Set in a future Earth (2035 A.D.) where robots are common assistants and workers for their human owners, this is the story of "robotophobic" Chicago Police Detective Del Spooner's investigation into the murder of Dr. Alfred Lanning, who works at U.S. Robotics, in which a robot, Sonny , appears to be implicated, even though that would mean the robot had violated the Three Laws of Robotics, which is apparently impossible. It seems impossible because.. if robots can break those laws, there's nothing to stop them from taking over the world, as humans have grown to become completely dependent upon their robots. Or maybe... they already have? Aiding Spooner in his investigation is a psychologist, Dr. Susan Calvin, who specializes in the psyches of robots.
Written by Austin4577@aol.com
The movie originally started as a screenplay entitled "Hardwired", a classical-style murder mystery that read like a stage play, and was very much in the spirit of Isaac Asimov's "three laws" mysteries. When the original "Hardwired" script eventually reached Fox, after being developed at Disney with director Bryan Singer, new director Alex Proyas and writer Jeff Vintar opened up the story to fit a big-budget studio film. When Fox acquired the rights to Isaac Asimov's story collection, Vintar spent two years adapting Hardwired to serve as a tenth story in the Asimov canon, complete with Susan Calvin and the Three Laws of Robotics. Hillary Seitz worked at one point as script doctor. Writer Akiva Goldsman came on late in the process to tailor the script to Will Smith.
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Goofs
Incorrectly regarded as goofs:
Sonny tries to hide in a perfectly-spaced array of 1,000 robots. Apparently, he can enter random spots in the array without affecting the regular spacing, even though the other robots do not move.*** However, we do not see the array of robots until after Spooner and Calvin arrive, so it is possible that one or more robots had to move, but this was not shown on screen. ***
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Quotes
[first lines]
Detective Del Spooner:
[singing along with Stevie Wonder's "Superstition"]
Seven years of bad luck. See more »
Crazy Credits
Instead of opening credits, the beginning of the movie features Isaac Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics:
LAW I. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
LAW II. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
LAW III. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
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