Futuristic and suspenseful, "I Am Mother" is a Netflix original movie that was released June 7, 2019. Directed by Grant Sputore, the thrilling sci-fi film takes place in the distant future where humanity has become extinct. A human girl named 'Daughter' is raised by a robot called Mother. Daughter grows up only knowing the bunker and not the outside world due to the fact that Mother has convinced her that it is lethal. Mother designed Daughter to repopulate the earth following the extinction of mankind but when an uninvited guest named 'Woman' shows up at their 'home,' it changes everything Daughter thought she knew.
The technology and special effects in the film are advanced and create cool scenes such as the beginning of the movie where machines are putting Mother together so she can function. There’s enough futuristic technology to make it clear that its setting is far in the future. When Mother begins to function, the movie introduces the amount of human life in the bunker and the number of years since humankind’s extinction.
Rose Byrne’s voices Mother, Clara Rugaard plays Daughter, and Hilary Swank is Woman. Rose Byrne’s monotone Siri-like voice as the robot caregiver makes you suspicious of her in addition to the fact that a robot is raising a human which makes you wonder how that is even possible. The three characters, Daughter, Mother, and Woman have their own reasons as to why they act and think the way they do.
The story begins when an injured stranger, Woman, pounds on the door of Daughter and Mother’s bunker. Daughter opens the entrance door surprised to see another human from the outside. Daughter instructs Woman to put on the hazmat suit, telling her it’s the only way she would be able to enter the bunker. To fast forward, Mother finds out about Woman, and Woman gets mad at the fact that Daughter’s in the same facility as a droid, saying that she is injured because of one.
At the end, Daughter and Woman leave the bunker, and Daughter gets mad at Woman because she took her as a hostage and threatened Mother that she would kill her if she didn’t let them leave. Escaping from Woman, Daughter returns to a protected bunker that has many droids ready to kill her, thinking she is a threat. They let her pass and Daughter sees Mother holding a child, her brother, that she chose from the collection of embryos that were in the bunker. Finally, Daughter kills Mother’s system.
Initially, I thought the movie was weird. At times I found it boring. I guess there was a profound message, but it wasn’t clear and I did not pay attention to it. I rate it low because of my disinterest and the storyline’s conclusion. But it is an original concept that isn’t typically seen in films nowadays, so I took that into consideration. The setting and Mother looked really realistic, along with the frozen embryos and converting them into a newborn baby. The ending leaves you with so many questions. Daughter is looking straight into the lens. What happens to her brother? Will she raise him in the bunker? Will she go back to Woman? These questions leave you wondering about Daughter’s future, survival, and the responsibility she now has.