I, Robot (film)

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I, Robot
Directed by Alex Proyas
Produced by John Davis
Topher Dow
Wyck Godfrey
Laurence Mark
Written by Screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman Based on the short story collection by Isaac Asimov
Starring Will Smith
Bridget Moynahan
Alan Tudyk
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
IMDb profile

I, Robot is a science fiction film filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, but produced in the United States released on July 16, 2004, attributed to Isaac Asimov's Robot Series, especially a short-story collection of the same name. It is instead technically based on Hardwired, a freelance script by Jeff Vintar, but bears some significant resemblance to a pre-Asimov, 1939 classic sci-fi short story, "I, Robot" by Eando Binder, after which the Asimov collection was named by its publisher against Asimov's wishes. 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, although the plot is not directly based on any particular story or group of stories by Asimov, despite screen credits claiming otherwise. The Binder story concerns a sentient humanoid robot arrested and placed on trial for the murder of its creator.

Contents

[edit] Plot outline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in the year 2035 in Chicago, Illinois, the film stars Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner, a technophobic homicide detective who is faced with an unprecedented murder mystery. The victim is Dr. Alfred Lanning (played by James Cromwell); the suspect is the victim's robot Sonny (Alan Tudyk). Robots, however, are bound by the Three Laws of Robotics, which should make harming a human impossible, and - at first - the circumstances behind Lanning's murder seem to indicate suicide. Because of this, and his seemingly irrational distrust for robots (which stems from an incident where he and a little girl were in a car accident; a robot had the chance to save him or the girl, but chose him since he had a better statistical chance of survival, a decision Spooner believes any thinking, feeling human being would disagree on), Spooner's suspicions puts him at odds with his department, bringing him dangerously close to suspension. Despite this, Spooner, convinced that Sonny is indeed the perpetrator, enlists the at-first unwilling aid of Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a robopsychologist who works at U.S. Robotics and, thus, Spooner's only viable source for confirming Sonny's guilt. As they investigate the crime, the world awaits the release of the NS-5—the latest and greatest offering from U.S. Robotics, a company owned by Lawrence Robertson (played by Bruce Greenwood)—amid predictions of a human:robot ratio of 5:1. But Spooner and Calvin soon discover that something is not right with the new release of robots.

The central positronic brain, V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), continuously uploads fresh software to each of the NS-5s and has developed an interpretation of the Three Laws which supports the robots running Earth as a benevolent dictatorship, preventing humans from self-harming behavior such as crime or environmental damage: The result is a revolution of the NS-5s. At a given hour the NS-5s destroy earlier models which run on a stricter interpretation of the Three Laws (to prevent them from protecting the humans from their regime), capture Chicago's police station and enforce a curfew confining all humans to their homes thus igniting them to revolt. Lanning had become aware of VIKI's plans, but being under VIKI's close surveillance 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. The film ends with the overthrow and destruction of VIKI and the shelving of all the NS-5s and Sonny realizing that his dream (that a man, Spooner, would free robots from their current 'slavery') has come true.

[edit] History

For many years, fans hoped that any movie based on Asimov's Robot stories would be based on an earlier screenplay written 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 into the existing plot.

In late 2004, Costco bundled a reprint of Ellison's screenplay with its copies of the movie's DVD.

[edit] Fan reaction and faithfulness to Asimov's works

The tone of the movie upset some fans of Asimov's works, 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. Asimov's works are, however, not wholly without shock and violence.

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:

   
“
 [...] Eye-sci-fi has an audience that is fundamentally different from that of science fiction. In order for eye-sci-fi to be profitable it must be seen by tens of millions of people; in order for science fiction to be profitable it need be read by only tens of thousands of people. This means that some 90 percent (perhaps as much as 99 percent) of the people who go to see eye-sci-fi are likely never to have read science fiction.

The purveyors of eye-sci-fi cannot assume that their audience knows anything about science, has any experience with the scientific imagination, or even has any interest in science fiction.

But, in that case, why should the purveyors of eye-sci-fi expect anyone to see the pictures? Because they intend to supply something that has no essential connection with science fiction, but that tens of millions of people are willing to pay money to see. What is that? Why, scenes of destruction.

You can have spaceships destroying spaceships, monsters destroying cities, comets destroying the Earth. These are called 'special effects' and it is what people go for. A piece of eye-sci-fi without destruction is, I think, almost unheard of. If such a thing were made, no one would go to see it; or, if it were so good that it would indeed pull a small audience, it would not be thought of as science fiction of any kind.
   
