Morgan

***Morgan*** is a 2016 American science fiction horror film.

## Synopsis

A corporate risk-management consultant must decide whether or not to terminate an artificially created humanoid being.

## Plot

Lee Weathers is a "risk-management specialist" for genetic-engineering company SynSect. She arrives at a rural site hosting its L-9 project, an artificial being with nanotechnology-infused synthetic DNA named Morgan. The "hybrid biological organism with the capacity for autonomous decision making and sophisticated emotional responses" is smarter than humans and matures quickly, walking and talking within a month and physically a teenager despite being five years old.

The cold and precise Weathers—she insists on calling Morgan "it"—is at the site to assess the project after a psychologist evaluates Morgan, after she used a pen to stab Dr. Kathy Grieff in the eye. Over dinner with the team of eight scientists, Weathers (who speaks Chinese) and project leaders Dr. Lui Cheng and Dr. Simon Ziegler discuss an incident in Helsinki involving Cheng in which 21 SynSect researchers were killed in an hour by "crude prototypes".

Lee learns that Morgan attacked Grieff after she was prohibited from leaving her room, a glass cell, after killing a deer impaled on a fallen tree while outside. The scientists have raised Morgan from birth after two failed attempts, and most consider her to be their child; Grieff defends Morgan to Weathers despite her injury, and Dr. Amy Menser wants to resume taking her on outings. The latter promises Morgan to take her to a nearby lake that she describes as wonderful; the behavioral therapist understands that Morgan is, despite her intellect and physical appearance and abilities, emotionally childlike. Although Morgan considers Cheng to be her "mother", the scientist is pessimistic about the project; she ended the outings because, Cheng tells Weathers, it is cruel to expose Morgan to a world she cannot be allowed to enter.

Psychologist Dr. Alan Shapiro arrives; when the artificial intelligence expert aggressively taunts Morgan as part of his evaluation, she kills him. Weathers tranquilizes Morgan after a brief escape, and decides that she is too unpredictable and must be terminated. The scientists refuse to kill Morgan; before Weathers can do so, they inject her with sedative and imprison her in the cell in which Morgan had been held. The scientists plan to escape with Morgan, but after waking she kills most of them, while Ziegler commits suicide.

In the scientists' house, Cheng records an apology for the failure of the project. The scientists tried to make Morgan "more human" than the previous attempts so she could exceed her design as a combat weapon, but found that the result was harder to control. Morgan arrives and, after conversing with her "mother" in Chinese, suffocates her. Weathers escapes the cell and briefly fights Morgan, able to match her. Morgan flees with the terrified Menser, who Morgan says is the only scientist who was a real friend to her.

Weathers and nutritionist Skip Vronsky follow the pair. The former deduces that Morgan has forced Menser to take her to the lake, which entrances Morgan. She and Weathers fight again, seemingly matched in strength and speed. Morgan knocks down Weathers, who is impaled on the branch of a fallen tree. Morgan flees again but Weathers catches up and kills her. She shoots Menser and Vronsky to eliminate witnesses.

Weathers's superior at SynSect and another executive discuss the incident. They decide that it proves that the company's earlier L-4 project—Lee Weathers—is superior as a "perfect", less-emotional, human hybrid weapon. Elsewhere, Weathers makes the same gesture with her hands as Morgan, when Shapiro asked her how she felt about injuring Grieff.