A.I. Artificial Intelligence, also known as A.I., is a 2001 American science fiction drama film written, directed, and produced by Steven Spielberg, and based on Brian Aldiss's short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long". The film stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson, and William Hurt. Set sometime in the future, A.I. tells the story of David, a childlike android uniquely programmed with the ability to love.
Development of A.I. originally began with director Stanley Kubrick in the early 1970s. Kubrick hired a series of writers up until the mid-1990s, including Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson, and Sara Maitland. The film languished in development hell for years, partly because Kubrick felt computer-generated imagery was not advanced enough to create the David character, whom he believed no child actor would believably portray. In 1995, Kubrick handed A.I. to Spielberg, but the film did not gain momentum until Kubrick's death in 1999. Spielberg remained close to Watson's film treatment for the screenplay. The film was greeted with generally favorable reviews from critics and grossed approximately $235 million. A small credit appears after the end credits, which reads "For Stanley Kubrick."
In the late 21st century, global warming has flooded coastlines, and a drastic reduction of the human population has occurred. There is a new class of robots called Mecha, advanced humanoids capable of emulating thoughts and emotions. David (Osment), a prototype model created by Cybertronics of New Jersey, is designed to resemble a human child and to display love for its human owners. They test their creation with one of their employees, Henry Swinton (Robards), and his wife Monica (O'Connor). The Swintons' son, Martin (Thomas), was placed in suspended animation until a cure can be found for his rare disease, caused by the Sinclair virus. Although Monica is initially frightened of David, she eventually warms to him and activates his imprinting protocol, which irreversibly causes David to project love for her, the same as any child would love a parent. He is also befriended by Teddy (Angel), a robotic teddy bear, who takes it upon himself to care for David's well-being.
A cure is found for Martin and he is brought home; a sibling rivalry ensues between Martin and David. Martin convinces David to go to Monica in the middle of the night and cut off a lock of her hair, to get him in trouble, but the parents wake up and are very upset. At a pool party, one of Martin's friends activates David's self-protection programming by poking him with a knife. David clings to Martin and they both fall into the pool, where the heavy David sinks to the bottom while still clinging to Martin. Martin is saved from drowning, but Henry in particular is shocked by David's actions, becoming concerned that David's capacity for love has also given him the ability to hate. Henry persuades Monica to return David to Cybertronics, where David will be destroyed. However, Monica cannot bring herself to do this, and instead abandons David in the forest (with Teddy) to hide as an unregistered Mecha. David is captured for an anti-Mecha Flesh Fair, an event where obsolete and unlicensed Mecha are destroyed in front of cheering crowds. David is nearly killed, but the crowd is swayed by his realistic nature and he escapes, along with Gigolo Joe (Law), a male prostitute Mecha on the run after being framed for murder.
The two set out to find the Blue Fairy, whom David remembers from the story The Adventures of Pinocchio. He is convinced that the Blue Fairy will transform him into a human boy, allowing Monica to love him and take him home. Joe and David make their way to Rouge City. Information from a holographic answer engine called "Dr. Know" (Williams) eventually leads them to the top of Rockefeller Center in partially flooded Manhattan. David meets his human creator, Professor Allen Hobby (Hurt), who excitedly tells David that finding him was a test, which has demonstrated the reality of his love and desire. It also becomes clear that many copies of David are already being manufactured, along with female versions. David sadly realizes he is not unique. A disheartened David attempts to commit suicide by falling from a ledge into the ocean, but Joe rescues him with the amphibicopter. David tells Joe he saw the Blue Fairy underwater, and wants to go down to her. At that moment, Joe is captured by the authorities with the use of an electromagnet, but sets the amphibicopter on submerge. David and Teddy take it to the fairy, which turns out to be a statue from a submerged attraction at Coney Island. Teddy and David become trapped when the Wonder Wheel falls on their vehicle. Believing the Blue Fairy to be real, David asks to be turned into a real boy, repeating his wish without end, until the ocean freezes in another ice age and his internal power source drains away.
