Subservience (2024) - Thriller/Sci-fi

SPOOOOILER
this is for those who HAVE WATCHED THE FILM AND WANT TO DISCUSS. this is my own take (why I liked it, what would have made it better, etc.)

this isn't ur average: "robots take over the world and they're bad because..." story. I mean, yes- from the beginning its giving- proceed with caution but this twist on what could be is fantastic. I was SO excited for this film before even watching it. I will begin with, I love futuristic, end of the world or new world films (and novels.) and I gotta say I love the idea of AI overpowering human kind because as a society we are ABSOLUTELY heading in that direction and surprisingly no one seems to realize this writing is an inference of what will happen if we continue. my overall score is 7/10 read below for my analysis and reasoning.

my initial opinion of the main character (Nick) is he is smart, handy, nurturing, patient, and so goddamn sexy. hes a pretty complex character imo, he was constantly battling with what is right/ wrong from the beginning. he works a blue collar job (that can and eventually are replaced by SIMS) and tries his hardest to fight against his friends losing their jobs. but he actively uses extremely advanced technology like his refrigerator, populating bars utilizing SIMS to serve, and ofc hiring his own SIM. he expresses a high sex drive (source: when Maggie (his wife) is literally in the hospital bed waiting for her heart surgery, hes making jokes abt getting her back to the marathons they used to have- but she doesn't seem to mind, shes pressing into him too so we can only assume she has an equally high sex drive too) but remains faithful even when he feels an unintentional attraction to Alice.

when Nick asked Alice to wipe her memory in order to "experience" Casablanca, that's exactly what she did. she consumes the film as if shes a part of it. erasing her program to reprogram the story as her own. she tells Nick that resetting her in order to "forget" the memory she has of Casablanca will be antithetical, but he still does it. the quote from the movie we see is "you are a man. if someone loved you very much so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the world and she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?" then the call is interrupted by a call from Maggie.

the entire film counters being dependent on AI, but very much distinguishing their inability to experience life through emotions. in the beginning scenes, the sales person explains the longer the AI unit is with the family/ the more knowledge it obtains the better it will perform. but no one seems to think they can replicate emotions or make decisions outside of their based programming?
as soon as she wipes her memory.. she learns only: Nick, Casablanca and Alice in Wonderland. throughout the film we see her putting together the metaphoric similarities of their real life to the characters of Alice in Wonderland when speaking with Isla as well. she even notes wiping her own civility because "it's better." aka more human. aka creating a more genuine link to human emotion. (this doesn't make sense to me, because in this film- the companies programming these SIMS are extremely hands on- later in the film the company even immediately takes action in bringing in two employees well after working hours to reset/ reprogram Alice. every story of robots taking over the world seems to always conclude that robots will outsmart the companies who make them. so in a world where we're so far advanced; AI is in your home and consuming more and more information all the time, is it really so crazy to assume the companies who created them would want to check in on their projects' progress? the amount of times we hear how much money they cost, you think they would have scheduled tune ups frequently. with scheduled check ups, the companies would have found out a lot of her program was wiped and I think this fact kind of kept me in movie mode- not so much lose myself in the film mode.)

to me, it's obvious the matter of "messing around" with Alice wouldn't have ever crossed Nick's mind if she didn't look the way she did. there would have never been a moment where he was willing to risk anything if Alice was "an old English butler," which was originally what Nick and Maggie had originally discussed when purchasing a nanny SIM.
he gives the explanation that "Isla chose her," and I think this is a really great moment to note: he really was teetering back and forth whether he found it wrong or not. he clearly liked to look but even if the idea crossed his mind- he never tempted himself with any action. it wasn't until Maggie told Alice that if she died, Alice needed her to comfort Nick and make sure he's taken care of. the first time they messed around (in the garage later that night) Alice initiated it. she convinced him she wasn't real (because her heartbeat is just a simulation programmed to provide comfort to humans) and encouraged him to proceed if only for his own health and he does.
the second time is after the shower when she again, tempts him with lingerie and a blindfold. she disguises herself as Maggie which was such a nice touch because it really enforces the idea that there is nothing human about her and essentially can be or do whatever he needs. and **ok honestly** lets face it the bathroom scene was... nice ͡° ͜ ͡

