Characters from The Works

♦ Contents: ♦ Humans ♦ Computers ♦ Robots ♦

Welcome to the Characters page!
Bil Maher "created many of 'The Works' cast of 25 robots"[src] (I don't actually have 25 robots to show.)
Thumbnail images link to full-size images hosted on their respective websites! There are also short messages if you hover over an image.
I highly recommend checking out Paul Heckbert's website for credits for individual images & characters (also where some of the names come from), and watching the videos listed on the Resources page to see characters in motion.

Humans


T-Square
T-Square is a human (sometimes referred to as an android) pilot. She wears a detailed metallic space-suit.
She appears in the trailer and is discussed in "Inside The Works" where she's referred to as the "heroine". Her role in the script is minor, as a friend of Beeper, although she does lead the humans back to Earth in the end.

Beeper Raxis
Beeper is a young human boy who lives in a city in the asteroids called Megapod. He is recruited by Ipso Facto & Selene to prove to The Works that humanity is alive.
Beeper is the main character of the script, but as far as I know has no images.

A couple other named human characters are in the script.
Rathbone Twillie (nicknamed Space Rat) is the Emergency Communications Coordinator of the humans. He seems to be friends with Beeper and T-Square.
Frank Fabley Shaver is a reporter for Sleepcycle Spacepod News.

Computers


The Works
The Works is a military supercomputer stationed on Earth. He represents himself as a warped, faceted human face. He is grumpy and senile, with little patience to deal with others. With the lack of humans to order him, he is obsessed with building strange structures.
His face appears briefly in the trailer, and he's the main antagonist.

Selene
Selene is the computer complex of a scientific research station on the Moon. She represents herself as a photo of the Moon. In contrast with The Works, she is calm and diplomatic, with a bit of a fun nature. Before she speaks, she sounds a "bell-like tone". She built Ipso and his ships, and sent him on his mission to contact humans.
Selene is a supporting character in the script.

Robots


Ipso Facto
Ipso Facto is a "charming elliptical robot" (-Wikipedia); he's orange with a round oval body and long lanky limbs. He can open his mouth to reveal a signboard that projects words. Despite his silly appearance (which is to "allay suspicion and forestall hositilty"[src], he is a skilled fighter. He's a protagonist and helper to the main human. Similar to Selene, he comes from the Moon, and has a diplomatic personality.
Ipso Facto was featured on the front of Byte Magazine along with an Ant in 1984. He's seen in the Trailer and is a main character in the script.

Clyde
Clyde is a tall humanoid robot with an orange body and teal and purple accents. There's a large emblem of a "W" on his chest. Apparently he was to be a supporting role to the protagonists. Curiously, there are more robots with a similar model to him, but for simplicity's sake their pictures are listed under here.
Clyde is seen in the trailer and is (or, his model is) in many different pieces of art from NYIT CGL, and the "Ant jockey" is in the construction clip. He's not present by name in the script.

Ant
The Ant is a huge vehicle, its bug-eyes being cockpits. Its jaw can hold and maneuver objects, making it useful in construction. There are possibly multiple of them.
The Ant is seen in all 3 videos (trailer, construction clip, and 1982 demo reel), and was featured with Ipso on a cover of Byte magazine. Ipso and Beeper pilot a stolen Ant in the script.

Panzer
Panzer is a chunky orange robot with a dome-like head and powerful arms, supported by wheels or treads.
Panzer appears in the trailer and construction clip, as well as for the main image for the article "Inside The Works" from Computer Pictures (which is where their name comes from). There are some variations between designs here, so I guess they may or may not have been the same character.

Officer Weevil
Officer Weevil is a slick black robot, with a humanoid build except for their three legs. The shape of their head makes it look like they have sunglasses and a pompadour.
Weevil is only seen at the end of the trailer, where they fire a gun-like hand at the viewer. Maybe they would've had an antagonistic role?

Bulldog
This is a squat blue robot with purple and orange accents. They have red eyes against a black face, and little silver antennae.
They appear briefly in the trailer.

[Unnamed]
This is an orange bot with long bendy arms, like an accordion, ending in humanoid hands. They have large glassy eyes at the end of stems.
They appear briefly in the trailer.

[Unnamed]
This robot has a grey body with purple and red accents, and a blue accordion-like midsection. Their chunky arms end in dish-like shapes.
They appear briefly in the trailer.

[Unnamed]
This is an orange humanoid robot with an egg-shaped body, with a round reflective surface as a face. Their left hand is clawed, and their right is removable, able to be replaced with various tools.
This robot is seen in the trailer & construction clip. Just like Panzer and Clyde, some of these images have slightly different designs.

[Unnamed]
This robot has a pill-shaped upper body supported by four wheels at the end of a stem. There are some little tube-like projections coming from the front of their body as well. Their build allows them to roll smoothly on rough terrain.
This robot is seen in the trailer & construction clip. In the latter, they have a blue and purple colour palette, rather than yellow.

[Unnamed]
This is a thin green robot that bounces around like a pogo stick. They have four limbs that can extend to hold them steady, and they have a welding tool at their top.
They are in the construction clip.

[Unnamed]
This robot has a humanoid body, but is otherwise obscured by shadow. Their limbs movie in odd ways.
Their only appearance is in the trailer, in which they float and jerk around the screen, and a picture from Wayne Carlson's website. I like them :-]

Finally, there are some robots who are present by name in the screenplay.

Gizmo is a nervous robot with wheels who speaks in a high-pitched voice. He's a sort of assistant to The Works, described as a "stooge".
The Dinosaur Squadron is a collection of small saucer-shaped robots that can combine to form a dinosaur-shaped body.
Crank is a construction robot that often wins at poker. His body is crowded with all the parts he's won. He has a "boorish and monotonous" laugh [src].
Rusty is another poker-playing bot, but is a desperate loser. Ipso wins its memory cylinder during poker, which Widget (an undescribed friend of Rusty) finds abandoned and returns to Rusty.
Joint Juke is a jukebox-shaped robot with a hat and cane. They're a part of Joint Juke and the Algorithm Band, a holographic display that plays "honky-tonk" music.

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