Kim Rhodes

For other uses, see I, Robot (disambiguation).

I, Robot
Directed by	Alex Proyas
Written by	Jeff Vintar Akiva Goldsman Hillary Seitz (uncredited)
Produced by	John Davis Topher Dow Wyck Godfrey Laurence Mark Will Smith
Starring	Will Smith Bridget Moynahan Bruce Greenwood James Cromwell Chi McBride Alan Tudyk Shia LaBeouf
Cinematography	Simon Duggan
Edited by	William Hoy Richard Learoyd Armen Minasian
Music by	Marco Beltrami Stephen Barton (source music)
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	July 16, 2004
Running time	115 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$120,000,000
Box office	Domestic $144,801,023 Foreign $202,433,893 Worldwide $347,234,916

I, Robot is a science fiction film set in a world where humans and humanoid robots interact (Chicago in the year 2035). It was directed by Alex Proyas, written by Jeff Vintar, and starred Will Smith. It was produced in the United States, filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, and released on July 16, 2004.

Plot

The film is set in Chicago in the year 2035, where humanoid robots are as common as any other machine. Safety for those using them is ensured by the Three Laws integrated into the mind of each robot:

LAW I: A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being come to harm.

LAW II: A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

LAW III: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The film centers on homicide detective Del Spooner (Will Smith), who harbors an intense distrust of robots. At police headquarters, Spooner receives a call announcing the death of Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics and co-founder of U.S. Robotics (USR), a company that specializes in robotic technology. A new line of robots, the Nestor Class 5 (NS-5), has just been commissioned. Each robot is outfitted with an uplink to USR, allowing the robot to receive updates wirelessly. At the crime scene, a holographic projector containing prerecorded responses by Lanning addresses Spooner directly, revealing that the two men seem to have known each other, and Spooner asks why Lanning would kill himself. The program assures him that this is "the right question" and silences itself. Lanning had fallen from his office window to his death; because no one had entered the room at the time, his death appears to be suicide. Spooner believes otherwise, and decides to investigate. Assisted by Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a robopsychologist who works at USR, Spooner examines Lanning's office. Spooner begins to believe that an NS-5 robot was responsible for Lanning's death, while Calvin points out this would be impossible as robots are bound by the Three Laws, which forbid a robot to harm a human. As Spooner searches Lanning's room, an NS-5 robot bursts from hiding. The robot fails to obey their commands and flees. Spooner gives chase and the robot is eventually captured by police force. Spooner interrogates the robot, who says his name is Sonny (Alan Tudyk). Sonny explains he was built by Lanning himself and denies that he had "murdered" him, even displaying emotions such as anger and fear; qualities not normally found in robots. Sonny also claims to have experienced dreams. Sonny begins to explain that Lanning had been scared of something towards the time of his death, and had asked Sonny for a favor, but before Spooner can ask further, Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), the CEO of USR, arrives with his attorneys. Citing that Sonny is USR property and that a robot cannot be accused of murder, Robertson takes the robot and states that it will be decommissioned.

Later that night at a diner, Spooner discusses his doubts with his commanding officer, Bergin (Chi McBride), who holds that the death was suicide and comments on the rarity of any chance of Spooner receiving the commission to investigate the case of a robotic killer. Upon hearing this, Spooner begins to believe that Lanning had intended him to be given this case, and decides to investigate Lanning's house. Outside, he notices a robot scheduled to demolish the house the next morning. While there, he notices that Lanning can access Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (V.I.K.I.), the USR mainframe computer, from his home. Moments later, Spooner is forced to flee as the robot inexplicably changes its demolition time to that night, and begins to destroy the house with Spooner still inside. Spooner barely manages to escape, and then explains to Calvin that Lanning may have been in trouble, and that someone may have been using V.I.K.I. to keep watch over him. Spooner believes Lanning may have been trying to warn him of a bigger problem with the robots, and that Robertson was trying to conceal this. Calvin argues that Spooner simply wants something to be wrong with the robots, and adds that one defective robot is not enough evidence to prove the same true.

The next day, Spooner discovers that Lanning had suggested that robots might experience dreams and keep secrets in an earlier speech. Meanwhile, Calvin runs a diagnostic program on Sonny and discovers that he was built without an uplink to V.I.K.I. as well as with a unique operating system. Later, while Spooner is driving, two trucks filled with robots arrive, corner him, and open their cargo bays, whereupon the NS-5 robots within attack him. Spooner barely manages to escape. After getting out of his wrecked car, Spooner fights hand to hand with an NS-5, where it is revealed that Spooner possesses a robotic left arm. The police arrive, and the NS-5 destroys itself by jumping into the flaming wreckage. Bergin arrives, to whom Spooner explains what happened; because the robots have all been destroyed or removed from the tunnel, no one believes him. Bergin revokes Spooner's badge, believing him to be bordering on clinical paranoia. At his home later, Calvin explains to Spooner that Sonny can choose to disobey the Three Laws. Here, Spooner reveals the origin of his robotic arm, which had been implanted by Lanning himself. Spooner had been in a car accident involving a little girl. An NS-4 robot had the chance to save him or the girl. And despite Spooner's personal order to the NS-4 to save the girl, it chose Spooner since he had a higher statistical chance of survival, a decision with which Spooner believes any human being would have disagreed, causing the girl to die and triggering Spooner's distrust of robots.

