A.I.
Artificial Intelligence, also known as A.I.,
is a 2001 American science fiction drama film
directed by Steven Spielberg.
The screenplay by Spielberg and screen story
by Ian Watson were based on the 1969 short
story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by
Brian Aldiss.
The film was produced by Kathleen Kennedy,
Spielberg and Bonnie Curtis.
It stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances
O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt.
Set in a futuristic post-climate change society,
A.I. tells the story of David (Osment), a
childlike android uniquely programmed with
the ability to love.
Development of A.I. originally began with
producer-director Stanley Kubrick, after he
acquired the rights to Aldiss' story in the
early 1970s.
Kubrick hired a series of writers until the
mid-1990s, including Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw,
Ian Watson, and Sara Maitland.
The film languished in protracted development
for years, partly because Kubrick felt computer-generated
imagery was not advanced enough to create
the David character, whom he believed no child
actor would convincingly portray.
In 1995, Kubrick handed A.I. to Spielberg,
but the film did not gain momentum until Kubrick's
death in 1999.
Spielberg remained close to Watson's film
treatment for the screenplay.
The film divided critics, with the overall
balance being positive, and grossed approximately
$235 million.
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards
at the 74th Academy Awards, for Best Visual
Effects and Best Original Score (by John Williams).
In a 2016 BBC poll of 177 critics around the
world, Steven Spielberg's A.I.
Artificial Intelligence was voted the eighty-third
greatest film since 2000.
A.I. is dedicated to Stanley Kubrick.
== Plot ==
In the late 22nd century, rising sea levels
from global warming have wiped out coastal
cities such as Amsterdam, Venice, and New
York and drastically reduced the world's population.
A new type of robots called Mecha, advanced
humanoids capable of displaying thought and
emotion, have been created.
David, a Mecha that resembles a human child
and is programmed to display love for his
owners, is given to Henry Swinton and his
wife Monica, whose son Martin, after contracting
a rare disease, has been placed in suspended
animation and is not expected to recover.
Monica feels uneasy with David, but eventually
warms to him and activates his imprinting
protocol, causing him to have an enduring
childlike love for her.
David is befriended by Teddy, a robotic teddy
bear that belonged to Martin.
Martin is cured of his disease and brought
home.
As he recovers, he grows jealous of David.
He tricks David into entering the parents's
bedroom at night and cutting off a lock of
Monica's hair.
This upsets the parents, particularly Henry,
who fears David intended to injure them.
At a pool party, one of Martin's friends pokes
David with a knife, activating David's self-protection
programming.
David grabs Martin and they fall into the
pool.
Martin is saved from drowning, but Henry persuades
Monica to return David to his creators for
destruction.
Instead, she abandons David and Teddy in the
forest.
She warns David to avoid all humans, and tells
him to find other unregistered Mecha who can
protect him.
David is captured for an anti-Mecha "Flesh
Fair", where obsolete, unlicensed Mecha are
destroyed before cheering crowds.
David is placed on a platform with Gigolo
Joe, a male sex worker Mecha who is on the
run after being framed for murder.
Before the pair can be destroyed with acid,
the crowd, thinking David is a real boy, begins
booing and throwing things at the show's emcee.
In the chaos, David and Joe escape.
Since Joe survived thanks to David, he agrees
to help him find Blue Fairy, whom David remembers
from The Adventures of Pinocchio, and believes
can turn him into a real boy, allowing Monica
to love him and take him home.
Joe and David make their way to the decadent
resort town of Rouge City, where "Dr. Know",
a holographic answer engine, directs them
to the top of Rockefeller Center in the flooded
ruins of Manhattan.
There, David meets a copy of himself and destroys
it.
He then meets Professor Hobby, his creator,
who tells David he was built in the image
of the professor's dead son David.
The engineers are thrilled by his ability
to have a will without being programmed.
