MovieChat Forums > Transcendence (2014) Discussion > Were the humans "repaired/controlled" ac...

Were the humans "repaired/controlled" actually damaged by the AI?


Max (brainwashed at this point) says the captured contractor was long dead.

However we see him clearly begging them to reconnect him (in his own voice) so the nanobots can regenerate his injuries (which are shown to be fatal). If the AI had taken over his mind and killed him, wouldn't he be dead the second he was disconnected?

And what about the blind dude and everybody else fixed by the AI? Once the AI is infected, they don't just drop dead on the floor, but see to return to their prior unfixed state.

Had they been taken over and killed/assimilated, they would have died, yet they did not.

And it's not like the AI was doing this behind Evelyn's back: it clearly and repeatedly tried to show this to her and explain her all the ramifications of it, but she wouldn't have it.

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I think Kate Mara's and Paul Bettany's character meant his free will was dead a long time ago (in their opinion). After those *beep* beat him (the General Contractor) to near death, the nanobots repaired him (I think he didn't die). If you take a close look though Will only used his healed people for labor and building things, and then he released them. They had free will and their personalities, it was only during construction duties or when Will needed them he took control.

To Answer your question: NO, they were not harmed. Only enhanced. I loved the movie.

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Well that's why I like it too, and why I state in a different post that the bad guys won here
(and humanity as a whole lost, big time).

It's even worse than Escape from LA, where humanity is also thrown back into the stone age (all transistors are fried), but in that one at least the bad guys got it worse. Here they got off scot free and got their wildest dreams come true (the Luddite terrorists).

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Very true. Good analysis.

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How is being controlled and used when needed by someone or something considered a good thing? Even though Will does heal them, being controlled and used to do manual labor or to speak for him is taking away their free will, their humanity. Perhaps some think the ends justify the means, or that they actually had their free will and wanted to be part of the collective. But I saw it as being taken over by a God like AI bent on doing the wishes of his wife. Some think it's great bc she wanted to help the Earth, but what if she had been a racist neo nazi? It's an extreme example I know, but if that's what he was trying to do, then taking over people and enhancing them and controlling them would be considered a bad thing. My point is that just bc the goal was noble, I don't agree what Will as AI was doing was a good thing. I don't think it was done to be evil, but I can't condone using humans in the way he did as justifiable.

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