MovieChat Forums > Real Steel (2011) Discussion > A top of the line Robot for 45k?

A top of the line Robot for 45k?


Only thing that bother me about the movie, how can in this universe they expect you to believe you can buy a bot for that cheap, seems like everyone who wanted one could of taken out a 60 month loan to buy one for whatever they wanted...

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Just finished the movie. That's the one thing I still wondered about at the end. No way would it only cost 45k.

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Two theories on this one.

Firstly, It is mentioned that sparing bots can fetch upto a grand early on in the movie when the plot suggests selling Atom. So if a fully functioning robot could go for that cheap it could justify the low price for a championship bot. They mention the bot is old school, older parts, less advanced, Moores law etc etc

The second theory, which is the one i go with, is that throughout the pre-purchase dialogue its mentioned that this is a 'black market deal' (stolen robot) , hence the cheap price. The bot arrives in a flight case and can only understand japanese instructions.

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"They mention the bot is old school, older parts, less advanced, Moores law etc etc "

If the bot is less advanced, then why does it have voice recognition technology, a technology that no other bot in the movie had?


Mcdonald's: C'est ca que j'aime! It is that which I love!

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The kid says he salvaged the voice recognition board from Noisy Boy and used a part from the Ambush wreckage to mate it with Atom. Even then, Atom's more primitive system wasn't able to use the "canned combos" that Noisy Boy had. I thought it was fine.

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No no, he's talking about Noisy boy in the post.

"They mention the bot is old school, older parts, less advanced, Moores law etc etc" <-- this is referring to Noisy boy.

Mcdonald's: C'est ca que j'aime! It is that which I love!

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They stated that Noisy Bot wasn't built with voice recognition, and it was only added sometime after he left the league (i.e. after the prime of his fighting career). They also mentioned it was probably added when he fought in Brazil because they're crazy for that sorta thing over there.

So while the voice recognition was rare in the U.S., it's not necessarily a sign of being advanced. It's more of a novelty/convenience. Likewise, just because Atom had a shadow function that most bots lack doesn't make him more advanced.

Most of the league bots seemed to be controlled using a fully integrated cockpit hooked up with joysticks, keyboards, and LCDs. That's probably the state of the art and preferred control style in the WRB.

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when does it say it can fetch up to a grand?

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If this really was cheap because it was a true "black market" sale then going around with this flashy used robot by using its old stage name is a terrible way to keep it secret. Maybe the only things "black market" about the sale were the aspects that would create taxes. If that's the case then it would probably sell for close to actual market value (otherwise you might as well sell it the legal way and deal with the tax penalties).

$45K is an awfully low price for something like that. Even if you exclude things like inflation and the damage Obama is intentionally doing to our economy, that price still seems too low. Was this 2020 or 2027? I forget. Either way, for something that sophisticated to be that readily available for the general population I would think something similar would need to exist today. Last I heard, a robot that could technically run on 2 legs was a massive technological breakthrough just a couple years ago and it was a pitiful example of running too. Even with the AI being minimal, I doubt a robot of this level of sophistication would exist even by 2020, let alone one 2014 which was the year the GEN 2 Atom was built!

This movie really should have been set somewhere within 2045-2065, but then the movie was clearly attempting to keep as much stuff as possible identical to our current world so they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.


Civility is just a warm and fuzzy name for censorship.

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He was not talking about Atom, he was talking about Noisy Boy. They had to go to the Crash Palace (or whatever) in order to fight with Noisy Boy, which is an "underworld" / underground fighting arena because it was stolen.

"the damage Obama is intentionally doing to our economy"

Your arguments have just been made invalid.

"Was this 2020 or 2027?"

Afaik, it is simply "near future". No year mentioned.

It could be God, the Devil, Buddha, an Alien...or it could be a kid playing a video game. - onn1320

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Just another *beep* conservative. Move along now, nothing to see here, folks.

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Especially when you control for inflation. And let's face it, if the economy keeps going the way it's going, by 2020 the dollar will be worth significantly less than it does currently.

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A father son story with boxing Robots and you're discussing how the price for one robot seems too low? Really? How would the movie have flowed if Charlie couldn't afford Noisy Boy?

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I think you're talking to the wrong person, lady.

