Talk:A.I. (film)

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kubrick started the project removed "Spielberg directed it." (was mentioned twice) Erik Zachte


"George buys an extremely advanced humanoid robot" -- I think not. The executives wanted to test the robot, and he was the most suitable candidate. Correct me if I'm wrong. -Zhen Lin 08:19, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)

You are correct. Also, David meets Gigolo Joe at the robot destruction carnival, before he enters the city. I've corrected these, and while I was at it I fleshed out the plot description quite a bit, including the "12,000 years later..." ending.
Looked at in a certain light, all of David's problems can be seen as the result of poor engineering. For instance, he would not have been able to nearly drown the Swintons' boy if he had not been needlessly given strength greater than a human boy his age. Also, there was no reason for him to have an open passage from his mouth to his circuitry, allowing him to be clogged with spinach. At the least, it could have had a grate over it. It also seems to indicate bad programming that he was able to sit for perhaps hundreds of years while waiting for the blue fairy to grant his wish; some internal loop should have timed out first and told him to seek repair. Perhaps most importantly, if he had been programmed with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, he would not have dragged the Swintons' son into the pool in order to protect himself, because the first law (do no harm to human beings) has no precedence over the third law (keep yourself from being harmed).
However, I won't add these criticisms to the article, because I don't think they're usually a part of the discussion of the movie.&mdashAaronW 11:20, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)
"if he had been programmed with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics"
How is that a design flaw? asimov's laws were FICTION and have no logical or actual reason to exist. This movie does not take place in asimov's universe, and the programmers of David may have determined there was no reason for him to act like an asimov robot - he was made to act like a child. A child would not neccesarily protect another human over himself. Additionally David probably did not realize he was harming his "brother." I don't understand why people think Asimov's three laws even make sense - an actual robot would be controlled by a complicated program, not 3 artifically constraining laws. Otherwise I agree that the food thing was a design flaw, and sort of agree that letting him live longer than a human was a mistake 69.244.90.248 02:57, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


Actually, it was 2,000 years, not 12,000. --Earle Martin 23:25, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  • Now, you're certain of that? I remember it being 12,000 years, but I changed the text to relay something less distinct. And I rather enjoyed the film. Two Halves
Now that I think about it again, the movie may not explicitly state how far in the future the final section is. 2,000 years seems a little too short for a full-on ice age to set in, although it's not impossible, especially since rapid climate changes were already going on in the movie (New York City being flooded and all). I must have gotten the 12,000 years figure off of some website, but I can't find it now. Well, I guess I'll just add the movie to my NetFlix queue and check that ending again, unless someone else wants to do it first. :)
I'm extremely tempted to point out that the movie has one of the most egregious Deux ex machina endings in cinematic history. But again, that's criticism, not fact...Metamatic 14:12, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Metamatic is very much correct, but I think it's well worth pointing out in the article, not only because it's such an egregious example, but because it's obviously intentional. A significant proportion of the film is devoted to the set-up and execution of the joke.
Deus ex machina means literally, "God from the machine," a reference to a crane-like device used to lower the God figure onto the ancient Greek stage. Typically the God would only arrive to save the day when the situation for the protagonist was completely hopeless, and writers would sometimes toy with an audience by seeing exactly how hopeless the situation could be made before the God intervened.
In A. I., the protagonist becomes hopelessly trapped in a vehicle, underneath a ferris wheel, under water. There is no escape... until he is rescued by god-like machines. This is both a literal and figurative example of Deus ex machina. Sofa King Tuesday, 2007-02-27 T 01:58 UTC
At least it remains true that 2,000 years is one of the furthest time-jumps in any movie. I believe even the Star Trek timeline only goes about 1,000 years in the future.--AaronW 20:18, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)
2001: A Space Odyssey makes a three million year jump. You can't beat that! - Cymydog Naakka 15:04, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] The "Flesh Fair"

I hardly think that the operators of the "Flesh Fair" can be said to be "religious fanatics". They may couch what they do in religious terms of the superiority of the fleshly human also having a "soul" as opposed to the presumably souless "mechas", but they are basically 22nd century "carnies" playing to a audience much like pro wrestling's. The crowd's enjoyment of the robots' destructions may be the most disturbing and most "realistic" part of the film.


