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John Robinson is a main character portrayed by William Hurt of the 1998 film Lost in Space.
John spent most of his time away from his family and is very estranged with them. John's father was also a great military Colonel, and it's apparent that John viewed his father in a very poor light.
John created a "star gate" like device he called the gateway and sometimes the "space gateway" also known as "Jumpgate" in other universes, that could be traveled with a warp field. In the movie, this was called the Hypergate. He is also credited with developing the Jupiter 2s own hyperengine. John and his family were traveling to another planet, Alpha Prime to colonize. It would take about 10 years to reach this planet, so John and his family were to travel to the planet, set up the gateway so that other colonists could reach the planet via space warp.
Unfortunately a saboteur prevented this from happening. After a lot of drama the Robinson's kill some deadly space spiders, travel through a time warp...then realize they're lost in space. Many fans were disappointed with this movie versions depiction of the character .Many also agree that William Hurt didn't exactly shine in his portrayal , which was very different from the original series role.