It is 2035, A. D., and one man knew that robots would simply lead to destruction. I, Robot follows the investigation of Detective Del Spooner (Will Smith), who has to solve the murder of Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell). Spooner harbors an intense distrust for robots, but lives in a world where they are as common as mankind’s existence. Despite his fear of them, he has to deal with facing them everyday. When Dr. Lanning, who works at U.S. Robotics, is reported dead, Spooner suspects that one of the robots did it. Lanning was the founder and inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics, and has recently taken hold of a new line of robots. His death is listed as a suicide, but there is enough evidence to think that this is not so. When Spooner examines Lanning’s office, he traces the clues to an NS-5 robot. People tell him it is impossible, because robots are forbidden to harm humans. But Spooner begins to wonder if robots are capable of emotions, and more importantly, murder. When one robot begins to disobey them, Spooner thinks that it would only be a matter of time until the robots take over the world. Humans have already become too dependent on them, and Spooner must convince everyone how dangerous that could be.

I, Robot is a film based on the works of science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The writer’s short story collection of the same name was credited in the film. Though it doesn’t follow a single Asimov story, the film took most of its ideas from Asimov’s works. I, Robot is also attributed to Hardwired, a speculative screenplay by Jeff Vintar. It also bears a resemblance to a 1939 short story “I, Robot” written by Eando Binder.

I, Robot was directed by Alex Proyas, who was also the director of films like The Crow and Dark City. It also stars Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood and Shia LeBeouf, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. The high-tech thriller didn’t please a lot of Asimov fans, but did rather well in the box office. It grossed 144,801,023 domestically.


-Maria Gonzalez, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox)