WALL-E

WALL-E (stylized as WALL•E) is an American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton, the film was released on June 27, 2008. In 2021, the film was selected to be preserved into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Plot
Throughout the 21st century, Earth was governed by the Buy n Large mega-corporation (BnL), causing mass consumerism and covering the planet in dense loads of trash by 2105. In an attempt to resolve the situation, Earth's population was evacuated on fully automated luxury BnL starliners for five years while an army of trash compactor robots called WALL-Es and large city block-wide sized mobile incinerators were left behind to clean up the planet.

The plan largely failed, however, forcing humanity to remain in space indefinitely. Seven hundred years later, in 2805, none of the incinerator units are active anymore, the Earth is covered in more trash than ever, creating skyscraper-like towers of trash cubes, and all the WALL-E units powered down, except for one. This unit has developed sentience and a sense of emotion, particularly curiosity, as shown by his quirky habits of collecting knickknacks from the mountains of trash, and survived by salvaging parts for himself from other defunct WALL-E units. He also owns a pet cockroach named Hal and lives inside an old transport truck. Usually, he takes a liking to his job, but sometimes he grew a bit lonely and longed for a change than his directive. While watching Hello, Dolly!, WALL-E realizes that he found the most important missing feature of his life: a girlfriend.

One day, WALL-E finds a seedling plant growing among the trash. He puts it inside an old boot and tries to return it back home, but he gets distracted by a glowing dot in which he follows. Suddenly, WALL-E realizes that the dot was from a landing spaceship. He hides under a hole to prevent getting crushed from it. WALL-E watches as the spaceship deploys a capsule, which pops open and reveals an advanced probe robot named EVE. WALL-E is instantly mesmerized by EVE, as she carries out her directive of searching for signs of plant life. Initially aloof, hostile, and shooting anything that makes the slightest sound or movement with her laser gun arm, EVE begins to warm up to WALL-E and takes a liking to him.

During a dust storm, WALL-E takes EVE to his truck and shows her his treasure, even the plant, causing her automated systems to store the plant inside her, activating a homing beacon and deactivating her. WALL-E goes to great lengths to try to revive and take care of her, even going on a date with the inactive robot. When her ship returns to collect her, WALL-E desperately clings to the hull of the ship, not wanting to lose his new friend, as it enters space to return to the Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet. Upon docking, WALL-E meets M-O, a tiny cleaning robot, who makes sure the Axiom is cleaned. WALL-E follows EVE as she is taken to the bridge of the ship by the MVR-A transport robot. As he progresses through the Axiom, it becomes apparent that, after centuries of living in microgravity, relying on the ship's automated systems, and communicating using only their hover chairs' video calling system, the human passengers have suffered severe bone loss, becoming obese and lazy. As WALL-E searches for EVE, he tried asking John and Mary for assistance, causing them to disconnect from the ship's systems and learn about other activities they're missing out on, such as relaxing in the pool.

The Captain himself does little, leaving control of the ship to the autopilot, AUTO. When EVE is brought to the bridge, the Captain learns through a video that placing her plant sample inside the ship's holo-detector is a sign of Earth being habitable again, causing the Axiom to enter hyperspace and return to Earth to allow its passengers to repopulate the planet. However, when EVE is opened, the plant is missing. EVE is considered defective and taken to the repair ward along with WALL-E by the MVR-A and GO-4, though the Captain's curiosity is piqued and he begins researching Earth history using dirt samples acquired from shaking hands with WALL-E. At the repair ward, EVE is taken to the testing room, leaving WALL-E, who is considered a reject to the repair robots and taken to a pen among the other rejects, worried. As EVE is being pampered by the robots, WALL-E, only seeing a silhouette of her through a frosted window, believes that she is being harmed and escapes from his pen using his laser to save her. Crashing through the glass, WALL-E grabs EVE's detached arm and threatens to shoot the robots unless they set her free. In a panic, he fires a shot that destroys the control panel, which deactivates the robots and the pens that hold the rejects, causing chaos and accidentally releasing a horde of malfunctioning robots, who carry WALL-E and EVE's arm away, to roam the ship. The alarms raise, causing the Stewards to activate then catch them for a while, taking a picture that labels WALL-E, EVE, and the rejects as "rogue robots" in the process, alarming the entire ship. Annoyed with WALL-E's disruptive influence, EVE attempts to send him back to Earth on an escape pod. However, they see AUTO's assistant, GO-4, deposit the missing plant into the escape pod and set it to self-destruct. WALL-E grabs the plant and tries to return it, but is taken away on the pod, setting him on a panic attack as he tries to figure out how to escape before time runs out. He manages to open the emergency exit and escape before the pod explodes using a fire extinguisher, allowing him to temporarily fly.

