is it a future in which governments have specifically conspired to use technology to achieve world domination. Neither are there cyborgs being sent back into the past in order to effect change in the future.

The events that are about to unfold here are set in a dystopian future in Los Angeles in the year 2019. You might think of it as one possible future outcome out of an infinite number of possible future outcomes within a string theory multiverse. This particular future is the result of a certain set of decisions that had been made resulting in the creation of synthetic humans known as ‘replicants’ that were bio-engineered by the all-powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. Unexpectedly, a group of advanced replicants committed the unthinkable before escaping back to Earth. It was then up to a jaded and burnt-out former cop – a blade runner - Rick Deckard to hunt them down and ‘retire’ them.

Now let’s begin this tale of a possible future by providing a bit of context which should be scrolling on the screens of your devices…...now:

Read on for more.....

The Terminator (1984)

A tense sci-fi tech-noir thriller with cracking and relentless momentum, solid performances and a compelling story.

Directed by James Cameron
Written by James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd
Cinematography: Adam Greenberg
Edited by Mark Goldblatt
Music by Brad Fiedel
Production companies: Hemdale Pacific Western Productions, Euro Film Funding, Cinema '84
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Running time: 107 minutes
Budget” $6.4 million
Box office: $78.3 million

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator
Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
Paul Winfield as Ed Traxler, a police lieutenant
Lance Henriksen as Hal Vukovich, a member of the LAPD
Bess Motta as Ginger
Rick Rossovich as Matt, Ginger's boyfriend
Earl Boen as Doctor Peter Silberman, a criminal psychologist
Shawn Schepps as Nancy, Sarah's co-worker at the diner;
Dick Miller as a gun shop clerk
Franco Columbu as a Terminator in the future
Bill Paxton and Brian Thompson as young punks
Marianne Muellerleile as one of the other women with the name "Sarah Connor" 

Rick Aiello as the bouncer of the local nightclub
Bill Wisher as the police officer who reports a hit-and-run felony on Reese

Trailer

An apocalyptic future world of 2029 where machines under the guidance and control of the ‘Skynet’ computer system have conquered the entire world.

What remains of humanity conducts a brave resistance against the machines.

An indestructible cyborg-assassin known as the "Terminator" is sent back to 1984 Los Angeles programmed to seek and kill humanity’s most important woman - Sarah Connor.

Why? Sarah’s unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation

Also sent back is a battle-scarred Kyle Reese, a brave soldier of the human Resistance Army tasked with stopping the cybernetic killer from eliminating humanity’s last hope. But first he must find Sarah before the Terminator does, otherwise humanity is doomed.

Is there any way to stop the seemingly indestructible cyborg ?


Read on for more.....

Runaway (1984)

A lesser-known 1980s sci-fi gem that deserves far greater recognition

Directed by Michael Crichton
Written by Michael Crichton
Produced by Michael I. Rachmil, Lisa Faversham, Kurt Villadsen
Cinematography: John A. Alonzo
Edited by Glenn Farr, James Coblentz
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Production company: Delphi III Productions
Distributed by Tri-Star Pictures
Release date: December 14, 1984
Running time: 99 minutes
Budget: $8 million
Box office: $6,770,587 (USA)

Cast

Tom Selleck as Sergeant Jack R. Ramsay

Cynthia Rhodes as Officer Karen Thompson
Gene Simmons as Dr. Charles Luther
Kirstie Alley as Jackie Rogers
Stan Shaw as Sergeant Marvin James
G.W. Bailey as Chief of Police
Joey Cramer as Bobby Ramsay
Chris Mulkey as David Johnson
Sullivan Walker as K.C.
Anne-Marie Martin as Hooker At Bar
Michael Paul Chan as Wilson, Vectrocon Security Guard
Babz Chula as Construction Foreperson
Marilyn Schreffler as Voice of Lois
Elizabeth Norment as Miss Shields
Carol Teesdale as Sally
Paul Batten as Harry
Betty Phillips as Linda
Stephen Thorne as Tommy
Stephen E. Miller as Rudy
Cec Verrell as Hooker
Amber Borycki as Baby (uncredited)

Sometime in a future which we have almost caught up with, robots perform domestic house-hold, agricultural, construction and many other services. The police have a specialized department tasked with investigating and resolving cases involving malfunctioning robots that pose a danger to humans. Such robots are known as "Runaways"

Trailer

Read on for more......

