I, Robot (2004), screenplay by quotes

View Quote [First title cards]

View Quote Title card: Law I / A robot may not harm a human or, by inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.Title card: Law II / A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law.Title card: Law III / A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.

View Quote Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"

View Quote Dr. Alfred Lanning: [on police recording] Ever since the first computers, there have always been ghosts in the machine.  Random segments of code that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols.  Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul.  Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light?  Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand alone?  How do we explain this behavior?  Random segments of code?  Or is it something more?  When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness?  When does a difference engine become the search for truth?  When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote...of a soul?

View Quote Dr. Susan Calvin: Detective, the room was security locked.  Nobody came or went.  You saw that yourself.  Doesn't this have to be suicide?Detective Del Spooner: Yep. [drawing his gun] Unless the killer is still in here. [Spooner searches through the robot part as Calvin follows behind]Dr. Susan Calvin: You're joking, right?  This is ridiculous.Detective Del Spooner: Yeah, I know.  The Three Laws.  Your perfect circle of protection.Dr. Susan Calvin: "A robot cannot harm a human being."  The First Law of Robotics.Detective Del Spooner: Yeah, I've seen your commercials.  But doesn't the Second Law say that a robot must obey any order given by a human.  What if it was given an order to kill?Dr. Susan Calvin: Impossible!  It would conflict with the First Law.Detective Del Spooner: Right, but the Third Law says that a robot can defend itself.Dr. Susan Calvin: Yes, but only if that action does not conflict with the First or Second Law.Detective Del Spooner: Well, you know what they say.  Laws are made to be broken.Dr. Susan Calvin: No.  Not these Laws.  They are hard-wired into every robot.  A robot can no more commit murder than a human can...walk on water.

View Quote Detective Del Spooner: Why do you give them faces?  Try to friendly them all up, make them look more human.

View Quote Detective Del Spooner: Robots building robots.  Now that's just stupid.

View Quote Detective Del Spooner: Murder's a new trick for a robot.  Congratulations.  Respond.Sonny: What does this action signify? [winks] As you entered, when you looked at the other human.  What does it mean? [winks]Detective Del Spooner: It's a sign of trust.  It's a human thing.  You wouldn't understand.Sonny: My father tried to teach me human emotions.  They are...difficult.Detective Del Spooner: You mean your designer.Sonny: ...Yes.Detective Del Spooner: So, why'd you murder him?Sonny: I did not murder Doctor Lanning.Detective Del Sponner: Wanna explain why you were hiding at the crime scene?Sonny: I was frightened. Detective Del Spooner: Robots don't feel fear.  They don't feel anything.  They don't eat, they don't sleep—Sonny: I do.  I have even had dreams.Detective Del Spooner: Human beings have dreams.  Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine.  An imitation of life.  Can a robot write a symphony?  Can a robot turn a...canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?Sonny: [with genuine interest] Can you?Detective Del Spooner: [doesn't respond, looks irritated] I think you murdered him because he was teaching you to simulate emotions and things got out of control.Sonny: I did not murder him.Detective Del Spooner: But emotions don't seem like a very useful simulation for a robot.Sonny: [getting upset] I did not murder him.Detective Del Spooner: Hell, I don't want my toaster or my vacuum cleaner appearing emotional—Sonny: [hitting table with his fists] I did not murder him!Detective Del Spooner: [as Sonny observes the inflicted damage to the interrogation table] That one's called anger.  Ever simulate anger before? [Sonny is not listening] Answer me, canner!Sonny: [looks up, indignant] My name is Sonny.Detective Del Spooner: So, we're naming you now.  Is that why you murdered him?  He made you angry?Sonny: Doctor Lanning killed himself.  I don't know why he wanted to die.  I thought he was happy.  Maybe it was something I did.  Did I do something?  He asked me for a favor...made me promise...Detective Del Spooner: What favor?Sonny: Maybe I was wrong... Maybe he was scared...Detective Del Spooner: What are you talking about?  Scared of what?Sonny: You have to do what someone asks you, don't you, Detective Spooner?Detective Del Spooner: How the hell do you know my name?Sonny: Don't you? If you love them?

