In the near future, global warming has caused a huge rise in sea levels and wiped out coastal
cities all over the world. Millions of people have been displaced and the now crazy climate
causes global famine, so governments implement licensing pregnancy to fight overpopulation. To
compensate for this, scientists create a series of robots known as “mecha”, who don’t require as
many resources to survive as humans do. The inventor of these mechas is Professor Hobby,
who takes a female mecha apart in a conference while he explains that robots are programmed
to react to damage or pain and to remember to avoid the cause of damage like a human
would. Unfortunately this doesn’t mimic human emotion, which brings Hobby to the next step:
a robot child programmed to love its parents. This mecha will be marketed to couples who yearn for a
child but can’t obtain the license to reproduce. Twenty months after the presentation, Henry and
his wife Monica visit their son Martin in the hospital. Martin was diagnosed with a rare disease
and put in suspended animation until a cure is found. Martin’s doctor worries about Monica, who
still hopes for that cure and often comes to read to his son, and he advises Henry to help Monica
cope with the grief she's currently suppressing. Hoping that this will help his wife to move on,
Henry applies to Cybertronics' beta-testing and gets chosen by Hobby to test his latest invention,
a child mecha named David. This robot is a prototype mecha child programmed to experience
love. Monica is offended by the idea and argues with Henry, saying that he's trying to replace
Martin when he isn’t even dead yet. However Monica eventually realizes that she needs to fill a hole
in her heart and has a big need to take care of a child again, even if it's a mecha. After finally
changing Monica’s mind, Henry explains how the imprinting protocol works. Once they decide to
keep David, they can choose to activate his imprinting, making David loyal to them just
like a regular child that loves their parents. The imprinting is irreversible; meaning that if
the couple ever decides to return David, he’ll be scrapped. So it’s very important for them not to
imprint until they are sure. Later in the evening, Monica and Henry allow David into Martin's old
room. David is eager to get along and make his parents happy, but remembering that he's not real
makes Monica nervous, and she ends up shutting the door on him when he asks her to dress him.
The next morning, David watches Monica prepare breakfast with pure curiosity. He continues to
watch her the rest of the day as she does her chores, no matter how hard Monica tries to ignore
him. When she grows too frustrated, Monica ends up putting David away in the closet. Moments later,
Monica feels guilty and lets David out, excusing herself by saying that they're playing hide and
seek. This makes David surprise Monica in the bathroom while she’s relieving herself,
thinking she’s hiding there. During dinner, David watches his parents eat, and he’s so fascinated
by this that he pretends to drink from an empty glass to mimic Henry, then copies the way Monica
eats pasta. When noodles get stuck in Monica's lips, it makes David laugh, which startles his
parents into laughing along. Later in the evening, when Monica gets David ready for bed, she finally
tends to him as if he was her real son. However this also reminds her of Martin in the hospital,
making her cry. The next morning, Monica decides to initiate the imprinting protocol, coming to
terms with the fact that she needs David to cope with Martin's situation. After she finishes saying
the code that will trigger David's love, the boy's face softens up and for the first time he calls
Monica “mommy”. This already makes Monica more attached to him, especially when he hugs her. One
night, Monica is happily getting ready to attend an event with Henry. However Henry worries about
Monica's affection for David, reminding her that he's a mecha, but Monica sees David as a gift.
When David comes to say goodbye, the parents smell something and realize that he has used up Monica's
expensive perfume. To make matters worse, David asks Monica if she’ll die someday. Monica confirms
that she will, but she doesn’t want David to be lonely, so Monica takes an old robotic bear named
Teddy that used to be Martin's and gifts it to David so he can have company while they’re away.
Sometime later, David shows Monica that he can relay the audio from her telephone by turning
himself into a speaker. The call comes from Henry, who can’t hear Monica because of David's speaker
mode. After lots of scolding, David finally hands her the phone, and Monica receives some big news.
