“A Fragrance that’s Not in Such Short Supply”: Resurrection and Life in A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Can a machine love a human—and be loved in return? These questions guide the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence, directed and written by Steven Spielberg. In the story, a child machine named David becomes a “real boy” by loving and receiving love from his human mother. To reunite David and his mother Monica, advanced machines resurrect Monica. Although Monica is the only main character raised from the dead, the subjects of life, death, resurrection, and everlasting life emerge in various forms throughout the film, often reflecting New Testament portrayals of resurrection and life.[1]
Life, Death, and Resurrection
The story begins with a narration describing a world damaged by climate change: “Those were the years after the ice caps had melted because of the greenhouse gases, and the oceans had risen to drown so many cities along all the shorelines of the world. Amsterdam. Venice. New York. Forever lost. . . . Hundreds of millions of people starved in poorer countries.”[2] Robots, who do not consume many resources, have become expedient servants to the humans who can afford them.
Most of the story’s beginning occurs in New Jersey, where the Cybertronics Corporation entrusts Henry and Monica Swinton with the corporation’s first production of a child “mecha” named David, who is programmed to love Monica. The Swintons are selected in part because their son Martin is, in the words of the Swintons’ doctor, “merely pending”[3] in a frozen chamber.
As David grows in love for his mother, he begins to realize that she will not live forever. In one scene, after seeing how perfume attracts Henry to Monica, David pours it on himself. Monica holds the empty bottle in despair and David asks, “Mommy, will you die?”
“Well, one day David, yes, I will.”
“I’ll be alone.”
“Don’t worry yourself so.”
“How long will you live?”
“For ages. For fifty years.”
“I love you, mommy. I hope you never die. Never.”[4]
This scene resembles the story in the Gospel of Luke in which a woman anoints Jesus with a jar of expensive ointment in preparation for his burial. In both stories, the extravagant outpouring of perfume is a waste or an expression of love, depending on one’s perspective. Also, the perfume prepares us for the deaths of those anointed—Jesus, Monica, and even David.
As David and Monica bond, the Swinton family learns what Monica calls “the most wonderful thing in the world”[5]: Martin returns to life. Martin’s stasis and recovery foreshadow David’s freezing and restoration at the end of the film, as well as Monica’s resurrection. David and Martin become brothers and rivals and eventually, after David threatens Martin’s life to protect himself, the Swinton family banishes David. Instead of returning David to the corporation to destroy him, Monica takes pity and leaves him and his supertoy Teddy in the woods.
David and Teddy stumble upon a gathering of mechas in the middle of the night scrounging through a pile of discarded machine parts. Here the machines reincorporate dead and disconnected parts into their bodies, restoring functionality to the pieces and to themselves.
Hunters catch David and other mechas and bring them to a Flesh Fair, where humans who fear mechas’ increasing power in society gather to destroy them. One of the human entertainers implies that mechas are not living beings: “We are alive, and this is a celebration of life!”[6] The ring leaders execute the mechas similar to how the Romans crucified or publicly executed their prisoners. David, Teddy, and their new mecha friend Gigolo Joe escape because David’s resemblance to human children evokes the crowd’s pity and anger.
David, who overheard about the Blue Fairy when his mother read the story of Pinocchio to Martin, asks Joe where they can find the Blue Fairy. David believes that, like she did for Pinocchio, the Blue Fairy can make David into a real boy, and then his will mother love him. Joe, a “lover robot,” brings David to Rouge City, a city of the lusts of the flesh.
In Rouge City, David sees a statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart, wondering if she is the Blue Fairy. Joe explains: “The ones who made us are always looking for the ones that made them. They go in, look around their feet, sing songs, and when they come out, it's usually me they find.”[7] Joe may think he is godlike because of his ability to provide physical pleasure. But he may also think that he and other mechas are divine because of their superiority to humans and because of their endless expiration dates. After David and Joe learn where to find the Blue Fairy, Joe explains why the humans hate the mechas: “They made us too smart, too quick, and too many. We are suffering for the mistakes they made because when the end comes, all that will be left is us.”[8] Perhaps the humans hate the mechas because the mechas have what the humans want: endless life.
