Question: Why did Lanning build a robot that functioned independently of the USR mainframe, had alloys strong enough to endure vast drops and steal nanites, had a pre-programmed knowledge of Spooner... And then tell it to kill him? Furthermore, it is Sonny's own suggestion to kill Viki with nanites, so why didn't Lanning just get him to jump out the lab and do that, or at least convey a less cryptic message about what was going on?
Greg Dwyer
18th Mar 2014
I, Robot (2004)
Answer: VIKI was too powerful to fight on his own. VIKI could control the robots.
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Answer: People would not likely listen to just the robot. By killing himself he ensured that Spooner would take him seriously. This would also keep VIKI from finding out and planning around it.
Greg Dwyer
But why couldn't Lanning just kill VIKI in the first place?
Because VIKI basically had complete control over him. She could lock him in the lab, stop his access to information, stop him from communicating with others, etc... Developing Sonny allowed him to deceive VIKI and still kill her in the end.