It's inevitable, in general, that when we finally create self-aware machines, they'll want to destroy us — as soon as they realize humans are remaking Melrose Place, the robots will realize they have to remove us from the Earth for the good of the universe. But the robots we build to be our sexual playthings will be especially determined to slaughter us. "You want me to be the naughty bondage nurse again? Affirmative — as long as this time, I can tie you down and examine you from the inside out."

So here's our list of sex robots who turn lethal. Note: We're not listing killer robots who just happen to be sexy. To win a place on this list, a robot has to have been built for sex, and then turned lethal. Feel free to debate our choices below. As it is, it's perhaps not that surprising to realize that the sexbot who goes on a killing spree is a more common trope than you might expect at first.

Pris in Blade Runner.

She's really our poster girl — designed to be a "basic pleasure model," for use on the military colonies, she instead uses her amazing gymnastic, acrobatic and erotic skills to become the ultimate assassin. At one point, she almost decapitates Harrison Ford with her incredible thighs. (The Replicants are clearly artificial life forms, even if they do obviously have organic components. Feel free to debate whether Pris is a sexbot.)

April in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Uber-dweeb Warren Mears builds April to be the perfect girlfriend: she never cries or acts needy, but she cares about everything he cares about. And she's ultra sexy and eager to please. Too bad that when Warren gets sick of her and decides to toss her aside for a flesh-and-blood girlfriend, she becomes violently jealous and attacks Warren's new girlfriend, and anyone else who gets in her way. "If I can't [love Warren] what am I for?" she asks. The answer: slaughter! And mayhem!

Cynthia in Batman Beyond, "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot."

One of Terry McGinnis' fellow high schoolers, the nerdy Howard, programs a robot (in the shape of a beautiful woman, of course) to be his girlfriend because he's sick of being considered a loser. When he makes her personality "100% loyal", the robot interprets this in the most brutal form possible, attempting to kill any possible competition for Howard's attention.

The Sexoids in Ghost In The Shell.

It seems kind of obvious to me: If you don't want your sexbots to rise up and murder you, don't call them "Sexoids." It just doesn't sound like a very sexy name — or cool, for that matter. The Sexoids pretty much turn to murder every time they pop up in Ghost In The Shell, but especially in GITS: Innocence, it's all about the Sexoids murdering their owners.

The Stepford Wives.

This is sort of a different case: They don't turn on their owners. Instead, these women designed entirely for pleasure start their jobs off by killing the flesh-and-blood woman they're replacing, at least in the original movie version. (In the book, I think the husbands kill the original wives.)

The sexbots in whatever movie this is:

Some guy on Metafilter remembers seeing a classic 1970s movie about "Crazy SexBot Women Who Kill." With buzzsaws coming out of their breasts, even:

Sometime in the late 70s or early 80s I remember seeing a movie on local TV that I did not understand (I was a somewhat-sheltered little kid in those days). All I remember is that there were women in the movie who were robots or androids of some sort (perfect human replicas a la Blade Runner), who killed at least a couple of men via sex. I remember one scene pretty clearly in which one of these women had her breasts sort of start spinning like small buzzsaws out of her clothes, killing whatever guy was with her. Another scene I really vividly remember had one of these fembots straddling a man (on the floor, I think, with both of them mostly clothed). The man was enjoying himself at first, "Oooooohhhh, ahhhhh," and then he started to scream and shriek. At the time I had no idea what was going on, but later on when I learned about the birds and the bees I realized that the bot-woman must have killed him with her vagina (something buzz-saw-y like the other chick's breasts).

What movie is this guy remembering? Or did he just smoke too much LSD back in the day?

Sylvie in Bubble Gum Crisis 5: Moonlight Rambler.

Someone is murdering vampires in MegaTokyo, and it turns out to be a pleasure droid named Sylvie, who's harvesting vampire blood because her fellow sexdroid Anri was injured escaping from a space station. Sylvie needs the vampire blood to repair Anri and help her remain fully functional. "Without it, she'll be forced to hurt people, like me," Sylvie explains. Why did you do it? asks Priss. "I wanted to be free... like you," says Sylvie. (At about 6:55 in the video at left.)

The Lucy Liu Bots in Futurama.

The Charlie's Angels star is just one of the celebrities illegally held by Nappster. Then the corporation placed Liu's personality into a blank robot so Fry could date her. When his friends exposed Nappster's scheme, they unleash a murderous wave of Lucy Liu Bots to kill all the witnesses.

Maria in Metropolis.

Okay, to be fair, her purpose was always fairly deadly. But she starts out being a bit of a pleasure droid before she gets down to some serious evil — in her early scenes, she does a weird, hyper-sexual dance for a bunch of leering aristocrats.

Freya in Saturn's Children by Charles Stross.

Poor Freya — she's designed to be sexually attracted to humans, but we're extinct. What's a sex robot to do? She takes part in an illegal smuggling operation, smuggling "pink goo," or organic cells — and of course, she has to do some killing along the way. Because that's the smuggler's life.

Verlis in Metallic Love by Tanith Lee.

