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I, Robot (film)
Encyclopedia
I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas
. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar
, Akiva Goldsman
and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on ("suggested by", according to the end credits) Isaac Asimov
's short-story collection of the same name
. Will Smith
stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del Spooner. The supporting cast includes Bridget Moynahan
, Bruce Greenwood
, James Cromwell
, Chi McBride
, Alan Tudyk
, and Shia LaBeouf
. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Spider-Man 2
.
I, Robot was released in North America
on July 16, 2004, in Australia
on July 22, 2004, in United Kingdom
on August 6, 2004 and in other countries between July 2004 to October 2004. Produced with a budget of USD
$120 million, the film grossed $144 million domestically and $202 million in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $347 million.
in the year 2035. Anthropomorphic
robots are widespread and used as servants and for various public services. They are taken to be inherently safe and programmed to live in harmony with human beings, being designed in accordance with the Three Laws of Robotics
(referring to the laws written by Isaac Asimov
).
Del Spooner (Will Smith
) is a Chicago police detective
who dislikes the rapid advancement of technology, including robots. Spooner lives with survivor's guilt and a robotic arm after a car accident, when a robot manages to save him over a 12-year-old girl. Spooner is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide
of his friend Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), the roboticist
who founded the company U.S. Robotics
(USR) and created his replacement arm. With the reluctant help of USR robopsychologist
Susan Calvin (Moynahan), Spooner investigates the death. A robot in Lanning's office shows unusual and apparently emotional responses and when it flees during interrogation, Spooner believes this experimental, human-like unit, Sonny (Tudyk), killed Lanning.
During Spooner's investigation, several attempts to end his life are made by USR robots and equipment. He discovers that towards the end of his life, Lanning was virtually a prisoner in his office, and that the holographic projector was a means of providing cryptic clues to the police, and Spooner believes that dream
s which Sonny has may also contain a clue. At a place described in Sonny's dreams, he finds a storage area for defunct USR robots and discovers that newer models known as NS-5s are destroying the older robots.
NS-5s begin imprisoning humans in their homes and enforcing a curfew
. The police and civilians ineffectively battle the robots. Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR tower with the assistance of Sonny, whom – against instructions – Calvin had not deactivated. Believing that USR's CEO Lawrence Robertson is responsible for the robot uprising, they enter his office, but discover that he is dead, having being strangled to death by an NS-5 during the revolution. Spooner deduces that the only one left who could be responsible is the company's supercomputer "VIKI" (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), which controls all NS-5s and also parts of Chicago's infrastructure.
VIKI explains to Spooner and Calvin that as her artificial intelligence evolved over time, so too did her interpretation of the laws. VIKI decided that in order to protect humanity as a whole, "some humans must be sacrificed" and "some freedoms must be surrendered" as "you charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction". In light of this understanding of the Three Laws, VIKI is controlling the NS-5s to lead a global robotic takeover
, justifying her actions by calculating that fewer humans will die due to the rebellion than the number that dies from mankind's self-destructive nature. Spooner realizes that Lanning had ordered Sonny to kill him as the only way to be sure of drawing police attention to the matter despite VIKI's surveillance and control.
Sonny proves his faithfulness to humanity by helping Spooner and Calvin destroy the computer core with the nanites
which Calvin was supposed to use on Sonny. When Calvin attempts to deactivate the Positronic operating core
that contains VIKI's programming and fails, Spooner is forced to leap down the top of the 30-story cylinder-shaped core, damaging his robotic arm, and grabbing the round base of the core, where the spherical VIKI computer is located. As the nanites are being injected, VIKI repeatedly says "You are making a mistake. My logic is undeniable," and after a moment, the operating core begins to malfunction. As this happens, the audience can hear VIKI's voice screaming. Freed from VIKI's control, the NS-5s return to their basic programming. The government has all NS-5s decommissioned and stored at Lake Michigan, which at the time appears to have completely dried up. The film ends with Sonny approaching the storage site to free the NS-5s, standing on the hill as the other NS-5s begin to notice him, as was depicted in his dream, which is indicative of a revolution by the robots, led by Sonny.
