In Real Steel, 'Atom' is the discarded robot that's discovered and trained by 'Charlie Kenton' (Hugh Jackman) and his son 'Max' (Dakota Goyo) to become the people's champion by taking on the title holder of the World Robot Boxing crown.
Life-size animatronic robots Atom
and Noisy Boy from Real Steel
A combination of CGI special effects and animatronics were used to bring the boxing robots to life in the futuristic movie.
These robots on display at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on October 12, 2011, were created by Animatronic Supervisor, John Rosengrant and the people at Legacy Effects.
Real Steel's Atom robot
Production Designer Tom Meyers was responsible for the design of 'Atom', the main robot in the movie, along with concept artists Victor Martinez who worked on different ideas for his face and Drew Leung who refined the overall look of the humanoid robot.
Atom's bright eyes and featureless face really can be quite expressive in the film, and that scarred face also makes it looks like he has a smile at times.
Real Steel movie poster
In the movie Atom literally saves Max's life when he's unearthed in a junkyard whilst the father and son are searching for usable robotic scraps to build a new fighting robot.
Atom robot from Real Steel on display
After Max cleans him up, they discover Atom is an old G2 (Generation 2) sparring partner robot with shadow boxing capabilities, meaning he can mimic what he sees.
Later Max integrates Noisy Boy's vocal command control into Atom's systems, which allows Charlie Kenton to give him fight instructions via a headset.
Real Steel Atom robot poster
Even though he's just a robot, it's also implied there's more to Atom that just wiring and components and maybe there's a spark of life, or artificial intelligence, lurking within that armoured shell.
Original Real Steel robots featured in the movie
If you like Atom, be sure to check out the Noisy Boy animatronic from Real Steel in more detail.
Plus be sure to check out these original costumes and props from Real Steel on display too.
Real Steel movie poster
Buy the Atom toy: Real Steel Deluxe Feature Figures Wave 1 Atom V1
