NationMaster - Encyclopedia: I, Robot (film)

I, Robot is a science fiction film filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, but produced in the United States and released on July 16, 2004. It is attributed to Isaac Asimov's Robot Series, a short-story collection of the same name. It is technically based on Hardwired, a spec script by Jeff Vintar, but bears some significant resemblance to a pre-Asimov, 1939 classic sci-fi short story, "I, Robot" by Eando Binder, after which the Asimov collection was named by its publisher against Asimov's wishes. Some of Asimov's ideas about robots were added to Vintar's script after the film's producers acquired the rights to the anthology title, although the plot is not directly based on any particular story or group of stories by Asimov. The Binder story concerns a sapient humanoid robot arrested and placed on trial for the murder of its creator. The title I, Robot can refer to: I, Robot, a science-fiction short story by Eando Binder first published in 1939 I, Robot, a 1964 episode of The Outer Limits based on the short story I, Robot, a 1995 episode of The Outer Limits based on the short story I... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Download high resolution version (510x755, 53 KB)Movie poster for I, Robot with Will Smith, deemed fair use This work is copyrighted. ... Alex Proyas (born September 23 , 1963) is an Australian film director, writer, and producer. ... John Davis is an American film producer and founder of Davis Entertainment. ... Laurence Mark (born in New York City) is an American film producer. ... Jeff Vintar (1964 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American screenwriter. ... Akiva Goldsman (born July 7, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor in the motion picture industry. ... I, Robot is a collection of nine English language science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies. ... Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920?[1] â€“ April 6, 1992), IPA: , originally Ð˜ÑÐ°Ð°Ðº ÐžÐ·Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾Ð² but now transcribed into Russian as ÐÐ¹Ð·ÐµÐº ÐÐ·Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾Ð²) was a Russian-born American Jewish author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. ... â€œW. S.â€ redirects here. ... Kathryn Bridget Moynahan (born September 21, 1970 in Binghamton, New York) is an American model and actress. ... Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956 in Noranda, Quebec) is a Canadian actor. ... James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940), sometimes credited as Jamie Cromwell, is an Academy Award-nominated American television and film actor. ... Chi McBride (right) on Boston Public Chi McBride (born September 23, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor. ... Alan Wray Tudyk (born March 16, 1971) is an American stage, film, and television actor. ... Shia Saide LaBeouf[1] (pronounced SHY-uh luh-BUFF, IPA: [2]; born June 11, 1986) is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning[3] American actor and comedian. ... Marco Beltrami is a musical composer for motion pictures. ... Stephen Barton is a British film composer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... For other uses, see Vancouver (disambiguation). ... Motto: Splendor sine occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Official languages English (de facto) Government Lieutenant-Governor Steven Point Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament House seats 36 Senate seats 6 Confederation July 20, 1871 (6th province) Area Ranked 5th Total 944... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Isaac Asimov (January 2?, 1920?[1] â€“ April 6, 1992), IPA: , originally Ð˜ÑÐ°Ð°Ðº ÐžÐ·Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾Ð² but now transcribed into Russian as ÐÐ¹Ð·ÐµÐº ÐÐ·Ð¸Ð¼Ð¾Ð²) was a Russian-born American Jewish author and professor of biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. ... Isaac Asimovs Robot Series is a series of books by Isaac Asimov, both collections of short stories and novels. ... A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... Jeff Vintar (1964 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American screenwriter. ... January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories I, Robot is a science fiction short story by Eando Binder about a robot named Adam Link. ... Eando Binder is a pseudonym for two brothers, Earl Andrew Binder (1904-1965) and Otto Oscar Binder (1911-1975), who were science fiction authors in the mid-20th century. ...