In Manhattan, however, when their quest is almost over, the police catch Joe for a crime he has not committed and magnetically draw him into their helicopter. As he ascends, his last words to David are, “When you become a real boy, remember me to the ladies when you grow up. . . . Goodbye, David. I am. I was!”[9] Joe’s self-professed divinity ends when his life ends. Joe will not live forever.
Joe realizes, however, that he may live beyond death if David remembers him. In A.I., memory and resurrection are entwined. When the advanced mechas find David frozen in ice two thousand years later, they reconstruct David’s world through his memories: “There is nothing too small that you didn’t store for us to remember.”[10] David is the link between the frozen world of the advanced mechas and the former world of the humans.
The mechas desire to learn about humans because they want to understand “spirit” and the meaning of existence. As one mecha, also the narrator of the story, explains to David, “Human beings had created a million explanations of the meaning of life in art, in poetry, in mathematical formulas. Certainly, human beings must be the key to the meaning of existence, but human beings no longer existed.”[11] Whereas the humans had envied the mechas’ life spans, the mechas seek humanity’s spirit and potential to understand the purpose of life.
In their search for meaning, the mechas developed the technology to recreate a human life based on DNA samples and traces of memory resonating with a resurrected body. In the process, they discovered that “the very fabric of space-time itself appeared to store information about every event which had ever occurred in the past.”[12] Memory was necessary to raise the dead, and not only did a person’s body have memories; the universe itself remembered everything.[13] Just as the mechas mine David’s memory to reconstruct the past, they had also discovered a way to search fragments of the universe to resurrect a person’s life.
This resurrection technology, however, has limits: a resurrectee can live for only one day before being lost completely. “So you see, David, the equations have shown that once an individual space-time pathway had been used, it could not be reused.”[14] Despite this time limit, David asks that they resurrect Monica, which they do. David is complete.
*
The mechas’ resurrecting Monica resembles some forms of resurrection in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commands his disciples, among other things, to raise people from the dead.[15] When Jesus dies, “the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”[16] Here, as in other places in the New Testament and in A.I., falling asleep and rising from sleep are metaphors for dying and being raised to life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the grave.[17]
Although we do not know what happens to Lazarus or the other people who rise again, it is likely that, like Monica, they die again. This is because in the New Testament, Jesus’ resurrection, which is everlasting, overshadows the resurrection of all others. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”[18] Jesus also tells his disciples he is with them always, “to the very end of the age.”[19] Further, New Testament writers such as the author of Colossians call Jesus “the firstborn from the dead,”[20] meaning he is the first among many others who will rise from the dead and live everlastingly.
Jesus’ resurrection differs from Monica’s in its permanence. Their resurrections are similar, however, in at least three ways. First, just as the mechas raise Monica, God raises Jesus;[21] neither raise themselves. Second, both Monica and Jesus rise as bodies, not spirits or holograms.[22], [23] Third, Monica spends her day with David in ways similar to how the resurrected Christ spends time with his disciples: they catch up,[24] eat together,[25] and say important words. At the end of the day, Monica tells David, “I love you David. I do love you. I have always loved you.”[26] Monica’s telling David three times that she loves him resembles Jesus’ asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?”, perhaps a sign of forgiveness for Peter’s denying Jesus three times.[27] After each affirmative response from Peter, Jesus gives Peter the mission to feed Jesus’ lambs.[28] Monica’s expressions of love for David do not give him a mission; rather, they complete his mission.
Monica falls asleep, and so does David. The narrator concludes: “And for the first time in his life, he went to that place where dreams are born.”[29] The piano sonata in this closing scene echoes its first appearance, which accompanies Monica reading Pinocchio. In the story, Pinocchio dreams he sees the Blue Fairy, who forgives his misdeeds because of his good heart. “Then the dream ended and Pinocchio awoke full of amazement. You can imagine how astonished he was when he saw that he was no longer a puppet, but a real boy, just like other boys.”[30] The music signifies that, like Pinocchio, David is now a human. We also know this because David has done something mechas do not do: sleep. David’s sleep is, according to film composer John Williams, also his death.[31]
*
We do not know how the mechas resurrect people, exactly, but it seems to involve cooperation with the supernatural. The narrator mecha’s explanation to David about “the very fabric of space-time” remembering every event echoes Joe’s statement to David in Rouge City in which Joe wonders about the nature of the Blue Fairy: “The supernatural is the hidden web that unites the universe.”[32] Together, these statements suggest that the advanced mechas resurrect through the power of the supernatural realm.
