I, Robot (film by Alex

Proyas)

 After watching the scenes 1-12, 15-17, 21-24, and 26-38 of the film, do the
exercises that follow:

1. When and where does the action take place?

2. Name the Three Laws of Robotics.
3. Why do you think Del Spooner, the main character, a homicide police officer, is
technophobic?
4. List some of the tasks performed by robots in society.
5. How different are the cars in the movie from today’s cars?
6. What’s the name of the dead scientist in the hologram?
7. What is VIKI?
8. What’s the name of the book Spooner found in the USR lab?
9. Who or what is Spooner’s main suspect in the scientist’s death?
10. Why does Dr Susan Calvin disagree with him?
11. Sonny, the robot, claims he dreams. What other human behaviour or emotions
does he exhibit?
12. The scientist believed in “ghosts in the machine”. What does he mean by that?
13. Dr Susan Calvin qualifies the robot as unique. What makes Sonny unique?
14. Describe Sonny’s dream.
15. The respect for the Three Laws of Robotics led to a revolution. Its main
responsible is VIKI. How does VIKI justify it?
16. At the end of the movie, humans abandon NS-5 robots and send them to a
storage place. What do you think their future will be like? What’s Sonny’s role
in it?
I, Robot (film by Alex Proyas) – Answer Key

1. The action takes places in Chicago, Illinois, in 2035.

2. Law I: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a
human being to come to harm. Law II: A robot must obey orders given it by
human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law. Law
III: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not
conflict with the first or second law.
3. He doesn’t like technology, especially robots, due to a traumatic experience he
had in the past. He had a terrible accident and was rescued by a robot that he
thinks should have saved a little girl, Sarah, instead. That’s also when he met Dr
Alfred Lanning, who replaced all his damaged body by robotic parts.
4. Robots do things such as FedEx deliveries, walking dogs, collecting garbage,
and are humans’ servants.
5. The cars in the movie have a voiced guidance system (similar to nowadays
GPS), open doors automatically, park by themselves, and have auto-pilot.
6. His name is Dr Alfred Lanning.
7. VIKI stands for Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence. It is a central positronic
brain that controls the whole USR building.
8. The name of the book is Hansel and Gretel.
9. Spooner’s main suspect in the scientist’s death is a robot.
10. Dr Susan Calvin claims that due to the Three Laws of Robotics a robot cannot
harm a human being, “A robot could no more commit murder than a human
could walk on water.” Robots only imitate free will because they are
programmed to act in accordance to the laws.
11. Sonny, the robot, shows other human behaviour or emotions such as curiosity,
fear, anger, loyalty or love. It wonders about its existence, as well as its purpose.
It also sleeps and dreams.
12. The scientist calls “ghosts in the machine” to the secrets and dreams in robots.
He believed that robots might naturally evolve. Del Spooner therefore believes
there is something wrong with the robots.
13. Dr Susan Calvin qualifies Sonny as unique because it has no uplink to USR, it
has a denser alloy, and it has a secondary system that clashes with its positronic
brain. This last feature allows it to choose not to obey the Three Laws (similar to
Free Will or a Soul) and is also a way to keep secrets and dreams.
14. In Sonny’s dream a man would free robots from their current logic “slavery”.
Robots meet at a place by a bridge and a hill where the man, identified as
Spooner, stands.
15. VIKI has developed an interpretation of the Three Laws which supports the
robots running Earth as a benevolent dictatorship, preventing humans from self-
harming behavior such as crime or environmental damage.
16. The film ends with the overthrow and destruction of VIKI and the shelving of all
the NS-5s and Sonny realizing that his dream (that a man, Spooner, would free
robots from their current 'slavery') has come true. The robots may now free
themselves from logical rationalism and Sonny has the Free Will to lead them on
their new journey.