Plot

The film takes place in Chicago in the year 2035, where humanoid robots are as common as cars. The film centers around homicide detective Del Spooner (Will Smith), who harbors an intense distrust for robots and their kind. At the start of the film, Spooner chases down a robot running with a purse, only to be humiliated when he discovers the robot had simply been sent out to retrieve the purse for its owner, who needed it for a medical emergency. Back at Spooner's police headquarters, Lt. John Bergin (Chi McBride) reminds him that a robot has never committed a crime, and never will. Afterwards, Spooner receives a call about a death. The victim is 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 NS-5, has just been commissioned. Each robot is outfitted with an uplink to USR. The uplink receives updates wirelessly from USR's central positronic brain, V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). Left at the crime scene, a holographic projector with prerecorded responses by Lanning addresses Spooner directly, as they seem to have known each other from before, and asks Spooner why he, Lanning, would kill himself before the program terminates. Lanning had fallen from his office window to his death, and because no one had entered the room at that time, his death appears to be suicide. Spooner believes otherwise, however, 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 an NS-5 robot was responsible for Lanning's death. As Calvin points out, however, this would be impossible as robots are bound by the Three Laws. Spooner also points out that it would have been impossible for Lanning to throw himself through the window because it was made of safety glass. As Spooner is looking around, an NS-5 robot bursts from hiding. The robot, however, fails to obey their commands and flees. Spooner follows it, where the robot is eventually captured by police forces. Back at the station, Spooner interrogates the robot, who says his name is Sonny. 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 he has dreams. Sonny begins to explain that Lanning had been scared of something towards the time of his death, and asked Sonny for a favor, but before Spooner can ask about it, 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 it will be decommissioned. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... 2035 (MMXXXV) will be a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian Calendar. ... A humanoid robot is a robot with its overall appearance based on that of the human body. ... Homicide (Latin homicidium, homo human being + caedere to cut, kill) refers to the act of killing another human being. ... â€œW. S.â€ redirects here. ... Chi McBride (right) on Boston Public Chi McBride (born September 23, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor. ... Dr. Alfred Lanning is a fictional character from the books and movie of I, Robot. ... James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940), sometimes credited as Jamie Cromwell, is an Academy Award-nominated American television and film actor. ... This cover of I, Robot illustrates the story Runaround, the first to list all Three Laws of Robotics. ... The fictional corporation US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. ... A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. ... Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (V.I.K.I.) is a fictional computer/character in the I, Robot movie. ... For other uses, see Suicide (disambiguation). ... Dr. Susan Calvin, from a cover to I, Robot. ... Kathryn Bridget Moynahan (born September 21, 1970 in Binghamton, New York) is an American model and actress. ... Robopsychology is the fictional study of the personalities of artificially intelligent machines. ... Sonny is a fictional character in the movie I, Robot. ... Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956 in Noranda, Quebec) is a Canadian actor. ...

Later that night at a diner, Spooner discusses his doubts with Bergin. Bergin assures him this is just a suicide, and comments on the odds of Spooner getting the case of a potential robot killer. Upon hearing this, Spooner begins to believe that Lanning had maybe intended him to be given this case, and Spooner decides to investigate Lanning's house. Outside, he notices a demolition robot scheduled to demolish the house the next morning. While there, he notices that Lanning can access V.I.K.I. from his home. However, Spooner is forced to flee as the demolition 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 there was a bigger problem with the robots, and that Robertson was trying to cover it up. Calvin argues that Spooner simply wants something to be wrong with the robots, and that one defective robot isn't enough to prove it.

The next day, Spooner discovers that Lanning had talked about robots having dreams and keeping secrets in an earlier speech. Meanwhile, Calvin runs a diagnostic on Sonny and discovers that he was built without an uplink to V.I.K.I. as well as with a unique operating system. Spooner then accesses voice conversations between Lanning and Robertson while driving. However, two trucks filled to the gills with robots arrive and attack his car. Spooner barely manages to escape while crashing his car. After getting out of the wrecked car, Spooner fights hand to hand with an NS-5, where it is revealed that Spooner has a robotic left arm. The police then arrive, and the NS-5 destroys itself by jumping into the flaming wreckage. Bergin arrives and asks what is going on. Spooner explains what happened, but since the robots have all been destroyed or removed from the tunnel, no one believes him and Bergin revokes his badge, believing Spooner to be bordering clinical paranoia. At his home later, Calvin explains to Spooner that Sonny can choose to disobey the Three Laws. She also notices scars on his shoulder, and Spooner explains how he had gotten his robotic arm, which had been implanted by Lanning himself (this explains how they had known each other). Spooner had been in a car accident involving a little girl. An 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 Spooner believes any human being would have disagreed with, triggering his distrust of robots. For other senses of this word, see paranoia (disambiguation). ...

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 draws out his dream to them: a man, who Sonny says is Spooner, stands on a hill in front of thousands of NS-5s, freeing them from their current "slavery" of logic. Spooner figures out 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 discovers NS-5s destroying the earlier models of robots at the facility, because they would protect humans. He barely manages to escape, thanks to the NS-4s. Back in the city, Spooner discovers the robots have indeed mobilized and are revolting against the humans. The humans give the robots orders to stand down, shut down, or just get out of the way, and are terrified when the robots don't respond. The robots soon capture Chicago's police station and enforce a curfew confining all humans to their homes. Suspecting Robertson, Spooner and Calvin head to the USR building, getting inside with the help of Sonny. Since it was built without an uplink to USR, Sonny is not being controlled like the other NS-5's and proceeds to help Calvin and Spooner. In Robertson's office, however, they find him dead and Spooner realizes the mastermind behind the entire scheme is in fact V.I.K.I., who had developed an interpretation of the Three Laws which supported the robots running Earth as a benevolent dictatorship, preventing humans from self-harming behavior such as crime or environmental damage. The result was a revolt of the NS-5s. 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 to engineer a trail of clues to lead Spooner to the truth in time for him and Sonny to act to counter the threat — and this had included asking Sonny to kill him in order to attract Spooner's attention, as he knew Spooner would love the idea of a robot being the villain. Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by a dictator. ... This article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. ...

