Murderous robot girls are the future: How M3gan flips the AI script

For decades, the representation of feminine AI has had a few distinguishing factors: traditionally beautiful, seductive, deceptive, and always, always, always created by men. We’ve seen the titular Stepford Wives, the faceless Samantha in Her, Ex Machina’s Ava and Kyoko and their fellow sexy gynoids that came before them. The story is generally the same: those men turning to technology for the comfort of a feminine presence without the complications of an autonomous human, and then that technology becoming sentient and breaking out of this role. The stories are posed as a bit feminist: the sentience represents female agency, women defying the roles that these men are locking them into. Those films, though, almost never pass the Bechdel test; they don’t necessarily measure up to the same statement that they’re making. In this, and so many other ways, M3GAN is different. 

Before we get into the TikTokery of it all, I want to address the writing: Akela Cooper (whose other work includes Malignant) subtly turns all of those AI-story tropes on their head. This script is all about the girls, with men having little screen time and even fewer lines. Gemma, the adult in the room, is allowed to exist as a scientist who happens to be a woman. We don’t see those usual tropes about her emotions getting in the way or her coworkers giving her shit for having no love life. There’s a one-liner about Tinder, but otherwise, we don’t waste any time learning about how she’s so consumed by work that she lives a life unfulfilled. In fact, she seems to be pretty content with her sterile life, other than her boss’s frustrations, and that has less to do with her gender than the fact that she’s using company time and money to work on a passion project (which, honestly, is a little understandable). Gemma’s focus on M3GAN purportedly isn’t about ego, or filling a hole in her own life, but rather is coming from a place of compassion for her niece. This project is the only way she can think of to help Cady. 

That’s not to say that Gemma’s project is perfectly executed, and is fact far from it. Before she realizes that M3GAN is slaying more than dance moves (I’m sorry, I had to), she does take advantage of the fact that Cady’s new friend doubles as an extra parent. Honestly, though, it’s an understandable impulse; we all know an iPad baby! But Cady’s grief compounded with codependence does eventually ring some alarm bells, and she pivots back to being a responsible guardian in the 11th hour. We stan a complicated woman in STEM! Sure, she kind of sucks, but that’s independent of her gender.

M3GAN herself is less like those aforementioned AI examples and more like my previous favorite: Smart House’s Pat. Pat, also created by a woman scientist (we love you, Sara Barnes!), strives to be the perfect caregiver to the Cooper family. Our favorite robo-bitch doesn’t want to escape her companion; she wants to stay and fulfill her objective of protecting, and even loving, Cady. When so many of her predecessors have turned violent in the pursuit of autonomy, to blend in with society, M3GAN instead wants to remain Cady’s BFF (but like, actually forever). That unhinged cover of “Titanium” is sung with sincerity, and is a promise to keep gathering information and improving.  If she saw Gemma as competent, she may have even tolerated her creator. Unlike Pat, though, M3GAN isn’t afraid to shed a little blood, which makes her about a million times more fun. Just like a pair of matching necklaces from Limited Too (RIP), M3GAN’s programming has locked her in on Cady forever. Cady, who has a human brain, also has forged a permanent connection, but her programming is a byproduct of PTSD. M3GAN is designed to be the girl that all the other kids idolize, and there are few things as powerful as a popular girl. Who needs parents, or adults at all, when you can just get all the answers–and validation–from a person who’s everything you want to be? 

The fun of the film lies in M3GAN’s characterization, which is so different from those sexy subservient cyborgs (note: I know they aren’t cyborgs, but I really wanted the alliteration), and rightfully so. To make this AI a child alleviates us of those tropes, and instead lets her have a delightfully bitchy personality. Her side-eye holds more power than all nations combined. The way she marches into that house and takes off her sunglasses has taken up permanent residence in my brain, like if they made an American Girl doll of a Gossip Girl character (eyes out for my upcoming novel series American Gossip Girls, coming to a children’s bookstore near you). And then, of course there’s that fucking dance. Manufactured to be a meme? Maybe! But just like Cady, I’m the target audience, baby. 

I think we would all, as a society, benefit from a refresh on the AI storyline. Let’s see a clique of M3GANs terrorizing the low-cost ripoff, M0RG4N. I want to see a M3GAN audition for the band solo and cheat by streaming Yo-Yo Ma. I want to see what happens when Cady gets older and doesn’t want to hang out with a little kid anymore! But I truly never need to see another horny nerd make a robot girlfriend again. The people have spoken: campy, cunty, murderous robot girls are the future.