“Companion” is a darkly comedic sci-fi horror thriller that doubles, as TheWrap’s review notes, as a heightened commentary on one-sided relationships. It is also the rare film featuring artificial intelligence that chooses to take the side of its android character, Sophie Thatcher’s robot companion Iris. Movies have been warning audiences of the dangers of AI since, well, practically the dawn of cinema. Now, as AI becomes an increasingly real part of daily lives, cautionary tales about the boundary-pushing technology have only become more common.
“Companion” is not the only film that paints AI in a semipositive light, though. Here are five others that treat their robot characters with a more sympathetic hand.
“Ex Machina” (2015)
Writer-director Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina” follows Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a low-level coder who is invited by the genius, reclusive CEO (Oscar Isaac) of the tech company he works at to meet and interview his latest invention: a fully autonomous, free-thinking robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander). For much of its runtime, it is unclear whose side “Ex Machina” is on, or if it’s even taking any sides at all. The majority of its story is told from the perspective of Gleeson’s Caleb, which makes the film’s bloody, unpredictable final act all the more satisfying to watch unfold. The movie is ultimately a story of both escape — namely, Ava’s from her creator’s abusive, domineering grip — and unchecked arrogance.
Like many of the films on this list, “Ex Machina” argues that the real villain of any potential AI takeover will never be the AI themselves, but the Silicon Valley tech CEOs with god complexes who never think to question themselves, their impulses or their ideas. For that reason alone, “Ex Machina” remains a must-watch sci-fi film for the modern era — i.e., one in which the scales of global power feel increasingly tipped in the favor of tech companies like the one Isaac’s Nathan runs. Whether or not “Ex Machina” actually supports Ava is up for debate, but most viewers probably will. After all, who among us wouldn’t do whatever they had to in order to get away from the isolated compound where we were trapped with some Silicon Valley wunderkind?
“A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (2000)
Fantastical and nightmarish, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” is a sci-fi drama about David (Haley Joel Osment), a young robot who decides to go on a quest inspired by “Pinocchio” to become a “real boy” after he is abandoned in the woods by his assigned human mother (Frances O’Connor). The film, which is loosely based on a 1969 short story by Brian Aldiss, was originally developed by Stanley Kubrick, who repeatedly toyed with directing it himself. Kubrick, however, passed away before he got the chance to make it, and the baton was passed to Steven Spielberg, whom Kubrick had previously offered the gig.
The resulting film is overflowing with, in typical Spielberg fashion, breathtaking visuals and thorny, difficult emotions. Very few movies have ever grappled so masterfully with the notion of AI as a potential instrument for wish fulfillment, and how much stock we should put in our fantasies is just one of the many dilemmas “A.I.” will leave you thinking about. While the film is constantly asking unspoken questions about the validity of its robotic hero’s desires and needs, though, it never goes so far as to suggest that David’s journey doesn’t feel completely real to him. That, combined with Osment’s spell-binding lead performance, makes “A.I.” a uniquely affecting and unnerving drama.
“The Artifice Girl” (2022)
Our awareness of AI as a real-world technology may have already been growing in 2022, but that didn’t stop “The Artifice Girl” from flying under the general public’s radar. That’s a shame, considering “The Artifice Girl” is one of the most fascinating films about artificial intelligence that has come along in recent years. Written and directed by Franklin Ritch, “The Artifice Girl” follows Gareth (Ritch), an inventor whose attempts to bait child predators into outing themselves online results in the accidental creation of a rapidly evolving AI known as Cherry (Tatum Matthews). When Gareth’s actions catch the attention of law enforcement officials, his operation quickly grows, as do his struggles to monitor Cherry’s improving intelligence and sense of self-awareness.
Despite what that set-up suggests, “The Artifice Girl” doesn’t become a simple AI-gone-haywire thriller. Instead, it finds the room for genuinely compelling questions about the correct uses of AI and the ways we may choose to respond to its evolution in the coming years. What ethical ways can we use artificial intelligence to improve society? Are there any? If so, what obligation might we have to our AI bots should they — as Cherry does in “The Artifice Girl” — begin to develop their own desires and ideas? The film’s ending is not clear-cut, and that may frustrate some. But “The Artifice Girl” leaves a lasting impression precisely because it chooses not to go down any of the obvious roads available to it.
“Blade Runner 2049” (2017)
Both “Blade Runner” and “Blade Runner 2049” are sympathetic to their android characters, but only the latter openly presents itself as being told from the perspective of one. “2049” follows its protagonist, a replicant detective named K (Ryan Gosling), as he begins to investigate the first-ever natural, reproductive replicant birth. Along the way, K begins to suspect that he may be the miracle child so many, including Jared Leto’s tech CEO Niander Wallace, desperately want to get their hands on. Things, of course, prove to be more complicated than that in this legacy sequel from “Dune: Part Two” director Denis Villeneuve.
K’s relationship with Joi (Ana de Armas), a holographic girl, imbues the film with a thrum of yearning that makes the eventual meeting between Gosling’s replicant outcast and “Blade Runner” hero Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), an older man grieving the loss of his partner and his forced estrangement from their child, all the more poignant. The place “Blade Runner 2049” arrives at isn’t that dissimilar from its 1982 parent film, either. Both ask viewers to question whether it is our genetic makeup, our consciousness or our experiences that make us human. If it is the latter, then why should K’s feelings be considered lesser than those of his human counterparts? By making that dilemma the thematic backbone of its story, “Blade Runner 2049” shows a radical level of sympathy for its AI characters.
“The Iron Giant” (1999)
There are a lot of movies about the potentially catastrophic consequences of a robot going against its programming. “The Iron Giant” is the rare film that argues that could be a good thing. Set in the 1950s during the Cold War, the Brad Bird-directed classic follows Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal), a young boy who discovers a massive robot after it crashes into the forest near his small town. The robot (voiced by Vin Diesel) turns out to be an unstoppable weapon that should send Hogarth running for the hills. Instead, he shows it love and compassion — urging the robot to ignore his violent programming and choose to protect others at all times rather than hurt those he might assume to be his enemies.
The film contains a powerful anti-war message, and it uses its eponymous, hulking piece of AI machinery to hammer it home. In doing so, “The Iron Giant” becomes, like several other entries on this list, a sci-fi story about how the dangers artificial intelligence poses may ultimately have more to do with how human beings respond to and attempt to use it than anything it might do of it’s own volition. That’s a surprisingly reflective idea, and the fact that it’s packed into a colorful, crowd-pleasing family-friendly film like “The Iron Giant” just makes the 1999 movie an all the more impressive feat of Hollywood storytelling.