He reveals they have been monitoring him to
see how he progresses and altered Dr. Know
to guide him to Manhattan, back to the lab
he was created in.
David finds more copies of him, as well as
female versions called Darlene, that have
been made there.
Disheartened, David lets himself fall from
a ledge of the building.
He is rescued by Joe, flying an amphibicopter
he has stolen from the police who were pursuing
him.
David tells Joe he saw the Blue Fairy underwater,
and wants to go down to meet her.
Joe is captured by the authorities, who snare
him with an electromagnet.
Before he is pulled up, he activates the amphibicopter's
dive function for David, telling him to remember
him for he declares "I am, I was."
David and Teddy dive to see the Fairy, which
turns out to be a statue at the now-sunken
Coney Island.
The two become trapped when the Wonder Wheel
falls on their vehicle.
David repeatedly asks the Fairy to turn him
into a real boy.
Eventually the ocean freezes and David's power
source is depleted.
Two thousand years later, humans are extinct,
and Manhattan is buried under glacial ice.
The Mecha have evolved into an advanced silicon-based
form called Specialists.
They find David and Teddy, and discover they
are original Mecha who knew living humans,
making them special.
The Specialists revive David and Teddy.
David walks to the frozen Fairy statue, which
collapses when he touches it.
The Mecha use David's memories to reconstruct
the Swinton home.
David asks the Specialists if they can make
him human, but they cannot.
However, he insists they recreate Monica from
DNA from the lock of her hair, which Teddy
has kept.
The Mecha warn David that the clone can live
for only a day, and that the process cannot
be repeated.
David spends the next day with Monica and
Teddy.
Before she drifts off to sleep, Monica tells
David she has always loved him.
Teddy climbs onto the bed and watches the
two lie peacefully together.
== Cast ==
Haley Joel Osment as David.
Osment was Spielberg's first and only choice
for the role.
To portray the character, Osment avoided blinking
his eyes and "programmed" himself with good
posture.
Jude Law as Gigolo Joe.
To prepare for the role, Law studied the acting
of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, whose movements
Joe emulates.
Frances O'Connor as Monica Swinton
Sam Robards as Henry Swinton
Jake Thomas as Martin Swinton
William Hurt as Professor Allen Hobby
Brendan Gleeson as Flesh Fair impresario Lord
Johnson-Johnson
Jack Angel as Teddy (voice)
Robin Williams as Dr. Know (voice)
Ben Kingsley as Specialist (voice)
Meryl Streep as the Blue Fairy (voice)
Chris Rock as Comedian Robot (voice)
== Production ==
=== Development ===
Kubrick began development on an adaptation
of "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" in the
late 1970s, hiring the story's author, Brian
Aldiss, to write a film treatment.
In 1985, Kubrick asked Steven Spielberg to
direct the film, with Kubrick producing.
Warner Bros. agreed to co-finance A.I. and
cover distribution duties.
The film labored in development hell, and
Aldiss was fired by Kubrick over creative
differences in 1989.
Bob Shaw briefly served as writer, leaving
after six weeks due to Kubrick's demanding
work schedule, and Ian Watson was hired as
the new writer in March 1990.
Aldiss later remarked, "Not only did the bastard
fire me, he hired my enemy [Watson] instead."
Kubrick handed Watson The Adventures of Pinocchio
for inspiration, calling A.I. "a picaresque
robot version of Pinocchio".Three weeks later,
Watson gave Kubrick his first story treatment,
and concluded his work on A.I. in May 1991
with another treatment of 90 pages.
Gigolo Joe was originally conceived as a G.I.
Mecha, but Watson suggested changing him to
a male sex worker.
Kubrick joked, "I guess we lost the kiddie
market."
Meanwhile, Kubrick dropped A.I. to work on
a film adaptation of Wartime Lies, feeling
computer animation was not advanced enough
to create the David character.
However, after the release of Spielberg's
Jurassic Park, with its innovative computer-generated
imagery, it was announced in November 1993
that production of A.I. would begin in 1994.