207.69.140.35 20:42, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)


Good point. It has since been edited to "religious anti-robot activists" which still sounds a little off, but at least that's better than "fanatics." The "carnie" analogy sounds really good. --Feitclub 22:55, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, don't you think it is worth mentioning that the band Ministry played in the Flesh Fair scene?86.108.108.221 06:19, 27 June 2006 (UTC)


I also never saw them as religious fanatics... They are, as someone said, a group of "carnies" mixed as with a pro wrestling style of entertainment. But I also see them as a form of Futuristic-Luddism: [1] It's easy to think of a similar social movement after the "robotic revolution", since the use of robots would generate a large amount of structural unemployment. So it is not unexpected that a lot of people would rejoice in seeing robots getting destroyed and that the ones profiting from that destruction would call themselves protectors of the "pure human race". I think they are indeed a reference to the post industrial revolution Luddist movements. - LEANDRO DISCACIATE - 12 AUG 2006

[edit] The Ending

How are they not Aliens? i didnt see any reason to consider the very alien looking beings to be Androids.

Just wondering, but does it explicitly state that the entities at the end are androids? When I first saw it I thought they were aliens.

Not just the meaning of the ending is controversial but simply the fact that it exists. A lot of that stems from the fact that too many people confuse the androids at the end with aliens. If you think they are aliens then the ending feels tacked on and unnecessary, but if one recognizes them as androids then the idea that the movie is a sort of android fairy tale makes then ending far more palatable. I am just not sure how much of this would be useful for the entry. I think a mention of the alien/android confusion would be appropriate,though.--Gangster Octopus 23:26, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

  • Hal Hickel, the Animation Supervisor for ILM, just calls the creatures at the ends "beings." It's in one of the supplementary parts of the second disc, talking about how to animate the things. I found that interesting and, perhaps, noteworthy. He doesn't call them mechas, aliens, or anything more specific than "beings." Later on in that same segment, however, there's a sketch that shows preliminary concepts of the "beings," and zooming in on the title shows the words "THE ROBOTA." All capitalized, just like that. Also, the title of that latter segment is "The Futuristic Robots & The Specialist." I think all that makes it pretty clear that the intent was that those "beings" would be mechas, even if it wasn't realized quite as plainly. Last Thylacine 06:57, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
I've just seen the film for the first time, and I cannot understand why anyone would asume that the creatures at the end are aliens. There is not even the slightest hint of this, and it is patently obvious that they are meant to be descended from the robots. Indeed, the only reason why some might assume that they are aliens is because they look a bit like the classic image of an "alien". Let it be remembered, however, that it was Spielberg himself who invented that classic image of an alien, in Close Encounters. TharkunColl 23:47, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
I've just seen the film too (but for the second time), and I can explain why the beings are considered as extraterrestrial creatures. First, as marked, they look like "classic aliens". Second, in the beginning it is showed how they speak with each other in non-Earth language, and only after contact with David they start speak in his language as they telepatically "downloaded" lingua experience as well (it's nonsense that robots would create their own "Esperanto"). Third, we can see that beings learn Earth's history (yep, if they were made-in-Earth robots, they wouldn't learn teir own life). There are more hints that the beings are aliens.-SomeUser 22:46, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
Just because you can't understand the language, that doesn't make it a non-Earth language. ;) It could be anything, but because they are mechas, it's likely nothing more than data transferance, which is audible only so the audience will know that the mechas are "speaking" to one another. Next the mechas are learning about Earth's history for a damned good reason--they don't know it. Just as we have archeology to study the past, so do they. It's really not a stretch at all, especially when considering the supposed global freezing.
They are not aliens, nor were they meant to be. They are mechas, plain and simple.
-- Last Thylacine 21:06, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
Could also be alien mechas - mechas from another star sytem?
-- quantum


[edit] The End of the Human Race (Just on Earth, Hopefully.)