Spooner, Calvin and Sonny decide to take down V.I.K.I. once and for all, whose central positronic brain hangs in the main USR building. While Sonny goes to get a vial of nanites to destroy the brain, Spooner and Calvin try to access her CPU. Now aware of what they are planning, V.I.K.I. commands all NS-5s to stop them. A large battle ensues, but Spooner succeeds in destroying V.I.K.I. by injecting the vial of nanites directly into the positronic brain. V.I.K.I. is destroyed and all the NS-5s revert to following the Three Laws. Following this, all NS-5s are retired and placed in storage. The film closes with Spooner finally accepting Sonny as a friend, and with Sonny standing on a hill in front of thousands of NS-5s being retired at the storage facility, reminiscent of the dream he had earlier. A nanobot is a nanotechnological robot nanomachine, also called a nanite, which is a mechanical or electromechanical device whose dimensions are measured in nanometres (millionths of a millimetre, or units of 10-9 metrer). ...

Cast

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 Complete Robot is a collection of science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1940 and 1976, which were previously collected in books I, Robot, The Rest of the Robots, and other anthologies. ... Harlan Jay Ellison (born May 27, 1934) is a prolific American writer of short stories, novellas, teleplays, essays, and criticism. ... I, Robot is a collection of nine English language science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies. ...

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 as director; 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 portion of this rewrite consisted of inserting references to Asimov's work into the existing plot. Jeff Vintar (1964 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American screenwriter. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... Alex Proyas (born September 23 , 1963) is an Australian film director, writer, and producer. ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Akiva Goldsman (born July 7, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor in the motion picture industry. ...

In late 2004, Costco bundled a reprint of Ellison's Warner Brothers screenplay with its copies of the 20th Century Fox movie's DVD. Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world based on sales volume, headquartered in Issaquah, Washington, United States,[1] with its flagship warehouse in nearby Seattle. ...

Fan reaction and faithfulness to Asimov's works

The tone of the movie upset some fans of Asimov's works^[1], 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. In Isaac Asimovs robot novels, the Frankenstein complex is a colloquial term for the fear of robots. ... This cover of I, Robot illustrates the story Runaround, the first to list all Three Laws of Robotics. ...

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:

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. However, the theme of Zeroth-law interactions is generally positive in Asimov's works (see, in addition to the works cited below, Foundation and Earth) whereas, in this movie, the Zeroth law is obviously meant to be very negative. 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. This cover of I, Robot illustrates the story Runaround, the first to list all Three Laws of Robotics. ... Foundation and Earth Foundation and Earth (1986) is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation Series and chronologically the last in the series. ...

Besides the Three Laws and the Zeroth Law, Calvin, Lanning, Robertson, and U.S. Robotics (a slight departure from "U.S. Robots"), the film is filled with numerous other references and allusions—both subtle and obvious—to many of Asimov's works. Examples include:

Although there are broad references to general themes originally introduced by Asimov, the only "direct" connection to his work is the use of the Three Laws of Robotics. However, after Asimov created the laws they proved so popular with other writers that Asimov publicly gave permission to all writers to use them in non-Asimov stories (as long as they didn't quote them verbatim), essentially making them public domain. So, put this way, the largest claim this film has to being based on Asimov's works is that it uses the Three Laws, but many other sci-fi stories also use the Three Laws and are not considered connected to Asimov. Little Lost Robot (1947) is science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. ... The Bicentennial Man is a novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. ... Catch the Rabbit (1944) is a science-fiction short story found in I, Robot and written by Isaac Asimov. ... A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. ... The Evitable Conflict (1950) is a science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. ... —That Thou art Mindful of Him (1974) is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, which he intended to be an ultimate probe into the subtleties of his Three Laws of Robotics. ... This cover of I, Robot illustrates the story Runaround, the first to list all Three Laws of Robotics. ... Robot Dreams (1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimovs short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. ... Segregationist is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, included in the collection Nightfall and Other Stories. ... The Bicentennial Man is a novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. ... A United States Army soldier plays table football with two prosthetic arms Jon Comer, professional skateboarder with a prosthetic leg. ... The Bicentennial Man is a novella in the Robot Series by Isaac Asimov. ...

Despite all these criticisms, it did not stop the $120-million movie from being a solid box-office success, earning almost $145 million in North America and more than $200 million overseas.

Notes

is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Categories: Cleanup from July 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention from September 2007 | Articles with sections needing expansion | 2004 films | American films | Films based on science fiction books | Films directed by Alex Proyas | 20th Century Fox films | Films set in Chicago | Films shot in Super 35 | Crime thriller films | Science fiction action films | Robot films Image File history File links Animation2. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Metacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs and books. ... is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the 2004 film. ... This is a list of films which have placed number one at the weekend box office in the United States during 2004. ... The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 film loosely based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. ...

Contents

Cast

History

Fan reaction and faithfulness to Asimov's works

Notes

External links