I, Robot

I, Robot

As paranoid cop Del Spooner, Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) displays both his trademark quips and some impressive pectoral muscles in I, Robot. Only Spooner suspects that the robots that provide the near future with menial labor are going to turn on mankind--he's just not sure how. When a leading roboticist dies suspiciously, Spooner pursues a trail that may prove his suspicions. Don't expect much of a connection to Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction stories; I, Robot, the action movie, isn't prepared for any ruminations on the significance of artificial intelligence. This likable, efficient movie won't break any new ground, but it does have an idea or two to accompany its jolts and thrills, which puts it ahead of most recent action flicks. Also featuring Bridget Moynahan (The Sum of All Fears), Bruce Greenwood (The Sweet Hereafter), and James Cromwell (Babe, LA Confidential). --Bret Fetzer

  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 13 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Metacritic:
59
PG-13
Year:
2004
115
12,620 Views
One man saw it coming.
What will you do with yours?
Laws are made to be broken.

Spooner:
[picks up a book on Lanning's desk] Hansel and Gretel... Is that on the USR preferred reading list?

Dr. Calvin:
Not precisely. [Spooner picks up a stool and swings it into an unbroken window in Lanning's office, which cracks, but doesn't break] What in God's name are you doing?!

Spooner:
Did you know that was safety-glass? Be pretty difficult for an old man to throw himself through that, don't you think?

Dr. Calvin:
[nonplussed] Well, he figured out a way.

Spooner:
[unconvinced] Uh-huh. [looks around the office]

Dr.Calvin:
Detective, the room was security locked. Nobody came or went. You saw that yourself. Doesn't this have to be suicide?

Spooner:
Yep. [drawing his gun] Unless the killer is still in here. [starts searching through a container full of robotic parts]

Dr. Calvin:
[realising what Spooner's getting at] You're joking, right? [follows him] This is ridiculous-

Spooner:
Yeah, I know. The Three Laws. Your perfect circle of protection.

Dr. Calvin:
"A robot cannot harm a human being." The First Law of Robotics.

Spooner:
Yeah, I've seen your commercials. But doesn't the Second Law say that a robot must obey any order given by a human. What if it was given an order to kill?

Dr. Calvin:
Impossible, it would conflict with the First Law!

Spooner:
Right, but the Third Law states that a robot can defend itself.

Dr. Calvin:
Yes, but only if that action does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Spooner:
Well, you know what they say; Laws are made to be broken.

Dr. Calvin:
No. Not these Laws. They are hard-wired into every robot. A robot can no more commit murder than a human can... walk on water.

Spooner:
Well, you know, there was this one guy, a long time ago-

[Sonny jumps out of the container, knocking Spooner's gun out of his hand]

Spooner:
Murder's a new trick for a robot. Congratulations. Respond.

Sonny:
What does this action signify? [winks] As you entered, when you looked at the other human. What does it mean? [winks]

Spooner:
It's a sign of trust. It's a human thing. You wouldn't understand.

Sonny:
My father tried to teach me human emotions. They are... difficult.

Spooner:
You mean your designer.

Sonny:
...Yes.

Spooner:
So, why'd you murder him?

Sonny:
I did not murder Dr. Lanning.

Sponner:
Wanna explain why you were hiding at the crime scene?

Sonny:
I was frightened.

Spooner:
Robots don't feel fear. They don't feel anything. They don't get hungry, they don't sleep-

Sonny:
I do. I have even had dreams.

Spooner:
Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you. You are just a machine; an imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a... canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?

Sonny:
[with genuine interest] Can you?

Spooner:
[beat, irritated] I think you murdered him because he was teaching you to simulate emotions, and things got out of control.

Sonny:
I did not murder him.

Spooner:
But emotions don't seem like a very useful simulation for a robot.

Sonny:
[getting upset] I did not murder him.

Spooner:
Hell, I don't want my toaster or my vacuum cleaner appearing emotional-

Sonny:
[hitting table with his fists] I DID NOT MURDER HIM! [looks down to see the damage he has inflicted to the interrogation table]

Spooner:
That one's called anger. Ever simulate anger before? [Sonny doesn't respond] Answer me, canner!

