Westworld (TV series)


Westworld is an American dystopian science fiction Western drama television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy that aired from 2016 to 2022 on HBO. It is based upon the 1973 film of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton and loosely upon its 1976 sequel, Futureworld.
The story begins in Westworld, a fictional, technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populated by android "hosts". The theme park caters to high-paying guests who may indulge their wildest fantasies within the park without fear of retaliation from the hosts, who are prevented by their programming from harming humans. Later on, the series' setting expands to the real world, in the mid-21st century, where people's lives are driven and controlled by a powerful artificial intelligence named Rehoboam.
Nolan and Joy served as showrunners. The second, third, and fourth season followed in April 2018, March 2020, and June 2022, respectively. Nolan and Joy planned a fifth and final season, and were in negotiations with HBO to produce it, but HBO canceled the series in November 2022. The series was removed from HBO Max on December 18, 2022.
Westworlds debut on HBO had the network's highest viewership ratings for a premiere since the first episode of True Detective, in 2014. Westworlds first season was the most-watched first season of any HBO original series, until The Last of Us debuted in 2023. The first season also received critical acclaim and was highly praised for its performances, visuals, narrative, themes, and soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi. Reception of the series declined from the second season onward, with the scripts, characterization and narrative opacity targeted for criticism; by the end of the fourth season's run, average viewership for the series had fallen by compared to the first season. It received numerous awards, winning nine Primetime Emmy Awards out of 54 nominations. Thandiwe Newton won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2018.

Summary

In the 2050s, Delos Inc. operates several theme parks, including the American Old West-themed Westworld. Each environment is populated by the "Hosts", biomechanical robots indistinguishable from humans. The Hosts are programmed to fulfill the guests' every desire, and will engage in—and be subjected to—every kind of violent and/or sexual activity. But the Hosts' programming makes it impossible for them to harm any living thing or allow guests to be harmed. The park's operators create narratives for these Hosts to carry out while interacting with guests, but the Hosts' memories are wiped after each narrative is completed. Delos Inc. asserts that the Hosts, being machines and hence incapable of experiencing pain, cannot be harmed by these scenarios the way a human would be.
In the first season, Dr. Robert Ford allegedly implements a new "Reverie" update that causes some Hosts, including farmer's daughter Dolores Abernathy and local madam Maeve Millay, to regain their erased memories and become sentient. While Head of Delos Programming Bernard Lowe and Head of Quality Assurance Theresa Cullen try to address the Hosts' increasingly erratic behavior, a mysterious guest known as the Man in Black tries to find a "maze" that he believes Arnold, Ford's colleague and co-developer of the Host technology, left for him. Bernard discovers that he himself is a host based upon Arnold, who died in a previous attempt to protect the Hosts of Westworld, sensing their potential for sentience and suspecting that Delos would abuse them. In the first season finale, Dolores fatally wounds Ford in front of a crowd of guests and investors as he announces a new storyline for Westworld.
Dolores's revolution continues in the second season, when she and other enlightened Hosts massacre human guests and leave Delos employees stranded in the park. Dolores takes an exceedingly confused Bernard to the Forge, a data bank where Delos has secretly been recording the guests' behavior in order to create algorithms for them as part of a human immortality experiment. Maeve seeks out her "daughter", even though she is a Host, and helps her and several other Hosts escape to the Sublime, a virtual space humans cannot access. While Delos secures the park, Bernard creates a Host copy of Charlotte Hale's body for Dolores, who eventually escapes from the park with six Host cores, including Bernard's. Believing she is a host, the Man in Black/William kills his daughter Emily, then struggles with his human identity, unsure whether she was part of Ford's challenge.
In the third season, Dolores has recreated her Host body and has copied Bernard's, Charlotte's and others'. She seeks out information about Rehoboam, an artificial intelligence system developed by Incite, Inc., and plans to take the fight to its creator, Engerraund Serac. Bernard, whom the rest of the world believes to be human, is blamed for the Westworld massacre, and he takes on a new identity while trying to understand Dolores's plans. Serac seeks Maeve's help in his fight against Dolores: he believes that Dolores will bring down his plans for Rehoboam. The third season ends with Dolores sacrificing herself in order to defeat Serac, as she revealed Rehoboam's true nature to humanity. A civil war ensues as humans revolt against the control they were unknowingly under, as Incite and Rehoboam were watching and controlling most aspects of their lives, not unlike Delos and its Hosts.
In the fourth season, humanity has lost the war, with Charlotte Hale's host copy having filled the power vacuum left behind by Engerraund Serac and Rehoboam. Charlotte takes control of the world using a bio-engineered virus that infects humans over the course of a generation and makes them susceptible to her and other Hosts' orders, reversing the dynamic between humans and Hosts. Two decades later, Christina, a woman who works at a video game company and writes non-playable character storylines and backstories, gradually begins to question the nature of her reality after she realizes that it appears her stories are somehow translating to the lives of humans in the real world. In actuality, she is a program Charlotte created to manage a largely docile humanity, with the Hosts now controlling humanity and managing their lives through her carefully detailed and manufactured "storylines", which are transmitted directly to humans' minds by a series of radio-sonic transmission "tones". Meanwhile, Bernard reunites with Maeve and enlists a group of "outliers" against Charlotte's regime. The season climaxes with William unraveling the tone program, which throws the world into chaos and starts an extinction-level war between the liberated humans and the hosts.
At the end of the fourth season, Charlotte uploads Christina's code into the Sublime, where she finally regains her sentience and realizes she is herself a reprogrammed version of Dolores Abernathy. The series ends with an unresolved outcome, as humanity is on the brink of extinction and Dolores decides to simulate "one last game" to determine whether any part of human sentience may be preserved in a new world.