I'd hope that the Human Race is only extinct on this planet. If A.I. took place in the 22nd Century, space technology would have improved drastically by then. We'll assume that several hundred years after A.I., the world started to cool down to the ice age that we see towards the end. That's several hundred years of refining the technology for space travel. As the world started to freeze, A Space Exodus Would Have Saved Mankind.

In a future society like A.I.'s, mankind is starting to diminish, and the planet eventually starts to freeze. Wouldn't they decide that Earth isn't a good planet to stay on any longer?

Therefore, they should have left for outer space, even cryogenically freezing millions of people to save resources while on the trip to a better world. As you have seen in the movie, Cryogenic Freezing was already a reality. The fact that Martin has gone through it demonstrates this.

The Mechas on the journey would look for habitable planets elsewhere in our galaxy as well as maintain and operate the starships that transport the evacuees in their cryogenic hibernation.

With the technology that A.I.'s society has, you would think it would be pretty easy to save themselves by embarking on an interstellar exodus.

But why didn't they do this? I would have felt much better if those supermechas near the end of the movie said "When the freezing started, all humans have left Earth in a mass exodus to space in search of a more suitable planet to live on." instead of "Humans no longer exist."

You probably understand that survival would be a top priority for mankind if events like this were to arise. We would do whatever it takes, including an interstellar exodus if need be.

I'm sure better telescopes and astronomical searching equipment in their future may have found Earth-like planets by then. They would try to reach the closest one first to save time.

If they are going to take a long time to search for an alternate planet to live on, that may still work because cryogenic sleepers by that time may keep humans frozen for as long as they need.

They may have had the capability to freeze people for decades in their future, but when the Earth starts to freeze several eras later, the cryogenic freezing technology may have improved so much that humans can safely be frozen for centuries, or even millenia.

There will be ways to propel spacecraft much faster in the future (matter/antimatter, "solar sail", or the ability to bend space-time to go MUCH faster) but eventually Faster-Than-Light speed.

Even if they still don't have Faster-Than-Light travel by then, the fact that people can be safely frozen for millenia may make an Exodus to another planet still worthwhile. They'll not care if they land on an Earth-type planet in 7000 AD, they'll care that they survived and will do better to keep humanity plentiful that time!

If anyone brings up the matter of cosmic radiation pounding the cryonauts, we'll be sure to have invented and constructed light yet thick spaceship hulls to simply bounce the radiation away.

--Shultz 23:28, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't know, but all i know is that those damn Mechas better look after Teddy after David Died!

[edit] Article title?

Why isn't Artificial Intelligence: AI, which imdb gives as the title of the film, and which the article says is the "actual on-screen title," rather than being a redirect here? Is there a reason? Dpbsmith (talk) 11:28, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wizard of Oz allusions

I think there should be some mention of the allusions made to The Wizard of Oz in this movie. In particular, I'm thinking of the part where David (Dorothy) sets out to find the Blue Fairy (wizard) along with Joe and Teddy. As I recall, I think Joe even mentions something about missing his brain, just like the scarecrow. Although it's not a perfect analogy, I think it's pretty clear.

