Short Circuit
A lightning‑charged military robot gains a mind of its own and must outrun its creator and the armed forces while learning what it means to be alive on Earth.
“Something wonderful has happened... No. 5 is alive.”
Synopsis
When a lightning bolt strikes a robot named Number 5, the incident triggers the machine to believe he is human, leading him to escape from the laboratory. Newton, Number 5's creator, pursues him in an effort to reach the robot before the military can. Meanwhile, a spirited animal lover encounters Number 5, mistaking him for an alien, and takes him in, gradually teaching him about life on Earth.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 38
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Frank MorrissShot by Nick McleanScored by David Shire
Box Office
1986 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.1× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$40.7M
Opening weekend: $5.3M — 13% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $6.6M — 16% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 1,033 theaters
Also known as
- Nummer 5 lebt!de
- Cortocircuitoes
- Corto circuitoit
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Cast & Crew
38 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Ally Sheedy
as Stephanie Speck
Steve Guttenberg
as Newton Crosby
Fisher Stevens
as Ben Jabituya
Austin Pendleton
as Howard Marner
G W Bailey
as Skroeder
Brian Mcnamara
as Frank
Tim Blaney
as Number 5
Marvin J Mcintyre
as Duke
John Garber
as Otis
Penny Santon
as Mrs. Cepeda
Vernon Weddle
as General Washburne
Barbara Tarbuck
as Senator Mills
Supporting cast
15Tom Lawrence
as Howard Marner's Aide
Fred Slyter
as Norman
Billy Ray Sharkey
as Zack
Robert Krantz
as Reporter
Jan Speck
as Reporter
Marguerite Happy
as Barmaid
Howard Krick
as Farmer
Marjorie Card Hughes
as Farmer's Wife
Herb Smith
as Gate Guard
Jack Thompson
as Party Guest
William Striglos
as Party Guest
Mary Reckley
as Party Guest
Shay Mclean
as Party Guest
Eleanor C Heutschy
as Party Guest
Sergio Kato
as Frank
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
2Other crew
6Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
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