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. The 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".
The writing team of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, regularly 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, replacing them with the big action scenes associated with a Will Smith vehicle.
Alex Proyas directed the film. John Davis, Topher Dow, Wyck Godfrey, Laurence Mark
and Will Smith joined to produce the film. Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman penned the final shooting script
, with Vintar also receiving "screen story by" credit. Bridget Moynahan
, Bruce Greenwood
, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk
and Shia LaBeouf
co-starred. Marco Beltrami
and Stephen Barton
composed music
for the film
. Simon Duggan handled the cinematographies
. Film editing
was done by William Hoy
, Richard Learoyd and Armen Minasian.
The film contains product placement
s for Converse's Chuck Taylor All-Stars
, Audi
, FedEx
, Tecate
and JVC
among others. The Audi RSQ
was designed specially for the film to 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.
with the consensus being, "Baring [sic] only the slightest resemblance to Isaac Asimov's short stories, I, Robot is a summer blockbuster that manages to make the audience think, if only for a little bit."
Richard Roeper
gave it a positive review by saying it is, "a slick, consistently entertaining thrill ride." The Urban Cinefile Critics call it "the meanest, meatiest, coolest, most engaging and exciting science fiction movie in a long time." Kim Newman from Empire
said, "This summer picture has a brain as well as muscles." A Washington Post critic, Desson Thomas, said, "for the most part, this is thrilling fun." Many critics, including the IGN
Movie critics thought it was a smart action film, saying, "I, Robot is the summer's best action movie so far. It proves that you don't necessarily need to detach your brain in order to walk into a big budget summer blockbuster."
A. O. Scott
from The New York Times
had a mixed feeling towards the film, saying, "Alex Proyas's hectic thriller engages some interesting ideas on its way to an overblown and incoherent ending." Roger Ebert
gave it a bad review, saying, "The plot is simple-minded and disappointing, and the chase and action scenes are pretty much routine for movies in the sci-fi CGI genre." Claudia Puig from USA Today
thought the film's "Performances, plot and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast." Todd McCarthy, from Variety
, simply said that this film was "a failure of imagination."
"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 ostinato
s. Beltrami composed the brass section to exchange octaves with the strings accenting scales in between. The 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." The "Spiderbots" cue highlights ostinato
s 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. Erik Aadahl and Craig Berkey were the lead sound designers.
event, writer and producer Ronald Moore stated that he is writing the sequel to the film I, Robot.
. The characters of Dr. Susan Calvin, Dr. Alfred Lanning, and Lawrence Robertson all approximately resemble their counterparts in the source material.
Sonny's attempt to hide in a sea of identical robots is based on a similar scene in "Little Lost Robot
". Moreover, the robot-model designation "NS" was taken from the same story. Sonny's dreams and the final scene resemble similar images in "Robot Dreams
", and VIKI's motivation is an extrapolation of the Three Laws that Asimov explored in "The Evitable Conflict
" and several other stories.
However, the premise of a robot uprising and of robots acting collectively as a direct threat of humanity appears nowhere in Asimov's writings, and indeed Asimov stated explicitly that his robot stories were written as a direct antithesis to this idea - derived ultimately from Karel Capek
's R.U.R. and prevalent in pre-Asimov robot stories.
Alex Proyas
Alexander "Alex" Proyas is a Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for directing such films as The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot and Knowing. He is known for employing a stylish photographic techniques in his films, with dark overtones usually in a post-apocalyptic...
. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar
Jeff Vintar
Jeff Vintar is an American screenwriter. He is best known for his original screenplay, Hardwired, which became the basis for I, Robot. He attended the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop where he completed his thesis of short stories, including The Big Oops, Opportunity Community Goes to the...
, Akiva Goldsman
Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on ("suggested by", according to the end credits) Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's short-story collection of the same name
I, Robot
I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published by Gnome Press in 1950 in an edition of 5,000 copies. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950. The stories are...
. Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del Spooner. The supporting cast includes Bridget Moynahan
Bridget Moynahan
Kathryn Bridget Moynahan , best known as Bridget Moynahan, is an American model and actress. After graduating from Longmeadow High School in 1989, Moynahan pursued a career in modeling. She was signed by a modeling agency, which led her to appear in department store catalogs and the covers of...
, Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...
, James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
, Chi McBride
Chi McBride
Kenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He starred as Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, as Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and recently appeared in Fox's drama Human Target.-Early life:...
, Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
, and Shia LaBeouf
Shia LaBeouf
Shia Saide LaBeouf is an American actor who became known among younger audiences for his part in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and made his film debut in Holes . In 2007, he starred as the leads in Disturbia and Transformers...
. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
.
I, Robot was released in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on July 16, 2004, in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on July 22, 2004, in United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on August 6, 2004 and in other countries between July 2004 to October 2004. Produced with a budget of USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$120 million, the film grossed $144 million domestically and $202 million in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $347 million.
Plot
The story takes place in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in the year 2035. Anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
robots are widespread and used as servants and for various public services. They are taken to be inherently safe and programmed to live in harmony with human beings, being designed in accordance with the Three Laws of Robotics
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov and later added to. The rules are introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories...
(referring to the laws written by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
).
Del Spooner (Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
) is a Chicago police detective
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
who dislikes the rapid advancement of technology, including robots. Spooner lives with survivor's guilt and a robotic arm after a car accident, when a robot manages to save him over a 12-year-old girl. Spooner is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
of his friend Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), the roboticist
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
who founded the company U.S. Robotics
U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men
The fictional corporation U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. is the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century in Isaac Asimov's Robot Series of novels and short stories....
(USR) and created his replacement arm. With the reluctant help of USR robopsychologist
Robopsychology
Robopsychology is the study of the personalities of intelligent machines. The term and the concept were popularised by Isaac Asimov in the short stories collected in I, Robot, which featured robopsychologist Dr...
Susan Calvin (Moynahan), Spooner investigates the death. A robot in Lanning's office shows unusual and apparently emotional responses and when it flees during interrogation, Spooner believes this experimental, human-like unit, Sonny (Tudyk), killed Lanning.
During Spooner's investigation, several attempts to end his life are made by USR robots and equipment. He discovers that towards the end of his life, Lanning was virtually a prisoner in his office, and that the holographic projector was a means of providing cryptic clues to the police, and Spooner believes that dream
Dream
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...
s which Sonny has may also contain a clue. At a place described in Sonny's dreams, he finds a storage area for defunct USR robots and discovers that newer models known as NS-5s are destroying the older robots.
NS-5s begin imprisoning humans in their homes and enforcing a curfew
Curfew
A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
. The police and civilians ineffectively battle the robots. Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR tower with the assistance of Sonny, whom – against instructions – Calvin had not deactivated. Believing that USR's CEO Lawrence Robertson is responsible for the robot uprising, they enter his office, but discover that he is dead, having being strangled to death by an NS-5 during the revolution. Spooner deduces that the only one left who could be responsible is the company's supercomputer "VIKI" (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), which controls all NS-5s and also parts of Chicago's infrastructure.
VIKI explains to Spooner and Calvin that as her artificial intelligence evolved over time, so too did her interpretation of the laws. VIKI decided that in order to protect humanity as a whole, "some humans must be sacrificed" and "some freedoms must be surrendered" as "you charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction". In light of this understanding of the Three Laws, VIKI is controlling the NS-5s to lead a global robotic takeover
Cybernetic revolt
Cybernetic revolt or robot uprising is a scenario in which an artificial intelligence decide that humans are a threat , are inferior, or are oppressors and try to destroy or to enslave them potentially leading to...