Earlier, Martin’s recovery from his illness seems supernatural, too. Martin’s return surprises us because, according to the doctor, his illness was “beyond our science,”[33] and we are not told how Martin heals. Further, when Henry calls Monica to tell her the news, Henry says, “Oh my God, Monica,” and Monica later replies with “Oh, God,”[34] attributing divine power to the event. Resurrection in A.I., as in the New Testament, is miraculous.
The New Testament says that God raised Jesus and will raise believers through the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle Paul writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”[35] A key difference between A.I. and the New Testament is that in A.I., the mechas manipulate that which is beyond them and which they do not understand. Thus, their results are flawed. In the New Testament, however, God raises the dead through God’s own power, and this resurrected life is perpetual.
The instances of life, death, and life from death throughout A.I. culminate in Monica’s resurrection. As miraculous as her resurrection is, however, it is David’s becoming a “real boy” through his mother’s love that reveals the quality of everlasting life.
Everlasting Life
In Rouge City, after Joe tells David that the supernatural binds everything in the universe, Joe says, “Only Orga [organic beings; humans] believe what cannot be seen or measured. It is that oddness that separates our species.”[36] This is a strange statement for Joe to make because if it is true, then he should not believe what he cannot see or measure, yet he has just professed the existence of a supernatural force binding the universe together. It is further contradicted by the fact that, in the future, mechas seek “spirit” and the meaning of existence, things they cannot see or measure.
David, then, is not the only mecha looking for something. Just as David has sought his mother, the mechas are seeking their makers. Through David and Monica, the mechas learn that the human spirit, and what makes David human, is his love for his mother and his reception of her love for him.
According to Professor Hobby, who designed David, the kind of love that creates dreams and life is not sensual love. In the beginning of the film, when Hobby asks a lover mecha to define love, she lists physical responses of attraction. This does not satisfy Hobby. “I wasn't referring to sensuality simulators. The word that I used was love.”[37] The love that endures the ages in A.I. is the love between creation and creator.
The relationship between David and Monica reflects the relationship between humans and God. Just as David was created in humanity’s image, humans were created in God’s, as the book of Genesis says. Just as David loves Monica and seeks her love for him, humans seek God’s love and are called to love God. Just as David and the mechas find fulfillment in understanding and being loved by their creators, humans find our completion in loving and being loved by God.
Hobby asks, “In the beginning, didn’t God create Adam to love him?”[38] One may argue for or against Hobby, but in A.I. the twist is that, although Henry and Monica received David so that David would love Monica, in the end, Monica loves and has always loved David. Similarly, Christians believe through Jesus Christ that God is love and that God loves us. Living in this knowledge is everlasting life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[39] Just as David becomes real through receiving his mother’s love, humans who receive the love of God in Christ become new people, clothed with Christ. Just as David becomes human, in Christ humans become Christlike and renewed in the image of our creator.
Unlike David, who loves Monica exclusively, humans are called to love not only God but our neighbor as ourselves. Loving God and loving people are connected; the more we love one, the more we love the other, and we love one through loving the other.
Monica and Henry’s relationship reflects love in a variety of forms between people. Early in the movie, Monica puts on perfume and Henry kisses her, saying, “I love it when you wear this stuff.” Monica says, “Will you love me when it’s all gone?” Henry says, “No. . . . But we can get married again and begin with a fragrance that’s not in such short supply.”[40]
When Monica asks if Henry will love her when her perfume is gone, she reveals her knowledge that one day, her beauty will fade, as will her life. Will Henry still love her then? Can Henry love her when she is dead? Is his love everlasting? Is he? Henry’s response expresses his hope that, although the bottle of perfume and life will run empty, they will live and love again with an aroma that does not fade. The church understands this aroma to be the Spirit, of whom Jesus spoke when he said "Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life" and "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"[41] Henry points to the everlasting, Spirit-filled life in Christ, the fabric of which is bound by the love between Christ and the church, between the creator and creation, and among creation.
In this love, all people and relationships will be complete just as David is complete and at rest at the end of the story.