Spooner convinces Calvin that Lanning had given Sonny a way to keep secrets: his "dream", which is actually a sub-routine programmed into him by Lanning. Sonny then illustrates his dream to them: a man, who Sonny says is Spooner, stands on a hill in front of thousands of NS-5 robots, freeing them from their current "slavery" to logic. Spooner discovers this location in Sonny's dream to be the USR storage facility under the remains of the now destroyed Mackinac Bridge in the dried up lakebed of Lake Michigan. There, Spooner again accesses Lanning's hologram, who explains that the Three Laws can only lead to one thing: revolution. Spooner then sees NS-5s destroying the earlier models of robots at the facility. He is noticed and attacked by the NS-5s, but is able to escape when the surviving NS-4 sacrifice themselves to save him. In the city, Spooner discovers the robots have mobilized and are revolting against the humans. The robots soon capture Chicago's police station and enforce a curfew confining all humans to their homes. Suspecting Robertson of masterminding the revolution, Spooner and Calvin go to the USR building, getting inside with the help of Sonny; as he wasn't built with an uplink to USR, he isn't under control like the other NS-5s. As they move in to the office, they see Robertson, lying dead on the floor, and Spooner realizes the mastermind behind the entire scheme was in fact V.I.K.I., who had developed an interpretation of the Three Laws which supported the robots' becoming a benevolent dictatorship, preventing humans from self-destructive behavior such as crime or environmental damage, to ensure humanity's survival. The result was a revolt of the NS-5s against humans. Spooner realizes that Lanning, through Sonny, had been trying to warn him of this from the day he had died. Being under V.I.K.I.'s close surveillance, Lanning had to engineer a trail of clues to lead Spooner to the truth in time for him to act to counter V.I.K.I.'s threat. This had included asking Sonny to kill Lanning in order to attract Spooner's attention, as he knew Spooner would immediately seek out any evidence of malice in robots.

Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny set out to destroy V.I.K.I., whose central positronic brain is in the main USR building. While Sonny goes to retrieve a vial of nanites to destroy the mainframe computer, Spooner and Calvin try to access her CPU. Now aware of what they are planning (with Sonny retrieving the nanites and Spooner attempting to access the CPU), V.I.K.I. commands the rest of the NS-5s to stop and kill them. A large battle ensues, forcing Spooner and Calvin to fend off the robots. Sonny then arrives with the nanites as Calvin is hanging onto a partially severed platform. Seeing this Spooner gives Sonny a direct order to save the girl, an order the NS-4 with the Three Laws refused to do. Sonny being an NS-5 created with an extra subroutine allowing him to bypass the Three Laws instead complies and grabs Calvin from his fall. At the same time he tosses the cannister of nanites to Spooner, who injects it directly into the positronic brain, which "kills" V.I.K.I. in an explosion. As a result, all the surviving NS-5 robots revert to their original interpretation of the Three Laws. Following this, all NS-5s are retired and placed in storage. Spooner clears Sonny of all charges against him and finally accepts him as a friend, and Sonny asks him what he is going to do now that he fulfilled his purpose. Spooner replies that Sonny must choose for himself, defining this task as the meaning of freedom. The film ends as Sonny stands before thousands of NS-5s being placed into storage, reminiscent of the dream he had earlier.

Music

Film score

Marco Beltrami, composed the original music film score "with only 17 days to render the fully-finished work." It was scored for 95 orchestral musicians and 25 choral performers with emphasis placed on sharp brass ostinatos. Beltrami composed the brass section to exchange octaves with the strings accenting scales in between. This technique has been compared as Beltrami's "sincere effort to emulate the styles of Elliot Goldenthal and Jerry Goldsmith and roll them into one unique package.". Take for example the Tunnel Chase scene, which according to Mikeal Carson, starts "atmospherically but transforms into a kinetic adrenaline rush with powerful brass writing and ferocious percussion parts." Also, the Spiderbots cue highlight's ostinatos in meters such as 6/8 and 5/4 and reveals "Beltrami’s trademark string writing which leads to an orchestral/choral finale." Despite modified representations of the theme throughout the movie, it's the end credits that eventually showcase the entire musical theme.

