Film

Heartbeeps

Name: Heartbeeps
Genre: Comedy, Family, Science Fiction
Released: 1981
Cast: Andy Kaufman, Bernadette Peters, Randy Quaid, Kenneth McMillan, Christopher Guest

A 1981 romance between two household robots who develop feelings and escape their owners. It's a genuinely sweet, oddly touching film that plays its premise completely straight—no winking at the absurdity. Heartbeeps treats artificial life with surprising tenderness and works as both sci-fi oddity and genuine love story. Perfect for anyone who finds robot emotion unexpectedly moving.

TMDb rating

2.3

If you liked this

Short Circuit1986

A robot gains consciousness and becomes endearingly human-like, sparking a similar emotional journey. Shares Heartbeeps' fondness for machines discovering personality and the warmth that follows. Fisher Stevens is delightful chaos.

But The comedy can feel dated and the plot is fairly predictable by modern standards. It's lighter on genuine emotion than Heartbeeps, leaning harder into action-comedy beats.

Electric Dreams1984

A man and woman's lives intertwine through a sentient computer that falls in love. Explores similar territory—artificial beings developing feelings—with intelligence and melancholy. Beautiful score and real emotional stakes.

But The pacing is languid and the love story between the humans takes precedence. If you want pure robot emotion, this divides its time elsewhere.

Splash1984

Romantic fantasy about connection across impossible boundaries, treated with sincerity and charm. Like Heartbeeps, it doesn't mock its central premise and mines genuine warmth from the fundamental wrongness of the pairing.

But Lighter fare than Heartbeeps—more comedy, less melancholy. The human romance might overshadow what you loved about robot vulnerability.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Heartbeeps

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Harakiri1962

Both films are unexpectedly tender about beings at the margins of society forced into roles they never chose. Both find genuine humanity in the supposedly inhuman.

Masaki Kobayashi's masterpiece is about alienation, isolation, and the rituals we perform. Like Heartbeeps, it explores what it means to be trapped in a predetermined role, searching for authentic connection in a system that denies it.

But A profound and devastatingly sad film about suicide and social injustice. Not remotely what you'd expect if coming from Heartbeeps—this is art-house tragedy, not robot romance. Requires patience and emotional readiness.

Cherry 20001987

Man pursues a female android through a dystopian landscape. Another earnest robot-love story that doesn't wink at its earnestness, with practical effects and genuine pathos beneath the adventure.

But More action-heavy and less focused on quiet emotional moments. The tone veers between adventure and sentiment without always landing smoothly.

Bicentennial Man1999

Robin Williams as an android pursuing humanity and connection over centuries. Sweeping, sincere, and deeply interested in what it means to feel. Shares Heartbeeps' core question about artificial emotion.

But Nearly two hours and occasionally sentimental in ways that feel forced. Some will find it ponderous where Heartbeeps is graceful.

Making Mr. Right1987

John Malkovich as a robot designed for space travel who falls for his image consultant. Romantic comedy that takes its android protagonist seriously, blending humor with genuine sweetness about connection.

But The satire of 1980s corporate culture overshadows robot emotion at times. Less focused on the central relationship than Heartbeeps is.

Sleeper1973

Woody Allen's futuristic comedy features robots, androids, and absurdist sci-fi worldbuilding. Like Heartbeeps, it's an oddball genre piece from a filmmaker comfortable with strangeness and unlikely premises.

But It's purely comedic—there's no emotional core. If you loved Heartbeeps for its romance, this is all punchlines and no heart.

Planet of the Apes1968

Earnest sci-fi that takes an impossible premise entirely seriously, finding genuine pathos in alienation and connection. Shares Heartbeeps' refusal to undercut its central conceit with irony.

But It's a very different tone—bleak and political. Heartbeeps is intimate; this is epic and dark.

Phantom of the Paradise1974

Brian De Palma's operatic fantasy about obsessive love and creation. Like Heartbeeps, it's a sincere, slightly strange love story that commits fully to its premise without apology.

But Much darker and more violent. Difficult to watch in places, with a very different emotional texture from Heartbeeps' gentleness.

The Terminator1984

Both use robots becoming emotional or being treated as if they could feel to explore what makes us human. Opposite tones, identical preoccupation.

A cyborg learns human emotion through protecting a child. Where Heartbeeps is all soft vulnerability, this is muscular and thrilling, yet surprisingly shares its core question: can machines actually feel, and does it matter if they behave as if they do?

But Violent, intense action film. Completely opposite register from Heartbeeps—grim where it's gentle, terrifying where it's tender.

The Merchant of Four Seasons1972

Both are tragic romances about beings who cannot quite connect with the world around them. One has robots. One has only human indifference.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's portrait of a man dying quietly in a marriage devoid of love. Outside its genre entirely—a domestic, social realist drama—yet it captures Heartbeeps' aching loneliness and the desperate yearning for connection that defines both films.

But Extremely slow, genuinely depressing, and offers no hope. It's a portrait of love's failure and emotional suffocation. Not a feel-good film by any measure.