Artificial Intelligence

 Artificial Intelligence is such a heartfelt movie that truly made me think about the consequences every decision has. After Henry and Monica’s son, Martin, was seemingly in a coma that he would never wake up from, they had a boy named David created to replace the gap in their lives from losing Martin. David was created as a piece of artificial intelligence. He could not sleep, use the bathroom, eat, or even drink, yet everything else about him was extremely realistic and humanlike. Once Monica decided to keep David, he imprinted on her and truly loved Monica, his “mother”. However, once Martin woke up, Monica no longer had a need for David. Because David was not a real boy, he did not know that certain things he was doing were harmful and dangerous, like cutting Monica’s hair or almost drowning Martin. When Monica was supposed to bring David to be destroyed, she instead left him alone in the woods with Teddy, the robot teddy bear. 

This film is extremely heartbreaking because David believes Monica will only love him once he is a real boy, a similarity to the film, Pinocchio. In reality, the audience knows David can never really be human, which makes this movie so full of sorrow. On David’s journey to find the Blue Fairy, who he believes can make him a real boy, he is enthralled into a power struggle between humans and artificial intelligence, even almost being destroyed at a Flesh Fair, where humans kill A.I. to keep the human population above that of A.I. During his adventure, he is accompanied by Teddy and another mecha named Joe. Teddy, although a teddy bear, is a symbol of David’s conscience, helping him make it through the world and even making his reunion with Monica possible at the end of the film. Joe, while maybe not the best one, is like David’s mentor in a way, guiding him through Rogue City and attempting to help David find answers about the Blue Fairy. Joe does not sugarcoat the truth for David, but attempts, I think, to break the boyish innocence David has. Although this fails and the movie becomes more saddening as David is so sure that he will turn into a real boy. 

The entire movie is heartbreaking to me because David so deeply longs for something he can never be. Even though David is artificial intelligence, he can love and he loves Monica. We all know how strong this feeling can be, and I think giving it to a nonhuman shows how dangerous people can become. It was extremely selfish of Monica to let David imprint on her, but the true problem is that David was ever created. David never asked to be made, yet he is the one facing all of the consequences. He was almost slaughtered by the same species that created him in the first place. I think this film helps a great deal in showing how far too far is. Artificial Intelligence showed me how selfish humans can be when trying to make life better for themselves, instead of simply letting things be for what they are.

Artificial Intelligence notes:

Robots were cheaper than humans, which was especially important after the world suffered from climate change and greenhouse gases

• The A.I. robots do not have feelings and do what they are told

• Humans want to make a child “mecha” (robots) that can truly love its parents and others

• Can humans love them back?

• They created a replacement robot version of the son Henry and his wife, Monica, lost 5 years ago 

• He didn’t die, but was in something coma-like

• They decide to keep the child and let it “imprint” on them, meaning he will truly love his parents and if they later deicide to not keep him, he will be send back and permanently destroyed 

• The boy watches everything Monica does and follows her around 

• He begins to copy his parents actions

• He does not eat, drink, sleep (anything a human does)

• Monica decides to let the boy become imprinted on her (she wants to keep him)

• Robot david calls Monica “mommy” now because he is imprinted on her and has emotions toward her 

• Martin woke up!

• Martin says he is “real” and David is the new “super toy”

• David wants to be like Pinoccio and become a real boy

• David accidentally almost killed Martin in the swimming pool

• Monica wants to abandon David in the woods with Teddy so he can live and not be destroyed by Cybertronics 

• David begins to cry and apologize for all of the things he has done wrong

• Monica tells David he is only safe around other mechas

• All David really wants is for Monica to love him 

• At a “Flesh Fair”, humans destroy mechas on stage

• David is scared at the Flesh Fair, showing that he has more emotion that just love

• The Flesh Fair happens so the human population remains outnumbering the robot population

• The man working at the Flesh Fair is in awe of David and how real he looks

• Joe takes David to Rogue city because women are there and he thinks David could find BF there with the help of Dr. Know

• Once David makes it to Manhattan in search of Professor Hobby he finds another David robot. He tells it that Monica is his and he is the only David and then kills the other robot he found

• Professor Hobby brought David home and is amazed that David has the ability to chase down his dreams like a human (David is the “first of a kind”)

• David is the robot version of Professor Hobby’s deceased son

• The “bird” David saw is the logo for Professor Hobby’s production company of robot Davids

• David progressively looks more human-like throughout the movie, acquiring more human vernacular, messy hair, feelings, normal clothes, etc.

• Underwater, David believes he found Pinocchio, where the BF lives. David finds her and begs her to make him into a real live boy

• David prayed to the Blue Fairy for 2,000 years in the exact same spot without moving under Manhattan

• 2,000 years later the ocean had turned to ice and aliens found David frozen with Teddy in the same spot

• The Blue Fairy statue shattered

• The aliens watched David’s memories and brought David home where he found the real Blue Fairy

• BF told David she cannot make him into a real boy

• BF told David mommy is dead, and BF cannot bring her back because there is no physical sample of her, but Teddy kept her piece of hair

• David cries

• The alien told David that Monica can only come back for one day because after resurrecting living people and their memories, they realized the space-time path and already been used and was no longer sustainable for life

• Monica tells David she loves him and has always loved him (meaning she loves him even though he is not a real, living boy), and David fell asleep