Hi, Movie Recaps here.
Today I will show you an action, drama, sci-fi film from 2014, titled Automata.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
In the near future, Earth has lost 99% of the world's population to solar flares.
As humanity gathers in safe cities, ROC Corporation creates the Automata Pilgrim 7000's, primitive
humanoid robots that are able to rebuild and operate in this harsh environment.
These robots come with two inalterable protocols: they can not harm any form of life, and they
may not alter themselves or other robots.
Initially, they are considered our salvation, but as they are not able to stop desertification,
they eventually are relegated to manual labor and servant jobs.
During a rainy evening, police officer Wallace visits the ghetto, where he finds a robot
repairing itself.
Shocked by this discovery, he shoots it in the head.
Meanwhile, Jacq Vaucan, an insurance investigator for ROC, is checking on his last case of the
day: a robot being accused of killing a dog.
After running the standard tests and deciding the robot is working fine, Jacq goes back
home to his pregnant wife, Rachel Vaucan.
She thinks that after the baby is born they should get a domestic pilgrim, but all Jacq
can think about is the beach he used to visit as a kid.
Later that evening, he is called by the police morgue to check on a robot.
Jacq does not believe it when he hears the pilgrim had been found repairing itself, but
the forensic technician opens it up and shows him it has been heavily modified; it is a
very sophisticated job that could have only been made by a clocksmith.
The technician gives Jacq the robot's kernel and tells him that judging by what was found
next to it, the unit was altered to smuggle tools and small parts.
She also points out this unit is lacking the second protocol, which is impossible.
The next day, he reports his findings to his boss Robert Bold, who does not believe in
the possibility of a robot without the second protocol either.
Jacq says he is burned out and wants to be transferred to the coast, Robert turns down
the request and orders him to take care of this mess.
Following the serial numbers from the self-repairing robot and its altered parts, Jacq arrives
at the wall that separates the city from the desert.
He suspects one of the workers made the alterations using the robots that work there as well.
A worker tells him those pieces belong to 206, a unit that is still operative.
While Jacq checks its charging station, 206 shows up and watches him from afar, so Jacq
decides to follow it.
After going through a door with a broken lock, he makes it to the ghetto on the other side
of the wall; this area is restricted and anyone walking there will be shot on sight.
Jacq is no exception and he is soon under fire from the wall guards, so he runs away
and hides inside a shipping container.
It is in that container that he finds 206 holding a box, but his question about it goes
unanswered when 206 sets itself on fire.
The burned robot is taken to ROC's labs, where it is opened and examined.
This pilgrim is smuggling tools and parts too, but he also has a rare nuclear battery,
which could power a robot indefinitely.
They manage to power up the unit once more, but as soon as Jacq starts asking it questions,
its circuits burn out.
Since a robot would never damage itself, Robert is angry because he thinks this is all Jacq's
fault.
But he accepts to give him the transfer if Jacq can prove a clocksmith truly is overriding
the second protocol.
When he returns home, he gives Rachel the news, but she rejects the idea and asks him
to leave him alone.
Jacq decides to visit the area where the first robot had been shot and when looking around,
he finds a hidden bag with another nuclear battery in it.
The next day, he meets with Wallace and his partner Ellis to ask him about what he had
seen that day.
Wallace accepts to help Jacq find the clocksmith in the ghetto in exchange for splitting the
proceeds of the battery on the black market.
Together they visit a red-light house where they meet Cleo, a robot that has been modified
to have intimacy with humans.
She is capable of causing pain if that is part of her client's wishes for pleasure.
Freaked out, Wallace shoots Cleo and exists the building, where Jacq scolds him for what
he did.
Wallace says it was on purpose because now Jacq can wait for Cleo to be taken to the
clocksmith and follow them, then he threatens him with a knife, reminding him he wants the
promised money before leaving.
Jacq sticks to Wallace's plan and follows Cleo's owner to the place that does her repairs.
There he meets Doctor Susan Dupré, who claims not to be the one that altered Cleo.
Jacq leaves the burned robot's kernel with her and tells her that if she can discover
who modified it, he will give her his nuclear battery.
When he gets home, he sends Robert a report of what he has learned so far, but the message
is intercepted by ROC.
The report reaches chief of security Vernon Conway and he takes it to the CEO, Dominic
Hawk.
Hawk orders Conway to take care of it.
Moments later, Jacq receives two messages: one from ROC telling him the case has been
closed and he should return the kernel, the other one from Dupré informing him she has
found something.
Jacq goes to see her at her lab, where he finds Cleo repairing herself thanks to Dupré
having combined the shot kernel with hers.
Their talk is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of two kids that shoot Dupré and
go after Jacq as well, he runs and escapes through the back door.
Outside, he jumps inside a car thinking it is his cabbie, but Cleo is actually the one
at the wheel.
She drives away as another car keeps hitting them and even begins shooting at them.
Eventually, they make it to the desert, where both cars crash when they hit a maze of stanchions.
The henchmen are killed, and Jacq gets hurt.
In the morning, Jacq regains consciousness and asks Cleo for help, she leaves after hearing
him.
She comes back a few hours later, though, and has brought three other altered robots
with her.
Together they put Jacq on a car seat that they drag through the desert while they cross
it.
