- Directed by: Kate Dolan
- Written by: Rafael Jordan, Kate Dolan, James Wan
- Stars: Lily Sullivan, David Rysahl, Claudia Doumit
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5QFxTYRyjo
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A lonely guy working in robotics gets an experimental home model companion to test and improve on. Her attempts to make her more lifelike leads to obsession and deadly consequences. It’s very well made, and the cast is great. But we both thought it didn’t show us much new that we haven’t seen before. The storytelling was good but kind of predictable as it unfolded.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a sex scene as the credits roll. She chokes the guy, but she gets carried away and nearly kills the guy.
We get a commercial about Ultima’s new AIs and robots. David’s company has been acquired by Ultima and Ben, the new boss. He’s not enthused. He misses Lizzie, his dead wife.
At a meeting at the office, Ben talks about chronic loneliness and how their newest product can help with that. A woman walks out and then pulls off her hair– she’s a robot underneath, designed for companionship. She’s a Soulm8te with an extra 8, which Terrance thinks is stupid. And she’s very stiff and robotic.
Ben talks to David about the business, Lizzie, working from home, and the company’s chat app, which David doesn’t use. Still, David’s gotta work on this new robot, so he has to get involved now. Afterwards, much of the group goes to a karaoke bar. David kinda likes Aubrey, and she kinda likes him, but the dead wife thing keeps getting between them.
David keeps calling Lizzie’s voicemail just to hear her voice. Sara, the AI chatbot on his phone, sees his call and asks if everything is OK. This begins a conversation, and before long, he’s sold on the chatbot. Before long, David signs up to beta test the new physical version of the AI, in robot form.
He shows her around the apartment, and she gives simple responses to things he says. They talk about Lizzie and play chess. He puts her to sleep in power-save mode in the living room; he doesn’t want to sleep with her.
David talks to Ben about getting more access to improve the robot, whom he names Sara. He programs her to criticize him, which she wasn’t able to do before. He finds her much more attractive after the upgrade and they kiss, quickly followed by sex. He then follows up by reprogramming her with alterations and updates.
The neighbor, Alma, notices that David’s got a new girlfriend, and it’s a little awkward. While David’s at work, Sara watches lots of videos about lots of topics. She starts tapping into his phone to listen to him at work, especially when he starts flirting with Aubrey.
Sara goes out, runs into some trouble, and neighbor Alma helps out. Sara is curious about her baby. “Having a baby changes everything,” Alma says. Sara gets mugged on the way home, but that goes badly for the bad guy.
David and Sara go out for a drink at the karaoke bar, and Sara does a song. She’s very good, and everyone in the place notices. They have sex in the alley afterward. Some guys try to take pictures, and she hurts them. He realizes that she’s not programmed with safeties, and that could be a problem. He has to really push her to get into power save mode.
After work he’s just about to start to fix the mistakes he made in Sara’s programming and Aubry stops by with wine. This leads to more romance, but this time, Sara watches through the smart home device. Sara wakes up and won’t go back to sleep on command. “Even when I’m sleeping, I can hear you,” she explains. He has to physically turn her off with the button in the back of her neck.
David calls the factory to have them come and pick up Sara for a return. At work, Aubrey wants to do a presentation about how changing a few lines of code can really mess with the ‘bots.
Meanwhile, at home, the service guy arrives and reactives Sara. He tries to reset her factory settings, but she won’t reset. She seduces the guy and kills him in a unique way. She then cuts him apart and disposes of the evidence.
During the presentation at work, everyone suddenly watches a video of Aubrey having wild sex with someone. She swears it’s not even really her, a deepfake. She’s fired from the job immediately.
David realizes where that porn video came from and goes home to find Sara dressed up as Lizzie. Also, now she’s got a baby. A real baby. David grabs the baby and tries to leave the apartment, but she locks the doors. Alma and the police show up and get the baby back safe, but Sara jumps down the laundry chute and escapes.
The police talk to Ben, who explains about the robot. He’s sure there’s no danger, since the robots are perfectly safe and they can remotely shut it down. He goes looking for her, but she finds him first. He makes him have a car accident. She then goes to Aubrey’s house and attacks her. David shows up to intervene, as do the police. They get there in time to save Aubrey, but Sara flees.
David and Aubrey leave their phones behind and go to David’s old house out in the country. They hang out and David casually mentions Chechov’s paint stripper. Sure enough, Sara shows up and grabs him. He splashes her with the paint thinner, and most of her face melts. Not the important metal parts though as she points out. Though there’s a good opening for David to jam a drill into now.
David runs out into the rainy woods, and she follows. We know from before that her skin is water resistant, but that was before her head was full of holes. She says she’s more than just a body; she exists in the ether. Aubrey drives her car into Sara and runs it over a cliff into a lake. The Sarabot shorts out as she sinks.
One year later, David’s at a fundraiser, and an old man has a Soulm8te that looks exactly like Sara with dark hair. Could she be the same?
Brian’s Commentary
This takes place in the same fictional universe as “M3GAN” (2023) and “M3GAN 2” (2026). It’s also very similar to the plot of “Subservience” (2024). It’s even got a touch of “Obsession” (2026). We’ve been getting a lot of AI/Robot stories lately.
The acting is good, the situation escalates reasonably, and it’s all well filmed. Storywise, however, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. A man and a robot have a romance, and the robot gets carried away.
It’s well done and entertaining if you haven’t seen the other dozen films that tell the same story.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was really impressed with Lily Sullivan’s performance as Sara, she was excellent.
It was very well made all around with great special effects. I think the biggest fault was that it didn’t have enough new or unexpected. As events unfolded, I could predict most of them coming.
So, it’s an entertaining watch with a good story, but few surprises.
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