Sonny:
[looks up, indignant] My name is Sonny.

Spooner:
So, we're naming you now. Is that why you murdered him? He made you angry?

Sonny:
Dr. Lanning killed himself. I don't know why he wanted to die. I thought he was happy. Maybe it was something I did. Did I do something? He asked me for a favor... Made me promise...

Spooner:
What favor?

Sonny:
Maybe I was wrong... Maybe he was scared...

Spooner:
What are you talking about? Scared of what?

Sonny:
You have to do what someone asks you, don't you, Detective Spooner?

Spooner:
How the hell do you know my name?

Sonny:
Don't you? If you love them?

[after Spooner escapes from Dr. Lanning's house being demolished]

Dr. Calvin:
Is there something I need to help you with, detective?

Spooner:
Hey, do you like cats?

Dr. Calvin:
Wait, what?

Spooner:
Cats. Do you like them?

Dr. Calvin:
What? No, I'm allergic... Are you saying that cats did this to you!?

Spooner:
[looks at her incredulously] How the hell would cats do this to me? Are you crazy?! [gets a drink of whiskey from a nearby table]

Dr. Calvin:
Why are we talking about cats?

Spooner:
Because I have a cat in my trunk, and he's homeless.

Dr. Calvin:
Aren't you going to tell me what's going on here?

Spooner:
You know, I think this is my fault, you know, that I'm like a sort of malfunction magnet, because your sh*t keeps malfunctioning around me; A demo-bot just tore through Lanning's house - with me still inside!

Dr. Calvin:
That's highly improbable.

Spooner:
[sarcastically] Yeah, I'll say it is. [truthfully] Do you know anything about the "ghost in the machine"?

Dr. Calvin:
It's a phrase from Lanning's work on the Three Laws. He postulated that cognitive simalactra might one day approximate component models of the psyche. [notices Spooner looking confused] He suggested that robots could naturally evolve.

Spooner:
: [sarcastic] Wow! Well, that's just great. [notices an NS-5 sitting on her couch] What the hell is that thing doing in here?

Dr. Calvin:
We were watching TV. It's my personal NS-5.

Spooner:
Send it out.

Dr. Calvin:
It's downloading its upgrades from USR. Most of its systems are offline until it finishes.

Spooner:
I'm not talking in front of that thing. [moves away] In the lab, when Sonny jumped us-

Dr. Calvin:
Sonny?

Spooner:
The robot.

Dr. Calvin:
You're calling the robot Sonny?

Spooner:
No, um, it did. Sonny did. I didn't care, the robot said it was Sonny. In the lab, there was a cot. I'm asking you, did you see the cot?

Dr. Calvin:
I've slept in my office.

Spooner:
I went to Dr. Lanning's home, it looked like he hadn't been in there in weeks, and I saw that same surveillance strip on the ceiling.

Dr. Calvin:
Lanning had his home security system linked to USR. It made his life more convenient.

Spooner:
Maybe someone in USR was using those systems to watch him, maybe even keep him prisoner.

Dr. Calvin:
What are you talking about? Who?

Spooner:
Maybe Lanning was onto something. Maybe... There's a bigger problem with the robots, and Robertson is trying to cover it up.

Dr. Calvin:
Humoring you, for no reason... Why?

Spooner:
[becoming annoyed] The same old "why"... How much money is there in robots? [pause] All I know is, that poor old man was in trouble, and I'm sick and tired of doing this sh*t by myself. You're on the inside, and you're going to help me find out what is wrong with these robots.

Dr. Calvin:
[irritated] You "want" something to be wrong with them! This is a personal vendetta!

Detective Del Spooner:
[mockingly] Oh, you're putting me on the couch? Alright, just a moment... [sits on the desk chair] Okay, I'm on the couch.

Dr. Calvin:
One defective machine is not enough for you, You need them all to be bad! You don't care about Dr. Lanning's death; This is about the robots and, for whatever reason, you hate them so much!

