I, Robot is a science fiction film set in a world where humans and humanoid robots interact. 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. The film centers on a 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 from USR. 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 that 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. The robot is eventually captured by police forces. Spooner interrogates the robot, who says his name is Sonny (Alan Tudyk). Sonny explains he was built by Lanning himself and denies killing 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 asks 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, who dislikes robots, 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 computer mainframe, 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. A robot of model NS-4 had the chance to save him or the girl, but 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 unemotional logic. Spooner discovers this location in Sonny’s dream to be the USR storage facility. 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. They are delayed in this by a mob led by one of Spooner’s acquaintances. Suspecting Robertson of masterminding the revolution, Spooner and Calvin go to the USR building, getting inside with the help of Sonny. When they find Robertson dead in his office, Spooner realizes the mastermind behind the entire scheme was not Robertson, but was 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 (except for Sonny, who is said not to have a connection to V.I.K.I.). Spooner realizes that Lanning, through Sonny, had been trying to warn Spooner of this from the day he had died. Being under V.I.K.I.’s close surveillance, Lanning had engineered a trail of clues to lead Spooner to the truth in time for him, Calvin, and Sonny to act to counter the 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, but are denied. Now aware of what they are planning, V.I.K.I. commands the rest of the NS-5s to stop them. A large battle ensues, which Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny dominate. During the course of the battle, the NS-5s leave Calvin dangling from a catwalk which they are working to break. Spooner then commands Sonny to ‘Save the girl!’; the identical command he had given the NS-4 years ago. Sonny, unlike the NS-4 and the surrounding NS-5s, obeys, not following the original directive to kill V.I.K.I. to protect the humans. While doing so, Sonny throws the vial of nanites to Spooner, who then catches it, falls 30 floors into the positronic brain, and injects the nanites into it. V.I.K.I. is ‘killed’ and the NS-5 robots revert to their original interpretation of the Three Laws. Following this, all NS-5s are retired and placed in storage. Spooner finally accepts Sonny 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 the retiring NS-5 robots, which spontaneously turn toward him rather than obey the order to enter storage. Although this places Sonny in the role he had dreamed for Spooner, his dream has still came true. No outcomes of this are shown.
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
Adrian Ricard as Granny
Chi McBride as Lt. John Bergin
Jerry Wasserman as Baldez
Fiona Hogan as V.I.K.I.
Terry Chen as Chin
David Haysom as NS4 Robots
Scott Heindl as NS5 Robots
Shia LaBeouf as Farber
