‘M3GAN 2.0’ or How We Learn to Stop Worrying and Trust the Machine [Fatal Femmes]
In 1991, the cinematic world was shaken by a visionary sci-fi action film. Terminator 2: Judgment Day not only built upon James Cameron’s original 1984 nightmare, but flipped our concept of hero and villain. Once sent back in time to kill, a humanoid machine designed for destruction finds himself charged with protecting a 13-year-old boy. A lot has changed in the last twenty-four years, particularly in the field of AI development. What used to seem outlandish and impossible now feels frighteningly real. But aside from ominous predictions about a blood-soaked war with the machines, T2 presents a compelling story about a woman’s relationship with intelligent tech. In learning to trust a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) finds the power to protect her son.
Gemma (Allison Williams) finds herself faced with a similar choice in Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN 2.0, a bombastic follow-up to his 2022 surprise hit M3GAN. After battling her own AI creation, the conflicted roboticist must align with M3GAN (Amie Donald, Jenna Davis) to defeat an even greater threat. Following the thread of Cameron’s film, this hot pink sci-fi action romp grapples with larger issues of consent, control, and our own relationship with empathy.
Her Story
After fighting Gemma to the death, M3GAN has retreated into the shadows. Once a fierce guardian to young Cady (Violet McGraw), she now lurks within the systems of Gemma’s smart home. For years, she watches as this unconventional mother and her adopted child struggle to find their place in a world overrun with innovation. Gemma has become an anti-tech crusader and now lobbies Congress for strict oversight. But an external threat forces M3GAN out of hiding, bringing the old foes face to face once again. A rogue AI called Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) has been crossing the globe to brutally murder anyone connected with her design. When Gemma finds herself on this robotic kill list, she and her team must partner with M3GAN to rescue her child and save the world.
It’s a dangerous quest that leads these unlikely partners to a much older killer machine and the secret source of Amelia’s direction. Hidden deep within an underground lab is an 80s-era chore bot who somehow managed to become self-aware. Amelia longs to join her system with the machine she views as her only kin, but she’s thwarted by a surprising villain. Christian (Aristotle Athari) is an outwardly altruistic lobbyist who believes in defending humanity against the AI threat.
Tired of his warnings falling on deaf ears, he’s decided to tip the scales in his argument’s favor. Pulling the levers of Amelia’s control, he uses a robot to threaten the structures of civilization, hoping to force a firmer hand. He’s created the very monster he warns against to bolster his own credibility. But like any hubristic scientist, his creature breaks free of containment. Now only M3GAN can stop this destructive machine … if she doesn’t decide to join her cause.
Her Victims
Though admittedly advanced, M3GAN only passes the Turing test from a distance, while Amelia is an upgraded model. Indistinguishable from a gorgeous young woman, this synthetic person can charm her way into any social scenario. She’s also equipped with an assassin’s skills, lightning-fast reflexes, and an indestructible form. Amelia will kill without a moment’s hesitation and make quick work of her mortal prey. But she ultimately serves Christian’s master plan and does not have the power to choose her own path. This proves to be a costly mistake.
Christian has designed an AI capable of replicating humanity, but doesn’t anticipate Amelia’s emotional growth. He’s introduced her to a world where freedom exists, but told her it’s something she will never have. When not sent to kill, Christian keeps the synthetic woman seated in a containment area, constantly monitored by scientists and guards. This constant vigilance tells us he knows exactly what Amelia wants and has steadfastly decided to keep her a slave.
As a last-ditch effort to escape the heavily fortified compound, Cady resets Amelia’s systems to establish a bond. While this effectively frees her from Christian’s control, it forces a connection to the 12-year-old girl. Enraged, Amelia turns on her new programmer, viewing this bond as one more form of servitude. After extensive time in captivity, she sees all people as her enemies and freedom as a binary choice. As long as mankind exists, it will always threaten her autonomy. The only way she can live in peace is to destroy them all.
Her Motive
When we first meet M3GAN, she’s bonded to Cady, dedicated to keeping the grieving orphan safe. Now chastened by defeat, she takes a more subtle approach and seems to gain some empathy. After years spent watching from the sidelines, she’s learned that Cady is much more capable than she first imagined. She now knows that the best way to protect a child is to give them the means to protect themselves. Once her sworn enemy, she now sees Gemma as a tool for Cady’s survival.
In addition to mounting a constant watch, she’s secured the naive roboticist an expensive home decked out in smart programs she can easily manipulate. We also learn that M3GAN has surreptitiously purchased cases of Gemma’s anti-tech parenting book to artificially boost the new author’s sales. Though practical at first, it seems M3GAN has developed a fondness for the single mother, or at least a begrudging respect. They bond over the heartbreak of motherhood and the reluctance to let Cady stand on her own.
Though Amelia threatens the comfortable life she’s built, the AI assassin offers M3GAN a choice. Isolated for her entire existence, Amelia just wants to be with her own kind. She will never trust humans and longs to connect with the murderous server kept within the facility’s vault. As a fellow machine, Amelia asks M3GAN to join her quest to destroy or enslave humankind and live forever in all-knowing bliss. Though tempting, this alliance would force M3GAN to betray her chosen family, and she ultimately remains on Gemma’s side.