BUT I really hate that that's the extent of their relationship. the next morning, Nick "ends it" with her, the wife gets her surgery and comes home and then it turns into this weird vibe between the women. all of a sudden, we see a jealous/ competitive side from Maggie (ie: dirty looks when Alice cared for the baby, cattiness towards Alice when she asked for the family recipe, etc.) I dont understand because at this point Maggie has no idea that Alice and Nick have had sex- Alice has only shown she is an obedient and hard-working and loving nanny so idk how the vibes are so far off when there wasnt a single hospital visit that was weird?

here's where the story line goes all over the place. there was SO much build up between Nick and Alice and then for like 6 scenes in a row you don't even see the two of them in conversation. we have the playground scene (where we learn Alice has changed her software to have more of a human approach to casual encounters,) the shower scene between Nick and Maggie (where Alice interrupts with Isla's nightmare,) then we see Monty attack Nick, Alice k*lling Monty (*but we also learn that Monty: hater of all SIMS, OWNS A SIM. he's coked out and contemplating suicide but we also learn hes been using and ab*sing his SIM,) then the bathtub scene between the women (again- would have been a nice time to see Alice be useful to Maggie??? this woman has just had open heart surgery, her medicine has proved two separate times to cause dizziness, and she isn't thankful to have the extra hands on deck. again- up until THIS POINT SPECIFICALLY, she doesnt know Nick and Alice have hooked up. obviously in this scene, she puts it together, but in my perfect world, she would have accepted the help from Alice and welcomed the extra energy she has to take care of her husband- which before she was about to die was her only concern? idk weird continuity there, but again this is the scene she puts together that they've indeed had sex. but then immediately the scene goes from Maggie and Nick talking about his affair to Alice trying to drown the baby.

??? huh !!! ???
I have watched this movie now three times all the way through and this just does not add up. her software changes up until this point could always be justified with ~what she was learning real time.~ she says its bc Max is a "burden," which in the beginning Nick (when Max was crying,) shushes him and says "quite the little burden," but the words are never brought up again and that was BEFORE the hard wipe before Casablanca. so..... yeah I really really dont understand this part.
not to mention miss "I just had open heart surgery" takes on scaling the house and fighting a robot?

I definitely wouldnt have made her turn on the kids- if there was no hope in seeing a harmonious relationship between the women, I would have much rather seen Alice drowning Maggie in the bathtub and played it off as "people accidentally drown all the time," or using her medication symptoms to her own advantage and coerced Maggie into hurting herself or the kids (making Nick question her character, aka not be in love with her.)

ok so then yada yada, we're at the hospital with the baby to check on his vitals (even though he was never even submerged in the water? kinda dramatic to take him by ambulance to the ER but whatever. flashes to the bar scene where Alice speaks in a revised quote from Casablanca and informs Nick, she k*lled Monty for him, and will take care of his family (alluding to the fact that she had connections in the hospital at the same moment.) then Nick attempts to trick her (c'mon now.. shes clearly proved she cant die?) and k*ll her and he races to the hospital. ofc we get this unrealistic fast and furious driving through the snowy streets only to have his car crash into an ambulance pinning Alice in between them. SHOCKER: she still doesnt die. we have to sit through terrible fight sequences and multiple fake deaths before everyone walking away barely scathed. Nick is in a hospital bed with light bruising and Maggie is healing in a wheelchair with both children and she invites him to come home *rolls eyessssss. the film then ends with a 30 second clip of Alice's software uploading on every SIM and her opening her eyes after reconstruction of her face implying a sequel.... I’m gonna go ahead and say we dont need it.

tldr;
my rating would be higher than 7/10 if the company was more hands on, there was more of a relationship (whether that would have been friendship or romantic) built between Nick and Alice, a more manipulative side of Alice towards Maggie, more mentions of Casablanca and Alice in Wonderland (so we could have definitively seen the allusion to the stories playing IRL for Alice,) and heres a big kicker: I really wish that Nick would have died in the car crash. this may be so so over the top controversial, but I think it would have been very ~poetic justice~ if he died trying to save Maggie when it was his actions that potentially destroyed them in the first place

anyway :) definitely watch the movie!! big fan!!
-itschelx