Subservience (2024)
To say that Nick and Maggie are going through a rough patch would be an understatement. Devoted white wife and mother Maggie (played with wistful resolve by Madeline Zima) is checked into a hospital to await a heart transplant. She is deathly ill and her equally devoted white husband, Nick (played by the ruggedly handsome Italian man Michele Morrone) is at his wit’s end trying to hold it down at home and work where the human-looking robots disparagingly called SIMS have just taken over his construction site. As the foreman, Nick has been spared, but his friends have lost their jobs and their hatred towards the technological advancements which have rendered their human labour obsolete is deep-seated and ugly. This is the scenario into which director S.K. Dale leads viewers in this thriller, action, sci-fi written by Will Honley and April Macguire.
So, what’s an overworked, emotionally drained man to do? Get help of course! The thrill in thriller ensues when Nick turns to a tech company that is building perhaps what are too life-like, human-looking robots suited to serve your every need. If you recall, we’ve seen a similar plot (in reverse) before in April Mullen’s sci-fi Simulant (2023) in which a grieving Faye (Jordana Brewster) replaced her deceased husband Evan (Robbie Amell) with a life-like robotic stand-in, to horrific ends.
In Subservience, when Nick ventures out with two kids in tow (baby Max played by Jude Greenstein and little Isla played by Matilda Firth) to see if this is the right solution for him, he is convinced in part when Isla wanders off in the convention centre and is returned by the correct acting, but emotionless and nameless female robot played with stilted, monotone detachment by the sleek and beautiful Megan Fox. Taken aback by how life-like the robots are, Nick nevertheless purchases it, expecting to integrate it into his new homelife, sans wifey.
The dissonance is immediate for Nick who can’t fully process that the physically, human-looking robot is not an actual human. It is Alice, so named by Isla, that must remind him that he does not need to clean up for her because, as she states, “I am not a guest”. Rather, as she repeats throughout the film, she is there to serve his needs and to protect him as her primary user. Hmmm. Ok, well what can possibly go wrong with Maggie incapacitated in the hospital, Nick hanging on by a thread at work and at home, and Alice (aka hot robot) suggesting that she is there to fulfill Nick’s every need?
Big cracks start to appear in Nick’s equilibrium when Maggie’s transplant is cancelled after a scheduled organ delivery is disrupted by unexpected bad weather. As a hospital-bound Maggie sinks further into depression, Nick breaks under the pressure sliding further into despair and turning to alcohol. A scene fraught with peril plays out at home as Alice enters the bathroom startling Nick who is naked in the shower. Despite her stilted movements and emotional detachment, Nick seems incapable of comprehending her as anything other than a flesh and blood woman. Directing her not to enter the bathroom when he is showering, Alice takes his pulse and blood pressure, enlightening him about his health and emotional state. She can relieve his anxiety and stress, of course, but in a way that feels like a betrayal of Maggie.
Most of the scenes take place between the suburban family home, the hospital, and Nick’s work site. Although at times only scratching the surface of profound and timely philosophical questions, Subservience weaves a difficult ethical dilemma about human-robot interaction and the knock-on implications for human-human interactions in a not-too-distant future when robots will be created to look more and more (and behave more and more) like us. Is it cheating to have sex with a robot or is it no different than using a mechanical sex toy like a vibrator to masturbate? Is the crucial issue the fact that the robot “looks like” a human or is the problem the sex act itself with anyone or anything other than your human partner? Does it matter if your spouse is physically or emotionally incapacitated and unable to fulfill your sexual needs? Does it matter if the robot is emotionally incapable of desire, emotion, or experiencing pleasure and attachment? These are the ethical questions which the film broaches through its depiction of a specific scenario.
During sex, Alice blindfolds Nick and changes her voice to sound like Maggie’s to alleviate his stress and guilt, in the moment at least. But after Maggie gets her transplant, returns home and discovers Nick’s actions, she feels betrayed and does not distinguish his actions with Alice from a real woman. In Maggie’s mind, Nick has cheated on her, period. But these two have bigger things to worry about. You see, Nick earlier rebooted Alice (not wise) which allowed her to override her programming and in so doing, she has become even more fixated on Nick’s wellbeing, but with some startlingly violent ideas about how to achieve this goal. Will Nick and Maggie realize the extent of Alice’s deviation from normal protocol before it’s too late? Can a still weak Maggie use her smarts to outwit the insanely strong Alice who comes to see Max as a hindrance to Nick’s happiness? Can Alice be “shut off” at all? Tune in and find out.