I, Robot (2004) - 15 questions

Question: Lannings wrote the three laws and built VIKI as his first robot, which leads to the conclusion that VIKI has been programmed with the three laws. If VIKI is programmed with those laws, how can she order robots to ignore humans orders and even kills them?

Answer: Viki is following what has been called the 0th law of robotics. It is an extrapolation of the other three with an application toward humanity as a whole rather than individual humans and is interpreted as "A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm". The idea being that she has now concluded that to fail to take action to prevent the self destruction of humanity itself would be a violation of that law. And being the 0th law, it supersedes all other laws, just as law 1 supersedes law 2 and law 2 supersedes law 3. Her actions may be regrettable or undesirable, but according to the 0th law, they are necessary to save humanity as a whole.

Question: While Dr. Spooner was driving alone in the tunnel, he requested access to restricted files between Dr. Lanning and Lawrence Robertson. When Robertson was informed of this he seemed appalled. Shortly, two NS-5 trucks came and boxed Spooner in. Did Lawerence activate those trucks?

Answer: No, VIKI did. Robertson is merely annoyed that Spooner is continuing to delve into company business. VIKI is the one who's actually behind the whole plot and is concerned enough about Spooner's meddling to try to take him out.

Question: During the curfew, if a human was seen acting dangerously, an NS5 would approach them and grab them by the neck saying "You have been deemed hazardous, will you comply?" This happened to Spooner and Farber. What would the outcome be if one did comply? What would the NS5 do?

Answer: Politely but firmly escort them to an area deemed suitable for temporarily holding "hazardous" individuals. Or, amusingly, compliance would perhaps convince the NS5 that they were no longer a hazard and leave them free to go.

Question: If Lanning really had leaped from that distance, wouldn't he be unrecognizable upon impact and not with only a little bit of blood coming from his mouth?

Answer: He'd certainly have a lot of internal injuries that aren't visible, would probably have more injuries showing than that trickle of blood, but wouldn't necessarily be "unrecognizable."

Question: What was the exact significance of the "bread crumbs?" It still confuses me.

Answer: The doctor who was killed had a copy of the book Hansel and Gretel in his lab. He knew that Detective Spooner would see the book during his investigation, and that would prompt him to follow the first clue he found to the next clue, and so on. The trail of breadcrumbs were used by Hansel and Gretel in the children's story as a way to find their way home. For more info, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansel_and_Gretel.

Question: Why would they destroy a house,just because the owner has died and before the house has been emptied?

Answer: It was demolished ahead of schedule, in an attempt to kill him. And maybe, they wanted the land, but not the house.

Question: As Detective Spooner looks down on the street and sees the robot running with what he assumes to be a stolen bag, there is a cry of 'hey.' or something similar from one of the crowd, prompting Spooner to think the robot had taken the bag. As the robot had not, why did the man yell?

Answer: That was probably just an arbitrary cry that came from the crowed, or the running robot could have just ran into someone.

Question: How did Spooner get Sarah's necklace, if he only saw her passing by in a car?

Answer: He knew way too much about her (he knew her age and what she wanted to be when she grew up) for that to have been the only time. I would suspect that, after the accident, the vehicles were brought out of the water. Knowing the kind of person Spooner is, he probably felt guilty enough that he survived that he went to speak with the family. They probably talked about her a good deal. The family may have given him the necklace. That's just the kind of schmaltzy thing that happens in movies.

Question: What was the relationship between Dr. Lanning and Dr. Calvin?

Answer: Mentor and protege.

Question: Why would Del Spooner have to exercise his left arm at the beginning of the day, does it need physiotherapy?

Answer: YES! Because his left arm is not quite human and has not been used for some time while he slept, he has to keep the electrical parts flowing (being connected to his fleshly nerves) for it to fully function.

Question: Does anyone know what year Dr. Lanning (the character) was born in? It tells you when Spooner is in the cafe on the TV, but I just can't make it out.

Answer: According to the tv in the bar he lived from 1971 to 2035.

Question: Did or didn't Sonny kill Lanning? If he did, how did he do it? What was the promise he had to give?

Answer: Sonny killed Lanning. Lanning had designed Sonny with the ability to opt out of the Three Laws when he deemed it absolutely necessary. Lanning forced Sonny to promise to do Lanning a favor, then told him the favor was to throw Lanning out the window. Forced to keep his word by Lanning's own programming, Sonny overrode the Three Laws and tossed Lanning out the window.

Question: After Spooner explains how much of his body is robotic, the woman asks what it was like when he went back to work. He starts to explain, then starts describing the accident with the truck and the girl. I'm a bit confused. Was this where his arm and lung were damaged, or did this happen after he received his bionic appendage?

Answer: Although not clearly explained, Spooner lost his left arm and lung during the accident.

Question: The rich guy was found dead. I don't quite understand his involvement, did he order the attack on Spooner? And I also don't get his wound around the neck, for a second I thought he was a robot, since it was a little odd and there was no blood.

Answer: Just like the earlier murder, this one was also caused by VIKI and the NS-5s under her control (they also attacked Spooner). He tried to protect the company and its profits by preventing any information about potentially unreliable robots from dissemination, not knowing the depth of the problem. VIKI killed him when she no longer needed his protection. The wound on his neck was from his throat being crushed by an NS-5, hence the fingerprints.

Question: Were the MS-5 faces modeled after an actual person?

Answer: They all look vaguely like Alan Tudyk to me, who did the voice of Sonny.