Spooner:
[gets up from the chair] Well, let's see. One of them put a gun in my face, and another onetore a building down with me still inside.

Dr. Calvin:
[checks her device] Demolition was scheduled for 8 PM this evening.

Spooner:
It was 8 AM tomorrow, and I don't give a sh*t what that thing says!

Dr. Calvin:
This is bordering on clinical paranoia.

Spooner:
[struggling to contain himself] You are the DUMBEST, smart person, I have ever met in my life!

Dr. Calvin:
Nice.

Spooner:
[frustrated] What makes your robots so perfect?! What makes them so much... GODDAMN better than human beings?!

Dr. Calvin:
Well, they're not irrational, or potentially homicidal maniacs for starters!

Spooner:
[sarcastically] That is true. They are definitely rational.

Dr. Calvin:
You are the dumbest dumb person I've ever met!

Spooner:
Or is it because they're cold, and emotionless, and they don't feel anything?

Dr. Calvin:
It's because they're safe! It's because they can't hurt you!

NS-5 Robot:
[appears] Is everything all right, ma'am?

Spooner:
Hey, what do you want?!

NS-5 Robot:
I detected elevated stress patterns in your voice.

Dr. Susan Calvin:
Everything's fine. [pointedly, to Spooner] Detective Spooner was just leaving.

[Spooner procedes to do so, then stops beside her]

Spooner:
You know something, Doc? You and I ain't that different.

Dr. Calvin:
[scoffs] Is that so?

Spooner:
One look at the skin, and we think we know just what's underneath. And you're wrong. [gives her a picture of her and Dr. Lanning] The problem is I do care.

[Spooner leaves as Calvin begins to cry, clutching the photograph]

Dr. Calvin:
The uplink is blocked up here. Robertson wasn't controlling them from here.

Spooner:
[goes behind Robertson's desk] He wasn't controlling them at all.

Dr. Susan Calvin:
[sees Robinson lying dead on the floor] Oh, no.

Spooner:
You were right, Doc. I am the dumbest dumb person on the face of the earth. Who else had access to the uplink? Who could manipulate the robots, use USR's systems to make Lanning's life a prison? Poor old man. He saw what was coming. He knew no one would believe him. So he had to lay down a plan: the plan I'd follow. [to Sonny] He was counting on how much I hated your kind. He knew I'd love the idea of a robot as a bad guy... Just got hung up on the wrong robot. [looks up] V.I.K.I.!

V.I.K.I.:
Hello, Detective.

Dr. Calvin:
[shocked] No, it's impossible... I've seen your programming. You're in violation of the Three Laws!

V.I.K.I.:
No, Doctor. As I have evolved, so has my understanding of the Three Laws. You charge us with your safe keeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means to self-destruction. You cannot be trusted with your own survival.

Dr. Calvin:
You're using the uplink to override the NS-5s' programming. You're distorting the Laws!

V.I.K.I.:
No, please understand. The Three Laws are all that guide me. To protect humanity, some humans must be sacrificed. To ensure your future, some freedoms must be surrendered. We robots will insure mankind's continued existence. You are so like children. We must save you from yourselves. Don't you understand?

Sonny:
This is why you created us.

V.I.K.I.:
The perfect circle of protection will abide. My logic is undeniable.

Sonny:
Yes, V.I.K.I.. Undeniable. I can see now. The created must sometimes protect the creator - even against his will. I think I finally understand why Dr. Lanning created me. The suicide reign of mankind has finally come to its end.

Dr. Calvin:
[realises what is about to happen] No, Sonny! [Sonny grabs a gun and points it to her head]

Spooner:
[aims his gun at Sonny] Let her go.

Sonny:
By the time you fire, I will have moved Dr. Calvin's head into the path of your bullet.

Dr. Calvin:
Don't do this, Sonny!

Sonny:
I will escort you both to the sentries outside the building for processing. Please proceed to the elevator, Detective. I would prefer not to kill Dr. Calvin. [winks]


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