The Phantom Planet (1961)

A fun sci-fi film with minimalist production values and special effects, both matching its budgetary constraints but with interesting ideas such as anti-gravity and magnetic fields. Unfortunately, it fails to launch far enough away from the world of 1950s film sci-fi and take the viewer into the brave new world of the future. Phantom Planet will, however grow on you after a couple of viewings, especially the colourised version.

Directed by William Marshall
Screenplay by William Telaak, Fred De Gorter, Fred Gebhardt
Story by Fred Gebhardt
Produced by Fred Gebhardt
Cinematography: Elwood J. Nicholson
Edited by Hugo Grimaldi
Music by Leith Stevens
Production company: Four Crown Productions Inc.
Distributed by American International Pictures
Running time: 90 minutes

Cast

Dean Fredericks as Capt. Frank Chapman
Coleen Gray as Liara
Anthony Dexter as Herron
Francis X. Bushman as Sessom
Jimmy Weldon as Lt. Webb
Dolores Faith as Zetha
Richard Weber as Lt. Ray Makonnen
Al Jarvis as Judge Eden
Dick Haynes as Col. Lansfield
Earl McDaniels as Capt. Leonard
Mike Marshall as Lt. White
Richard Kiel as The Solarite
Merissa Mathes as Juror
Angelique Pettyjohn as Juror

Trailer

Journal of (former) Captain Frank Chapman (USAF Space Exploration Wing)

“Since the splitting of the atom only a few decades ago and through his god-given genius of science, man at last has succeeded in penetrating further and further into the unknown vastness of space. The moon has become the launching base for advance exploration. From this pivotal point astronauts at the risk of their lives set out to conquer nature's mysterious forces, yet many questions remained unanswered:

• What is his earth in relation to the inconceivable number of other worlds?
• Is his speed truly the fastest?
• His achievements the greatest?
• Or is he a mere unimportant piece of driftwood floating in the vast ocean of the universe?
• Could there be life similar to our own on other planets?
• Is it not possible that atmospheric conditions of relative environments control their shapes and forms?
• If so, would they be giants…. or could perhaps the opposite be true?
• Could their intellect have reached a scientific level far above man's dreams?

What then will the future reveal” should the story I am about to set down here somehow finds its way into the public domain, is believed and constitutes “only the beginning?”

Humanity had been drifting on a cloud of smug self-satisfaction since the first manned moon mission at the end of the 1960s. Since then we had established lunar bases and at the start of the 1980s we were on the eve of a mission to Mars. Suddenly just over a year ago things started going wrong.

On 16th March 1980 Pegasus 3 while on its last day of space reconnaissance research flight 361 for the US air force Lunar Base One and at 21 000 miles from the base, encountered a large planetoid object on a direct collision course with the ship. The uncharted planetoid had somehow failed to register on the ship’s long-range sensors. After Captain Leonard reported having lost control of the Pegasus, his ship seemed to have just mysteriously disappeared. Another spacecraft had inexplicably vanished seemingly without a trace and without a reason.

As rumors began to spread involving space monsters and phantom planets, I together with my navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen were ordered to investigate. Well, for me there went the Mars project for which I had been preparing!

All that was known was that there were two ships on routine missions both with flight controls and rockets in order having gone missing in less than a month with nothing within thousands of miles of their position. Despite all this, they somehow managed to crash into something that appeared suddenly on our radar big enough to be a planet and then the next instant it disappeared “against all theories of space.” This mysterious planet seemed to come and go at such speeds it was impossible to track.

There was nothing for it but to conduct a reconnaissance for “something out there that isn't supposed to be.” Otherwise, if this Phantom planet mystery wasn’t cleared up and the rumors surrounding it dispelled, there wouldn’t be any Mars project for me or anyone else to be on.

Lt. Ray Makonnen and I soon began our search aboard Pegasus 4. Our mission involved us charting the same course Pegasus 3 took. At 18 000 miles out at 270 degrees azimuth and 47 degrees ecliptic with our speed at 4.6 miles per second, we felt that we weren’t getting anywhere considering the fact that this mysterious phantom planet was dashing about all over the place. We therefore decided to change course. After all, “lightning never strikes twice in the same place” and all we could do was be patient even though we ran the risk of going nuts just waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly the electrostatic meters started going haywire. Lunar Base One then informed us that we were completely off course. We had entered a heavy magnetic field resulting in several instruments failing and with others about to fail.