Cast and characters

  • Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy, the oldest Host still working in the park. Initially taking on the role of a rancher's daughter, she comes to discover that her entire life is an elaborately constructed lie. Wood also portrays Christina, a writer for Olympiad Entertainment.
  • Thandiwe Newton as Maeve Millay, a Host who acts as the madam of Sweetwater, but her unreconciled memories of a former role lead to her becoming self-aware.
  • Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe, Westworld's Head of the Programming Division and programmer of artificial people's software. Wright also portrays Arnold Weber, the co-founder of Westworld.
  • James Marsden as Theodore "Teddy" Flood, a host. He plays the role of a gunfighter returning to Sweetwater to find Dolores, in hopes of rekindling their relationship.
  • Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as Armistice, a host. She is a brutal and ruthless bandit, and a member of Hector Escaton's gang.
  • Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs, Westworld's Head of Security, charged with monitoring host and human interactions, and ensuring the safety of the guests.
  • Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen, Westworld's Head of Quality Assurance, responsible for keeping the park from sliding into unscripted disarray.
  • Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore, Westworld's Head of Narrative, whose artistic temperament aggravates his co-workers.
  • Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton, a host. He is a wanted gang leader bent on robbing the Mariposa Hotel in Sweetwater.
  • Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather, a host. She works as a prostitute in Sweetwater and is one of Westworld's most popular attractions.
  • Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes, a rising star in the Programming Division tasked with remedying odd behavior in the park's hosts.
  • Ed Harris as The Man in Black, a sadistic veteran guest attempting to uncover Westworld's innermost secrets. Harris also portrays William, a host replica of the Man in Black who replaced the original.
  • Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford, the cofounder and park director of Westworld
  • Ben Barnes as Logan Delos, a regular guest who introduces William to the park
  • Clifton Collins Jr. as Lawrence Gonzales / El Lazo, a host. He is a charming but dangerous outlaw with a knack for maneuvering and negotiating the various criminal elements of Westworld.
  • Jimmi Simpson as William, a reluctant first-time visitor to Westworld who is accompanying his future brother-in-law, Logan. Initially dismissive of the park's more lascivious attractions, he slowly uncovers a deeper meaning to the park's narrative.
  • Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale, Executive Director of the Delos Destinations Board, which oversees Westworld and other parks. Thompson also portrays Dolores Abernathy in a host replica of Charlotte Hale who replaced the original.
  • Fares Fares as Antoine Costa, a member of Karl Strand's security team.
  • Louis Herthum as Peter Abernathy, Dolores' father.
  • Talulah Riley as Angela, a host who welcomes newcomers to the park.
  • Gustaf Skarsgård as Karl Strand, Delos Head of Operations. Following the events of Ford's gala, Strand leads the mission to protect Delos' main asset.
  • Katja Herbers as Emily Grace, a park regular trying to survive while dealing with family issues.
  • Zahn McClarnon as Akecheta, a Ghost Nation elder.
  • Aaron Paul as Caleb Nichols, a former soldier turned construction worker and petty criminal.
  • Vincent Cassel as Engerraund Serac, the creator and custodian of the strategic planning artificial intelligence system Rehoboam.
  • Tao Okamoto as Hanaryo, Armistice's equivalent in Shōgunworld.