Two thousand years later humans are extinct and Manhattan is buried under several hundred feet of glacial ice. Mecha have evolved into a silicon-based, highly advanced and intelligent, alien-looking futuristic Mecha, with the ability to perform some form of time manipulation and telekinesis. On their project to studying humans believing it was the key to understanding the meaning of existence they find David and Teddy and discover they are original Mecha who knew living humans, making them special and unique. David is revived and walks to the frozen Blue Fairy statue, which cracks and collapses as he touches it. Having received and comprehended his memories, the advanced Mecha use them to reconstruct the Swinton home and explain to David via an interactive image of the Blue Fairy (Streep) that it is impossible to make him human. However, at David's insistence, they recreate Monica from DNA in the lock of her hair which Teddy had saved for unknown reasons. One of the futuristic Mecha tells David that the clone can only live for a single day, and the process cannot be repeated. But David keeps insisting, so they fast forward the time to the next morning, and David spends the happiest day of his life with Monica and Teddy. Monica tells David that she loves him, and has always loved him, as she drifts to sleep for the last time. David lies down next to her, closes his eyes and goes "to that place where dreams are born". Teddy enters the room, climbs onto the bed, and watches as David and Monica lie peacefully together.
Kubrick began development on an adaptation of "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" in the early 1970s, hiring the short story's author, Brian Aldiss to write a film treatment. In 1985, Kubrick brought longtime friend Steven Spielberg on board to produce the film,[3] along with Jan Harlan. Warner Bros. agreed to co-finance A.I. and cover distribution duties.[4] The film labored in development hell, and Aldiss was fired by Kubrick over creative differences in 1989.[5]Bob Shaw served as writer very briefly, leaving after six weeks because of Kubrick's demanding work schedule, and Ian Watson was hired as the new writer in March 1990. Aldiss later remarked, "Not only did the bastard fire me, he hired my enemy [Watson] instead." Kubrick handed Watson The Adventures of Pinocchio for inspiration, calling A.I. "a picaresque robot version of Pinocchio".[4][6]
Three weeks later Watson gave Kubrick his first story treatment, and concluded his work on A.I. in May 1991 with another treatment, at 90 pages. Gigolo Joe was originally conceived as a GI Mecha, but Watson suggested changing him to a male prostitute. Kubrick joked, "I guess we lost the kiddie market."[4] In the meantime, Kubrick dropped A.I. to work on a film adaptation of Wartime Lies, feeling computer animation was not advanced enough to create the David character. However, after the release of Spielberg's Jurassic Park (with its innovative use of computer-generated imagery), it was announced in November 1993 that production would begin in 1994.[7]Dennis Muren and Ned Gorman, who worked on Jurassic Park, became visual effects supervisors,[5] but Kubrick was displeased with their previsualization, and with the expense of hiring Industrial Light & Magic.[8]
Stanley [Kubrick] showed Steven [Spielberg] 650 drawings which he had, and the script and the story, everything. Stanley said, "Look, why don't you direct it and I'll produce it." Steven was almost in shock.
In early 1994, the film was in pre-production with Christopher "Fangorn" Baker as concept artist, and Sara Maitland assisting on the story, which gave it "a feminist fairy-tale focus".[4] Maitland said that Kubrick never referred to the film as A.I., but as Pinocchio.[8]Chris Cunningham became the new visual effects supervisor. Some of his unproduced work for A.I. can be seen on the DVD, The Work of Director Chris Cunningham.[10] Aside from considering computer animation, Kubrick also had Joseph Mazzello do a screen test for the lead role.[8] Cunningham helped assemble a series of "little robot-type humans" for the David character. "We tried to construct a little boy with a movable rubber face to see whether we could make it look appealing," producer Jan Harlan reflected. "But it was a total failure, it looked awful." Hans Moravec was brought in as a technical consultant.[8]
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