With all this happening and despite an impromptu course change, Pegasus 4 sustained damage from a meteor shower, requiring Lt. Makonnen and I to go outside our ship to make repairs.

It was a fairly routine procedure to effect the required repairs, but as luck would have it a micro meteor struck and pierced my suit’s air hose rendering me unconscious.

Lt. Makonnen managed to repair the hose, but as we were at the entrance to the airlock hatch, he must have been fatally struck by a similar micro-meteor. Before being propelled into deep space, it seems that Lt.,... Ray had somehow managed to push me inside the ship and close the airlock hatch.

When I came to I found Ray gone and try as I might, I discovered I was unable to communicate with the lunar base. I then decided to record a log entry outlining what had happened and what course of action I would take now that Pegasus 4 was completely out of operation and that I was unable read my position.

The only choice I felt I had was to make a forced landing on a near-by asteroid that was somehow exerting a force on Pegasus and pulling the spaceship in towards it.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

An important and innovative sci-fi classic film but one that is often overrated

Trailer

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke
Produced by Stanley Kubrick
Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth
Edited by Ray Lovejoy
Production company: Stanley Kubrick Productions
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time: 142 minutes
Budget: $10.5–12 million
Box office: $146 million

Cast

Keir Dullea as Dr. David Bowman
Gary Lockwood as Dr. Frank Poole
William Sylvester as Dr. Heywood Floyd
Daniel Richter as Moonwatcher, the chief man-ape
Leonard Rossiter as Dr. Andrei Smyslov
Margaret Tyzack as Elena
Robert Beatty as Dr. Ralph Halvorsen
Sean Sullivan as Dr. Roy Michaels[3]
Douglas Rain as the voice of HAL 9000
Frank Miller as mission controller
Edward Bishop as Aries 1B lunar shuttle captain
Edwina Carroll as lunar shuttle stewardess
Penny Brahms as stewardess
Heather Downham as stewardess
Alan Gifford as Poole's father
Ann Gillis as Poole's mother
Maggie d'Abo as stewardess (Space Station 5 elevator)
Chela Matthison as Mrs. Turner, Space Station 5 reception
Judy Keirn as voiceprint identification woman (Space Station 5)
Vivian Kubrick as Floyd's daughter, "Squirt"
Kenneth Kendall as BBC announcer

Opening sequence

The film opens with pitch blackness – a complete absence of light and matter as if at the moment before the universe came into being. On this science and religion can agree: in the beginning there was darkness until...until….until, and that is what the sustained musical note sets us up for as it gradually rises to a crescendo of sound.

Our expectation is then met with the view of our planet suspended in the inky void of space with the sun seeming to emerge from behind and above it. Celestial gases and gravity have long worked their magic gradually coalescing to form light and life-giving stars and planets and solar systems, so many of which come together to form constellations.

By some miracle, this single planetary jewel (perhaps one might be forgiven thinking - the only one in the universe) has been blessed with the addition of a single seemingly unique and miraculous element – LIFE!

Read on for more

Demon Seed (1977)

A chilling prescient and deceptively complex sci-fi thriller of a film

Directed by Donald Cammell
Produced by Herb Jaffe
Screenplay by Robert Jaffe, Roger O. Hirson
Based on novel, “Demon Seed” by Dean Koontz
Music by Jerry Fielding
Cinematography: Bill Butler
Edited by Francisco Mazzola
Production companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Herb Jaffe Productions
Distributed by United Artists (United States), Cinema International Corporation (International)
Running time: 94 minutes
Box office: $2 million

Cast

Julie Christie as Susan Harris
Fritz Weaver as Alex Harris
Gerrit Graham as Walter Gabler
Berry Kroeger as Petrosian
Lisa Lu as Soon Yen
Larry J. Blake as Cameron
John O'Leary as Royce
Alfred Dennis as Mokri
Davis Roberts as Warner
Patricia Wilson as Mrs. Trabert
E. Hampton Beagle as Night Operator
Michael Glass as Technician #1
Barbara O. Jones as Technician #2
Dana Laurita as Amy
Monica MacLean as Joan Kemp
Harold Oblong as Scientist
Georgie Paul as Housekeeper
Michelle Stacy as Marlene
Tiffany Potter as Baby
Felix Silla as Baby
Robert Vaughn as voice of Proteus IV

Film Clip

A human has created

a machine…

Now the machine

wants to create

a human!

