Figure AI has a problem with retiring robots, and it decided to solve it the way James Cameron solved the problem of ending Terminator 2: by throwing them into a vat of molten steel. The company’s viral video, posted from its robotics lab, shows a fleet of its decommissioned F.02 humanoid robots leaping into the fiery liquid, an homage to the iconic scene in the 1991 sci-fi classic.
The footage is absolutely wild.
Decommissioning the Fleet
Figure AI is based in San Jose, California. Its F.02 robots are being replaced by the new F.03 generation. To mark the end of the last F.02 fleet, the company went all in. It hired Arnold Schwarzenegger, the star of Terminator 2 and former governor of California, consulted with former MythBusters team members, and flew a camera crew to a steel plant in Imatra, Finland. The robots were programmed to autonomously leap into a vat of molten steel.
One of the robots was even lowered into the forge on a chain, recreating the famous thumbs-up gesture Schwarzenegger’s character makes at the end of the film.
Training and the Search
The company did not arrive in Finland empty-handed. It trained the robots to make the leap back at its San Jose headquarters, and it practiced with large airbags before committing to the stunt. Finding a place to perform it proved more difficult.
The company wrote in a blog post detailing the stunt that none of the metal foundries it contacted in the US and Mexico would let it jump a robot into their expensive equipment. It even reached out to the MythBusters team for help with the search. In the end, the only place in the world that agreed to take on the stunt was a foundry in Imatra, Finland.
The Finnish Foundry
The foundry in Imatra, Finland, agreed to host the spectacle. The company shipped its robots to get there. The result is a video that looks like it was lifted straight from a blockbuster movie set.
The company addressed whether the footage is real: “We really trained robots to jump autonomously, shipped them to Finland, and had them leap into a vat of molten steel. We hope you enjoy the film.”
What Becomes of the Metal
The company is not letting the now-melted F.02 robots go entirely to waste. The resulting metal was fashioned into limited-edition artifacts that the company is now selling online.
The stunt is a publicity coup, but it also solves a practical problem. Retiring robots is a logistics headache. Diving them into molten steel removes them from circulation.
The Location Hunt
The search for a willing foundry was exhaustive. The company reached out to the MythBusters team for help, and the search ended in Imatra.
| Location | Willingness |
|---|---|
| US foundries | Refused |
| Mexican foundries | Refused |
| Finnish foundry | Accepted |
The Scene That Inspired It
The Terminator 2 scene is one of cinema’s most memorable images. A man made of metal, his fate sealed, leaps into a vat of molten steel to erase himself from existence. Figure AI’s robots do not erase themselves. They melt.
But the spirit is the same. A machine reaches the end of its usefulness and meets it with a final, theatrical act.
The Cost of Spectacle
There is a cost to this kind of stunt. The company spent money shipping robots halfway across the world. It hired a former governor of California. It consulted with a television science team.
Whether the payoff in publicity and artifact sales covers that cost is an open question.
The Verdict on the Stunt
Figure AI took a simple retirement problem — what to do with obsolete robots — and turned it into a spectacle. It hired Arnold Schwarzenegger, consulted with MythBusters, and flew to Finland. It trained robots to leap into molten steel.
The stunt is over. The artifacts are on sale. And the video is already doing the work it was meant to do.
The company’s blog post makes this clear. It is not a subtle piece of marketing. It is a confession: we really did this. We trained robots. We shipped them to Finland. We threw them into fire.
That honesty is part of the appeal. In an era of AI-generated footage, a company admitting it staged a Terminator-style stunt is refreshing. It is the kind of bold move that gets noticed.
The video is available to watch. The artifacts are available to buy. And the story of how a robotics company retired its fleet by throwing it into a vat of molten steel is already part of the lore.
It is a fitting end for a machine.
See the video the story is built around at Mashable.
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