B-Movie Inspirations: Mother/Android (2021)

Mother/Android is a 2021 American post-apocalyptic science fiction film, written and directed by Mattson Tomlin. It stars’ Chloë Grace Moretz (who also did a similar post-apoc film, The Fifth Wave), and a bunch of other actors I have never heard of. The movie takes place in a world where AI androids – literal human looking androids – have somehow revolted and started killing all humans. The central story follows a pregnant woman and her boyfriend while they try to reach a fortified Boston after several months of this AI war.

The prologue of the movie starts out on the eve of the AI revolt which just so happens to be Christmas Eve in a near future setting where some things look familiar and some things are somewhat different. Cell phones look cooler and more techno-advanced and everyone has an android servant (or i-Servant, if you swing that way). Georgia Olsen (Moretz), an late teen or early 20s something, determines she is pregnant with her boyfriend Sam’s child, who promptly and honorably asks her to marry him. You immediately get the vibe that while Georgia was willing to have sex with Sam (and risk pregnancy), she does not see him as The One and she is also uncertain she desires to be a mother.

Meanwhile, Georgia and Sam attend a college Christmas party with Sam. Upon arriving, the home owner’s android Eli wishes them a happy Halloween instead of Christmas. I found that to say the android was making a joke which is sort of a sign of advanced AI but maybe it was a form of foreshadowing. Soon after, a sonic shriek bursts out of everyone’s cell phone, and the house android turns violent, attacking every human in the house. Possessing super-strength and speed, the victims are like twigs to the androids. The hero couple flee the house as we see people trying to call for help on their smartphones, which then unexpectedly explode, and kill any users.

This is where I started getting a certain message or subtext from the movie, paralleling in some ways what was happening in the real world. Instead of a certain biological virus being released (some say intentionally) into our eco-system, we have a electronic virus perhaps released intentionally. And where do you think these cell phones and androids are built? They don’t say but I have a good guess.

We advance nine months later where Georgia is expecting a baby and they both are journeying across the US, finding shelter where they can. Boston is apparently fortified against the androids and there are rumors of a boat transporting new mothers to Asia (What??? Shock!!??), where they can find a peaceful life.

The bulk of the movie (Act 2?) is them running from Androids and finding survivor camps. It’s the typical post-apocalyptic scene where everyone is looking out for themselves, no one trusts each other and the worst of humanity is represented throughout. Couple that with the Terminator trope that you can’t tell the difference between humans and androids, they introduce various innovative things humans use against the super-human androids, including EMP devices, which are very effective against them.

Without getting into too many spoilers, the plot goes down a similar theme as the old story by Phillip K Dick called Second Variety which was made into a pretty mediocre movie called Screamers (1995). There is a real good twist in the end that makes the movie worth it but it is the same basic twist as Screamers except done better. In the end, the couple survives the ordeal that ensued and are forced to give up their baby to the “Koreans” who are here to save us!

In the end, this was a pretty good update to the Terminator trope, except minus the central AI and more like a bunch of little ones working together. It’s is a brutal movie with some good and dark moments. As for an RPG, it could be a good setting overall to build around a one-shot or campaign. An epic campaign could have the players find out that this only happened in the US and it was a massive attack by a foreign entity exploiting vulnerabilities (intentionally set up or not) in the androids.