Post apocalyptic Frankenstein-ish fantasyPost apocalyptic Frankenstein-ish fantasyPost apocalyptic Frankenstein-ish fantasy
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination
- Thug #1
- (as John Elmanahi)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
[first lines]
Puzzlehead: The Anti-Federalists and the Luddites forced the closure of all biomechanical laboratories and began replacing them with fertility clinics. Funding ceased for everything not directly related to re-population. Quite ironic now that I think about it. Walter managed to salvage most of the equipment that wasn't nailed down. The most important of which was D-I-amdac, a brain scanner, which he used to scan his own brain to provide the blueprint for the neuro-net map of my artificially intelligent mind.
Walter: [upstairs preparing a meal]
Puzzlehead: During the initial burn-in, programming 24-hours a day for several days at a time,
[groans and cries over intercom]
Puzzlehead: it was painful. I would get exhausted. But he was impatient and wanted to give me all the information he thought most relevant to my primary human development.
Walter: [leaning over him on the gurney] There there my little Puzzlehead, you've made me very proud. Everything's going to be alright now. That's a good boy. You can rest now.
Puzzlehead: I became an interactive humanoid life form, with sensory faculties that enabled me to be a conscious being with emotions. Enormous cognitive capacity, and no sense of mortality. A robot, created in the image - or self-image - of Walter.
Anyways, the film itself is basically about a man who creates a robot (named Puzzlehead) that looks exactly like him and whose "synaptic map" is a direct copy of his own. The two look the same except for a beard. The man has a crush on a local grocery store clerk and Puzzlehead the robot is the one who ends up finally meeting her. She thinks he's a human etc. and the drama begins. The plot goes from there and i don't want to spoil it but basically there's a lot of twists involving who is the real man and who is the robot and which is ultimately the better person.
The film handles robot artificial intelligence issues really well and shows the progression of how a robot would likely think and the striking differences and similarities between humans and robots. The film makes the audience truly question who is more human. All the technological mumbo jumbo is easy to understand so you don't get into a situation where you're confused (like that movie "Primer"). But the plot does stay a little ahead of the viewer.
The film obviously could have benefited from a bigger budget, but there are an enough circuits and gizmos and filming techniques that convince us that the protagonist created a robot.
There is subtle humor throughout and the plot is constantly engaging. I strongly recommend everyone see this film.
On a side note: the lead actresses's dialogue was all replaced by some other woman's voice to make it sound more eastern European. I was surprised she was at the screening, I would have been mad.
- pthompso
- Feb 15, 2006
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1