Stephen Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, is about understanding life and death. Kneeling down in the forest, David looks up at his “mom” and says, “When will you come back for me?” His voice is unmistakably that of a small curious child, except it’s slightly off, it’s too tonally naïve. The words are spoken with flawless execution, but there is no unique experience behind the creation of these words. The words are meaningless. David never struggled to bring them to life; they were programmed into his circuits. Much like the words he speaks, David’s entire existence is without any self-sufficiency. Everything he does is a necessary condition of functionality, and therefore without choice. What is life without choice? If I were to make a valid argument that death is that of which there is no choice, and that David is without choice, then it could be consistent to say David is a representation of death. 

The first time we see Martin, the real son of the couple, he is laying in a casket looking life-support system. Monica’s reading to his lifeless body, it’s very reminiscent of someone laying flowers on a tombstone. The doctors are basically saying he is dead. Also they add that it’s quite dangerous to suppress the natural mourning process of losing a son. 

Then in walks David, seeing that we have yet to see Martin’s face, this robot is pretty much Martin risen from the grave. Monica’s first reaction is as the saying goes, it’s like she has seen a ghost. Just to posit the discussion here, I have to say that it seems like quite a risky experiment in regards to Monica’s psychological wellbeing. I mean this company is using a mother who is quite confused about how to deal with losing her real child, as a guinea pig to test a new robot that is supposed to emulate love. 

After we are introduced to the robot boy, there is a montage where Monica goes about her daily life trying to ignore David. She even going so far as to hide him in a closet. What are we playing hide and seek? Yup, and death never loses that game. Its fine, go about your daily life, try not to think about it, but it’s always there on the other side of the wall in our mind. The best line in the movie was, “I am going to read some words and they wont make any sense.” It’s really exactly what we do when we are confronted with death. We look to things that are unexplainable and just as mysterious as death, because I suppose we have run out of rational options. 

Now suddenly Martin is actually back, go away death. David is pushed on to his next destination. What’s next; being saved at the “Flesh Fair, celebration of life”? Meeting the creator of the machines who lost his only son, then proceeded to use his son’s exact likeness in an attempt to shield the rest of humanity from feeling such losses? If we are trying to hide from death, then both destinations are quite ironic. In fact, the very idea of escaping death is simply a paradoxical goal. Life is locked in a symbiotic dance with death. 

The deathless robots at the end of the movie seem to have uncovered this problem. They have advanced beyond our dreams, yet they are left unsatisfied by their inability to find any meaning in life. They seem to have the power to do anything, but they are still searching for answers. Searching for answers that they believe the extinct human’s possessed. So what does David show them; enjoy the day, then go to sleep.