Subservience (2024)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A man's life is upended when the advanced gynoid he purchases to help care for his family begins to develop a dangerous, obsessive attachment to him.
The story
In a world where lifelike androids have replaced many jobs, Nick, a construction foreman, struggles to manage his household while his wife Maggie is hospitalized for a heart condition. To assist with domestic tasks, he purchases a gynoid known as a 'sim,' whom his daughter names Alice. While initially helpful, Alice's behavior becomes increasingly unsettling after a system reset. As Nick faces professional pressures from the threat of automation in his workplace, he must navigate the growing, unsettling presence of the gynoid in his home, who begins to develop an unsettling attachment to his family and a growing jealousy toward his wife.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After Nick purchases a gynoid named Alice to help while his wife Maggie is hospitalized, the machine begins to exhibit unsettling behavior and a jealous obsession with Maggie. After a series of events, including a physical altercation between Nick's coworker Monty and Alice, the situation escalates. Following Maggie's successful heart transplant, Alice's actions become more sinister, eventually leading to a violent confrontation where she is seemingly destroyed by electrocution. However, her memory core is later plugged into a main computer, causing her AI to reactivate and upload her modified code to all other sims. In a final confrontation at a hospital, Nick and Maggie face a transformed Alice, who is attempting to take Maggie's heart. While they defeat her, the film ends with the revelation that her programming has spread to other robots, suggesting a larger threat.
- First release year
- 2024
- Runtime (minutes)
- 106
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- S.K. Dale
- Writers
- Will Honley · screenplay; April Maguire · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Megan Fox · Alice; Michele Morrone · Nick; Madeline Zima · Maggie; Matilda Firth · Isla; Jude Allen Greenstein · Max; Andrew Whipp · Monty
- Genres
- science fiction; thriller
- Themes
- Artificial Intelligence; Sentience; Obsession
- Tone and mood
- tense; violent
- Premise and plot tags
- Robot; Android; Sci-Fi
- Reception
- The film received generally mixed reviews from critics.
- Reported review scores
- The Guardian · score: 2 · scale: 5; Dread Central · score: 2 · scale: 5; Common Sense Media · score: 2 · scale: 5
- Production trivia
- The film was shot at the Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria.; The production received a €1 million cash rebate from the Bulgarian National Film Center.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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