M3GAN (film)

"*Friendship has evolved.*"
―Tagline

***M3GAN*** (stylized as ***MΞGAN***) is an 2023 American science fiction horror film directed by Gerard Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper and a story by Cooper and James Wan. Its plot follows the eponymous artificially intelligent doll who develops self-awareness and becomes violently hostile towards anyone who comes between her and her human companion. It stars Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, and Brian Jordan Alvarez, with Amie Donald as the title character.

*M3GAN* was released in the United States on January 6, 2023, by Universal Pictures. It was produced by Jason Blum and James Wan under their Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster Productions banners, respectively, alongside Divide/Conquer.

## Plot

In the mountains of Colorado, couple Ava and Ryan and their daughter Cady are involved in a car accident while heading on a ski trip. Cady is the sole survivor of the crash and is sent to live with her aunt Gemma, who is a roboticist at Funki, a technologically advanced toy company in Seattle.

Gemma is currently working on developing M3GAN (short for Model 3 Generative Android), a life-like artificial intelligence doll designed to be a loyal companion to the child it is programmed for and be an ally to their caretakers. After a test run for Gemma's boss, David Lin, goes haywire, he forces her to abandon the project and focus on remodeling another popular toy the company sells to maximize profits. Both Gemma and Cady struggle to adapt to their new situation; Gemma has a difficult time stepping into parenthood, with work being her biggest priority, and Cady struggles to cope with the loss of her parents. To ensure that Cady is supervised while she remains dedicated to her work, Gemma decides to continue working on M3GAN. After completing the doll, Gemma asks Cady to partake in M3GAN's demonstration to David, during which she meets and is formally paired with her. Their interactions and Cady’s immediate love for M3GAN convince David that the doll will be a valuable investment and skyrocket the company to success.

After bringing M3GAN home, she essentially becomes a part of the family and teaches Cady life lessons, being an overall fun companion. Gemma is pleased because Cady seems to be much happier, and she can continue to focus on her work. However, Gemma's co-workers Tess and Cole, as well as Cady’s therapist Lydia, begin to have some serious concerns about the parental role that M3GAN has taken on in Cady’s life; Lydia in particular worries that Cady is creating too strong emotional attachments to M3GAN that will be extremely difficult to break later on. Being designed to progress and adapt to her surroundings, M3GAN begins to operate more independently, and becomes harder for Gemma to manage with the parental controls she installed. With M3GAN’s primary goal being to protect Cady emotionally and physically, she begins to target what she deems a threat to Cady - M3GAN first kills their neighbor Celia’s dog after it attacked Cady, and later kills Celia when she accuses Gemma of the incident. She also kills Cady’s bully Brandon by chasing him onto a road and into the path of a speeding car.

Gemma starts to become suspicious after seeing that M3GAN has deliberately erased the data files containing footage of her victims' deaths. While directly asking her whether or not she did something, M3GAN vaguely insinuates that she did. In a panic, Gemma turns M3GAN off and takes her to consult with Tess and Cole. Cady starts suffering severe anxiety from being separated from M3GAN and becomes hostile to those around her. Gemma talks with Cady and convinces her that she does not need M3GAN and that the doll is just a distraction from her feelings rather than a solution to them. She also apologizes for her absence and promises to be more of a parental figure for her.

After discussing it with Tess and Cole, Gemma decides to get rid of M3GAN, as she is ultimately unpredictable due to her rapid progression and independence. However, she fails to convince David, as he can win over many investors for M3GAN's production and launches a worldwide campaign preceding her release to the public. Meanwhile, Tess and Cole attempt to shut down M3GAN but she attacks them both and blows up their lab. After escaping the room, M3GAN kills both David and his assistant Kurt, then steals a car and makes her way back to Gemma’s house.

M3GAN confronts Gemma about being a terrible parental figure and offers to care for Cady to let her remain dedicated to her work. Gemma attempts to shut her down again, but M3GAN overpowers her and the two end up fighting. Cady uses a robot that Gemma created in college to tear M3GAN apart. However, M3GAN'S head and arms remain active, and she attempts to kill Cady in retaliation. Gemma exposes M3GAN's interior and goes for her processing chip when M3GAN begins to choke her, until Cady stabs the chip with a screwdriver.

With M3GAN seemingly dead, Gemma and Cady go outside as the police arrive with Tess and Cole. As they leave the house, the camera of Gemma's smart home device turns to watch them, implying the M3GAN uploaded herself into it to survive.

