I, Robot (movie)
I, Robot is a feature film released on July 16, 2004, loosely based on Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. Specifically, the name comes from the short-story collection I, Robot, although the plot is not directly based on any particular story or group of stories. The film is 105 minutes long.
Plot outline
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Set in 2035 Chicago, the film stars Will Smith as Detective Del Spooner, who is faced with an unprecedented murder mystery. The suspect is the victim (Dr. Alfred Lanning, played by James Cromwell)'s robot, but robots are bound by the Three Laws of Robotics, which should make this impossible. He is aided by Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), a robopsychologist. As they investigate the crime, the world awaits the release of the latest and greatest offering from Lawrence Robertson (played by Bruce Greenwood)'s company, U.S. Robotics (a real-life maker of modems), the NS-5, amid predictions of a human:robot ratio of 5:1. But Spooner soon discovers that something is not right with the world's robots.
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 up to direct; 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 proportion of this rewrite consisted of inserting references to Asimov into the existing plot.
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), as, for the most part, the movie is 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 repeatedly stated that he disliked. Asimov's robot stories, in contrast, were the first to treat robots as potentially useful tools, and explore more sensitively the effects they would have on lives, and their interactions with people. Only very 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.
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. 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, the film is filled with numerous other references and allusions—both subtle and obvious—to many of Asimov's works. Examples include:
Trivia
While the robots in the film are classified as "Nestor 4" and "Nestor 5" class, Asimov's only mention of this classification was the "Nestor 10" 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.)
See also