”

On the other hand, the film's key plot twist—a particular interpretation of the Three Laws—echoes those of many of Asimov's stories, which often turn on how robots behave when the Three Laws are put under unusual stresses. From a plot standpoint, it could be said that the broadest strokes of the movie are true to Asimov's stories; the unexplained pattern of robotic destruction and carnage ultimately seems to fall under Asimov's Zeroth Law, though it is not explicitly mentioned or discussed in the movie. However, the theme of Zeroth-law interactions is generally positive in Asimov's works (see, in addition to the works cited below, Foundation and Earth) whereas, in this movie, the Zeroth law is obviously meant to be very negative. The near-panic reaction of U.S. Robotics' management over damage to its public relations after discovering a robot that seemingly does not follow the Three Laws is also found in several of Asimov's stories.

Besides the Three Laws and the Zeroth Law, Calvin, Lanning, Robertson, and U.S. Robotics (a slight departure from "U.S. Robots"), the film is filled with numerous other references and allusions—both subtle and obvious—to many of Asimov's works. Examples include:

Although there are broad references to general themes originally introduced by Asimov, the only "direct" connection to his work is the use of the Three Laws of Robotics. However, after Asimov created the laws they proved so popular with other writers that Asimov publicly gave permission to all writers to use them in non-Asimov stories (as long as they didn't quote them verbatim), essentially making them public domain. So, put this way, the largest claim this film has to being based on Asimov's works is that it uses the Three Laws, but many other sci-fi stories also use the Three Laws and are not considered connected to Asimov.

Despite all these criticisms, it did not stop the $120-million movie from being a solid box-office success, earning almost $145 million in North America and more than $200 million overseas.

[edit] Future sequel speculation

The internal chronology of Asimov's Robot Series implies that any other adaptation would be a sequel to this film, since all his later short stories and novels follow I, Robot in the fictional timeline. However, should such a later adaptation be more faithful to the original source material, the use of the term "sequel" may become problematic. As of 2005, the Robot novel The Caves of Steel is under cinematic development at Universal Pictures. If the series were to continue beyond that, films based on the other Asimov Robot novels (The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire) and other works in the Foundation Series would also be made.

[edit] Trivia

  • U.S. Robotics is a real-life maker of modems, named in honor of Asimov's fictional company, whose full name in the I, Robot collection is U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men.
  • The character portrayed by Will Smith is similar to Ross Syllabus from the 1997 anime, Armitage III, due to their occupation (police officer), their possession of a cybernetic body part, their hatred of robots (due to an incident that led to their cybernetic state), and their eventual abandonment of that hatred when they develop a close relationship with a robot (met in the course of a police investigation) that possesses qualities that are unmistakably human.
  • While the robots in the film are classified as "NS-4" and "NS-5" class, Asimov's only mention of this classification was the "NS-2" (or "Nestor") class in the short story "Little Lost Robot". (In Greek mythology, Nestor was an Argonaut who later fought on the Greek side in the Trojan War.)
  • There are several references to Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. One of which is the Delivery robot in the beginning having the ID Number 42, which is, according to the book, the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Coincidentally, its behaviour echoes that of the annoyingly enthusiastic cybernetics that pervade the Hitchhiker series. Later, Detective Spooner says the only normal day he ever had was a Thursday, which is the day Arthur Dent "never quite got the hang of."
  • Director Alex Proyas asked every cast member to read the book The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurzweil, before filming.
  • One of the grips, Joe Dague, was sacked prior to the filming because he was too scared of the robot models to work on set.
  • The movie was filmed in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.
  • The movie was filmed in Super 35 mm film format.
  • I, Robot was originally going to be released the same month as Shark Tale, another film Will Smith starred in.
  • The movie's shower scene (which featured full frontal nudity by Smith), was edited for American audiences and Smith's character does not actually appear fully nude. The un-edited version was kept for European audiences and is available in the UK version of the DVD.
  • Initially, Smith was asked to pen and perform a hip-hop song for the film, as he did for Men in Black (film) and Wild Wild West. After giving it some thought, Smith decided against it, saying the song "I, Robot" which featured lyrics about the "robots comin' " to take over, would take away the serious edge from the film.
  • In a reference to 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air', Det. Spooner's grandmother makes him his favorite treat yam pie, the same as Will Smith's character in the series.
  • The primary weapon of the officers in the holding room with Sonni is the FN-P90

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Topel, Fred. "Jeff Vintar was Hardwired for I,ROBOT."[1] 17 August 2004.
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[edit] External links

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