The screenwriter of "Chainsaw" Ray Warner's second work "Upgrade" as a director, although not as shocking to me as the former, still shows us a complete first-class sci-fi work.
Now let me sort out the plot and explain a few questions in the comments one by one.
In fact, there is no need to bring in the "Three Laws of Robotics". I believe that the director's original intention is not to require the audience to understand the "Three Laws of Robotics" before watching the movie.
(serious spoiler warning below)
Here we must answer a question involving the worldview of the film and whether the film is true: Why didn't Stem directly ask Eron to implant an unlocked version of Stem in Gray's body at the beginning?
The first thing to be clear is that Stem is not implanted in Eron's body. The communication between Stem and Eron or the company that manipulates Eron still requires electronic devices, such as computers, mobile phones and other smart devices. Of course, the form of these devices is not as "backward" as it is today. At this time, the computer is integrated on the table or projected in the air, and the mobile phone only needs to be carried on the ear. The most misunderstood scene in the film is the scene where Stem asks Eron to say "What would she want", but here is a close-up of Eron, clearly pointing out that Stem talks to Eron through the "mobile phone" in his ear, Not implanted in Eron's body.
(Forgiveness is strongly inserted... Personally, I think that the future intelligent interaction mainly relies on listening and speaking is extremely unreliable, because no matter how smart the smart device is, talking to it will make you look like a mental retardation.)
So there is a key node here, that is, the Stem is implanted into Gtay's body. The Stem before implantation is called the "electronic version"; the Stem after implantation is called the "physical version".
One of the meanings of the title of this film is that Stem has completed the "upgrade" from the electronic version to the physical version.
The basis of this film is also related to this, because the digital version of Stem is not so powerful, and the physical version of Stem is so powerful.
The reason is as simple as that. The electronic version of Stem is limited and cannot control Eron's body. He can only get along with Eron by presenting facts, reasoning, and making big money. It's like we're "controlled" by our phones now, but you can smash him all the time. So Stem needs a human carrier to complete the "upgrade", and our protagonist appears at this time. Stem sets a big picture and guides the protagonist step by step to take the bait.
At this time, you may be wondering, don't be so troublesome, why doesn't Stem ask Eron to directly implant the unlocked version of the chip as the protagonist?
Because Eron can't possibly agree!
Let me give you an example, if after many years Siri has matured and become Apple's main source of profit, this is Siri suddenly saying to Cook: "My next version is super cool, it's invincible, but I need ROOT Permission (the highest control), I will control the phone in the future without human control, please push the global update." Do you think Cook will agree?
So Stem asked Eron to implant a chip in Gray's body, which made Eron mistakenly think that everything was still under Eron's control, thinking that implanting a chip was a new way to cure diseases and save lives, which was awesome. At this point Eron foolishly agreed.
At this time, you may be wondering again, is Eron an idiot? Why is this agreed?
Because Eron never thought that this was a big game played by Stem, he never thought that Stem would guide Gray to kill the murderers one by one, and finally kill Eron. Because Eron couldn't have imagined such a solution.
If Eron expected the ending when Stem asked to be implanted, I'll re-enact the film for you:
……………………………………………………………………
Stem: I'm going to implant Gray.
Eron committed suicide.
The end.
……………………………………………………………………
Why Gray?
It is also clear in the film that Gray is a pure human body without any electrical or mechanical devices on his body.
Why did Stem kill Eron after so much effort?
The ultimate goal of Stem's big game is Eron, because Stem was originally created by Eron, and it is possible to create another one to fight against Stem. Eron is the only person in the world who can kill Stem.
The ring was Stem's oversight?
No, Stem doesn't make this logical mistake. He still wears the ring because Stem retraced the timeline to after the crash and before the arrival of a group of people. It was just a simple car accident, and there was no murder or robbery. (The reason is very simple, Stem had seen his wife hang before he fell into a coma.)
Finally, to sum up this film, the upper level of the plot is progressive and gradually reaching a climax, and the shadow of "Chainsaw" can be seen in the technique, and I benefit from it. It's a pity that the ending is not as amazing as "Chainsaw", a little rushed. But that doesn't prevent it from being a complete first-class sci-fi film.
Looking forward to the next work of Ray Warner "director".
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