Lee's 2005 sequel to her classic Silver Metal Lover brings back Silver, the former "pleasure robot," now renamed Verlis. He starts a new love affair, with a young girl named Loren. He's designed to be the ultimate companion, charming and talented — but he and his seven fellow robots also have deadly gifts, like creating weapons out of their bodies and turning themseves into giant dragons. As SciFiWeek puts it, "Constructed as beautiful playthings, they are instead deadly powerful creatures who regard humans as lesser life forms and a threat to their existence." And they have plans to throw off their corporate shackles and achieve "world domination."

Silver in Tomb Raider: The Man Of Bronze.

According to this third Tomb Raider novel, Silver is "a pleasure bot," programmed to seduce women. But over the centuries, he's gotten warped and is now determined to wipe out his rival Bronze, no matter whom he has to kill along the way. What does this have to do with raiding tombs? Don't ask me.

The Sexbots in Buttobi CPU.

In this Japanese porn anime series, a man meets a sexbot who becomes very attached to him. But then, for some reason I've never been clear on, another sexbot shows up and starts trying to kill him — maybe out of jealousy. In any case, this being a hentai video, he has to give "his" sexbot a powerup to fight the other sexbot, by inserting his genetic material into her rear data port. Yatta!

Aphrodite IX.

She's a sexbot who's reprogrammed as an amnesiac assassin, and she's the star of her own Top Cow comics series. Soon to be a major motion picture, apparently.

The Fembots in Austin Powers.

Okay, so they're pretty much programmed to kill. But they also seem to be programmed to please, at a fairly basic level. Consider Miss Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), who spends the first movie slowly getting romantic with Austin Powers, before being revealed as a murderous fembot in the first couple of minutes of the sequel.

Amazing Blade Runner-inspired photos by Dani*Dune (More at the link.)

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

Malice@Doll. (2000) Maybe the only philosophical tentacle porn anime movie ever. All the humans are dead, just like in that Conchords song, and the humanoid robots still go about their tasks. Malice@Doll is a sex robot, who wanders the streets looking in vain for human customers. One day, she follows a vision of a girl who seems to be human, and winds up getting captured by a tentacle monster, which penetrates her. A lot. And then she becomes human. She finds that her kiss can turn other robots organic too, but eventually discovers that some of the results are grotesque and horrifying. Sadly, it's not a very sexy movie, but Malice is sorta cute. Here's a still:Cherry 2000 (1987). She's the ultimate sex droid — as long as you don't get her wet. Businessman Sam Treadwell ignores this important lesson and short-circuits his sexbot. So he has to hire E. Johnson (Melanie Griffith), a tracker, to get a replacement memory chip for her. As he travels with E., Treadwell learns (bah) that flesh-and-blood lovers are better than robo-babes.

I.K.U. (2000) Japan's most famous cyberpunk porn movie. Reiko is a shape-changing sex droid from the Genom Corp., who goes around collecting "sexual experiences" by having sex with various people. The corporation collects Reiko's experiences and sells them (in vending machines) as virtual reality chips. But a rival corporation has created its own sex droids to infect Genom's sex droids with a virus, so as to steal their proprietary sexperiences. Dood!

Blade Runner (1982). Daryl Hannah plays Pris, a "basic pleasure model" born on Valentine's Day. She's designed for sex-work in the off-world colonies. She gets retrained as an assassin and uses her amazing acrobatic moves to kick Harrison Ford's ass.

A.I. (2001). Jude Law plays Gigolo Joe, a sex robot who gets framed for the murder of a client. Joe befriends the boy robot David (Haley Joel Osment) and takes him to the ultra-decadent Rouge City in search of the Blue Fairy. And no, that doesn't sound obscene at all. Here's a clip of Jude taking Haley to the decadent metropolis: Circuitry Man (1989). Danner is yet another e-gigolo, a "romeo droid" programmed to provide love and companionship and maybe a little nookie on the side. Danner's programmed to think he's in love, so his female boss can manipulate him into doing her bidding.

Weird Science (1985). This is sort of an edge case. Kelly LeBrock is a sex-bot who manages never to put out. Anthony Michael Hall (playing his usual teenage nerd role) and his friend program a government computer to create a simulation of the perfect woman, and an electrical storm miraculously turns her into a three-dimensional artifact. And then she teaches the boys about life and stuff.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2002). When psycho-nerd Warren makes himself a robotic girlfriend, Spike the naughty vampire wants one of his own... except he wants it to be just like Buffy. The resulting bot gets Spike into trouble, but then becomes one of the most valuable members of the Scooby gang. Yet another example of a sex bot who turns into a deadly operative.

Heavy Metal 2000 (2000). A sex robot is programmed to make loud and exaggerated sounds of excitement and climax. She teams up with our heroes to stop the sex lizards. Or something.

Millennium (1989). The John Varley short story and novel include Sherman, a robot who attends to Louise's needs, including her frequent sexual urges. In the 1989 movie, Sherman mostly just provides emotional support to Louise (Cheryl Ladd). (Bah.)