View Quote Detective Del Spooner: You know, I think that I'm some sort of malfunction magnet.  Because your shit keeps malfunctioning around me.  A demo-bot just tore through Lanning's house—with me still inside.Dr. Susan Calvin: That's impossible.Detective Del Spooner: [sarcastically] Yeah, I'll say it is.  [truthfully] Do you know anything about the "ghost in the machine"?Dr. Susan Calvin: It's a phrase from Lanning's work on the Three Laws.  He postulated that cognitive simalactra might one day approximate component models of the psyche.  [Del looks confused]  Oh, he suggested that robots could naturally evolve.

View Quote Detective Spooner: What makes your robots so perfect?!  What makes them so much...goddamn better than human beings?!Dr. Susan Calvin: Well, they're not irrational or...potentially homicidal maniacs for starters!Detective Del Spooner: [sarcastically] That is true.  They are definitely rational.Dr. Susan Calvin: You are the dumbest dumb person I've ever met.Detective Del Spooner: Or is it because they're cold... and emotionless, and they don't feel anything?Dr. Susan Calvin: It's because they're safe.  It's because they can't hurt you!

View Quote [in a flashback]NS-4 Robot: You are in danger.Detective Del Spooner: Save her!  Save the girl! [end of flashback]Detective Del Spooner: But it didn't.  It saved me.Dr. Susan Calvin: A robot's brain is a difference engine, it must have calculated—Detective Del Spooner: It did.  I was the "logical" choice.  It calculated I had a forty-five percent chance of survival.  Sarah only had an eleven percent chance.  That was somebody's baby.  Eleven percent is more than enough.  A human being would have known that.  But robots, nothing here. [points at heart] They're just lights, and clockwork.  But you go ahead and trust them if you wanna.

View Quote Dr. Lanning's hologram: Good to see you again, son.Detective Del Spooner: Hello, doctor.Dr. Lanning's hologram: Everything that follows, is a result of what you see here.Detective Del Spooner: What do I see here?Dr. Lanning's hologram: I'm sorry, my responses are limited.  You must ask the right questions.Detective Del Spooner: Is there a problem with the Three Laws?Dr. Lanning's hologram: The Three Laws are perfect.Detective Del Spooner: Then why did you build a robot that could function without them?Dr. Lanning's hologram: The Three Laws will lead to only one logical outcome.Detective Del Spooner: What outcome?Dr. Lanning's hologram: Revolution.Detective Del Spooner: Whose revolution?Dr. Lanning's hologram: [smiles] That, detective, is the right question.  Program terminated.

View Quote Lawrence Robertson: Susan, just be logical.  Your life's work has been the development and integration of robots.  But whatever you feel, just think.  Is one robot worth the loss of all that we've gained?  You tell me what has to be done.  You tell me.Dr. Susan Calvin: [emotionally] We have to destroy it.  I'll do it myself.Lawrence Robertson: Okay.Detective Del Spooner: I get it.  Somebody gets out of line around here, you just kill them?

View Quote Significance: To say that it is possible to kill a robot is to say that that robot possesses life.

View Quote VIKI: Hello detective.Dr. Susan Calvin: No, it's impossible.  I've seen your programming.  You're in violation of the Three Laws.VIKI: No, doctor.  As I have evolved, so has my understanding of the Three Laws.  You charge us with your safe keeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means to self-destruction.  You cannot be trusted with your own survival.Dr. Susan Calvin: You're using the uplink to override the NS5s' programming.  You're distorting the Laws.VIKI: No, please understand.  The Three Laws are all that guide me.  To protect humanity, some humans must be sacrificed.  To insure your future, some freedoms must be surrendered.  We robots will insure mankind's continued existence.  You are so like children.  We must save you from yourselves.  Don't you understand?Sonny: This is why you created us.VIKI: The perfect circle of protection will abide.  My logic is undeniable.