I, Robot: Book vs Film
You might have heard about the movie I, Robot starring Will Smith, but did you know it was adapted from Isaac Asimov’s book of the same title and other books? Although the movie’s plot does not derive from the books, a lot of the same ideas do.
The movie follows Will Smith’s character, Detective Spooner, and a robot named Sonny. The struggle of Sonny throughout the film and his yearning to understand humanity was depicted through the protagonist in Asimov’s The Bicentennial Man. Sonny also has a dream in the film about a man that comes to bring all of the NS-5s (the newest wave of robots) together, which comes from Asimov’s character Elvex in Robot Dreams.
In the film there is a robotic system called VIKI (virtual interactive kinetic intelligence) who keeps all the robots up-to-date with the newest software updates and things alike. She is seen as putting the needs of humanity above those of individuals which strands from Asimov’s The Evitable Conflict where supercomputers manage the global economy and refer to humanity as a whole rather than a sum of individuals. This idea was developed in his series of books but it was referred to as the Zeroth Law of Robotics and not VIKI.
The idea of the three laws of robots was created by Asimov and are seen in the movie as well, listed immediately on the screen before the movie begins. All robots must follow these laws and this is the way humanity keeps them from acting out. But, in the film, VIKI wipes the three laws and the robots go on a rampage. The laws are as follows:
“First Law
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws” (Asimov, 1950).
The plot of the film with robots taking over the world differs greatly from Asimov’s portrayal of robots. In his books, robots and roboticists are often seen battling societal anti-robot prejudices.
As you can see, there are tons of similarities between the film I, Robot and Asimov’s series of books regarding robots. But, the movie portrays robots in a different light, as they start to try to take over the city. The film took bits and pieces from the books and added its own flair to it which, along with the likes of actors Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan, raked in $347.2 million in the box office.
Asimov, I. (1950). I, Robot. United States: Gnome Press.
Proyas, A. (Director). (2004). I, Robot [Motion Picture].