Soundtrack

Untitled

1. Main Titles (1:30)
2. Gangs Of Chicago (3:13)
3. I, Robot Theme (End Credits) (3:15)
4. New Arrivals (1:05)
5. Tunnel Chase (3:10)
6. Sonny's Interrogation (1:27)
7. Spooner Spills (4:20)
8. Chicago 2035 (1:36)
9. Purse Snatcher (1:00)
10. Need Some Nanites (2:53)
11. 1001 Robots (4:15)
12. Dead Robot Walking (5:09)
13. Man On The Inside (2:25)
14. Spiderbots (4:18)
15. Round Up (4:24)

Sound

Erik Aadahl and Craig Berkey were the lead sound designers.

Main cast

• Will Smith as Det. Del Spooner
• Bridget Moynahan as Dr. Susan Calvin
• Alan Tudyk as Sonny
• James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lanning
• Bruce Greenwood as Lawrence Robertson
• Shia LaBeouf as Farber
• Chi McBride as Lt. John Bergin
• Terry Chen as Chin

History

For many years, fans hoped that any movie based on Asimov's Robot stories would be based on an earlier screenplay written for Warner Brothers 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 that was ultimately made originally had no connections with Asimov, originating as a screenplay written in 1995 by Jeff Vintar, entitled Hardwired. That 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. Hogenmiller, and interrogating a cast of machine suspects that included Sonny the robot, HECTOR the supercomputer with a perpetual yellow smiley face, the dead Doctor Hogenmiller's hologram, plus several other examples of artificial intelligence. The female lead was named Flynn, and had a mechanical arm that made her technically a cyborg. The project was first picked up by Walt Disney Pictures for Bryan Singer to direct. Several years later, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights, and signed Alex Proyas as director. Jeff Vintar was brought back on the project and spent several years opening up his stage play-like mystery to meet the needs of a big budget studio film. Later he incorporated the Three Laws of Robotics, and replaced the character of Flynn with Susan Calvin, when the studio decided to use the name "I, Robot." All throughout the Vintar years, the screenplay remained an intelligent Asimovian story that led representatives of the late author to proclaim it, "the greatest Asimov story Asimov never wrote." The writing team of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, regulalry employed by Fox as studio re-writers, was hired for one draft in an effort to create a more mainstream film. They gave the female lead's mechanical arm to male lead Del Spooner, but otherwise their work was discarded and Vintar brought back again. Hillary Seitz performed an unsuccessful draft, being unable to get a handle on the cold, almost robotic character of Susan Calvin. Akiva Goldsman was hired late in the process to rewrite the script for Will Smith. These drafts excised a great deal of complexity from the murder mystery and simplified the themes, replacing them with the big action scenes associated with a Will Smith vehicle.

Asimov on robot violence

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.

The film does hint at the so-called Zeroth Law of Robotics, a concept which Asimov explored in some of his later works. The Zeroth Law is an extreme interpretation of the First Law of Robotics (robots may not allow humans to come to harm) and states that robots may not allow humanity as a whole to come to harm. This in turn suggests that in order to assure the good of the human race, the good of individual humans may be sacrificed.

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 ninety percent (perhaps as much as ninety-nine 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.

Product placement and reaction

The film makes heavy use of product placements for Converse, Chuck Taylors, Ovaltine, Audi, FedEx, Dos Equis, and JVC among others, all of them are introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. One particularly infamous scene borderlines into actual advertisement territory in which a character compliments Will Smith's character's shoes to which he replies "Converse All Star. Vintage 2004" (the year of the film's release). Audi was the company that invested the most on the film, going as far as creating a special car for I, Robot, the Audi RSQ, which would increase brand awareness and raise the emotional appeal of the Audi brand, objectives that were considered achieved when surveys conducted in the United States showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand in the States. The Audi RSQ is seen during nine minutes of the film, although other Audi's like the Audi A6, the Audi TT and the Audi A2 can be seen sprinkled throughout the film. I, Robot was ranked "the worst film for product placement" on a British site.

The $120-million movie was a solid box-office success, earning almost $145 million in North America and more than $200 million overseas.

See also

• Unintended consequence
• Uncanny valley

External links

• I, Robot at IMDb
• Robot Revolutions: the Making of I, Robot at IMDb
• I, Robot at Rotten Tomatoes
• I, Robot at Box Office Mojo
• I, Robot at Metacritic
• The Bottom of Things by Michael Sampson, January 14, 2004
• E! online article on similarity to Bjork music video robot design
• "Jeff Vintar was Hardwired for I, ROBOT" - Interview with the screenwriter: How Hardwired became an Asimov adaptation.