WALL-E manages to save the plant, and EVE, joyfully thanking and hugging him, gratefully gives him his very first "kiss" in the form of an electric spark, sending him surprised. The two robots celebrate on a spacewalk around the Axiom before returning the plant to the Captain. During their trip, Mary notices WALL-E and informs John about him, causing both to meet face-to-face and form a relationship. After returning, the Captain is surprised to find out that EVE recovered the plant. He reviews her visual records of Earth, but it is devastated, leaving him confused. After glancing at the records, he vows to return to Earth and restore the planet. EVE, meanwhile, sees WALL-E's commitment to her well-being while she was inactive and falls in love with him. However, AUTO reveals that he was given a final directive, dated 2110, to keep humanity in space, as Earth had been deemed uninhabitable when he was given the directive. The Captain argues that the plant is proof that life is once again sustainable on Earth, but AUTO and GO-4 stage a mutiny, locking the Captain in his quarters, electrocuting WALL-E, who attempts to fight over the plant, and sending him, EVE, and the plant down a trash chute. Inside there, both get picked up by WALL-A units, put into huge trash cubes, and were almost sent flying down the airlock disposal thanks to M-O, who preventing the doors from fully closing. EVE tries to search for parts to help the severely damaged WALL-E, but nothing works. Suddenly, EVE realizes that the only parts to repair WALL-E are on Earth, which they can reach quickly if they can activate the hyperjump.

Returning to the Axiom with M-O, WALL-E calls the rouge robots for help. They then encounter the Stewards again, and the rouge robots help out to defeat them. Meanwhile, the Captain notices that WALL-E and EVE have the plant thanks to another picture taken by the Stewards. Using clever hacking, he informs AUTO that he "acquired" the plant (using an image captured by the projector from EVE's records to trick him), angering him as he tries to find the Captain, starting a fight which causes GO-4 to fall from a window and die. The Captain successfully presses the button that activates the holo-detector during the fight, forcing the Axiom to go into lockdown. WALL-E, EVE, M-O, and the rouge robots attempt to place the plant in the holo-detector, but AUTO's control of the ship prevents them from doing so. The continuing battle between the Captain and AUTO also made the ship tilt right, making the process more difficult and causing EVE to lose the plant. WALL-E rolls in front of the holo-detector and pushes it upright to lift it, almost stopping AUTO from pressing it down until he shocks the lift button, causing the holo-detector to overpower WALL-E and crush him, upsetting everyone including EVE. Mad by this, the Captain breaks free of his quarters, attempts to walk, and deactivates AUTO, tilting the ship back to normal. M-O manages to find the plant, and, with the help of the robots and the human passengers, successfully activates the holo-detector. EVE comforts the severely damaged WALL-E as the ship activates the hyperdrive and sets its course for Earth.

The Axiom lands on its dock, destroying the trash cube towers. After the passengers arrive back onto Earth, EVE quickly takes WALL-E back to his truck and successfully repairs him, but his memory and personality appear to have been erased as he reverts to his original trash-compacting duties. Heartbroken, EVE gives him a farewell "kiss", which causes another spark that inadvertently restores WALL-E to his unique personality, happily reuniting the two robots. WALL-E was alive. WALL-E and EVE share a tender moment, holding hands, staring into each other’s eyes, and sharing a tender kiss with no arc of electricity. WALL-E and EVE rejoin the humans and robots as they begin working together to restore Earth, taking care to plant the seedling that brought them back home. The credits reveal that over time, humans and robots worked together to restore the Earth, which return more plants, animals, and structures onto the planet. The humans, having regained their work ethic, also regained their healthy physiques and begin doing other different activities such as jogging and fishing. WALL-E and EVE are shown to still be together, as seen in a painting where they are standing by a tree that's revealed to have been grown from WALL-E's plant.