Jacq tries to order them to take him back to the city, to which they respond it is impossible
and they are going to a safer place instead.
Seeing as these robots will not follow human orders, Jacq tries to leave on his own, but
the robots follow him to protect him since they still have the first protocol.
When Jacq passes out again, they put him back on the chair, feed him worms, and even build
a condenser to gather water for him to drink.
Jacq discovers the robots have salvaged many things from the cars, including the nuclear
battery.
Back in the city, Rachel's water has broken so she is leaving for the hospital.
At ROC's, Hawk and Conway are talking to Robert, telling him Jacq is to be blamed for a new
wave of altered robots.
Robert does not believe this, he still thinks Jacq is loyal to the company.
In the desert, Jacq asks Cleo for the bag of salvaged items.
He finds a flare gun, which he keeps to himself, and his pager, which he uses to send Robert
a message before the battery dies.
Robert sees the message and sends Wallace to retrieve Jacq. Wallace and Ellis drive
to the desert and Jacq sees their car from afar.
Thinking they're here to rescue him, he shoots his flare gun to indicate his location before
asking the robots to stop walking, even hitting one to get it to shut up.
The police officers soon catch up with them, but Jacq is hit by Wallace as soon as he gets
off the car.
When he grabs the nuclear battery and gives it to Ellis, the robots ask him to stop, so
Wallace starts shooting them.
He manages to destroy two and is about to shoot Cleo too when Jacq kills him with the
flare gun.
Ellis gets scared and escapes in his car, refusing to take Jacq back to the city with
him.
Jacq can only watch and freak out as the two remaining robots salvage as many parts as
possible from the two destroyed pilgrims before leaving.
After realizing they will not be carrying him around on the chair anymore, Jacq salvages
what he can from Wallace's pockets and follows them.
While camping, Jacq tells them he has another battery and he will give it to them if they
take him to the city, Cleo responds they will make it to their destination tomorrow and
he may be able to find a vehicle there.
Meanwhile, Robert is visited at his home by Hawk and Conway, who take him back to ROC's
to hear Ellis' report.
Hawk explains that the first pilgrim was a quantum brain with no security protocols,
but it became too smart and did not need humans anymore.
The last task this unit was asked to do before it was deactivated was to program the two
current protocols.
That is why nobody can break them, they were not created by people and can not be understood
by the human mind.
Robert is sent to the desert with Conway and two other officers to find and kill Jacq before
more robots evolve further beyond human understanding.
The next day, Jacq and the two robots arrive at an abandoned factory, where he finally
meets the clocksmith responsible for the alterations and gets incredibly shocked to find out it
is another pilgrim that evolved on its own.
He enters the factory and finds all the smuggled parts on a table, ready to be assembled in
some kind of strange model.
After Jacq leaves the room to find a vehicle, the robots start working on this model, but
they are missing the final part, a nuclear battery.
Jacq does find a car outside but it is destroyed, so he is starting to lose hope.
He approaches the edge of the cliff, seemingly considering jumping, but the clocksmith robot
joins him.
After some philosophical discussion, it confesses they want to go to the radioactive area where
humans can not reach them, but to be able to do that they need one final thing.
Jacq understands and hands it his nuclear battery.
When night falls, Robert's team finds Wallace's body and they decide to wait there when Conway
gets a message saying two ladies will be joining them.
Another car arrives a few hours later, bringing Rachel and her newborn daughter.
Robert is upset by this and he refuses to use Rachel as bait, when Conway stops him
from going back, Robert shoots him on the shoulder and gets shot in return.
After drinking and dancing with Cleo, Jacq watches the pilgrims finish their creation.
By using the nuclear battery, they give life to some sort of animal-like robot.
He falls asleep afterward, only to be woken up the next morning by the sound of an engine.
The robots have repaired the car for him, so Jacq uses it to leave after thanking them
and wishing them goodbye.
However, he needs to stop the car midway to throw up, and that's when he notices scavenger
birds flying around, which allows him to find Robert.
Before dying in his arms, he accuses Jacq of betrayal and tells him they have Rachel.
Conway and his team make it to the abandoned factory and open fire on the robots, which
makes one of the pilgrims jump off the cliff.
When the clocksmith pilgrim refuses to follow orders, Conway shoots it before retrieving
its kernel, and he is about to destroy Cleo as well when Jacq suddenly arrives in the
car.
They open fire on him but he keeps driving ahead as Rachel steals a knife from her captor
and stabs him with it, allowing her to escape.
Jacq manages to hit two of the men with the car and shoots a third with the shotgun he
grabs from one of the bodies, then runs inside the factory while Conway is distracted by
the animal-like robot.
Conway enters the factory too and finds Jacq on the highest area.
After accusing Jacq of betraying his own people, he points his shotgun at him to kill him,
but the animal-like robot arrives and pushes him off the cliff.
Jacq picks up his own shotgun, thinking he may have to defend himself from it, but they
are interrupted by Rachel and the baby.
The couple reunites while Cleo watches them.
When she dares to touch the baby, her gentle fingers cause her to stop crying.
Jacq helps Cleo and the animal-like robot reach the other side of the cliff and, after
saying her goodbyes to her, he and his family leave in the car.
They eventually make it to the coast, where Jacq regains his hope for a bright future.