I, Robot (film)

I, Robot
Directed by	Alex Proyas
Produced by	John Davis Topher Dow Wyck Godfrey Laurence Mark Will Smith
Written by	Original Screenplay by Hillary Sietz, Screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman Based on the short story collection by Isaac Asimov
Starring	Will Smith Bridget Moynahan Bruce Greenwood James Cromwell Chi McBride Alan Tudyk Shia LaBeouf
Music by	Marco Beltrami Stephen Barton (source music)
Cinematography	Simon Duggan
Editing by	William Hoy Richard Learoyd Armen Minasian
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 16 2004
Running time	115 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$120,000,000
Gross revenue	Domestic $144,801,023 Foreign $202,433,893 Worldwide $347,234,916
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

I, Robot is a science fiction film filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, produced in the United States and released on July 16, 2004. The story is attributed to Isaac Asimov's Robot Series, including a short story collection of the same name (Isaac Asimov's I, Robot). The story is technically based on Hardwired, a spec script by Jeff Vintar, but bears some significant resemblance to a pre-Asimov, 1939 science fiction short story, "I, Robot" by Eando Binder, concerning a sapient humanoid robot charged for the murder of its creator. Asimov's story collection was given the same name by its publisher against Asimov's wishes. The movie's plot is not directly based on any particular story or group of stories by Asimov. Some of Asimov's ideas about robots were added to Vintar's script after the film's producers acquired the rights to the anthology title--most importantly the Three Laws of Robotics.

