A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Brian Aldiss (short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long"), Ian Watson (screen story)

Stars:

Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 67 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Haley Joel Osment	...	David
Frances O'Connor	...	Monica Swinton
Sam Robards	...	Henry Swinton
Jake Thomas	...	Martin Swinton
Jude Law	...	Gigolo Joe
William Hurt	...	Prof. Hobby
Ken Leung	...	Syatyoo-Sama
Clark Gregg	...	Supernerd
Kevin Sussman	...	Supernerd
Tom Gallop	...	Supernerd
Eugene Osment	...	Supernerd
April Grace	...	Female Colleague
Matt Winston	...	Executive
Sabrina Grdevich	...	Sheila
Theo Greenly	...	Todd

Storyline

In the not-so-far future the polar ice caps have melted and the resulting rise of the ocean waters has drowned all the coastal cities of the world. Withdrawn to the interior of the continents, the human race keeps advancing, reaching the point of creating realistic robots (called mechas) to serve them. One of the mecha-producing companies builds David, an artificial kid which is the first to have real feelings, especially a never-ending love for his "mother", Monica. Monica is the woman who adopted him as a substitute for her real son, who remains in cryo-stasis, stricken by an incurable disease. David is living happily with Monica and her husband, but when their real son returns home after a cure is discovered, his life changes dramatically.

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Plot Keywords:

boy | future | fairy | robot | fairy tale | 

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Taglines:

Journey To A World Where Robots Dream And Desire

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content and violent images

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 June 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

A.I.

Filming Locations:

Guerneville, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$29,352,630, 1 July 2001, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$78,616,689, 23 September 2001

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$235,927,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Amblin Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

146 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After seeing Chris Cunningham's work on Judge Dredd (1995), Stanley Kubrick head-hunted Chris Cunningham to design and supervise animatronic tests of the central robot child character in his version of the film A.I. Cunningham worked for over a year on the film A.I., before leaving to pursue a career as a director.

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Goofs

When David picks up the lamp and swings at his other self, he swings right handed but it shows him swinging left handed.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: [narrating, with ocean waves crashing together] Those were the years after the ice caps had melted... because of the greenhouse gases, and the oceans had risen drown so many cities... along all the shorelines of the world. Amsterdam, Venice, New York - Forever lost. Millions of people were displaced. Climates became chaotic. Hundreds of millions of people starved in poorer countries. Elsewhere a high degree of prosperity survived... when most governments in the developed world... ...

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Crazy Credits

The opening logos/credits feature the sound of the ocean in the background, which leads into the opening shot of the film which shows ocean waves, with opening narration explaining about sea level rise because of global warming.

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Connections

References Pinocchio (1940)

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Soundtracks

I Only Have Eyes For You
Written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin
Performed by Dick Powell

User Reviews

A.I.--A Film With Heart And Brains

Steven Spielberg's latest movie A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, which he took up at the encouragement of the late, great Stanley Kubrick, has caused widely divergent comments. And I can't help wondering if the most scathingly negative reviews of this movie aren't just an open desire to see Spielberg crash, as he had with "1941" and HOOK.

For my money, Spielberg has done it again with this futuristic science fiction drama, regardless of what the negative reviews say. Its story of a robot boy (Haley Joel Osment) who desires to be a real boy in a far future in which humans (Orgas) and machines (Mechas) exist side-by-side but not always in harmony is very much modeled on the Pinocchio story, though it is actually based on a 1969 short story by Brian Aldiss. It raises some interesting and sometimes unsettling moral dilemmas that few films of late have done. Can a parent love a child, even if that child is not real? What might happen if that child desired to be real? How will Man and Machine be able to co-exist?

Like all intelligent science fiction, such as Kubrick's own 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Spielberg's own CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, A.I. forces us to ponder where we've been and where we might be going. It's an incredible combination of Kubrick's icy intellectual and clinical mind and Spielberg's emotional heart; and I think it works exceedingly well. But it forces the viewer to not leave their heart and brains at the door, which I think is why it is being so negatively received in this season of mindless summer movie fare. It may be too intelligent for its own good, and many don't have the 145 minutes of patience needed for the movie. I did, however; and I would call this an absolute masterpiece. Out of ten stars, give this one a 10.