There aren't enough films that put movie stars in mechs and task them with saving the world. But that's just what Netflix flick Atlas is doing with Jennifer Lopez. She plays Atlas Shepherd, "a brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence," who joins a team that's aiming to secure a renegade robot. As it happens, Atlas and said machine share "a mysterious past," according to Netflix. Inevitably, things don't go as planned.

In games, mech pilots often have the job perk of dying in their seats. With mech windshields spiderwebbed with bullets, arm-guns overheated, energy cores depleted of uranium, and bipedal legs leaking hydraulic fluid across whatever near-future landscape they're fighting in, oftentimes these mechs just blow up and players respawn across the map. Overwatch, Titanfall, and various Call of Duty iterations use multiplayer mech combat to their advantage (and the suspension of disbelief for the player). It's all fun and games, but how often do you think about the long-term safety, maintenance, and unintended side effects of giant robots? If these mechs were real, a lot would change--and a lot could go wrong.