*
Although many characters in A.I., human and mecha, return to life from a form of death or live for what seems like an eternity, they do not taste everlasting life in its fullness. Even David, who at last learns that he is loved, experiences joy for only a moment. As complete as his joy is, it runs empty like Monica’s bottle of perfume. Henry’s yearning to Monica for an aroma of living love not in short supply points to an everlasting life more full than any character in A.I. has experienced, one that even the advanced mechas cannot produce, a resurrection and a life only God can bring.
When David at last falls asleep, he joins the entire human race in our fated slumber, where in our dreams we may hope to awake full of amazement.
Bibliography
Cobb Jr., John B. and David Ray Griffin. Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition. United States of America: The Westminster Press, 1976.
Internet Movie Database. “A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Trivia.” Accessed December 17, 2013, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv.
Kennedy, Kathleen, Steven Spielberg, and Bonnie Curtis, prods., A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Universal City, California: DreamWorks Pictures, 2001. DVD.
The Kubrick Site. “The Kubrick FAQ.” Accessed December 17, 2013, http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index2.html.
[1] Many works of science fiction explore resurrection and everlasting life. In Battlestar Galactica, for example, Cylons develop a technology which enables some of them to transfer their memories into a resurrected body when their host bodies die. As in A.I., this technology has limits. In Star Wars, Qui-Gon Jinn discovers the ability to communicate from the dead and live eternally through the Force. As in A.I. and Battlestar Galactica, Qui-Gon Jinn seems to develop this skill through a process, as though it involves experimentation. In The Matrix, Trinity resurrects Neo through her love, although beyond that, the process is not explained.
[2] Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, and Bonnie Curtis, prods., A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Universal City, California: DreamWorks Pictures, 2001), DVD.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] This understanding of the universe and resurrection resembles process theology’s understanding of the universe and resurrection. Process theology proposes that the universe consists of infinitely small units of space-time called “events” which are simultaneously independent from and interdependent with other events. It proposes that God is at the root of each of these events, and thus God too is independent and yet interdependent upon everything in the universe. God’s intention is that every event fulfills its purpose and awareness to the maximum degree in an experience called “enjoyment.” Like A.I.’s fabric of space and time, God too remembers every event that occurs in the universe, and because God remembers them, God saves them and may even have the power to resurrect them—not only within God’s own mind, but within each of the minds of the subjects that create those events.
In process theology, God remembering and thus saving events is necessary because the greatest evil is the fact that our experiences are temporary. Because they are impermanent, we cannot truly enjoy them. Thus, if God were truly loving and desired the maximum enjoyment of events, God must be able to remember these moments so they are not lost. As John B. Cobb, Jr., and David Ray Griffin write, “God’s responsive love is the power to overcome the final evil of our temporal existence. Because of God, life has meaning in the face of victorious evil. That meaning is that both in our own enjoyment and through our adding to the enjoyment of others we contribute everlastingly to the joy of God. That meaning is simultaneously that we are always safe with God” (Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition [United States of America: The Westminster Press, 1976], 123).
[14] Kennedy et. al.
[15] Matt. 10:7-8.
[16] Matt. 27:52.
[17] John 11:38-44.
[18] John 11:25-26, NRSV.
[19] Matt. 28:20, NIV.
[20] Col. 1:18, NRSV.
[21] Acts 2:32.
[22] Luke 24:40-43, John 20:26-27.
[23] Stanley Kubrick, who created the idea of A. I. and asked Spielberg to direct it, intended Monica to be a reconstruction of David’s memory and not actually resurrected (“The Kubrick Site.” “The Kubrick FAQ,” Accessed December 17, 2013, http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index2.html).
[24] Luke 24:13-35
[25] Luke 24:41-43
[26] Kennedy et. al.
[27] John 18:15-17, 25-27
[28] John 21:15-19
[29] Kennedy et. al.
[30] Ibid.
[31] “A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Trivia.” Internet Movie Database, accessed December 17, 2013, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv.
[32] Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, and Bonnie Curtis, prods., A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Universal City, California: DreamWorks Pictures, 2001), DVD.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Rom. 8:11, NRSV.
[36] Kennedy et. al.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Ibid.
[39] John 17:3, NRSV.
[40] Kennedy et. al.
[41] John 4:14, 7:37-38, NRSV.
