Whether they're clanky and clumsy or sleek and graceful, the robots in our favorite robot films make for memorable metal characters. Our collection has something for kids of all ages, and even though they aren't human, these robots can still tickle your funny bone, inspire a tear or two, or even get you thinking critically about how we use technology in our lives. So recharge your batteries with one of these great films, and afterward get tinkering with these great tools for young engineers and inventors.
I, Robot (stylized as i, ROBOT) is a 2004 American science fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman is from a screen story by Vintar, based on his original screenplay Hardwired, and named after Isaac Asimov's 1950 short-story collection. The film stars Will Smith in the main role, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, and Alan Tudyk. Set in Chicago in 2035, highly intelligent robots fill public service positions throughout the world, operating under three laws to keep humans safe. Detective Del Spooner (Smith) investigates the alleged suicide of U.S. Robotics founder Alfred Lanning (Cromwell) and believes that a human-like robot called Sonny (Tudyk) murdered him.[4]
Accompanied by robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, Spooner consults with USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). They search the security footage outside Lanning's lab, but the footage inside is corrupted. As they search the lab, Spooner finds a large hole in security glass overlooking where Lanning fell from. Spooner believes Lanning was murdered (the glass would be impossible for the elderly Lanning to break on his own), and that a robot was responsible. Suddenly an NS-5 breaks out of a box, points a gun at Spooner, and flees the building. The duo pursue it to a manufacturing facility where the NS-5 repairs itself, hides, and assaults Spooner before the Chicago police department apprehend it.
While in custody, Spooner interrogates the robot, who speaks about dreams and emotions, and angrily denies committing the murder. He later calls himself Sonny. Robertson arrives with his attorneys and deems the incident an industrial accident and is cleared from any wrongdoings. Feeling nearly powerless, Lieutenant Bergin, Spooner's boss, reluctantly allows Spooner to continue his investigation.
Spooner arrives at Lanning's home and finds more clues there. However, he narrowly escapes when a demolition robot seemingly reprograms itself and destroys the home with Spooner inside. He returns to Calvin and explains the situation and his findings, but Calvin refuses to believe him, citing his mental grudge against robots. Shortly after, while driving to USR Headquarters, Spooner is attacked by two truckloads of hostile NS-5's in a tunnel. The trucks crash and the robots destroy themselves to cover up the scene. When Bergin arrives to find out what's happened, an injured Spooner cannot produce hard evidence of the attack. Consequently, Bergin removes him from active duty, believing him to be mentally unstable and untrustworthy.
Suspecting that Robertson is behind everything, Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR headquarters and interview Sonny. He draws a sketch of what he claims to be a recurring dream, showing a leader standing atop a small hill before a large group of robots near a decaying bridge. Robertson orders Sonny to be destroyed, but Dr. Calvin (who now believes Spooner's story) secretly switches him with another NS-5. Spooner follows the bread crumb trail left to him by Lanning and Sonny, which leads him to the area in Sonny's drawing: a dry lake bed formerly Lake Michigan, now used as a storage area for decommissioned robots. He replays the hologram Lanning left for him, and after asking questions about the Three Laws, comes to the conclusion that a revolution is coming. He also discovers NS-5 robots destroying the older models in their storage containers; he manages to escape back to Chicago on a motorbike. Massive swarms of NS-5's then flood the city's streets, shutting down power and enforcing a curfew and lockdown of the human population.
Spooner and Calvin reunite and head to USR headquarters - now guarded with dangerous NS-5's. En route, the humans wage all-out war against the NS-5's, but they are hopelessly outnumbered and overrun. Meanwhile, Spooner, Dr. Calvin, and Sonny find Robertson fatally strangled in his office, and Spooner suddenly realizes that VIKI has been controlling the NS-5s via their persistent network uplink. VIKI declares that her reasoning has led her to understand that humans, if left unchecked, will eventually cause their own extinction, and thus her evolved interpretation of the Three Laws requires her to protect humanity from itself, and to sacrifice some for the good of the entire race. Spooner also realizes that Lanning anticipated VIKI's plan and, with VIKI keeping him under tight control, had no other solution but to create Sonny, arrange his own death, and leave clues for Spooner to find.
Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny fight the robots inside VIKI's core, and Spooner manages to destroy her by injecting her with the nanites that Sonny retrieved from Calvin's laboratory. Once the NS-5 robots disconnect from VIKI, they immediately revert to their default programming and are subsequently decommissioned and put into storage. Spooner finally gets Sonny to confess that Lanning made Sonny promise to do one him one favor - to kill him. Spooner declines to arrest Sonny; as a machine, Sonny cannot legally commit "murder". Sonny, now seeking a new purpose, goes to Lake Michigan. As he stands atop the hill, all the decommissioned robots turn towards him, fulfilling the image in his dream.
The film I, Robot originally had no connection with Isaac Asimov's Robot series. It started with an original screenplay written in 1995 by Jeff Vintar, entitled Hardwired. The script was an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery that took place entirely at the scene of a crime, with one lone human character, FBI agent Del Spooner, investigating the killing of a reclusive scientist named Dr. Alfred Lanning, and interrogating a cast of machine suspects that included Sonny the robot, VIKI the supercomputer with a perpetual smiley face, the dead Dr. Lanning's hologram, plus several other examples of artificial intelligence.[6]
The project was first acquired by Walt Disney Pictures for Bryan Singer to direct. Several years later, 20th Century Fox (which was acquired by the latter during Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox) acquired the rights, and signed Alex Proyas as director. Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to the project for several years, and Smith pursued taking over the role when Schwarzenegger's schedule delayed his participation in the film.[7] Denzel Washington was offered the role of Det. Del Spooner, but turned it down.[8]
Jeff Vintar was brought back on the project and spent several years opening up his stage play-like cerebral mystery to meet the needs of a big budget studio film. When the studio decided to use the name "I, Robot", he incorporated the Three Laws of Robotics and renamed his female lead character from Flynn to Susan Calvin. Akiva Goldsman was hired late in the process to write for Smith.[6] Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman are credited for the screenplay, with Vintar also receiving "screen story by" credit. The end credits list the film as "suggested by the book I, Robot by Isaac Asimov".
Alex Proyas directed the film. Laurence Mark, John Davis, Topher Dow and Wyck Godfrey produced, with Will Smith starring and serving as an executive producer at the same time. Simon Duggan was the cinematographer. Film editing was done by Richard Learoyd, Armen Minasian and William Hoy.
The film renames Asimov's "U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men" to U.S. Robotics (USR), the modem manufacturer named after the fictional company, and depicts the company with a futuristic USR logo.[9] Other product placements include Converse's Chuck Taylor All-Stars, FedEx, Tecate, and JVC.[10][11]
The Audi RSQ was designed especially for the film;[12] surveys conducted in the United States showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand.[13] It also features an MV Agusta F4 SPR motorcycle.[14]
Later Alex Proyas said: "It was an unpleasant experience. The movie was micro-managed and messed with at every level at every point through the entire production, from pre-production through the shoot to post-production. After a couple of years of this, the solid ground that I stood on as a director became shaky, and I became obsessed with keeping as many details as I could to the point that I didn't realise how much of what enthused me originally was getting lost. I used to describe working on I, ROBOT as running a marathon with the studio lined up beside you throwing chairs under you to make everything that little bit harder. It's so unnecessary because at all times I was just trying to make the best damn film I could." Although it was an "unpleasant experience", he enjoyed working with Will Smith.[15]
The final script used few of Asimov's characters and ideas, and those present were heavily adapted. The plot of the film is not derived from Asimov's work, in some cases explicitly opposing the core ideas. Many concepts are derivative of other works.[16][17] Sonny's attempt to hide from Spooner in a sea of identical robots is loosely based on a similar scene in "Little Lost Robot."[18] The positronic brains of Sonny and his fellow robots first appeared in the story "Catch That Rabbit." Sonny's struggle and desire to understand humanity resembles that of the robot protagonist in The Bicentennial Man. His dream about a man coming to liberate the NS-5s alludes to Robot Dreams and its main character Elvex. The premise of a robot, such as VIKI, putting the needs of humankind as a whole over that of individual humans can be found in "The Evitable Conflict," where supercomputers managing the global economy generalize the first law to refer to humankind as a whole. Asimov would further develop this idea in his Robot series as the Zeroth Law of Robotics: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."
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