A.I. Vs the Bicentennial Man

A.I. Vs. The Bicentennial Man

Both of the movies, A.I. and The Bicentennial Man, deal with how robots have advanced in the future. In both movies, robots are an integral part of daily life. In A.I., a young android named David who has been designed to feel real emotions such as love is “test driven” by Henry and Monica Swinton, whose son is in suspended animation while they try to find a cure for his rare disease. In The Bicentennial Man, an android named Andrew is purchased by the Martin family to help with chores and tasks around the house. Both the Swinton family and the Martin family have trouble at first adjusting to the robots, but they eventually learn to love them. These plots both take place in a futuristic setting, however one is more of a “utopian” future, and the other is a pessimistic future, ravaged by global warming. In A.I. most robots can emulate a sense of emotion and feeling, but in The Bicentennial Man, the robots are only programmed with a personality, a set of predetermined characteristics. Andrew is the only android in this future who can feel like a human does, much like how David is able to love his parents with the intensity and realism only a real boy could achieve. This shows that both robots are unique, first of their kinds, at first rejected by society, but later accepted and copied. Both Andrew and David try to become humans, David by asking the Blue Fairy from The Adventures of Pinocchio to make him a real boy. Andrew on the other hand, uses science with the help of his friend Rupert to create a nervous system and artificial organs for himself. While these two robots have different methods of achievement, they each have the same goal. In the end, they each eventually stop functioning, with David being ready to let go and Andrew, finally declared a real human, dying of old age. Furthermore, both robots die with whom they love. David gets to spend one last day with his mother after 2000 years of being trapped in ice and when his mother’s clone dies, he closes his eyes and, “goes to that place where dreams are born". Andrew, now a mortal human being, spends his final moments with his love, Portia, by his side and their nurse, Galatea who is a robot implied to have become sentient as Andrew was. With the science in these movies being very realistic and not too far