*********

“A beautiful woman…

A master computer…

The most shocking act

Of creation ever imagined!!”

*********

A woman...

imprisoned

and

forcibly impregnated

by an

artificially intelligent computer!

“Fear for her!!!!”

Read on for more.....

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

An over-looked, underrated but very frightening Cold War sci-fi thriller containing a relevant warning about the danger of allowing our technology to rule us 

Directed by Joseph Sargent
Produced by Stanley Chase
Screenplay by James Bridges
Based on the novel “Colossus” by Dennis Feltham Jones
Music by Michel Colombier
Cinematography: Gene Polito
Edited by Folmar Blangsted
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Running time: 100 minutes

Cast

Eric Braeden as Dr. Charles Forbin
Susan Clark as Dr. Cleo Markham
Gordon Pinsent as the President
William Schallert as CIA Director Grauber
Leonid Rostoff as the Russian Chairman
Georg Stanford Brown as Dr. John F. Fisher
Willard Sage as Dr. Blake
Alex Rodine as Dr. Kuprin
Martin E. Brooks as Dr. Jefferson J. Johnson
Marion Ross as Angela Fields
Dolph Sweet as the Missile Commander
Byron Morrow as the Secretary of State
Paul Frees as the voice of Colossus/Guardian
Sid McCoy as the Secretary of Defense
James Hong as Dr. Chin

Who the Hell’s HAL 9000? 

Proteus IV – There’s the door! 

We’re not playing "WarGames” here! 

Skynet – Shmynet! 

Get ready for…… 

COLOSSUS!!! 

Official Trailer

Read on for more......

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films: “Colossus” by DF. Jones (1966)

“THIS IS THE VOICE OF WORLD CONTROL. I BRING YOU PEACE. IT MAY BE THE PEACE OF PLENTY AND CONTENT OR THE PEACE OF UNBURIED DEATH. THE CHOICE IS YOURS: OBEY ME AND LIVE, OR DISOBEY AND DIE!”

Move over HAL!!! 

Get ready Terminator & Skynet!!!! 

For, here comes…….

COLOSSUS!!!!!!

Colossus: The Forbin Project is a 1970 American science fiction film from Universal Pictures, produced by Stanley Chase, directed by Joseph Sargent, that stars Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, and William Schallert.

The film is based upon the 1966 science fiction novel, Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones. The story involves a supercomputer named Colossus that controls the United States' military defense system. After being given full control, Colossus becomes sentient and goes beyond its programming by linking with a similar Soviet system called Guardian.

Having control of both superpowers’ nuclear missile arsenal, Colossus is in a position to force peace upon the world on its own terms. Our every move and our very fate is in now in the hands of a machine. Colossus has purloined our cherished theory of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ and applied it as a way achieving that crazy Cold War theory’s implicit aim!

The growth of artificial intelligence and our concerns over its possible outcomes make this film both timely and relevant despite the passage of time and, in some viewers' minds, its feeling of being somewhat dated. The story is in fact quite prescient in terms of the way artificial intelligence and its purposes and uses have become a kind of Pandora's box that could unleash a whole raft of unforeseen consequences upon humanity.

Colossus was given the task of avoiding nuclear Armageddon and achieving world peace, freedom from hunger and disease. Fine! But in order to achieve that objective, what steps would need to be taken? What consequences could arise and for whom? What would be the end result? Failure to ask the right questions could result in a fate that is distinctly Orwellian.

The film adaptation of Jones’s story is very good, containing as it does a pleasing mix of intelligence, humour, satire and drama. The book version explores the makeup of the characters associated with the Project more thoroughly, as well as the contentious relationship between Forbin and the US President. The appearance and personality of the latter comes across quite differently to the film version's president who seems to be somewhat Kennedyesque.

I fully recommend reading DF Jones’ novel and viewing the film version. You might also like to read Jones’ The Fall Of Colossus, and Colossus And The Crab.

Colossus PDF read

Colossus by DF Jones (Borrow)

Movie Script

Full Film Link

CBC Radio Drama Download