AUTO (Short for "Autopilot" and based of the name "Otto") is a wheel that controls the space station Axiom and the main antagonist in the Pixar movie WALL-E. He tries to prevent the Axiom and the hundreds of people living on it from returning to Earth. He bears an appearance similar to HAL 9000 in the 1968 sci-fi MGM film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Description[]
In the movie, WALL-E and EVE (the film's protagonist and deutagonist) find a plant specimen, and EVE is taken back to the Axiom with WALL-E in tow. However, AUTO, who is aware of this immediately, sends another smaller probe, called GO-4 (Gopher), his henchman, to take the plant and destroy it.
WALL-E and EVE manage to retrieve the plant from an escape pod that was about to self-destruct (with WALL-E still inside), and they deliver it to the Captain of the Axiom, who desperately wants to return to Earth. However, GO-4 throws the plant into the trash chute.
WALL-E, who was climbing up the chute, manages to save the plant. GO-4 traps EVE, while AUTO electrocutes WALL-E, nearly destroying him. WALL-E falls back into the garbage chute. AUTO shuts EVE down, and throws her into the garbage chute as well. AUTO mutinies against the Captain, confining him to his room.
EVE manages to reboot, and saves WALL-E, who is in critical condition. WALL-E, who has the plant, gives it to EVE, who realizes that if they can get it to the ship's Holo-detector, they can return to Earth and save WALL-E. EVE, holding a nearly destroyed WALL-E, points her blaster at a security robot, who takes a photo and broadcasts it around the Axiom. The Captain, who sees this, realizes there is still hope after all. AUTO sees it too and sends an entire brigade of security robots to stop EVE and WALL-E.
The Captain broadcasts a message to EVE and WALL-E, and tells them where the Holo-detector is. AUTO cuts off the message, and they are confronted by a whole group of security robots. With the help of a group of malfunctioned robots that WALL-E saved earlier in the film, they manage to destroy the brigade of security robots.
Meanwhile, the Captain manages to trick AUTO into coming down into his room. The Captain grabs onto AUTO, who pulls him up into the Command Deck while trying to get him off. In the fray, the Captain manages to activate the Holo-detector. EVE flies towards it, but AUTO, being a wheel, spins and throws the Captain off, tilting the entire Axiom to the side. AUTO then turns the Holo-detector off.
As it sinks back into the floor, WALL-E holds up the Holo-detector, while EVE holds back a huge metal plate that would have crushed several people to death because the Axiom was tilted. AUTO electrocutes the button that turns off the Holo-detector, causing it to slam down and crush WALL-E. The Captain, seeing this, gets to his feet (the first human to stand in 700 years, because technology has advanced that far), and battles AUTO.
The Captain manages to avoid AUTO's electrocution prong, hoists himself up, and switches AUTO's autopilot function into manual. The Captain straightens out the Axiom, EVE manages to slip the plant in the Holo-detector before it completely crushes WALL-E, and the Axiom jumps into hyperdrive and lands on Earth. EVE manages to fix WALL-E, and the two live happily together. It is unknown what happened to AUTO afterward, but It is possible AUTO remained deactivated forever.