A few days later, Monica comes home together with Martin, who has woken up from his suspended sleep
and has been cured of his rare disease. As the days pass, Martin treats David like a toy, asking
him to break things for him and questioning how he was made as he pokes his face. When asked for the
first thing he remembers, David draws a bird with feathers sticking out of the tail. One afternoon,
Martin asks Monica to read Pinocchio to him and David, secretly hoping to taunt David with the
story. However David is fascinated by the idea of a puppet turning into a real boy. During lunch,
Martin teases David into an eating contest. Monica and Henry panic, knowing that the act could break
David, but the boys don't listen to their warnings and keep on eating. In the end, David stops as
one side of his face droops, scaring everyone. Afterward, David is taken for repairs while Monica
holds his hand. However hearing him say it doesn’t hurt makes her freak out. Seeing his mother worry
about David so much makes Martin jealous, so when they go home, he tricks David into secretly
cutting Monica's hair while she's asleep by telling him she’d love him for it. At first
David refuses, but Martin manipulates him until he agrees. Then David goes into the parents' bedroom
to cut Monica's hair with a pair of scissors, but at that moment, Monica turns and almost gets hurt
by the blades. Henry wakes up when Monica screams and he shakes David angrily, demanding to know why
he did it until Monica stops him. Some hair falls to the floor and is found by Teddy. Sometime later
while they’re getting things ready for Martin's birthday party, Henry tries to convince Monica
that David is no longer worth the risk, but Monica defends David by saying he’s just a child making
mistakes. During the party, Martin's friends taunt David, poking his synthetic skin and using a knife
to test him his lack of pain. This triggers David's defense programming, which makes him
hide behind Martin because he’s the only human he feels safe with. He also begins backing away,
but he moves too far and accidentally drags Martin to the bottom of the pool. The adults
quickly come to take Martin out of the water to give him CPR while David can only watch from the
pool as he is left behind and alone. After this incident, Monica becomes wary of David,
but she also finds the beautiful letters David writes for her, leaving her torn on how she feels
about him. Finally she decides she has no choice and tells David that they’ll go on a trip with
Teddy, and David is happy because he thinks he’s spending the day with his mother. The next day,
Monica cries while she drives to Cybertronics to have David destroyed. In the end the guilt
is so overwhelming that she changes her plan and drives the car into the woods, where David sets up
a picnic mat without suspecting anything. Monica quickly stops him and finally tells him that she
has to leave him for good. Devastated, David begs and apologizes for everything he'd done, he also
wonders if he would be accepted back in the family if he became a real boy like Pinocchio. Monica
doesn’t give in to his pleas and before leaving, she gives David some money and tells him not to be
caught by anyone, especially Cybertronics. David latches to her and doesn’t want to let her go,
so Monica has to shove him away, surprising them both. Then she apologizes and drives away,
leaving David to watch the car in the distance. Meanwhile in Rouge City, a mecha named Joe is
emotionally comforting his client before spending the night with her, which is his job. Afterward,
Joe makes his way through town to meet his next client at a hotel. The owner asks Joe for his
operating license badge as an anti-robot group known as Flesh Fair is hunting for stray mechas
in town, then Joe changes the color of his hair before going to his client’s room. When he sits
on the bed, he’s shocked to find it wet with blood and his client turns out to be dead. At
that moment a man appears in the room, confirming he was the one who killed the woman. Joe realizes
that he's been set up and immediately runs away to hide in an alley, where he uses a little blade
to remove his operating license badge so he can't be traced. In the woods, David tells Teddy that
he wants to find the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio so she’ll turn him into a real boy. Suddenly,
a garbage truck passes by to dump scrap parts, and tons of abandoned mechas show up to search through
the trash in order to repair themselves. As David watches without believing what he’s seeing,
Joe shows up as well, and there is a moon-shaped aircraft coming after him. It turns out it’s the
Flesh Fair group, and the mechas immediately begin running away in fear as they are hunted
down. This group kidnaps mechas and destroys them in a show to prove their anti-robot campaign. They
use a scan on their aircraft to follow the mechas, but there’s also a bunch of them appearing in the
forest riding motorcycles that begin chasing the mechas through the woods, eventually entering a
small town. These guys fire magnetic discs to trap the robots and a few mechas are sadly captured,
but David and Teddy manage to follow a few mechas into an abandoned cottage and meet a nanny mecha,
who offers to care for him. Unfortunately the motorists still find the cottage and
