Netflix's First Look At Killer Robots Documentary Is Like Black Mirror Meets Terminator, And It's Nightmare Fuel

If you need nightmare fuel to keep you grounded between summertime activities, one of the big streaming services will (soon) have something to watch for that. One exciting and chilling new documentary that is set to be new on Netflix in July is called Unknown: Killer Robots, and it looks like it’s about to give Black Mirror and The Terminator a run for its money. 

We live in a strange world, don’t we? Suddenly, science fiction concepts we were happy to leave in the comfort of our TV sets are seeping into worries to file into our day-to-day lives. It looks like Unknown: Killer Robots will explore those real life fears, as teased in the trailer above. 

The upcoming release, which you can add to your queue on Netflix’s site now, will specifically get into how artificial intelligence can be applied to militaries around the world, and as one commenter reveals in the trailer, “it’s one of the most pressing issues of our time.” Even though Jurassic Park wasn’t about AI, what comes to mind when watching this preview is the thoughts of one Ian Malcolm who famously delivered: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” 

Now that some of these AI technologies exist, some serious questions are apparently coming into play when it comes to how they may be applied in the military. The documentary implies that forces that are implementing AI will “absolutely crush and destroy” forces without it, perhaps begging the question, which massive military force isn’t going to try? 

Unknown: Killer Robots gets into the fact that AI in the military will not “fear death” and may not have the ability to distinguish “what is right” when it comes to the moral calls that need to be made when carrying out missions. The whole two-minute trailer, considered, looks like some great viewing for getting stressed out about the end of the world by killer robots! At least Arnold Schwarzenegger is alive and working out with Chris Hemsworth to perhaps provide us with some action-hero style protection.

Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot more AI content take over mainstream conversation, between AI-generated photos of what the kids of famous exes would look like, or Marvel even employing AI rather than real artists for the Secret Invasion opening credits. There’s also those deepfakes of actors that are rather convincing and ChatGPT, of course. 

So I know a lot of us enjoy watching true crime shamelessly, even though those documentaries really can get to one about how gruesome people can be, but tech documentaries like this feel like enough for someone to want to get off the grid and just vibe in a cabin or off the coast somewhere without the internet and any kind of tech to turn on us. Unknown: Killer Robots lands on Netflix on July 10. 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.