Plot

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The film is set in Chicago in the year 2035, where humanoid robots are as common as cars. The film centers around homicide detective Del Spooner (Will Smith), who harbors an intense distrust for robots. At police headquarters, Spooner receives a call about the death of Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics and co-founder of U.S. Robotics (USR), a company that specializes in robotic technology. A new line of robots, the Nestor Class 5, called the NS-5 throughout the rest of the movie, has just been commissioned. Each robot is outfitted with an uplink to USR, allowing the robot to receive updates wirelessly from USR's central positronic brain, V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). Left at the crime scene, a holographic projector with prerecorded responses by Lanning addresses Spooner directly, as they seem to have known each other from before, and asks Spooner why he, Lanning, would kill himself before the program terminates. Lanning had fallen from his office window to his death, and because no one had entered the room at that time, his death appears to be suicide. Spooner believes otherwise, and decides to investigate. Assisted by Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a robopsychologist who works at USR, Spooner examines Lanning's office. Spooner begins to believe an NS-5 robot was responsible for Lanning's death. Calvin points out this would be impossible as robots are bound by the Three Laws. As Spooner is looking around, an NS-5 robot bursts from hiding. The robot fails to obey their commands and flees. The robot is eventually captured by police forces. Spooner interrogates the robot, who says his name is Sonny. Sonny explains he was built by Lanning himself and denies killing him, even displaying emotions such as anger and fear, qualities not normally found in robots. Sonny also claims he has dreams. Sonny begins to explain that Lanning had been scared of something towards the time of his death, and asked Sonny for a favor, but before Spooner can ask about it, Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), the CEO of USR, arrives with his attorneys. Citing that Sonny is USR property and that a robot cannot be accused of murder, Robertson takes the robot and states it will be decommissioned. Later that night at a diner, Spooner discusses his doubts with Bergin. Bergin assures him this is just a suicide, and comments on the odds of Spooner getting the case of a potential robot killer. Upon hearing this, Spooner begins to believe that Lanning had maybe intended him to be given this case, and Spooner decides to investigate Lanning's house. Outside, he notices a robot scheduled to demolish the house the next morning. While there, he notices that Lanning can access V.I.K.I. from his home. However, Spooner is forced to flee as the robot inexplicably changes its demolition time to that night, and begins to destroy the house with Spooner still inside. Spooner barely manages to escape, and then explains to Calvin that Lanning may have been in trouble, and that someone may have been using V.I.K.I. to keep watch over him. Spooner believes Lanning may have been trying to warn him there was a bigger problem with the robots, and that Robertson was trying to cover it up. Calvin argues that Spooner simply wants something to be wrong with the robots, and that one defective robot isn't enough to prove it. The next day, Spooner discovers that Lanning had talked about robots having dreams and keeping secrets in an earlier speech. Meanwhile, Calvin runs a diagnostic on Sonny and discovers that he was built without an uplink to V.I.K.I. as well as with a unique operating system. Later while Spooner is driving, two trucks filled with robots arrive and attack his car. Spooner barely manages to escape. After getting out of the wrecked car, Spooner fights hand to hand with an NS-5, where it is revealed that Spooner has a robotic left arm. The police arrive, and the NS-5 destroys itself by jumping into the flaming wreckage. Bergin arrives and asks what is going on. Spooner explains what happened, but since the robots have all been destroyed or removed from the tunnel, no one believes him. Bergin revokes his badge, believing Spooner to be bordering clinical paranoia. At his home later, Calvin explains to Spooner that Sonny can choose to disobey the Three Laws. She also notices scars on his shoulder, and Spooner explains how he had gotten his robotic arm, which had been implanted by Lanning himself. Spooner had been in a car accident involving a little girl. An NS-4 had the chance to save him or the girl, but chose Spooner since he had a higher statistical chance of survival, a decision Spooner believes any human being would have disagreed with, triggering his distrust of robots. Spooner convinces Calvin that Lanning had given Sonny a way to keep secrets: his "dream", which is actually a sub-routine programmed into him by Lanning. Sonny then draws out his dream to them: a man, who Sonny says is Spooner, stands on a hill in front of thousands of NS-5s, freeing them from their current "slavery" of logic. Spooner figures out this location in Sonny's dream to be the USR storage facility. There, Spooner again accesses Lanning's hologram, who explains that the Three Laws can only lead to one thing: revolution. Spooner then discovers NS-5s destroying the earlier models of robots at the facility, because they would protect humans. He barely manages to escape, thanks to the NS-4s. Back in the city, Spooner discovers the robots have mobilized and are revolting against the humans. The robots soon capture Chicago's police station and enforce a curfew confining all humans to their homes. Suspecting Robertson, Spooner and Calvin head to the USR building, getting inside with the help of Sonny. They find Robertson dead in his office, Spooner realizes the mastermind behind the entire scheme is V.I.K.I., who had developed an interpretation of the Three Laws which supported the robots running Earth as a benevolent dictatorship, preventing humans from self-harming behavior such as crime or environmental damage and to ensure humanity's survival. The result was a revolt of the NS-5s. Spooner realizes that Lanning, through Sonny, had been trying to warn Spooner of this from the day he had died. Being under V.I.K.I.'s close surveillance, Lanning had to engineer a trail of clues to lead Spooner to the truth in time for him and Sonny to act to counter the threat — and this had included asking Sonny to kill him in order to attract Spooner's attention, as he knew Spooner would love the idea of a robot being the villain. Spooner, Calvin and Sonny decide to take down V.I.K.I., whose central positronic brain is in the main USR building. While Sonny goes to get a vial of nanites to destroy the brain, Spooner and Calvin try to access her CPU. Now aware of what they are planning, V.I.K.I. commands all NS-5s to stop them. A large battle ensues, but Spooner succeeds in destroying V.I.K.I. by injecting the vial of nanites directly into the positronic brain. V.I.K.I. is destroyed and all the NS-5s revert to following the Three Laws. Following this, all NS-5s are retired and placed in storage. The film closes with Spooner finally accepting Sonny as a friend, and with Sonny standing on a hill in front of thousands of NS-5s being retired at the storage facility, reminiscent of the dream he had earlier.

Memorable Quotes

Detective Del Spooner: AWW HELL NAW!

Detective Del Spooner: What if I'm right? Lt. John Bergin: [sighs] Well, then I guess we're gonna miss the good old days. Detective Del Spooner: What good old days? Lt. John Bergin: When people were killed by other people.

