[2] Cormac Wallace, leader of the Brightboy Squad, is a member of the human resistance against an artificial intelligence named Archos, which uses robots and other machines to take over the world.
The rest of Robopocalypse is Cormac’s recounting of the recordings in the hero archive, in chronological order from the invention of Archos to the end of the war.
Three years and eight months ago, at Lake Novus Research Laboratories in Washington state, Professor Nicholas Wasserman talks to his newly created AI (artificial intelligence) program, named Archos.
In a recorded interview, a fast-food restaurant employee named Jeff Thompson gives his testimony about the first known case of a robot malfunction.
One night, a domestic robot enters the Freshee’s Frogurt yogurt store and attacks Jeff, picking him off the ground and dislocating his shoulder.
Ryu Aoki, a machine repairman in Tokyo, Japan, tells the story of a prank that he and his friend Jun pulled on an elderly factory worker named Mr. Nomura.
Mathilda is barely injured by the encounter, but the incident further convinces Congresswoman Perez that humans need a stronger defense against robots.
Archos unleashes a full technological attack on humanity: driverless cars begin to hunt down pedestrians, planes crash onto busy streets and elevators drop people to their deaths.
The human survivors of Zero Hour manage to fight back by destroying roads and buildings so the robots will have difficulty traveling.
An English teenager nicknamed Lurker destroys the British Telecom Tower, disabling the jamming signal Archos is using to block satellite communication.
Soon, the Brightboy squad is stranded in one place, its members unable to move openly for fear of being attacked by the robotic parasites and turned into weapons themselves.
The android Freeborn squad is not vulnerable to parasite attacks, so it storms Archos’ Alaskan bunker with the help of radio-transmitted advice from Mathilda Perez.
King said that the book was "terrific page-turning fun" and Cussler commenting that it is: A brilliantly conceived thriller that could well become horrific reality.
[3]The book received positive reviews from the Associated Press, Janet Maslin from the New York Times, and best-selling authors Lincoln Child and Robert Crais; all calling it "brilliant".
Damien Walter of The Guardian, Ron Charles of the Washington Post, and Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times were less enthusiastic, describing the novel as a disappointment and cheesy.
[8] Spielberg also hired designer Guy Hendrix Dyas to work with him and his writers on creating the visual tone for the film and conceptualize its robotic elements.
Oklahoma was scouted as a possible filming location, but Canada was ultimately chosen for its tax incentives, as production was expected to cost $200 million.