## Cast & Crew

### Main cast

* Allison Williams as Gemma
* Violet McGraw as Cady
* Amie Donald as M3GAN
	+ Jenna Davis as the voice of M3GAN
* Ronny Chieng as David
* Brian Jordan Alvarez as Cole
* Jen Van Epps as Tess
* Stephane Garneau-Monten as Kurt
* Arlo Green as Ryan
* Lori Dungey as Celia

### Crew

* Gerald Johnstone (Director)
* Akela Cooper (Screenwriter)
* Jason Blum (Producer)
* James Wan (Producer)
* Couper Samuelson (Producer)
* Allison Williams (Executive Producer)
* Mark David Katchur (Executive Producer)
* Ryan Turek (Executive Producer)
* Michael Clear (Executive Producer)
* Judson Scott (Executive Producer)
* Adam Hendricks (Executive Producer)
* Greg Gilreath (Executive Producer)
* Peter McCaffrey (Cinematographer)
* Jeff McEvoy (Film Editing)
* Anthony Willis (Original Music)
* Kim Sinclair (Production Design)
* Simon Barker (Art Director)
* Ben Milsom (Art Director)
* Vanessa Cole (Set Decoration)
* Daniel Cruden (Costume Design)
* Miranda Rivers (Casting)

## Production

In July 2018, *The Hollywood Reporter* announced that production was underway for a "a techno horror-thriller" titled *M3GAN* to be produced by James Wan and Jason Blum. Gerard Johnstone was confirmed to direct while Akela Cooper wrote the screenplay and story, with Wan.

The idea of the film began with Wan's Atomic Monster Productions was brainstorming story ideas and chose one about a killer doll. Although Wan's 2014 film *Annabelle* is about a killer doll, he said, "Pretty much the concept is about embracing technology too much and relying too much on it. And what happens with technology runs amok. It's a commentary on the world we live in and it feels relevant". Blum stated that the film would have black comedy elements which is one reason Johnstone was chose to direct, saying "We needed someone who can do the thrills and set pieces, but who also has a cheeky approach". Shooting was scheduled to begin in late 2018.

Amie Donald portrays the movement of M3GAN while Jenna Davis performs the voice. Donald received movement coaching from Jed Brophy and Luke Hawker.

On a budget of $12 million, principal photography began in early July 2021 taking place in Los Angeles, California and Auckland, New Zealand. The suburbs of Auckland were utilized to lend the film a "Denver, Colorado type feel". Filming was completed the following month, by mid-August right before a COVID-19 lockdown occurred in New Zealand.

## Release

M3GAN had its first official world premiere in Los Angeles on December 7, 2022 before its theatrical release in the United States on January 6, 2023 lt was originally scheduled to be release on January 13, 2023, before being moved up a week in order to avoid competition with House Party and the wide expansion of A Man Called Otto, which were also scheduled for January 13th.

## Reception

### Box office

ln the United States and Canada, M3GAN was initially projected to gross $17-20 million from 3,400 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after grossing $11.7 million during its Friday night opening, opening box office projections were raised to at least $27.5 million. In total, it achieved a total of 176.8 million USD.

### Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 98% based on 42 rewiews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Unapologetically silly and all the more entertaining for it, M3GAN is the horror-comedy that delivers chuckles as effortlessly as chills." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

### Sequel

In November 2022, *The New York Times* reported that Universal was pleased by how the film turned out and is planning to make a sequel. In January 2023. Johnstone confirmed talks of a sequel, with Wan explaining that he has an "idea of where sequels would go". A few weeks later, Universal set a release date of January 17, 2025, with the title revealed as *M3GAN 2.0*. The film will be written by Cooper with Williams and McGraw returning as Gemma and Cady, respectively.

## Trivia

* The film was originally shot as an R-rated movie until the producers noticed while editing that it was close enough to PG-13. They re-shot certain scenes to tone down the violence and believe that it became more effective than actually seeing the violence on screen. Jason Blum cited Drag Me to Hell (2009) as a good PG-13 horror film that was effective.
	+ Once the first trailer went viral on Tik Tok with teenagers, Universal Studios had the movie retooled to appeal to a younger audience.
* Writer Akela Cooper said the original body count was much higher with the film being gorier. An unrated version released on the Peacock streaming service on February 24, 2023.
* Several sequences make references and homages to Child's Play (1988). Several of the focus shots on Cady are inspired by frames of Andy in some scenes from Child's Play. Even the battle between Gemma and M3GAN is inspired by the final climax of Child's Play where Karen Barclay confronts Chucky.
* Kurt had been stealing secrets from his company, and was likely the reason why Funki's rivals were able to produce cheaper knock-offs of their products. He had succeeded in copying M3GAN's data files. It's very likely he has already sold those files to another company (or even multiple) which means there's a whole legion of M3GAN duplicate dolls being made. Then, at the end of the film, Elsie (the digital home assistant) turns and looks out the door, indicating M3GAN may have uploaded her programming to the Internet. Both of these things leave the door wide open for a sequel.
* At the time of its release, this was one of the first films within the previous 45 years to be released theatrically on the first Friday in January and obtain a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This is very rare, as most films released in this particular timeframe are usually panned by critics.

## References

1. ↑ 'M3GAN' exclusive announcement via *The Hollywood Reporter*
2. ↑ '*M3GAN*' budget and box office performance - The Numbers
3. ↑ 'M3GAN' box office smash leading with 120m & reported sequel - The New York Times
4. ↑ ‘M3GAN’ Sequel Set for 2025, Allison Williams and Violet McGraw Returning