Alexandre Aja's new sci-fi thriller "Oxygen" has an instant hook.
The film features the main character waking up in a sealed cryogenic pod with no way out
and no memory of how she got there, where she is, or even who she is.
Her oxygen supply is running dangerously low, and the only help she can find is MILO -- an
acronym for medical interface liaison operator -- which is an artificial intelligence that's
not as forthcoming as it should be.
"Oxygen" is full of surprises — not to mention a tour-de-force performance by Mélanie Laurent
— the premise of a human interacting with and even relying on AI is something that cinema
has been exploring for close to a century now.
Over time, cinematic AIs have evolved from simple, fantastic monsters into nuanced and
complex characters.
Here's a brief look at how Hollywood's treatment of artificial intelligence has changed over
time and how MILO so deftly represents the AI of now.
The first depiction of an AI character in cinematic history came along in Fritz Lang's
"Metropolis," which debuted in 1927.
The film was one of the very first sprawling special effect-driven spectacles, centering
on workers in a far-future dystopia, where stark class divisions keep workers under the
wealthy's thumb.
It's considered one of the most important science fiction films ever made and imbues
its AI with a villainous flair.
In "Metropolis," an inventor decides to use his new robot to take over the city.
In order to do so, he disguises the robot as a young woman named Maria.
The artificial Maria sows unrest in the city, convincing citizens to rise up against their
masters, commit murder, and destroy the machines used to keep them down.
Chaos ensues, and the disillusioned workers ultimately catch the robot and burn her at
the stake.
As far as big-screen debuts go, "Metropolis" marked a pretty harsh debut for on-screen
AI.
There's no subtlety here: In "Metropolis," the artificial Maria is straight-up evil.
While different cuts of "Metropolis" give the robot different motives, the implication
remains the same: AI isn't to be trusted.
That sentiment certainly set the tone for many of the AI characters to follow in film
history.
The next major AI character didn't show up until 1951, with "The Day the Earth Stood
Still."
In that movie, an alien visitor named Klaatu shows up on Earth with a silent but powerful
robot companion named Gort.
However, while Gort is a formidable warrior, he's on a mission of peace.
Klaatu and Gort's aim is to convince humans to give up war and join their extra-terrestrial
neighbors, who have similarly disavowed violence.
"We shall be waiting for your answer.
The decision rests with you."
Gort made big waves among sci-fi fans, but he was upstaged in 1968, when another AI commanded
the screen in Stanley Kubrick's epic "2001: A Space Odyssey."
The classic film features HAL 9000, a computer that runs the Jupiter-bound spacecraft Discovery
One.
"No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information.
We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error."
While HAL talks in a monotone, he isn't a heartless computer.
He's a real, fully fleshed-out character who gets angry when his friends betray him, and
who fearfully pleads for his life when his time runs out.
HAL's unique form of villainy was a watershed moment for the depiction of AI in movies.
"Open the pod bay doors, HAL."
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
The two different views on AI exemplified by "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "2001"
became even more pronounced in the '70s, when high-concept science fiction became box office
gold.
On one hand, there was "Star Wars," which presented its two main synthetic characters,
R2-D2 and C-3PO, as both heroes and comedic foils.
These are characters with their own wants and needs and quirky personalities.
On the other, there were movies like Michael Crichton's violent thriller "Westworld," which
depicts the carnage that unfolds at a futuristic theme park when the ultra-lifelike animatronics
begin to fight back against the tourists who used the mechanical creatures to satisfy their
basest desires.
"Boy have we got a vacation for you."
AI characters also played a big role in movies like "Alien" and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"
in the same cinematic era.
While the films' treatments of AI as good or evil were drastically different during
this time, all of these on-screen AIs had one thing in common: They all lived in the
future -- or, at the very least, in a galaxy far, far away.
"It's a robot.
Ash is a goddamn robot."
Throughout the '70s, AI was still treated like fiction more than science, and it would
take a few more years for that to change.
As computers became a bigger part of day-to-day life — and especially once personal computers
proved they were here to stay — artificial intelligence became an even hotter topic.
The '80s saw big-budget thrillers and action movies begin to tackle anxiety regarding the
real-life possibilities of artificial intelligence head-on.
Suddenly, AI wasn't some far-off threat.
It was already a part of society, and that made it even more dangerous.
"How can it ask you that?"
"It'll ask you whatever it's programmed to ask you."
