Here is the spoiler alert, so stop reading now if you want to see the movie for yourself!!
What I found most interesting was the creator-mommy-daddy-child dynamic. It was also interesting that in the end, they succeeded not only in installing a completely artificial intelligence into a robot, but also that the robot then figures out how to transfer the consciousness of the "creator" into a robot as he is dying. And then in the end, they seem to succeed in downloading the consciousness of the mommy character who had already died, into a newer robot with a more humanoid face.
The plot is basically this. The main protagonist, Dev (Deon Wilson), is a programmer working for a weapons corporation called Tetravaal, and is responsible for designing the world's first robotic police force. The story is set in Johanessburg, South Africa. In his spare time, Dev has been working on creating artificial intelligence. Shortly into the movie, he succeeds, and wants to download the "program" which is a .DAT file, onto one of the droids scheduled for disposal due to mechanical defects.
Sigourney Weaver, the CEO of Tetravaal, says no way, because of the insurance implications. So he steals the droid with the intent to do it anyway. We are given a little dose of moral relativism here, conveying the message that the stealing of property is justified by the "benevolent" intent of the "creator," Dev, and also by the contemptuous and controlling attitude of the CEO, Sigourney Weaver's character, Michelle Bradley.
On his way home with the robot parts, Dev is kidnapped by a band of not-very-intelligent criminals who plan to force him to give them the "remote control" so they can turn off the robot police force. They assume that because the robots are machines, that they must have remote controls. They find the robot parts in the van, and decide to allow Dev to install the artificial intelligence program onto the defective robot. He does this, and the robot comes to life, behaving like a child who is scared.
There are three characters in the band of criminals. Four, actually, but the black guy gets killed almost immediately. I guess that is somewhat interesting in and of itself, as the movie is set in South Africa, and was written by a South African husband and wife team.
The surviving band consists of Ninja, Yolandi, and Amerika. Ninja is their leader. He is violent and crazed, and very afraid of the man to whom he owes a large sum of money. Ninja is a man who is very dim intellectually, and driven by primal fear almost exclusively. He takes on the role of Chappie's "daddy." As Chappie's daddy, he is manipulative and abusive, but doesn't seem to really want any harm to come to Chappie. He just wants to get his way first, and does seem to have some level of empathy as the movie progresses. I find this character to represent the secondary psychopath, as described by Benjamin Karpman.
Yolandi is the female of the group, and it seems she and Ninja are romantically connected. She wears a shirt that says "sex" across the top, and she has very short blonde bangs. She takes on the role of Chappie's "mommy," nurturing and teaching Chappie, and explains to Chappie what the "soul" is, and how after the body dies, the soul moves on, and goes to "that other place." Chappie knows that his batteries are running low at this point.
Amerika seems to be the muscle of the group, the "bad ass." He does little more that count narcotics and drive the van. He does teach Chappie some vulgar language, like "motherf--ker," which Chappie interestingly transposes into "f--k mother."
Dev takes on the role of Chappie's "maker." He uses this word specifically many times, and tries to convince Chappie not to hurt people or commit crimes. He seems to want to teach Chappie to paint more than anything else.
There is also a character named Vincent Moore, played by Hugh Jackman. Vincent has created a much larger robot, and appears to be very jealous that Dev's smaller versions won out.
He has a moral objection to the robots being able to control themselves, as opposed to his "Moose" which is controlled by a human, stating that only humans can act in ethical and humane ways. Of course, at the end of the movie, he is authorized by Sigourney Weaver to unleash the Moose on Chappie and the band of criminals, and he acts in what seems to be very sadistic and inhumane ways, seeming to enjoy killing.
Ninja sacrifices himself to Moose, but just as the giant robot is going to kill him, Yolandi steps in and shoots a rocket at the Moose. It then fires several bullets through her body in slow motion, and she dies. Chappie then gets really mad, and blows up the Moose. Ninja then displays great remorse at the passing of Yolandi.
Dev is mortally wounded, and Chappie takes him back to Tatravaal HQ, and downloads Dev's consciousness into a Test robot. After Dev awakens in the robot, he devises a way to transmit Chappie's consciousness into another robot in the field remotely, before Chappie's battery runs out. Chappie also beats the crap out of Hugh Jackman, and then says "Now I forgive you, bad man" to Jackman's broken and bloody body.
Chappie, Robot Dev, and Ninja are shown burying Yolandi. Tetravaal is shut down, and an immediate moratotium is put on robot production. The end shows Chappie looking at the downloaded "consciousness" of Yolandi, which is presumably how he figured out how to load a human consciousness onto a computer device. The device looks like a flash drive, and says "MOMMY CONSCIOUSNESS BACK UP TEST." Chappie accesses Tetravaal's servers remotely from their hideout, says Chappie says, "I'll see you soon, mommy," and initiates the construction of a new robot. The movie ends with Chappie saying "Now we are both black sheeps, Mommy," as he presses the "Y" on the keyboard, activting the new robot, with a white humanoid face, opening its metallic eyes.
On the surface, this seems like a stupid movie. However, when I look at it through the lens of trying to make sense of what I see happening in the world around me, and also trying to figure out what those in control of this world are trying to accomplish, it takes on a much deeper meaning. I think I've probably only scratched the surface of the symbolism in this movie. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe it's just a goofy movie with a strange mix of violence and humor. Of course, there are a couple of big names in there, and it seems to have been very well-funded.
Watch the movie, decide for yourself, and let me know what you think!!!
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