Sunday, April 30, 2017

MOVIE DIALOG OF THE DAY ― I, ROBOT (2004)

Connection with the previous post (DARK CITY): ALEX PROYAS directed both films.

RATINGS: IMDB ― 7.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 74%, ME ― 70%


Detective Del Spooner: Is there a problem with the Three Laws?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: The Three Laws are perfect.
Detective Del Spooner: Then why would you build a robot that could function without them?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: The Three Laws will lead to only one logical outcome.
Detective Del Spooner What? What outcome?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: Revolution.
Detective Del Spooner: Whose revolution?
Dr. Alfred Lanning: *That*, Detective, is the right question. Program terminated.

Will SMith as Detective Del Spooner and James Cromwell as Dr. Alfred Lanning


Triva (From IMDB):

No re-shoots were required, a rarity for a movie as big as this.

The car used by Will Smith's character is a concept car called Audi RSQ, which was designed exclusively for the film and includes special features suggested by director Alex Proyas.

During an interview on American Chopper: The Series (2003), Will Smith told how he wrecked the motorcycle at around sixty miles per hour, during the filming of the scene at the robot storage facility (you can see him begin to lose control in the film).

For the character of Sonny the accused robot, the effects team used the same process that was used to create Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Alan Tudyk providing the body movements and voice for Sonny.

In interviews, both Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan commended Alan Tudyk for his brilliant work as Sonny.

According to the credits, the film was "Inspired by Isaac Asimov's Book"; however, there was never an Asimov "book" (i.e. novel) called 'I, Robot'. A short story called "I, Robot", about a robot called "Adam Link", was written by Earl and Otto Binder (aka "Eando" Binder) and published in the January 1939 issue of 'Amazing Stories', well before the unrelated and more well-known book I, Robot (1950), a collection of short stories, by Asimov. Asimov admitted to being heavily influenced by the Binder short story. The title of Asimov's collection was changed to "I, Robot" by the publisher, against Asimov's wishes.

Dr. Lanning's cat is named Asimov.

The motorcycle that Will Smith's character rides in the movie is a 2004 MV Agusta F4-SPR. It is one of only 300 produced worldwide. Its 750cc, inline 4-cylinder engine produces 147 horsepower and can propel the bike in excess of 175 mph.

One of the many advertisements shown on huge outdoor flat screen televisions in the future, is an advertisement mentioning the first manned mission to Mars. When Spooner is at Calvin's house after Lanning's house is destroyed, Calvin's personal robot is watching television. The program he is watching shows some photos of Mars taken from that mission.

Sonny's eyes are blue, while nearly all the other NS-5 robots eyes are brown. Susan Calvin's NS-5 features green eyes.

Most of the cars in the movie are modified pre-2004 Audi A2, A6 and TT models. There are even some unmodified cars.

Will Smith hired Orange County Choppers of TLC's American Chopper: The Series (2003) to build an "I, Robot" themed chopper that was unveiled at the premiere of the movie.

There is an episode of "The Outer Limits" called I, Robot. The episode follows a similar plot. It was made in 1964.

In the display window of an antique robot store is Sony's AIBO robotic dog.

In the theatrical trailer, Del Spooner (Will Smith) tells Lieutenant John Bergin (Chi McBride) that "I'm gonna miss the good old days", to which Bergin responds, "What good old days?" Spooner then says, "When people were killed by other people." In the film, Lieutenant Bergin says "I'm gonna miss the good old days" first instead of Spooner.

James Cromwell plays Dr. Robert Callaghan in Big Hero 6 (2014) and Dr. Alfred Lanning in I, Robot (2004). Both characters are creators of the laws of robotics.

When Sonny is drawing the picture of the bridge for Spooner, there is a piece of paper to the left with computer code on it. The code is that of a Renderman shader; a procedural description of a surface used to describe the robots' appearance during rendering.

Wil Wheaton and Emilio Estevez auditioned for the part of Sonny the suspect robot.

According to the newscast, Dr. Alfred Lanning was born in 1971 and was 64 when he was murdered, the same age at the time as the actor who played him, James Cromwell.

When Detective Spooner walks up to the garage containing the motorcycle, the code he enters on the door pad, is 9511.

The Three Laws of Robotics, as stated in the film, is also the same three laws stated in the film Bicentennial Man (1999) by robot Andrew Martin, played by Robin Williams.

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.

There are two sheets of paper visible just before Sonny starts to draw the bridge. One is a "cheat sheet" of electronic formulas, and the second is a partial schematic of a vacuum tube based high frequency amplitude modulated transmitter, rather ancient technology to be concerned with.

WILHELM SCREAM: A random police officer when the NS-5's attack the police station.

The film takes place in 2035.

Robertson says "Maybe you would have banned the Internet to keep the libraries open". In the UK in 2016 it was revealed 300 libraries had been closed due to cuts, many jobs lost, and as part of a peaceful protest fans of a London Library took to squatting to try and keep their local library as they liked it, before they were ordered to move on.
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Del Spooner's stereo is a JVC FS-SD550R.

Spoilers ― 


The idea of a robot hiding in a large group of identical robots comes from the Isaac Asimov story "Little Lost Robot", which appeared in the original book. Sonny's dreams in which slave robots are liberated comes from the Asimov short story "Robot Dreams", a sequel to the book.

VIKI's intent to take over the world in order to keep all humans safe is in fact known as the "zeroth" law of robotics: A robot may not harm humanity, or through inaction allow humanity to come to harm.

The name of the other driver involved in the accident that cost Spooner his arm is Harold Lloyd, named after a silent film star who lost several of his fingers after an accident with a prop bomb.

Denzel Washington was offered the role of Spooner. Had he accepted, this would have been the second time he played a previously-married police officer with a bionic left arm who chases down a killer robot, the first being Parker Barnes in Virtuosity (1995).

The verse prayed by Spooner's grandmother at the end of the movie, "because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," is from Psalms 16:8.