[edit] The introduction

I think the article's introduction should be changed into something more explanatory, as it doesn't really describe the actual film. I reckon the average reader is by far more interested in the film itself rather than how it came into being through Kubrick and Spielberg's exchanging of ideas. –JonasRH 07:56, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

How about adding that the movie is like a futuristic/sci-fi story of Pinocchio? Well, very similar to it since the plot is about a robot/puppet who wants to be a real human/boy. HighEnergyProtons 03:30, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kubrick's Original Idea

Has anyone thought of adding Kubrick's original vision for AI? Such ideas/visions like wanting to build a real robot/mecha to play the main role and the very long pre-production because of this? Very interesting to those who seek it or perhaps want to read more about the film. Especially that Kubrick and Co. actually created a prototype of a robot but very premature and hardly workable(more like a mechanical puppet) I think most of this information can be found on the actual two-disc DVD, in one of the documentaries. Any takers? Or perhaps should I add it in? *gulp* It'll probably wait until the weekend so I can dig up as much information about it as I can. This also means listening to every audio commentary and hear for anything about Kubrick's version of AI like certain scenes, angles, use of music and script-wise. HighEnergyProtons 03:36, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I recall reading that Kubrick had gone to the length of hiring a child actor and was bringing him in every few weeks to film him, apparently making a time-lapse film of the child growing up. The rumor also stated that Kubrick had bought up enough film stock so that when it came time to film the rest of the picture, the film stock would match the time-lapse. Sofa King Tuesday, 2007-02-27 T 02:32 UTC

[edit] AI's inspiration

I remember reading that Kubirck got the idea for AI from "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss. The story was a sci-fi work from the early 70's that Kubrick read.

The story of AI borrowed much from Japanese comic and Anime Astroboy by Tetzuka which dates to the early 50's. Astroboy owes a lot to pinocchio as well. In the original Astroboy story (Tesuwan Atom in Japan) a scientists son dies in a car wreck. The emotionaly devastated scientist builds a robot boy to replace his lost son. The robot boy not being a perfect human child is abused by the father. In one scene astroboy tries to eat at the dinner table but the food is not digested, it is removed by the robot from a access door in his chest. This infuriates the father. The father later kicks Astro out of the house where he is captured by a robot circus where robots are forced to fight each other and even fired out of cannons. Later Astroboy is rescued by another scientist and the movement for robot equal rights begins.

Like I said Astroboy owes a lot to Pinocchio but there are glaring simularities between AI and Astoboy that to me prove that Asroboy deserves credit on the page. Also the title of the short story should also be included.

Thomas Howell

The Pinocchio Complex/Syndrome is a standard trope in fiction about robotics. It's so common and tired that it usually only shows up these days in populist SF (movies and TV, usually the latter). Remember people complaining about how Data was a cliche? And that was twenty years ago. The device is tired enough that AI would probably not have been made without the heavy pedigree attached. Belaboring the whole history for every invokation is counterproductive. It really deserves its own Wikipedia entry (in which Astro Boy would be mentioned of course), but the only actual explanation of it I could find anywhere was on TV tropes wiki and I don't think that would hold up as a proper source.24.165.210.213 19:20, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Second Variety, a short story by Philip K. Dick, while having a completely different plot, has a robotic boy named David who holds a teddybear.

[edit] A Great Movie. . .

Obviously, it was not tailored to fit the constipulations of reality, but it was great! Arguably, a cinematic breath of fresh air.


==Agreed, and Teddy is without a doubt the real star IMO.

[edit] How did David's mom die?

Did the original book give any hints to this? From the film it seems that Monica was frozen to death in a glacier, but that would be highly unlikely as the glciers wouldn't form centuries after David was trapped beneath the ferris wheel on Coney Island. So perhaps Monica did die naturally?


In the film, the future-mecha were able to clone Monica because Teddy had the lock of her hair that David cut off.

[edit] When does this movie take place?

It doesn't say anywhere in the movie that it takes place in the 22nd century. Where did you guys get that?

No answer? Well in that case I'm deleting it.

[edit] Mecha

This article links to Mecha in several places. I'd suggest the Mecha term used in this film is not the same as the article it links to. The wikipedia article on Mecha says they "are piloted or remote-controlled limbed vehicles. They are generally, though not necessarily, bipedal." I'd suggest the links to Mecha be removed in this article. I don't think anyone could argue David is a "piloted or remote-controlled limbed vehicle." 66.17.118.195 17:23, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

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