break down the wall to capture them all while the aircraft picks up Joe in a cage. In the struggle,
David tries to hold onto Teddy, but he falls. At least a bunch of branches break his fall,
so he quickly recovers and chases after the aircraft. Later at the Flesh Fair show,
Teddy is picked up by employees and thrown into lost-and-found. In the stadium, the crowd cheers
as old and abandoned mechas keep getting destroyed by being pushed inside cannons and shot out on
fire. A terrified David holds onto Joe's hand, who's surprised by the touch. Meanwhile Teddy
manages to climb out of lost-and-found, and finds David in a cage. At that moment, a little girl
picks up Teddy and sees David, thinking that he's a real boy. Then the girl approaches her father,
who's one of the programmers of the show, and the man is disturbed to hear that a boy is among the
mechas. Back at the cage, David learns from the other mechas that the humans are cutting
them down to maintain superiority. Then the girl's father approaches David and uses a portable X-ray
to make sure that David is a robot. The father is shocked and fascinated by David’s advanced system,
but the showrunner is not amused and an argument ensues while David watches the nanny mecha get
doused in acid as part of a game. The showrunner insists on putting David on the show too, ignoring
the programmer's explanations of how valuable David is. Then the showrunner takes David,
and since he’s holding on to Joe's hand for safety, both are dragged to the field and into
the acid trap. As the showrunner presents David to the crowd, he also rants about how the mecha child
insults the human population. However the crowd turns silent because they aren’t used to seeing
children in the show and now they feel conflicted. Suddenly acid falls onto David's shoulders,
making him scream and cry in fear. This convinces the crowd that David is a real child and they’re
so horrified that they turn on the showrunner, throwing things at him while the girl’s dad orders
the guards to free David and Jo right before the riot starts, allowing the duo to escape safely.
In Hobby’s office, there are various photos of David growing up, and it’s revealed that he was
designed after Hobby's late son. A team arrives to report that David was spotted at the Flesh
Fair and they assure Hobby that the mecha is fine. Back in the woods, David and Teddy freeze
when they suddenly see the moon, thinking that it's the Flesh Fair's aircraft. Just in case,
they take a different route, and David shares with Joe his wish to find the Blue Fairy. Joe
says that most women can be found in Rouge City, and they agree to head there together. First they
need a ride, so Joe finds a group of teenagers and uses a hologram pen to manipulate them,
promising lots of mecha women in their future. The boys give them a ride, and once they reach
the city, Joe gives David a tour, teaching him about the flashing lights and the weirdly shaped
buildings. David becomes fascinated by a statue of an angel because he thinks it’s the Blue Fairy and
tries to enter the church, but Joe takes him away. Eventually they meet with Doctor Know, a program
that serves as an all-knowing encyclopedia. Using the money Monica gave him, David learns from Know
that the Blue Fairy is at the end of the world, this information comes from a quote by Hobby.
Joe doesn’t like it because he knows that mechas that go to the end of the world never come back,
so he tries to explain to David that humans hate robots. However David insists that Monica will
love him if he's a real boy, not believing Joe when he says a human can never love a mecha and
yelling at him for dealing to insinuate the opposite. When they leave Know's store, the
cops find them and arrest Joe, still thinking he killed the woman in the hotel. Curious, David gets
into the helicopter's driver's seat and powers it on, but obviously he can’t control it and his
so-called piloting causes huge chaos around the city, breaking things and almost hitting people.
As citizens run away in panic, Joe uses the distraction to escape the cops and reunite with
David. Joe jumps inside the helicopter, taking over the controls to fly the vehicle smoothly and
escape safely. A few hours later, they reach the wasteland that was previously Manhattan,
which Joe calls “the place where lions weep”. After the trouble with the sea levels rising, the
remaining pieces of the city are left in ruins and underwater. David finds a bunch of lion statues
with water pouring out of their mouths, which reminds him of Joe’s quote. Seeing it as a sign,
they land the helicopter in the building next to the lions, then David and Joe search for Professor
Hobby. David finds a door with a fairy tale quote on it and crosses it, finding a chair with someone
on it. When it turns around, David is shocked to find a child that looks exactly like him. The
other David simply smiles and invites him to read with him, saying that he’s real, but the first
David thinks this guy is going to replace him. Furious, David grabs a lamp and smashes it against
the table and the other David's head, revealing that it's also a mecha. A terrified Joe goes
away while David lashes out, screaming that he's special and unique. At that moment Professor Hobby
shows up to stop him and assures David that he's a real boy, claiming that he is his own Blue Fairy.