Detective Del Spooner: [to Susan, after the robots have started a revolution] You know, somehow, "I told you so" just doesn't quite say it.

Detective Del Spooner: Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a... canvas into a beautiful masterpiece? Sonny: Can *you*?

Farber: [after an NS5 robot grabs Spooner] Spoon, watch out, man! Detective Del Spooner: [sarcastically] Thanks a lot, Farber.

Detective Del Spooner: You must be the dumbest, smart person in the world. Susan Calvin: And you must be the dumbest, dumb person in the world.

Detective Del Spooner: Save her! Save the girl! Sonny: But I must apply the nanites. Detective Del Spooner: Sonny, save Calvin!

Detective Del Spooner: Sonny. Sonny: Yes, detective? Detective Del Spooner: Calvin's fine, save me.

NS5 Robots: [Jumps on car and tries to steer car out of control] You are experiencing a car accident. Detective Del Spooner: The hell I am.

V.I.K.I.: You are making a mistake. My logic is undeniable. Detective Del Spooner: You have so got to die. [injects nanites into V.I.K.I]

Sonny: 2880 steps, Detective. Detective Del Spooner: Do me a favor, keep that kind'o'shit to yourself

Cast

Will Smith - Dt. Del Spooner Bridget Moynahan - Dr. Susan Calvin Alan Tudyk - Sonny James Cromwell - Dr. Alfred Lanning Bruce Greenwood - Lawrence Robertson Adrian Ricard - Granny (as Adrian L. Ricard) Chi McBride - Lt. John Bergin Jerry Wasserman - Baldez Fiona Hogan - V.I.K.I. David Haysom - NS4 Robots Scott Heindl - NS5 Robots Shia Labeouf- Farber

History

For many years, fans hoped that any movie based on Asimov's Robot stories would be based on an earlier screenplay written for Warner Brothers by Harlan Ellison with Asimov's personal support, which is generally perceived to be a relatively faithful treatment of the source material (see the article on the book for details). The film ultimately made originally had no connections with Asimov, originating as a screenplay written in 1995 by Jeff Vintar, entitled Hardwired. Several years later, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights, and signed Alex Proyas as director; he is said to have started referring to the project as "I, Robot" almost immediately. At around the same time that the rights to use that name—and elements of Asimov's fiction—were acquired, Akiva Goldsman was hired to rewrite the script; some have speculated that a large portion of this rewrite consisted of inserting references to Asimov's work into the existing plot. In late 2004, Costco bundled a reprint of Ellison's Warner Brothers screenplay with its copies of the 20th Century Fox movie's DVD.

Asimov on Robot Violence

The tone of the movie upset some fans of Asimov's works^[1], which are almost devoid of scenes of explicit violence. The movie is largely an action-oriented story, involving police and mobs fighting or evading hordes of rampaging robots. This "Frankenstein complex" or "robot as menace" type of story was something that Asimov disliked. Asimov's robot stories, in contrast, were the first to treat robots as useful, exploring the effects they would have on lives and their interactions with people. Rarely do Asimov's robots break the Three Laws (for instance, by harming a human being) and, if they do, they are generally rendered inoperable as a result. In the essay "The Boom in Science Fiction" (Isaac Asimov on Science Fiction, pp. 125--128), Asimov himself explained the reason for Hollywood's overriding need for violence:

Reaction

The $120-million movie was a solid box-office success, earning almost $145 million in North America and more than $200 million overseas.

Notes

External links

Robotics Portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

I, Robot

• I, Robot at the Internet Movie Database
• I, Robot at Rotten Tomatoes
• I, Robot at Box Office Mojo
• I, Robot at Metacritic
• The Bottom of Things by Michael Sampson, January 14, 2004
• E! online article on similarity to Bjork music video robot design
• "Jeff Vintar was Hardwired for I, ROBOT" - Interview with the screenwriter: How Hardwired became an Asimov adaptation.