Dennis Muren and Ned Gorman, who worked on
Jurassic Park, became visual effects supervisors,
but Kubrick was displeased with their previsualization,
and with the expense of hiring Industrial
Light & Magic.
=== Pre-production ===
In early 1994, the film was in pre-production
with Christopher "Fangorn" Baker as concept
artist, and Sara Maitland assisting on the
story, which gave it "a feminist fairy-tale
focus".
Maitland said that Kubrick never referred
to the film as A.I., but as Pinocchio.
Chris Cunningham became the new visual effects
supervisor.
Some of his unproduced work for A.I. can be
seen on the DVD, The Work of Director Chris
Cunningham.
Aside from considering computer animation,
Kubrick also had Joseph Mazzello do a screen
test for the lead role.
Cunningham helped assemble a series of "little
robot-type humans" for the David character.
"We tried to construct a little boy with a
movable rubber face to see whether we could
make it look appealing," producer Jan Harlan
reflected.
"But it was a total failure, it looked awful."
Hans Moravec was brought in as a technical
consultant.
Meanwhile, Kubrick and Harlan thought A.I.
would be closer to Steven Spielberg's sensibilities
as director.
Kubrick handed the position to Spielberg in
1995, but Spielberg chose to direct other
projects, and convinced Kubrick to remain
as director.
The film was put on hold due to Kubrick's
commitment to Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
After the filmmaker's death in March 1999,
Harlan and Christiane Kubrick approached Spielberg
to take over the director's position.
By November 1999, Spielberg was writing the
screenplay based on Watson's 90-page story
treatment.
It was his first solo screenplay credit since
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
Spielberg remained close to Watson's treatment,
but removed various sex scenes with Gigolo
Joe.
Pre-production was briefly halted during February
2000, because Spielberg pondered directing
other projects, which were Harry Potter and
the Philosopher's Stone, Minority Report and
Memoirs of a Geisha.
The following month Spielberg announced that
A.I. would be his next project, with Minority
Report as a follow-up.
When he decided to fast track A.I., Spielberg
brought Chris Baker back as concept artist.
=== Filming ===
The original start date was July 10, 2000,
but filming was delayed until August.
Aside from a couple of weeks shooting on location
in Oxbow Regional Park in Oregon, A.I. was
shot entirely using sound stages at Warner
Bros. Studios and the Spruce Goose Dome in
Long Beach, California.
The Swinton house was constructed on Stage
16, while Stage 20 was used for Rouge City
and other sets.
Spielberg copied Kubrick's obsessively secretive
approach to filmmaking by refusing to give
the complete script to cast and crew, banning
press from the set, and making actors sign
confidentiality agreements.
Social robotics expert Cynthia Breazeal served
as technical consultant during production.
Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law applied prosthetic
makeup daily in an attempt to look shinier
and robotic.
Costume designer Bob Ringwood (Batman, Troy)
studied pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip
for his influence on the Rouge City extras.
Spielberg found post-production on A.I. difficult
because he was simultaneously preparing to
shoot Minority Report.
== Soundtrack ==
The film's soundtrack was released by Warner
Sunset Records in 2001.
The original score was composed and conducted
by John Williams and featured singers Lara
Fabian on two songs and Josh Groban on one.
The film's score also had a limited release
as an official "For your consideration Academy
Promo", as well as a complete score issue
by La-La Land Records in 2015.
The band Ministry appears in the film playing
the song "What About Us?" (but the song does
not appear on the official soundtrack album).
== Release ==
=== 
Marketing ===
Warner Bros. used an alternate reality game
titled The Beast to promote the film.
Over forty websites were created by Atomic
Pictures in New York City (kept online at
Cloudmakers.org) including the website for
Cybertronics Corp.
There were to be a series of video games for
the Xbox video game console that followed
the storyline of The Beast, but they went
undeveloped.
