Picture the future: Year 2035; a world where robots are common and popular assistants for their human owners. Police Detective Del Spooner (played by Will Smith) has a deep-seeded resentment (almost hatred or racism) for robots. He is investigating the "apparent suicide" of the very doctor that once saved his life.
Dr. Alfred Lanning (played by James Cromwell) was a leading scientist in the development and "anthropomorphization" of the robots (making them more human like). Working out of U.S. Robotics (U.S.R.), the major manufacturer and distributor of robots, Lanning created a "unique" NS-5 robot (particular model of robot--the newest model) that calls itself Sonny. Even though the Three Laws of Robotics dictate that Sonny could not possibly be the murderer, Det. Spooner goes to great ends to capture and arrest the frightened robot.
Sonny
courtesy of gulliver cc stage productions
In interrogating Sonny, Det. Spooner discovers that Sonny is a very special robot--"that Robot needed a motive," he says. Rather quickly, however, Lawrence Robertson, head of U.S.R., hushes the issue--taking Sonny to be deactivated and placing a gag order on the police department. While running a diagnostic scan, Dr. Susan Calvin (another friend of Lanning) discovers Sonny's unique ability to break the Three Laws of Robotics, if he chooses. Oddly, this is a characteristic that Lanning himself added to Sonny--a distinctive trait that makes Sonny essentially capable of anything.
In attempting to find the truth, Spooner recruits the help of Dr. Calvin. As the movie progresses, his focus shifts from Sonny to Lawrence Robertson. Spooner finds himself constantly getting attacked by "malfunctioning" Robots of U.S.R.'s newest lines, which are all uplinked to a central robot-supercomputer called V.I.K.I--Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence. Along with the new robots, the entire city is linked to U.S.R. through V.I.K.I.
trying to survive the war
courtesy of telegraph.co.uk
Just as he gets close to discovering the truth, an entire army of NS-5 robots is deployed in the center of the city. Chaos and fighting begins, and the entire city is taken over by NS-5's claiming to be "attempting a transition," while "avoiding as many human casualties as possible." Along with Sonny (who we find was never deactivated), Spooner and Calvin make their way to U.S.R.'s main office at Headquarters, where they expect to find U.S.R. President and Owner, Lawrence Robertson--whom they think is guilty. However, they arrive only to find him dead.
Finally, Spooner realizes his mistake. He has been following the wrong trail, and yet the one he followed led him right to the one who was responsible for the NS-5's rebellion: V.I.K.I. It was V.I.K.I. who had imprisoned Dr. Lanning, and Lanning's only way out was to create a robot capable of breaking the Three Laws to kill him and create a breadcrumb trail for Det. Spooner, (Lanning knew he would love the idea of a robot murderer) leading to V.I.K.I.
Three Amigos, Three Musketeers, or Three Blind Mice?
courtesy of movies at yahoo.com
After a fighting off a multitude of NS-5's the three heroes manage to come up with a plan to save the city. Sonny uses his special strength and abilities to get nanites (microscopic robots that destroy larger complex positronic or robotic brains) and destroy any regular NS-5's that get in his way. Upon his return, he saves Dr. Calvin, and tosses the nanites to Det. Spooner, who then injects the nanites into V.I.K.I's positronic core--killing her. The NS-5's return to normal, and are sent for packaging in crates at Lake Michigan. Sonny makes his way to the site: whether he joins the other NS-5's, frees them, or becomes their leader is Sonny's choice...