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There's no way you can explain the small cost of 45K for a robot
and that means anyone who's middle class could have one lying around the house
and anyone who's rich would have two of em
especially in 10 or so years, 45K in the future is like 30K now

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Like that's the only problem with this horrible Rocky with robots movie. So bad, so hard tries to be emotional and uses every darn cliche in the book. The writers were terrible it was like soap opera writing, come on guys you can do better! You wasted Hugh Jackman in this one, Hugh fire your agent !

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[deleted]

For an average robot you might be right, but not for a top of the line, world class championship robot like Noisy Boy. Cars are relatively cheap, for instance, but if you want to buy a championship F1 or Nascar racer you are going to pay way, way more.

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Firstly, I'm sure Noisy Boy was expensive when he was new. About five years worth of fighting and subsequent repairs(whether he won or not) will depreciate that cost pretty quickly.

Secondly, if robot technology develops like computer tech does now, he was likely beginning to become obsolete only a few years after he'd been built.

And, thirdly, you have to wonder why the owners want to sell Noisy Boy in the first place. Could it have anything to do with the first two reasons I brought up? Mmmmmm....could be.

One man's mundane and desperate existence is another man's...technicolor.

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Sorry, but he would have been worth far more than $45k even as a collector's item.

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That point is kind of moot considering neither Charlie nor the guy he was buying Noisy Boy from were collectors but people who made a living off of underground robot fighting instead.

One man's mundane and desperate existence is another man's...technicolor.

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The point is that whoever was selling the robot would have known its value and would have sold it accordingly. That's what making money is all about. If selling it as a fighting robot would have netted more, that's what he would have done. If selling him to a collector or a museum would have netted more, that's what he would have done. Regardless, the robot would have been worth more than $45k.

However, this is a stupid argument about a stupid movie, so adios.

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What if...what if...the point of it is that the two people who were a part of the exchange in the movie were NOT collectors or worked for a museum or whatever. They were two people in an illegal business doing an illegal deal hence the less-than-what-the-robot-is-probably-really-worth pricetag.

However, this is a smart answer to a stupid poster, so adios.

One man's mundane and desperate existence is another man's...technicolor.

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ARE YOU REALLY ARGUING ABOUT THE PRICE OF AN ITEM THAT DOESN'T EXIST?!?!

How is this even a semi-serious conversation?

Let's set aside the fact that you're applying moore's law and inflation statistics to a movie about boxing robots. Yes - let's set that aside.

Judging this feature on it's merits, according to dialogue in the film, robots came on the market in around 2014. An alternate universe, you say? One in which our delicate statistical models for valuation of goods and services don't apply? POPPYCOCK! (I say again, POPPYCOCK!!)

Even though the efficient manufacture of such machinery would require an industrial complex light years advanced from our own....what the *beep* does that have to do with anything?

Upon hearing that, a man, an average thinking man, might be prompted to point out that raw materials and resources would be significantly less expensive in such a circumstance. Moreover, he might postulate that the cost of manufacture would be almost negligible. Now if I was nearby, and I happened to hear, I'd say, "What a preposterous comment!". I'd say this mostly to hurt his feelings really, and then I'd guffaw for a minute (precisely one minute) and continue:

"Surely you can't be serious, as if that were the case, extraterrestrial plundering would follow. With all the viable commercial applications, earth's raw materials would be all but exhausted and we'd have to venture elsewhere. At that time, we'd most certainly - I say certainly - be embroiled in an interstellar war for galactic resources. C'mon, the aliens - you know the ones - they're greedy."

Of course, if this was the case, (and it would be, as all I've said is completely inevitable) then the galactic conflict would be rapidly depleting our resources, driving up the price of any raw good that could otherwise aid the war effort.

I guess you're right, then. 45k is far too much for a robot.

Then again, it really depends: How are you computing your tax?

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Don't call me Shirley.

It could be God, the Devil, Buddha, an Alien...or it could be a kid playing a video game. - onn1320

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Haha. *beep* running away like a pussy.

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Who is to say that rich people dont have slave bots? also sorry but im middle class bout i would certanly not buy a robot for 45k without it being clearly useful and worth it. Also inflation doesnt rise THAT fast.

---------------------------------------------
Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

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Come on DoctorNordo, its a movie discussion and you are talking about the econony inflation and how much worth the dollar will be?
Dont be a hater, learn to love!
And how the world is spining now, you cant even say how the weather will be in the next month, so dont try to make pointless predictions about the dollar value in the next 8 years.
And the robot was a top of line years ago... Its just like race cars, you could easly get a pretty sweet old race car for only 5k, so why not an old robot for 45k?

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The dollar has done nothing but lose value for the last 100 years or so. No reason to believe, based on the way our economy is going, that it will change anytime soon.

And Noisy Boy wasn't a "pretty sweet old robot". It was a top-of-the-line championship fighter. Simple supply and demand would have ensured that NB went for much, much more.

But you're right, it is fairly pointless complaining about such a minor point when there was so much else wrong with this horrible, horrible movie.

Besides, why are you bitching at me? I wasn't the one who started the thread that's entire point was discussing the unbelievability of Noisy Boy going for so cheap.

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yes, but the cheaper things are, the more ubiquitous those things become - i.e. everyone has a cell phone now
so the cheaper robots are, everyone would have one or at least every town would have one

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Alternate reality so I'm merely going to guess the value of the dollar is alot better in 2016 then it would be now in the real world, or 45k was the going price of a "black market" robot that has been out of it's prime since 2014 when it won it's first big fight in the WRB, if I remember correctly.

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Not to mention, the movie takes place in 2020.. If it's prime was 6 years before, you also have to factor in when it was originally created, which was probably at least a year or 2 before it's prime.

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I agee, 45k is stupidly cheap.. actually most of the movie was like that I felt, overrated movie as it always is right after it comes down.. hope it goes down to the 6.0 or something near that that it really deserves

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What's really wrong with 45k? It's in the future, the bot was a has been. Yeah, anybody could technically afford one, but who would want one? Everyone has an opinion, if you don't like the movie, that's your right. I thought it was better than it looked. One of the better I've seen put lately, just wish they would have done a tad more with the ending.I guess that sets it up well for the next one which I will gladly watch.

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And the Main chip in a goddam Furby was a thousand times more powerful than the main processing chip onboard apollo 13 yet that cost several million to produce so do you really need to ask? Abundance of something makes it cheaper If everyone had diamonds in their backyard do you really think they would be so damn expensive?

There are things that go bump in the night and we are the ones that bump back

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Diamonds are super abundant and are only expensive because of the operations of the DeBeers diamond monopoly that restricts access to them. Diamonds would cost about 5 bucks a piece if it weren't for blatant market manipulation by DeBeers. You can look it up, their executives aren't allowed to enter the U.S. because they'd be charged under anti-trust laws. The point being that it is easier to make something that is abundant artificially expensive then it is to make something that is genuinely hard to find (like say a previous world champion of any sport let alone 'Robot boxing') artificially cheap. Think of the rich millionaire collectors who spend $30 million dollars on a painting, or people who spend millions on old comic books or stamps. You're telling me there isn't a single person out there who has both the money and nostalgia to outbid $45k on a former world champ. Two seconds on google has shown me that someone once paid more than $150k on the ROBE worn by Ali at the 'Rumble in the Jungle'. If someone is willing to pay that much for a piece of clothing from a former champ imagine what somebody would pay to have the actual champ sitting in their living room.

I am a heterosexual male who has seen all the Twilight movies-DAMN YOU RIFFTRAX!

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The point being that it is easier to make something that is abundant artificially expensive then it is to make something that is genuinely hard to find (like say a previous world champion of any sport let alone 'Robot boxing') artificially cheap.


True... to a point.
However, in order for something rare to be actually expensive, there must first exist a large market for it.

How many people would pay a few hundred bucks for THE white tuxedo worn by Gary Numan on his album The Fury? How many would pay hundreds of thousands for it? He is a star, had 36 Top Ten hits, including some Number Ones and obviously I'm a fan... But there aren't that many who would pay that much for something few people want anyway. Incidentally, I didn't buy the tux - It's hypothetical.

But in a world where old champions are just outdated technology and many of them are just chucked on the trash heap, I can see how such things would be relatively inexpensive. It's all about the latest stuff.
Even my 2006 model mobile phone cost £400 back when it came out... It's now £20 on eBay!






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Your right, but apparently robots aren't that rare if theirs back street fighting with wages of 100 dollars, sure plenty of people might be able to buy one, but what if your bot gets destroyed utterly? thats 45 thousand dollars gone forever, and you know insurance companies aren't going to insure your car if you plan on taking it to a destruction derby so whats the chances of them insuring robot fighters?

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dude, a cup of coffee in this future's money costs like 5c.

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