The Machine Stops – Wallace is Almost Murdered by the Moon Robot in A Grand Day Out

Horror Moments, Wallace and Gromit Edition

‘Horror Moments’ is a light-hearted series examining horror-inflected scenes and themes in unexpected places. The ‘moments’ are published weekly on Thursday mornings, and I share bonus content on the history of magic, theatre, storytelling, and more on Monday afternoons – don’t forget to subscribe!

[Spoilers:  Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979).]

On a vast and desolate moonscape, stretching as far as the eye can see beneath a cold indifferent sky, a traveller and his dog are searching for food. Cheese to be precise.

Their rocket is a lonely feature amidst silent yellow slopes. No signs of life or habitation greet them as they picnic.

But they are not alone.

One small machine stands sentinel upon the surface of the moon. An odd amalgamation of familiar household appliances, its purpose is unclear and it does nothing when the traveller, Wallace, puts 10p into a slot and hits it a few times.  

“Flipping machines” he mutters under his breath, and the two move on.

But left behind the strange contraption stirs, its small dial whirring up from 0p to 10p and then—

PING!

Arms fling out from either side. It rubs its head, remembering where Wallace struck it. It stretches. It straightens its antennae. Gradually, it notices the mess of the picnic, the severed stalagmites of cheese, the rocket dripping dirty fuel onto the pristine ground. It spies the stranger chomping down upon another mouthful of its home. 

The robot cracks its knuckles and rootles in its drawer, retrieving a thick club. Time to return a blow for a blow.

Now the poor dog, Gromit, can only watch helplessly as the contraption rushes, wheels squealing, towards his master, taking aim at the soft bald head, drawing back its arm…

CLANG!!

The money runs out and the machine stops, frozen an inch away from Wallace.

Space stories provide unique opportunities for imagining standoffs between isolated human beings and powerful technology. Whether it’s the computer system HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey intoning ‘I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that’ to the stranded astronaut requesting he open the door, or the android Ash in Alien programmed to save the predatory xenomorph whatever the human cost, sci fi machines reveal our powerlessness in the face of vast intelligences devoid of empathy and human error. 

There is a sinister point of similarity between these and the ‘friendly’ robots whose missions happen to be harmless or commendable, the R2-D2s and Wall-Es who are built to protect and conserve but could just as easily have been designed for violence and may resort to it.

The moon machine watches over its home, but this is a home under threat from pillaging visitors. Who is in the right here, the guardian of an unspoilt wilderness or the plunderer of cheese?

A Grand Day Out is the first of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, created in 1989. Begun as a graduation project by animator Nick Park, it took six years to complete and the mysteriousness of the moon machine is essentially an accident. Park had originally imagined a more complicated sequence where a small alien society was discovered with a space McDonald’s and a robot parking meter. 

I’m glad we got the final version as it stands: It’s so much creepier that we never learn how the mechanical creature got to the moon, who invented it, and what its actual purpose is. Did it want to murder Wallace or just teach him a lesson about littering? We’ll never know the answer, but if A Grand Day Out reveals one thing about our relationship with robots, it’s that whether or not they’ve got the moral high ground, it’s advisable not to let them handle weapons.

Join me next Thursday for another Horror Moment. Happy nightmares everyone! 

Horror moments are posted every Thursday and a wide variety of articles exploring the history of magic, theatre, storytelling, and more are published on Monday afternoons.