User:Nyaronya/Mother/Android

Plot

On Christmas Eve at some point in the future, Georgia Olsen finds out that she is pregnant. The child's father, her boyfriend Sam Hoth, asks her to marry him. Georgia, however, is uncertain both about their relationship and her desire to be a mother.

Forgetting her phone at home, Georgia goes to a college Christmas party with Sam. An android that is owned by the Olsens wishes Sam a Happy Halloween instead of Christmas, the first sign that something is amiss. Soon after, a shrill screech can be heard and an android turns violent, attacking Georgia and Sam who run away from the house. Smartphones unexpectedly start exploding, killing their users and leading to an AI takeover.

Nine months later, Georgia, expecting her baby, has taken shelter in the forest with Sam. The couple are trying to get to a fortified Boston, as they have heard rumors of a boat that is transporting new mothers to Asia, where they can find a peaceful life. They travel through the woods, avoiding all the roads until they reach a military camp. While Georgia gets examined by a doctor, Sam tries to find out how to reach Boston. At night he gets into a fight with one of the soldiers and he and Georgia are expelled from the camp the next day. They continue on, until they find an abandoned house, where they spend the night. Sam finds a dirt bike and repairs it.

Using the dirt bike, the couple are able to travel faster. However, they are eventually spotted by an android, which leads to several androids and drones pursuing them. Sam drops off Georgia and tries to lure the pursuers away on the dirt bike. Meanwhile, Georgia meets Arthur, a camouflaged man who offers to help her. He tells her that he was an AI programmer and that the androids have learned to hack their software.

In the morning, Georgia awakes to contractions and tells Arthur that she needs to find Sam. He leads her to where her partner is being held, which is a building patrolled by androids. Arthur gives Georgia a camouflaged vest, which he claims will conceal her. She walks through the building looking for Sam, unseen by the androids, and finds him in one of the rooms with his legs badly broken. As she is freeing Sam, another prisoner tries to draw the attention of the androids. Georgia drags Sam out into a large garage, but collapses from her contractions. Just as they are about to be apprehended, Arthur intervenes, stabbing an android and saving them. Georgia goes into labor in Arthur's truck. She wakes up in a hospital clinic, with Sam beside her. The nurse informs her that the C-section delivery went well and that they have a baby boy who the couple names Forest.

Later, Georgia gets questioned by a security officer. She tells him what she and Sam have been through and mentions the vest that allowed her to avoid detection by androids. The officer tells her that such technology doesn't exist which makes Georgia realize that Arthur is an android and that he deceived her. Within moments, the power goes out and the base comes under attack. Georgia, unable to wake Sam, heads down to try and activate the base perimeter and is confronted by Arthur. She kills Arthur by shooting him repeatedly. She manages to activate the perimeter and returns to Sam.

When Georgia wakes up again, Sam is up and they all head to the harbor, where officers are loading a boat headed to Korea. They are only able to take Forest, as Georgia and a legless Sam are useless to them. After pleading with the officers to no avail, Sam eventually convinces Georgia to let Forest go and have a better life.

Production

In September 2020, Chloë Grace Moretz, Algee Smith, and Raúl Castillo joined the cast of the film, with Mattson Tomlin directing from a screenplay he wrote. Matt Reeves and Bill Block set to produce the film under their 6th and Idaho Productions and Miramax banners, respectively.

Writing

A couple years after graduating from film school, Tomlin struggled to write his first movie until he decided to loosely focus on a very personal story, his own adoption story. He feels that by writing this, it has become a personal love letter to his biological parents. He also tells in an interview with Collider, "I was born in the aftermath of the Romanian revolution, and I thought I would change that to the robot revolution." This was to have a genre component in addition to his personal story.

Filming

Principal photography began in September 2020 with the majority of the film being located in Massachusetts. Most of the filming was done from October 5, 2020 to November 12, 2020.

Locations

Filming occurred throughout Massachusetts, with some locations being urban areas and the countryside. The downtown area of Boston, Massachusetts was used as the setting for the human colony and the Lynn Woods Reservation was the location of the android stronghold, "No Man's Land".

Reception

Critical Response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes sampled thirty critics and judged 33% of the reviews to be positive, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "Mother/Android transcends its budgetary limitations on a visual level -- unfortunately, this sci-fi drama is less successful on the storytelling front." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned Mother/Android a score of 43 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Lena Wilson of The New York Times comments the movie "offers little in the way of world building", as the reason for the android uprising is vague and confusing. She mentions that because of this, "It offers ample room for the film's strong emotional core, but can be hopelessly distracting." Micheal Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times agreed, saying that in order to fully enjoy the film, they would have to focus on the main characters' "relationship and their mission to get their coming baby to safety and let the details blur." He notes that though the story has an "emotional resonance" with the filmmakers, referencing the real life situation it was based off of, its execution was not "immediate or terrifying as one imagines".

External links

• Mother/Android at IMDb
• Mother/Android on Netflix
• Mother/Android on Hulu