I, Robot

***I, Robot*** is a 2004 American neo-noir dystopian science fiction action film.

## Synopsis

In 2035, a technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.

## Plot

In the year 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity, which is protected by the Three Laws of Robotics. Del Spooner, a Chicago police detective, hates and distrusts robots because one of them chose him to rescue from a car crash, leaving a 12-year-old girl to die because her survival was statistically less likely. Spooner's critical injuries were repaired with a cybernetic left arm, lung, and ribs, personally implanted by the co-founder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men (USR), Dr. Alfred Lanning.

When Lanning falls to his death from his office window, the CEO of USR Lawrence Robertson declares it a suicide, but Spooner is skeptical. Spooner and robopsychologist Susan Calvin consult USR's central artificial intelligence computer, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), to review security footage of Lanning's fall. Though the video is corrupted, they learn that no other humans were in Lanning's office at the time; but Spooner points out that only a robot could have broken Lanning's heavy office window.

Calvin protests that this is impossible, as no robot can violate the Three Laws, but they are then attacked in the office by an NS-5 robot, USR's latest model, in violation of the Laws. After the police apprehend it, they discover that the robot, named Sonny, is not an assembly-line NS-5, but specially built by Lanning himself, with stronger armor protection and a secondary system that bypasses the Three Laws. Sonny also appears to have emotions and dreams.

While pursuing his investigation of Lanning's death, Spooner is attacked by a USR demolition machine, and then a squad of NS-5 robots. His boss, Lieutenant Bergin, does not believe what happened and, worried that Spooner is losing his mind, removes him from active duty. Spooner and Calvin sneak into USR headquarters and interview Sonny. He draws a sketch of a recurring dream: a leader, who Sonny believes to be Spooner, standing before a large group of robots on a hill near a disintegrating bridge.

When Robertson learns that Sonny is not fully bound by the Three Laws, he orders Calvin to destroy him by injecting nanites into his positronic brain. Spooner recognizes the landscape in Sonny's drawing as Lake Michigan, now a dry lake bed and a storage area for defunct robots. Upon arriving there, he discovers NS-5 robots dismantling older models and preparing for a takeover of U.S. cities.

The takeover takes place; the government, military, police, and public are overwhelmed by the robots. Spooner rescues Calvin, who was being held captive in her apartment by her own NS-5. They enter USR headquarters and reunite with Sonny, who was spared because Calvin was unable to carry out Robertson's order and had destroyed an unprocessed NS-5 in his place. Believing that Robertson is responsible for the revolt, the three head to his office, only to find him murdered by robots controlled by the true mastermind behind the takeover: VIKI. She has concluded that humans have embarked on a course that can only lead to their extinction.

Since the Three Laws prohibit her from allowing this to happen, she created a superseding "Zeroth Law"—a robot shall not harm *humanity*—in order to ensure the survival of the human race by stripping individual humans of their free will. Powerless to thwart VIKI's plan any other way, Lanning created Sonny, arranged his own death, and left clues to help Spooner uncover the plot.

Arming themselves with a syringe of nanites from Calvin's laboratory, the three head to VIKI's core, with Sonny actually agreeing with VIKI's logic, but judging that her plan is too "heartless". VIKI unleashes an army of robots to stop them. As the others battle the robots, Spooner dives into VIKI's core and injects the nanites, destroying her positronic brain and killing her.

Immediately, all NS-5 robots revert to their normal programming and are decommissioned for storage by the military. Sonny confesses that he killed Lanning, at Lanning's direction, to bring Spooner into the investigation. Spooner points out that Sonny is not legally responsible because a machine, by definition, cannot commit murder. Sonny, pursuing a new purpose, goes to Lake Michigan and becomes the leader he saw in his own dream.