To avoid audiences mistaking A.I. for a family
film, no action figures were created, although
Hasbro released a talking Teddy following
the film's release in June 2001.A.I. had its
premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2001.
=== Home media ===
A.I.
Artificial Intelligence was released on VHS
and DVD by Warner Home Video on March 5, 2002
in both a standard full-screen release with
no bonus features, and as a 2-Disc Special
Edition featuring the film in its original
1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen format as well
as an eight-part documentary detailing the
film's development, production, music and
visual effects.
The bonus features also included interviews
with Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances
O'Connor, Steven Spielberg and John Williams,
two teaser trailers for the film's original
theatrical release and an extensive photo
gallery featuring production sills and Stanley
Kubrick's original storyboards.The film was
released on Blu-ray Disc on April 5, 2011
by Paramount Home Media Distribution for the
U.S. and by Warner Home Video for international
markets.
This release featured the film a newly restored
high-definition print and incorporated all
the bonus features previously included on
the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.
=== Box office ===
The film opened in 3,242 theaters in the United
States on June 29, 2001, earning $29,352,630
during its opening weekend.
A.I went on to gross $78.62 million in US
totals as well as $157.31 million in foreign
countries, coming to a worldwide total of
$235.93 million.
=== Critical response ===
Based on 192 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes,
73% of critics gave the film positive notices
with a score of 6.6/10.
The website's critical consensus reads, "A
curious, not always seamless, amalgamation
of Kubrick's chilly bleakness and Spielberg's
warm-hearted optimism.
A.I. is, in a word, fascinating."
By comparison, Metacritic collected an average
score of 65, based on 32 reviews, which is
considered favorable.Producer Jan Harlan stated
that Kubrick "would have applauded" the final
film, while Kubrick's widow Christiane also
enjoyed A.I.
Brian Aldiss admired the film as well: "I
thought what an inventive, intriguing, ingenious,
involving film this was.
There are flaws in it and I suppose I might
have a personal quibble but it's so long since
I wrote it."
Of the film's ending, he wondered how it might
have been had Kubrick directed the film: "That
is one of the 'ifs' of film history—at least
the ending indicates Spielberg adding some
sugar to Kubrick's wine.
The actual ending is overly sympathetic and
moreover rather overtly engineered by a plot
device that does not really bear credence.
But it's a brilliant piece of film and of
course it's a phenomenon because it contains
the energies and talents of two brilliant
filmmakers."
Richard Corliss heavily praised Spielberg's
direction, as well as the cast and visual
effects.
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, saying
that it was "wonderful and maddening."
Leonard Maltin, on the other hand, gives the
film two stars out of four in his Movie Guide,
writing: "[The] intriguing story draws us
in, thanks in part to Osment's exceptional
performance, but takes several wrong turns;
ultimately, it just doesn't work.
Spielberg rewrote the adaptation Stanley Kubrick
commissioned of the Brian Aldiss short story
'Super Toys Last All Summer Long'; [the] result
is a curious and uncomfortable hybrid of Kubrick
and Spielberg sensibilities."
However, he calls John Williams' music score
"striking".
Jonathan Rosenbaum compared A.I. to Solaris
(1972), and praised both "Kubrick for proposing
that Spielberg direct the project and Spielberg
for doing his utmost to respect Kubrick's
intentions while making it a profoundly personal
work."
Film critic Armond White, of the New York
Press, praised the film noting that "each
part of David's journey through carnal and
sexual universes into the final eschatological
devastation becomes as profoundly philosophical
and contemplative as anything by cinema's
most thoughtful, speculative artists – Borzage,
Ozu, Demy, Tarkovsky."
Filmmaker Billy Wilder hailed A.I. as "the
most underrated film of the past few years."
When British filmmaker Ken Russell saw the
film, he wept during the ending.Mick LaSalle
gave a largely negative review.
"A.I. exhibits all its creators' bad traits
and none of the good.
