I, Robot story
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 suggested by Isaac Asimov's 1950 short-story collection of the same name. Synopsis: The year is 2035 and highly intelligent robots fill public service positions throughout the world, operating under three rules to keep humans safe. A police investigates the alleged suicide of a famed robotics pioneer and believes that a human-like robot murdered him.
19 total · 12 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| AI prejudice in society | major | Del resented of robots with a passion. He had come to hate and distrust robots, the viewer learns, after a robot rescued him from a car crash while allowing a 12-year-old girl to drown based purely on cold logic and odds of survival. But in the end he warmed up to the sentient robot Sonny. |
| AI risk to civilization | major | The film built up to the robots making a bid to subjugate the human race for its own good. |
| forming one's own distinct personality | major | The humanoid robot Sonny was coming to grips with the fact that he was a sentient being. |
| human vs. sentient machine | major | Del, Susan, and Sonny were up against an army of humanoid robots that were hellbent on subjugating the human race (for its own good). |
| humanoid robot | major | The sentient humanoid robot Sonny is a main character. In general, the story is set in a near future where humanoid robots serve humanity. |
| law enforcement | major | The story follows the police detective Del Spooner as he investigates a possible murder. |
| maker and machine | major | A revelation of the story was that Dr. Alfred Lanning had made his robot creation, Sonny, promise to kill him. Sonny followed through on his promise, but the killing weighed heavily on his robot conscience thereafter. |
| murder | major | Detective Del Spooner was investigating the the possibility that the famed robotics pioneer Dr. Alfred Lanning had been murdered by one of the doctor's own robot creations. In the end it was revealed that Sonny had murdered the had indeed killed Lanning, but at Lanning's own direction. |
| problem of language and meaning | major | A point of the story is that the positronic brain VIKI misinterpreted the Three Laws of Robotics as they were given to her by humans, and tried to subjugate humanity as a result - something that no human would have intended or wanted. |
| revolution in society | major | The robot uprising that the film build up to was explicitly described as a revolution. |