M3GAN
And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?
I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman (1855)
She’s more than just a killer doll, she’s a protector, a symbol and a modern icon. The filmmakers behind the M3GAN movies call on archetypes and visuals from the earliest era of cinema to bring their creature to life.
In M3GAN, the AI based toy is created by tech mogul Gemma to bring comfort to a mourning child, Cady. The exploration of humanity takes us down the rabbit hole of seeing how far one is willing to go to truly protect their loved one. M3gan the doll with a digital soul commits a series of murders much like her predecessors.
The 1915 film The Golem from director Paul Wegener is loosely based on the Jewish folktale. A Golem is an artificial being brought to life with the purpose to protect a person or group of people from outside harm. Common iterations use a clay or mud figure that is vaguely human in shape.
In the German silent film, the Golem is created to be a servant of the people. The humanity in the living statue causes the creature to fall in love; however, when his affections are denied, he turns on the people he is meant to protect and goes on a rampage. Much like M3gan’s iconic killing spree where she leaves the company that produced her in a bloodbath for denying her connection with her best friend.
The ideals of the Golem have been used throughout media for example: IRobot, The Iron Giant and more recently M3GAN. The idea of an automaton with a human-like quality choosing to care for a singular person is familiar and comforting for audiences of any age. M3GAN takes that idea and reshapes it until it resembles something a little more akin to the Child's Play franchise.
In Child's Play, while Chucky the doll is created to be a toy like any other, the soul he is imbued with is that of a serial killer. Much like with M3GAN, the audience is aware that the doll has murderous intentions, however the main family - a single parent and lonely child household - are only in danger of the doll in the final act of their story.
M3GAN 2.0 evolves the characters and the storytelling medium straight into the future.
In 1927, twelve years after the Golem made its debut, another German silent film premiered. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The science fiction film depicts the effects of industrialization and the power technology has over the working class. In this film, a well respected woman’s likeness is imbued in a robot meant to discredit her peaceful ideology. Similarly, in M3GAN 2.0, Gemma the creator of M3GAN and the ai that gives the doll life, has her work copied by a man desperate to maintain success in the tech-space. He uses her work to make her the villain in her home as well as in society. The good will that she had done since the events of the first M3GAN film are called into question. In Gemma’s journey to save herself, her child and her creation, she merges her humanity with technology as she joins forces with the automatons.
M3GAN 2.0 is not only reminiscent of Metropolis in its narrative but most thoroughly in its visuals. There are scenes in the laboratory that are siphoned directly from the classics’ celluloid.
The exploration of humanity through the lens of a non-humanoid entity is a staple in writing. The poem read at the beginning of this analysis comes from Walt Whitman’s I Sing the Body Electric. The poem and its many iterations question: what is a soul? What part of the human is a soul? Is it the actions of the mind or merely the existence of flesh that grants one a soul?
Humans and other living beings are able to create. They are able to create living and non-living things. If the intention is to create something life-like, can a human not generate a soul into a non-living entity? While the M3GAN films are original concepts from Gerard Johnstone, James Wan and the team at Blumhouse, there is no doubt that cinema history flows through its electric veins while being incredibly present to the film industry of today.
Commentary on the harm of artificial intelligence, the misuse and misguided attempts at technological advancement are necessary conversations in all mediums. Evolution is part of human existence. We should be explorers, architects and protectors of the human condition. Statements such as “AI is here” and the idea that we as people need to learn to live with it is dangerous. AI, as a technology for advancement is one thing, AI for general use and productivity in a capitalist society may be placing humanity a little too close to what should be the fictional threat of Skynet.