Doctor Know's clues on finding the Blue Fairy were explicitly made to lead David to Professor Hobby,
and the journey also tested David's motivation to see if it was strong enough to make him chase
an unknown dream, which other mechas can’t do. Hobby walks out of the office to gather his team,
leaving David thinking about the fact his journey has been part of someone else's design. Afterward,
David enters another room, where he finds several more mechas that look like him, including one
that is still open. He approaches a window and sees the bird he remembers as his first memory,
which turns out to be a statue outside the office. Several boxes are laid out as David and his
female counterpart are mass-produced to be sold. Realizing that he was never unique, David heads
outside and drops into the water as Joe watches from the helicopter. Underwater, a bunch of fish
carries David until he falls in front of something that catches his attention. David reaches out,
but Joe finds him first and pulls him away using the helicopter's extended arm. Once he’s out,
David realizes that he found the Blue Fairy underwater. Unfortunately before they can go
further, Joe is suddenly magnetized by a police helicopter hovering above them. Joe says goodbye
to David, asking him to tell his story to the ladies once he's grown up as a real boy. Then he
activates the helicopter's submarine mode before floating away. Determined to find the Blue Fairy,
David pilots the transformed helicopter into an abandoned carnival with Teddy beside him.
They watch all the attractions representing fairy tales and eventually discover Pinocchio,
which he follows until he finally finds the Blue Fairy statue. At that moment, the Ferris Wheel
collapses on top of the helicopter, trapping them. David doesn’t care though, he only has
eyes for the Blue Fairy and begs her to make him a real boy. However the Fairy doesn’t respond,
and years pass with David still stuck in there, never losing hope even when the lights begin to
die off. Two thousand years later, the world is enveloped in ice and snow, and humans have been
gone for a while. One day an alien spacecraft shows up and flies around Manhattan as they
colonize the planet. There they move David's helicopter, finding him and Teddy on the ice.
They quickly reactivate him and David proceeds to convulse before he notices the Blue Fairy
in front of him. He immediately gets out of the helicopter and approaches the frozen statue while
the alien creatures watch him, then he touches the Blue Fairy, causing it to crack and break in
front of him. The aliens use this chance to scan David's memory to understand the planet better,
and suddenly David finds himself sitting at the table in Monica's house. The home looks
exactly the way he remembers it, and David eagerly searches for Monica, but it’s a different voice
that replies. David is surprised to find the Blue Fairy alive and talking and asks her to turn him
into a real boy, but she admits that she can’t do that. The aliens use the Blue Fairy to speak to
David, informing him that Monica is gone and the Fairy can’t revive her either because her remains
are long gone too. While David mourns, Teddy approaches him to remind David of the time he
cut Monica's hair and reveals that he kept that same lock of hair, meaning the aliens could now
bring back his mother. David goes to his old bedroom and fondly remembers his friend Joe
while Teddy repairs himself. At that moment they see a figure at the door and think it's Monica,
but it’s actually an alien that confesses to be fascinated by humans. He wishes to bring humanity
back by using organic traces to clone them, but unfortunately all his tries have failed
so far because the clones only live for one day. This will also happen if they bring Monica back.
David still holds on to the hope that Monica will be special like him and last forever like
he did while trapped in the helicopter, so he goes looking for her. He finds her in her bedroom and
begins to cry while brushing hair from her face. At that moment Monica wakes up and greets David
with a warm smile. Now for this one day, David and Monica can spend some time together. David happily
shows Monica paintings of his journey, they play hide and seek, and they celebrate his birthday
too. When the lights outside grow dim, David tucks Monica into bed, worried that she won’t wake up.
Suddenly Monica tells him she loves him, which makes David smiles in a mix of grief and joy.
Then he decides to sleep next to her, reaching his dreams for the first time in his life.