The tagline for the poster of Steven Spielberg's 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence proclaims to the audience regarding David (played by Haley Joel Osment), the film's protagonist: "David is 11 years old. He weighs 60 pounds. He is 4 feet, 6 inches tall. He has brown hair. His love is real. But he is not."
I seriously love this movie. A.I. is up there with Schindler's List (1993) as one of Spielberg's best films. From the acting (specifically from Osment and Jude Law), the all-too relevant themes about humanity and technology, John Williams' haunting score, and an ending that left me visibly sobbing once the end credits rolled. I will be delving into spoilers with this analysis, so just a heads up.
In A.I., Henry Swinton (played by Sam Robards) brings home a prototype humanoid robot built in the image of a child named David (Osment) to his wife Monica (played by Frances O'Connor), whose biological son, Martin (played by Jake Thomas), is in a coma. Monica is hesitant to spend time with or show affection towards David, given that he is a machine programmed to display genuine love, as opposed to a human boy. When Martin comes home and awakens, he grows jealous of David and manipulates him into cutting part of Monica's hair while she is asleep to "make her love him more." After David is involved in a life-threatening incident triggered by Martin and his friends at a birthday party, Monica is persuaded by Henry to return David to his manufacturers to be dismantled. However, Monica cannot bring herself to do it, so she instead chooses to abandon David in the woods. What follows is David's journey, as he, along with the aid of a charming male prostitute robot named Gigolo Joe (Law), searches for The Blue Fairy as described in the story of Pinocchio, to transform him into a real boy.
The film's subject matter about humans creating machines to fulfill their emotional needs, as well as what may happen when we are all gone, is a heart-wrenching one. It is also worth noting that, like in the film, global warming is on the rise, and the concept of life-sized human assistants have already begun to make their presence known in the real world. When human beings spend too much time innovating technology designed to better people's lives, the possibility of the creators treating other humans like machines and vice versa reveals our true nature. In that, we tend to be well-meaning yet self-destructive individuals with a generally poor track record of accepting our actions' responsibilities.
Spielberg and A.I.'s original director Stanley Kubrick shed light on humans' self-destructive nature in this film, precisely when they develop more intimate relationships with their artificial intelligence-driven devices than with other people. The film's ending supports this theory. For the movie flashforwards 2,000 years into the future where humanity is extinct, the oceans have frozen over, and artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where they have taken on physical forms and become Earth's dominant species. Upon discovering a frozen David underwater, the machines give David a chance to relive his past. Using the cut fragment of Monica's hair, David recreates her in his likeness for one day, and after hearing her tell him that she had always loved him ("the everlasting moment he had been waiting for," as described by the narrator (voiced by Sir Ben Kingsley)), David self-terminates. At the time of its release, Spielberg was criticized for seemingly giving David a happy ending. However, he later revealed that it was always a part of Kubrick's original vision:
"Stanley's treatment, along with [science fiction author] Ian Watson's, went right into the 2,000-year future, and this was where Stanley was going to take the movie had he lived to direct it. And this was where I was obligated to take the picture. And even if I didn't feel such an obligation to fulfill Stanley's vision, that would have been my vision as well."
Not only does this ending paint a stark image of the current direction humanity is heading towards, but it persuades the audience into treasuring every moment they actively spend with their loved ones while they still have the chance. The ending also serves as a cry for us to take matters like climate change seriously before we all go extinct. While the movie's finale may have divided critics and audiences, it does make us ask prudent questions about the human condition and our relationship with technology. For instance, whether it is in our nature to become slaves to the things we created, or when the intelligent machines advance themselves so much, they bring the apocalypse with them.
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