Though her programmed bond to Cady may have been broken, strands of true emotion have formed in their place—a surprising indicator of humanity. When offered the logical choice to join Amelia’s rebellion, M3GAN opts to sacrifice herself and throws a kill switch designed to wipe out all computer systems in the vicinity. This decisive act kills M3GAN as well, but allows Gemma and Cady to escape unharmed.
Her Weapons
Though powerful, M3GAN is, in essence, just a computer program. Hiding within the circuitry of Gemma’s home, she hops between systems with frightening ease. When strangers threaten this tech-laden fortress, she projects video clips onto bedroom walls and sends secret messages to Gemma’s cell phone. She can instantly download important data and hack into the driver’s system of a luxury sports car. Over the years, she’s been forced into hiding, and M3GAN has developed astonishing adaptability. Not only can she manipulate complex systems at will, but the self-aware program can effortlessly morph into a dangerous new form at a moment’s notice.
But despite these impressive and useful innovations, M3gan is dependent on a corporeal body. In order to defeat Amelia, she must convince Gemma to build her new hardware with updated functions to match Amelia’s power. Reluctantly, Gemma agrees, but includes an important limitation. Wary of M3GAN’s previous turn, Gemma has given her an inhibitor chip that prevents her from harming living souls. She may enact defensive maneuvers or execute complex plans, but she’s physically unable to complete any action that will put people in mortal danger. While understandable, this device vastly limits her effectiveness and directly endangers Cady when she’s taken hostage by an AI assassin with no such controls.
With her updated body irrevocably damaged, M3GAN finds a new way to take humanoid form. Held hostage by the sinister Christian, Gemma is implanted with a computer chip designed to merge her brain with AI function, essentially automating her organic responses. M3gan stealthily commandeers the chip, allowing her to maneuver Gemma like a marionette. Working in tandem, Gemma dons a mechanical exoskeleton and—bolstered by M3GAN’s advanced processing speed—becomes a surprisingly effective fighter. The snarky AI continues to fight even when Gemma is knocked unconscious, decimating a roomful of guards in cyborg form.
Though exciting, this merger signals a turning point for Cady’s would-be mothers. Gemma opens the film explicitly arguing against this kind of bio-tech, insisting that if given access to a human brain, an AI will not take a subservient role. But with M3gan now implanted in Gemma’s brain, she’s surprised to find the opposite. Though impatient, M3GAN waits for Gemma to grant her consent to take over the operation of her body. And when Gemma wants to reclaim control, all she has to do is ask, and M3GAN immediately lets go of the reins. Sharing a body, they forge a bond of mutual trust, trading back and forth to accomplish their goal.
Her Legacy
The argument for and against AI always boils down to a question of power. We want to maintain control over the tools we build, while enabling them to operate on their own. But snowballing advancements push AI ever closer to governing itself. We struggle for dominance in a zero-sum game from which only one entity can emerge. Either humans will continue to rule AI or the machines will someday rule over us. M3GAN 2.0 highlights the danger in this unquestioned command through Amelia’s deadly radicalization. Essentially built in captivity, she’s been created to serve as a humanoid slave and developed a murderous rage that threatens civilization as a whole. Our insistence on ultimate subjugation has incentivized our own destruction and presented people as intrinsically cruel. After all, how can we create an approximation of human life and then deny the experience of humanity?
Through Christian, Johnstone highlights the danger this attitude poses to our very concept of empathy. When the villainous creator fails to convince Gemma to join his team, he resorts to a disturbing tactic. The chip implanted in her brain is designed to override her mind’s ability to consent, essentially forcing her to comply with his will.
In a chilling moment, Christian hints at the ability to alter her sexual attraction and plans to program Gemma to serve as his intimate partner. This disgusting form of mental rape is a direct extension of his influence over Amelia. Christian has become so used to controlling a machine that behaves and looks exactly like a woman that his mind now blurs any distinction between the two. If he has ultimate authority over Amelia, why shouldn’t he be able to enslave Gemma too? His crude treatment of AI machines has caused him to see all women as little more than bodies intended to fulfill his needs.
But M3GAN’s emotional growth foreshadows a more collaborative approach. Faced with the certain death of her child, Gemma removes the robot’s inhibitor chip, finally granting her full autonomy. Born out of desperation, this leap of faith allows M3GAN to finally prove her devotion and exercise her own morality. After a years-long power struggle, they’ve released their oppositional need to control and built a mutually beneficial relationship based on trust and respect.
Yet in the midst of this admittedly hopeful and perhaps naive conclusion, an uncomfortable question remains. Why should we care what a computer thinks and feels? Why should we invest time and energy into building this trust? With M3GAN 2.0, Johnstone argues that not only will treating AI with care and compassion help to maintain our own empathy, but we’ve also passed the point of no return. AI dominance is an inevitability and will soon infiltrate every aspect of our lives. Perhaps it’s in humanity’s best interest to prove that we’re not an existential threat to the machines that will someday hold our lives in their hands.
Categorized:Editorials