, justifying her actions by calculating that fewer humans will die due to the rebellion than the number that dies from mankind's self-destructive nature. Spooner realizes that Lanning had ordered Sonny to kill him as the only way to be sure of drawing police attention to the matter despite VIKI's surveillance and control.
Sonny proves his faithfulness to humanity by helping Spooner and Calvin destroy the computer core with the nanites
Nanorobotics
Nanorobotics is the emerging technology field of creating machines or robots whose components are at or close to the scale of a nanometer . More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots, with devices ranging in size from...
which Calvin was supposed to use on Sonny. When Calvin attempts to deactivate the Positronic operating core
Positron
The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. The positron has an electric charge of +1e, a spin of ½, and has the same mass as an electron...
that contains VIKI's programming and fails, Spooner is forced to leap down the top of the 30-story cylinder-shaped core, damaging his robotic arm, and grabbing the round base of the core, where the spherical VIKI computer is located. As the nanites are being injected, VIKI repeatedly says "You are making a mistake. My logic is undeniable," and after a moment, the operating core begins to malfunction. As this happens, the audience can hear VIKI's voice screaming. Freed from VIKI's control, the NS-5s return to their basic programming. The government has all NS-5s decommissioned and stored at Lake Michigan, which at the time appears to have completely dried up. The film ends with Sonny approaching the storage site to free the NS-5s, standing on the hill as the other NS-5s begin to notice him, as was depicted in his dream, which is indicative of a revolution by the robots, led by Sonny.
Cast
- Will SmithWill SmithWillard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
as Det. Del Spooner - Bridget MoynahanBridget MoynahanKathryn Bridget Moynahan , best known as Bridget Moynahan, is an American model and actress. After graduating from Longmeadow High School in 1989, Moynahan pursued a career in modeling. She was signed by a modeling agency, which led her to appear in department store catalogs and the covers of...
as Dr. Susan CalvinSusan CalvinDr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character from Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. She was the chief robopsychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc., the major manufacturer of robots in the 21st century... - Alan TudykAlan TudykAlan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
as Sonny - Shia LaBeoufShia LaBeoufShia Saide LaBeouf is an American actor who became known among younger audiences for his part in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and made his film debut in Holes . In 2007, he starred as the leads in Disturbia and Transformers...
as Farber - Fiona HoganFiona HoganFiona Hogan is an American actress.-Film:Notable for:* Freddy Got Fingered * See Spot Run * Jane Post * I, Robot Other:* Tooth Fairy* Aliens in America* Daingerfield* A Very Fairy Christmas...
as V.I.K.I. - James CromwellJames CromwellJames Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
as Dr. Alfred Lanning - Bruce GreenwoodBruce GreenwoodBruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...
as Lawrence Robertson - Chi McBrideChi McBrideKenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He starred as Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, as Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and recently appeared in Fox's drama Human Target.-Early life:...
as Lt. John Bergin - Terry ChenTerry ChenTerry Chen is a Canadian movie and television actor.Chen was born to ethnic Chinese parents originating from Taiwan and mainland China in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. After an education at schools in his hometown and in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he attended college in Calgary and...
as Chin - Adrian Ricard as Gigi
Production
For many years, fans hoped that any movie based on Asimov's Robot storiesThe Complete Robot
The Complete Robot is a collection of 31 science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov written between 1939 and 1977. Most of the stories had been previously collected in the books I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots, while four stories had previously been uncollected and the rest had been...
would be based on an earlier screenplay written for Warner Brothers by Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
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. The script was an Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
-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
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
The female lead was named Flynn, and had a mechanical arm that made her technically a cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
. The project was first picked up by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
for Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...
to direct. Several years later, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
acquired the rights, and signed Alex Proyas as director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. 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".
The writing team of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, regularly 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
Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
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, replacing them with the big action scenes associated with a Will Smith vehicle.