So we end up with the structureless, meandering,
slow-motion endlessness of Kubrick combined
with the fuzzy, cuddly mindlessness of Spielberg."
Dubbing it Spielberg's "first boring movie",
LaSalle also believed the robots at the end
of the film were aliens, and compared Gigolo
Joe to the "useless" Jar Jar Binks, yet praised
Robin Williams for his portrayal of a futuristic
Albert Einstein.
Peter Travers gave a mixed review, concluding
"Spielberg cannot live up to Kubrick's darker
side of the future."
But he still put the film on his top ten list
that year for best movies.
David Denby in The New Yorker criticized A.I.
for not adhering closely to his concept of
the Pinocchio character.
Spielberg responded to some of the criticisms
of the film, stating that many of the "so
called sentimental" elements of A.I., including
the ending, were in fact Kubrick's and the
darker elements were his own.
However, Sara Maitland, who worked on the
project with Kubrick in the 1990s, claimed
that one of the reasons Kubrick never started
production on A.I. was because he had a hard
time making the ending work.
James Berardinelli found the film "consistently
involving, with moments of near-brilliance,
but far from a masterpiece.
In fact, as the long-awaited 'collaboration'
of Kubrick and Spielberg, it ranks as something
of a disappointment."
Of the film's highly debated finale, he claimed,
"There is no doubt that the concluding 30
minutes are all Spielberg; the outstanding
question is where Kubrick's vision left off
and Spielberg's began."Screenwriter Ian Watson
has speculated, "Worldwide, A.I. was very
successful (and the 4th highest earner of
the year) but it didn't do quite so well in
America, because the film, so I'm told, was
too poetical and intellectual in general for
American tastes.
Plus, quite a few critics in America misunderstood
the film, thinking for instance that the Giacometti-style
beings in the final 20 minutes were aliens
(whereas they were robots of the future who
had evolved themselves from the robots in
the earlier part of the film) and also thinking
that the final 20 minutes were a sentimental
addition by Spielberg, whereas those scenes
were exactly what I wrote for Stanley and
exactly what he wanted, filmed faithfully
by Spielberg."In 2002, Spielberg told film
critic Joe Leydon that "People pretend to
think they know Stanley Kubrick, and think
they know me, when most of them don't know
either of us".
"And what's really funny about that is, all
the parts of A.I. that people assume were
Stanley's were mine.
And all the parts of A.I. that people accuse
me of sweetening and softening and sentimentalizing
were all Stanley's.
The teddy bear was Stanley's.
The whole last 20 minutes of the movie was
completely Stanley's.
The whole first 35, 40 minutes of the film
– all the stuff in the house – was word
for word, from Stanley's screenplay.
This was Stanley's vision."
"Eighty percent of the critics got it all
mixed up.
But I could see why.
Because, obviously, I've done a lot of movies
where people have cried and have been sentimental.
And I've been accused of sentimentalizing
hard-core material.
But in fact it was Stanley who did the sweetest
parts of A.I., not me.
I'm the guy who did the dark center of the
movie, with the Flesh Fair and everything
else.
That's why he wanted me to make the movie
in the first place.
He said, 'This is much closer to your sensibilities
than my own.'"Upon rewatching the film many
years after its release, BBC film critic Mark
Kermode apologized to Spielberg in an interview
in January 2013 for "getting it wrong" on
the film when he first viewed it in 2001.
He now believes the film to be Spielberg's
"enduring masterpiece".
=== Accolades ===
Visual effects supervisors Dennis Muren, Stan
Winston, Michael Lantieri and Scott Farrar
were nominated for the Academy Award for Best
Visual Effects, while John Williams was nominated
for Best Original Music Score.
Steven Spielberg, Jude Law and Williams received
nominations at the 59th Golden Globe Awards.
A.I. was successful at the Saturn Awards,
winning five awards, including Best Science
Fiction Film along with Best Writing for Spielberg
and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for
Osment
