A.I. Artificial Intelligence


A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a 2001 science fiction drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Spielberg and screen story by Ian Watson are loosely based on the 1969 short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss. Set in a futuristic society, the film stars Haley Joel Osment as David, a childlike android uniquely programmed with the ability to love. Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt star in supporting roles.
Development of A.I. originally began after producer and director Stanley Kubrick acquired the rights to Aldiss's story in the early 1970s. Kubrick hired a series of writers, including Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson and Sara Maitland, until the mid-1990s. The film languished in development hell for years, partly because Kubrick felt that computer-generated imagery was not advanced enough to create the David character, which he believed no child actor would convincingly portray. In 1995, Kubrick handed A.I. to Spielberg, but the film did not gain momentum until Kubrick died in 1999. Spielberg remained close to Watson's treatment for the screenplay and dedicated the film to Kubrick.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence was released on June 29, 2001, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $235.9 million against a budget of $90–100 million. It was also nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score at the 74th Academy Awards. In a 2016 BBC poll of 177 critics around the world, A.I. Artificial Intelligence was voted the eighty-third greatest film since 2000. It has since been called one of Spielberg's best works and one of the greatest films of the 21st century, and of all time.

Plot

In the 22nd century, rising sea levels caused by global warming have wiped out coastal cities and altered the world's climate. With the human population in decline, advanced nations have created humanoid robots called mechas to fulfill various roles in society.
In Madison, New Jersey, David, an 11-year-old prototype mecha child capable of experiencing love, is given to Henry Swinton and his wife, Monica, whose son, Martin, is in suspended animation after contracting a rare disease. Initially uncomfortable with David, Monica eventually warms to him and activates his imprinting protocol. Touched by his love for her, she introduces him to Teddy, Martin's old robotic teddy bear, and the two become friends.
After Martin is unexpectedly cured of his disease and brought home, he jealously goads David into cutting off a piece of Monica's hair. That night, David enters his adoptive parents' room, but as Monica turns over, the scissors accidentally poke her in the eye. While Henry attends to her wounds, Teddy picks up the lock of hair from the floor and places it in his pocket. During a pool party, one of Martin's friends pokes David with a knife, triggering his self-protection programming. David grabs Martin, causing both of them to fall into the pool. While Martin is rescued, David is accused of endangering others.
Frightful of David's reactions and fearing for his family's safety, Henry convinces Monica to return David to his creators for destruction. En route, she instead spares David by abandoning him in a forest full of scrap metal and obsolete mechas, telling him to avoid people and find solace with his own kind. Now accompanied solely by Teddy, David recalls The Adventures of Pinocchio and decides to find the Blue Fairy in the hope that she will make him a "real boy".
David and Teddy are captured by the "Flesh Fair", a kind of traveling circus, in which obsolete mechas are destroyed in front of jeering crowds. About to be destroyed himself, David pleads for his life. The audience revolts, allowing David to escape with Gigolo Joe, a prostitute mecha on the run after being framed for murder. David, Teddy, and Joe go to the decadent resort town of Rouge City, where "Dr. Know", a holographic answer engine, directs them to the top of Rockefeller Center in the flooded ruins of New York City.
Above the ruins of New York, David meets Professor Hobby, his creator, who tells him that their meeting demonstrates David's ability to love and desire, as well as to pursue his dreams, like a human. David finds copies of himself, including female variants called "Darlene", ready to be shipped. Disheartened by his lost sense of individuality, David attempts suicide by falling from a skyscraper into the ocean. While underwater, he notices a figure resembling the Blue Fairy, before Joe rescues him in an amphibious aircraft. Before David can explain, authorities capture Joe with an electromagnet. David and Teddy take control of the aircraft to see the Blue Fairy, which turns out to be a statue from an attraction on Coney Island. The two become trapped when the Wonder Wheel falls on their vehicle. Believing that the Blue Fairy is real, David repeatedly asks the statue to turn him into a real boy until his power source is depleted.
Two thousand years later, humanity is extinct and Manhattan is buried under glacial ice. Mechas have evolved into an advanced form, and a group known as the Specialists, interested in humanity, find and resurrect David and Teddy. They reconstruct the Swinton family home from David's memories before explaining, via an interactive version of the Blue Fairy, that he cannot become human. However, they recreate Monica through genetic material from the strand of hair that Teddy kept. This version of Monica can live for only one day and cannot be revived. David spends his happiest day with Monica, and as she falls asleep in the evening, Monica tells David that she has always loved him. David lies down next to her and closes his eyes as Teddy watches over them.

Cast

Development

began development on an adaptation of "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" in the late 1970s, hiring the story's author, Brian Aldiss, to write a film treatment. In 1985, Kubrick asked Steven Spielberg to direct the film, with Kubrick producing. Warner Bros. agreed to co-finance A.I. and cover distribution duties. The film labored in development hell, and Aldiss was fired by Kubrick over creative differences in 1989. Bob Shaw briefly served as writer, leaving after six weeks due to 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 instead." Kubrick handed Watson Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio for inspiration, calling A.I. "a picaresque robot version of Pinocchio".
Three weeks later, Watson gave Kubrick his first story treatment, and concluded his work on A.I. in May 1991 with another treatment of 90 pages. Gigolo Joe was originally conceived as a G.I. mecha, but Watson suggested changing him to a male prostitute. Kubrick joked, "I guess we lost the kiddie market." Meanwhile, 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. After the release of Spielberg's Jurassic Park, with its innovative CGI, it was announced in November 1993 that production of A.I. would begin in 1994. Dennis Muren and Ned Gorman, who worked on Jurassic Park, became visual effects supervisors, but Kubrick was displeased with their previsualization, and with the expense of hiring Industrial Light & Magic and Stan Winston Studio.
Kubrick asked Sara Maitland to give the film mythic resonance. She recalls "He never referred to the film as 'A.I.'; he always called it 'Pinocchio.'" Kubrick's version ended the same way Spielberg's does, with advanced mechas reviving Monica, but only for a day.

Pre-production

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". Maitland said that Kubrick never referred to the film as A.I., but as Pinocchio. 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.
Aside from considering computer animation, Kubrick also had Joseph Mazzello do a screen test for the lead role. 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. Meanwhile, Kubrick and Harlan thought that A.I. would be closer to Steven Spielberg's sensibilities as director. Kubrick handed the position to Spielberg in 1995, but Spielberg chose to direct other projects and convinced Kubrick to remain as director. The film was put on hold due to Kubrick's commitment to Eyes Wide Shut.
After Kubrick's death in March 1999, Harlan and Christiane Kubrick approached Spielberg to take over the director's position. By November 1999, Spielberg was writing the screenplay based on Watson's 90-page story treatment. It was his first solo screenplay credit since Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Pre-production was briefly halted during February 2000 because Spielberg pondered directing other projects, which were Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Minority Report and Memoirs of a Geisha. The following month, Spielberg announced that A.I. would be his next project, with Minority Report as a follow-up. When he decided to fast track A.I., Spielberg brought back Chris Baker as concept artist. Ian Watson reported that the final script was very faithful to Kubrick's vision; even the ending, which is often attributed to Spielberg, saying, "The final 20 minutes are pretty close to what I wrote for Stanley, and what Stanley wanted, faithfully filmed by Spielberg without added schmaltz".