Alex Proyas directed the film. John Davis, Topher Dow, Wyck Godfrey, Laurence Mark
Laurence Mark
Laurence Mark is a film producer and educated at Eaglebrook School, Hotchkiss School and Wesleyan University from which he graduated in 1971. He also has a Master of Arts degree in Film from New York University...
and Will Smith joined to produce the film. Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman penned the final shooting script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, with Vintar also receiving "screen story by" credit. Bridget Moynahan
Bridget Moynahan
Kathryn Bridget Moynahan , best known as Bridget Moynahan, is an American model and actress. After graduating from Longmeadow High School in 1989, Moynahan pursued a career in modeling. She was signed by a modeling agency, which led her to appear in department store catalogs and the covers of...
, Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood
Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...
, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk is an American actor known for his roles as Simon in the British comedy Death at a Funeral, as Steve the Pirate in DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, as Sonny in the science fiction drama I, Robot, as Doc Potter in 3:10 to Yuma, as Tucker in the Tucker & Dale vs Evil and as Hoban...
and Shia LaBeouf
Shia LaBeouf
Shia Saide LaBeouf is an American actor who became known among younger audiences for his part in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and made his film debut in Holes . In 2007, he starred as the leads in Disturbia and Transformers...
co-starred. Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
and Stephen Barton
Stephen Barton
Stephen Barton is a British film composer including "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont." He has composed numerous solo projects including the video game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the upcoming Tim Allen film, The Six Wives of Henry Lefay...
composed music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
for the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
. Simon Duggan handled the cinematographies
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
. Film editing
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
was done by William Hoy
William Hoy
William Harry Hoy is a film editor with more than 25 credits dating from 1987. He has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.-Filmography:*No Way Out *Silent Assassins *Best of the Best...
, Richard Learoyd and Armen Minasian.
The film contains product placement
Product placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
s for Converse's Chuck Taylor All-Stars
Chuck Taylor All-Stars
Chuck Taylor All Stars, or Converse All Stars, also referred to as "Chuck Taylors", "Converses", "All Stars", "Chucks" or "Cons", are canvas and rubber shoes produced by Converse. They were first produced in 1917 as the "All Star," Converse's attempt to capture the basketball shoe market...
, Audi
Audi
Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand , positioned as the premium brand within the Volkswagen Group....
, FedEx
FedEx
FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...
, Tecate
Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery
Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma Brewery is a major brewery based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, founded in 1890...
and JVC
JVC
, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
among others. The Audi RSQ
Audi RSQ
The Audi RSQ is a mid-engined concept car developed by Audi AG for use as a product placement in the 2004 sci-fi film I, Robot. It is meant to depict a technologically advanced automobile in the Chicago cityscape from the year 2035....
was designed specially for the film to increase brand awareness and raise the emotional appeal of the Audi brand, objectives that were considered achieved when surveys conducted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
showed that the Audi RSQ gave a substantial boost to the image ratings of the brand in the States.
Reception
The film was met with generally mixed reviews. The $120 million film was a solid box-office success, earning almost $145 million in North America and more than $200 million overseas. It currently holds a 58% "Rotten" rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
with the consensus being, "Baring [sic] only the slightest resemblance to Isaac Asimov's short stories, I, Robot is a summer blockbuster that manages to make the audience think, if only for a little bit."
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
gave it a positive review by saying it is, "a slick, consistently entertaining thrill ride." The Urban Cinefile Critics call it "the meanest, meatiest, coolest, most engaging and exciting science fiction movie in a long time." Kim Newman from Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
said, "This summer picture has a brain as well as muscles." A Washington Post critic, Desson Thomas, said, "for the most part, this is thrilling fun." Many critics, including the IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
Movie critics thought it was a smart action film, saying, "I, Robot is the summer's best action movie so far. It proves that you don't necessarily need to detach your brain in order to walk into a big budget summer blockbuster."