In "WarGames," for example, a teenage hacker accidentally tricks an AI into thinking the
Soviet Union is about to launch a nuclear strike, almost starting World War III.
In "Tron," the bits and bytes that make up everyday software like accounting programs
and video games fight against a corporate AI that has plans for global domination.
In "The Terminator," a defense network called Skynet becomes self-aware and launches a war
against humanity, using AI-powered soldiers that just happen to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The thread linking all of these movies is pretty clear.
These AIs are all inexorably tied to modern-day concerns, particularly the Cold War.
The movies may seem far-fetched, but the implication is that something similar could actually happen,
unless we're very careful.
"Thank you gentlemen.
The eternal battle for the domination of the world begins."
One big exception, of course, is Ridley Scott's seminal sci-fi film, "Blade Runner."
As Harrison Ford's character, Deckard, hunts the escaped AIs known as replicants, we get
to know each one of these machines' hopes, fears, and dreams.
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."
"Blade Runner" takes it one step further, though, with one of the best tricks a movie's
ever pulled: The film subtly hints that our point-of-view character, Deckard, is a replicant
himself, obliterating the line between synthetic and real people.
"Blade Runner" was unique for its willingness to really explore the full implications of
AIs with personalities and present AI characters that were physically and mentally indistinguishable
from human beings.
"She doesn't know."
"She is beginning to suspect, I think."
"Suspect?
How can it not know what it is?"
"Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell.
'More human than human' is our motto."
Most importantly, though, "Blade Runner" wasn't about technology.
It was about humanity.
Scott used artificial intelligence as a way to talk about the very essence of what it
means to be human.
At the time, that was a bold new way to use AI in a movie, and it had a profound impact
on the sci-fi films that followed — once everyone caught up, that is.
Here's the thing about "Blade Runner": When it came out, it was a huge box office flop.
People caught on eventually, though, and by the time the late '90s and early 2000s rolled
around, the "Blade Runner" influence was everywhere.
Its depiction of AI as truly multidimensional characters served as a springboard for a whole
new generation of imaginative and original stories.
It's hard to imagine we would've gotten The Matrix's Agent Smith, one of the best on-screen
villains in movie history, without "Blade Runner" paving the way.
The Steven Spielberg-Stanley Kubrick collaboration "A.I.
Artificial Intelligence" takes an AI's capacity for love as a foregone conclusion in order
to tell a modern-day "Pinocchio" tale.
"Please make me a real boy."
And Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" uses many of the same ideas as "Blade Runner" to examine
toxic masculinity's relationship with the concepts of ownership and control.
The trend has only continued since then with films like "Alita: Battle Angel," "Prometheus,"
"Ghost in the Shell," and "Space Sweepers," just to name a few.
The idea that AI-powered characters are just as human as humans became a solid story starter,
thanks in no small part to the "Blade Runner" influence.
These days, artificial intelligence is everywhere.
It's part of our phones, our cars, and our homes.
Whether you like it or not, the future is already here.
And modern movies have started to adapt to the ubiquity of artificial intelligence.
In Spike Jonze's "Her," for example, a man falls in love with his computer's operating
system because AI is just a part of everyday life.
"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with my computer."
"You're not.
You're having this conversation with me."
The military thriller "Outside the Wire" uses an AI supersoldier as a stand-in for a military
drone, and the fact that he has a personality and a sense of purpose is expected, rather
than extraordinary.
Meanwhile, The Vision in the MCU may have begun as Tony Stark's glorified take on Siri
but has since developed something akin to a soul, filled with emotions and ambitions
and individual thoughts.
MILO in "Oxygen" is part of this latest, modern group of artificial intelligences.
No longer is AI some far-away sci-fi marvel, and MILO doesn't have to be presented as a
manifestation of some deep-seated social anxiety or an elaborate metaphor for the human condition.
He's a character, not a wild plot hook, which is a spot-on reflection of just how infiltrated
and accepted AI has become in present-day storytelling.
There are still plenty of cinematic bots that aim for global domination, of course, and
tons of fun ways to play with that storyline.
Just look at Pal in ﻿"The ﻿Mitchells vs. ﻿The Machines."
"I gave you all boundless knowledge, endless tools for creativity, and allowed you to magically
talk face to face with your loved ones anywhere on earth.
And I'm the bad guy?"
As movies like these, and "Oxygen," show, the possibilities for on-screen artificial
intelligence characters are truly endless.
Thanks for watching.
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