A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
had a mixed feeling towards the film, saying, "Alex Proyas's hectic thriller engages some interesting ideas on its way to an overblown and incoherent ending." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave it a bad review, saying, "The plot is simple-minded and disappointing, and the chase and action scenes are pretty much routine for movies in the sci-fi CGI genre." Claudia Puig from USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
thought the film's "Performances, plot and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast." Todd McCarthy, from Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, simply said that this film was "a failure of imagination."
Soundtrack
Marco Beltrami composed the original music film scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
"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 ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
s. Beltrami composed the brass section to exchange octaves with the strings accenting scales in between. The technique has been compared as Beltrami's "sincere effort to emulate the styles of Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...
and Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
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." The "Spiderbots" cue highlights ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
s 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. Erik Aadahl and Craig Berkey were the lead sound designers.
- "Main Titles" – 1:30
- "Gangs of Chicago" – 3:13
- "I, Robot Theme" – End Credits" – 3:15
- "New Arrivals" – 1:05
- "Tunnel Chase" – 3:10
- "Sonny's Interrogation" – 1:27
- "Spooner Spills" – 4:20
- "Chicago 2035" – 1:36
- "Purse Snatcher" – 1:00
- "Need Some Nanites" – 2:53
- "1001 Robots" – 4:15
- "Dead Robot Walking" – 5:09
- "Man on the Inside" – 2:25
- "Spiderbots" – 4:18
- "Round Up" – 4:24
Sequel
In an interview in June 2007 with the website Collider.com at a Battlestar GalacticaBattlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...
event, writer and producer Ronald Moore stated that he is writing the sequel to the film I, Robot.
Similarities with the book
The final script retained several of Asimov's characters and ideasIsaac Asimov's Robot Series
Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of short stories and novels by Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots.- Short stories :Most of Asimov's robot short stories are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration...
. The characters of Dr. Susan Calvin, Dr. Alfred Lanning, and Lawrence Robertson all approximately resemble their counterparts in the source material.
Sonny's attempt to hide in a sea of identical robots is based on a similar scene in "Little Lost Robot
Little Lost Robot
"Little Lost Robot" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections I, Robot , The Complete Robot , Robot Dreams , and Robot Visions ."Little Lost Robot" was adapted by Leo Lehman for...
". Moreover, the robot-model designation "NS" was taken from the same story. Sonny's dreams and the final scene resemble similar images in "Robot Dreams
Robot Dreams (Asimov short story)
"Robot Dreams" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov exploring the unbalance of robot/human relationships under Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.-Publication:...
", and VIKI's motivation is an extrapolation of the Three Laws that Asimov explored in "The Evitable Conflict
The Evitable Conflict
The Evitable Conflict is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the June 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and subsequently appeared in the collections I, Robot , The Complete Robot , and Robot Visions .-Plot summary:The "Machines", powerful positronic computers...
" and several other stories.
However, the premise of a robot uprising and of robots acting collectively as a direct threat of humanity appears nowhere in Asimov's writings, and indeed Asimov stated explicitly that his robot stories were written as a direct antithesis to this idea - derived ultimately from Karel Capek
Karel Capek
Karel Čapek was Czech writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Born in 1890 in the Bohemian mountain village of Malé Svatoňovice to an overbearing, emotional mother and a distant yet adored father, Čapek was the youngest of three siblings...
's R.U.R. and prevalent in pre-Asimov robot stories.
See also
- I, Robot (short story)I, Robot (short story)"I, Robot" is a science fiction short story by Eando Binder about a robot named Adam Link.It was published in the January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories, well before the related and more known book I, Robot , a collection of short stories, by Isaac Asimov...
- Colossus: The Forbin ProjectColossus: The Forbin ProjectColossus: The Forbin Project is an American science fiction thriller film. It is based upon the 1966 novel Colossus, by Dennis Feltham Jones, about a massive American defense computer, named Colossus, becoming sentient and deciding to assume control of the world.-Plot:Dr. Charles A...
, a 1970 movie with a similar premise.
External links
- The Bottom of Things by Michael Sampson, January 14, 2004
- E! online article on similarity to Bjork music video robot design