I, Robot is one of those rare movies that manages to merge two genres seamlessly: sci-fi and noir. There’s nothing like watching a man solve a mystery, and having robots as suspects can only help matters. If it isn’t obvious already, I enjoy this movie a great deal. The main reason is that the script is tight. I can only think of two potential plot holes — believe me, I tried to think of more — and the writers pull off the red herring trope perfectly.

To demonstrate what I mean, let’s dive in. The movie starts with both a dream and some exposition. Robots have entered the world, and they are guided by The Three Laws. The first law is, “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” The second law is, “A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.” And the third law says, “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.” These laws appear pretty tight at first glance, but there are problems, and we’ll soon discuss them.

After these three laws are shown on the screen, it becomes apparent that the dream takes place under water. Soon, Spooner, played by Will Smith, wakes up. He crawls out of bed and starts his day. What follows is a brief product placement that doesn’t age well, but I can’t complain too much. I can tolerate some product placement, provided it doesn’t distract from the story.

Before heading to work, Spooner goes to visit his grandma, Gigi. After that, he continues his morning commute and sees a robot running down the street with a purse in its hand. He chases after it and catches the “canner,” as he calls them, but it turns out that the robot was retrieving an inhaler for an asthmatic woman. Of course, he catches grief for this mishap once he reaches the police station, and it’s soon revealed that Spooner hates robots for some unknown reason. So, the detective is surprised when he receives a call from U.S. Robotics. It turns out the founder of the company, Dr. Lanning, has committed suicide by throwing himself through the glass window in his office, but before he died, he recorded a hologram and asked for Spooner personally.

Spooner goes to the crime scene and looks around. There, he meets Dr. Calvin, who’s been assigned to guide him through the company’s headquarters. She introduces him to Dr. Lanning’s first invention, named V.I.K.I., a robot whose main job is to help the workers with things like security. Then the two go to Dr. Lanning’s office, where Spooner finds the book Hansel and Gretel by the window. He also notices that the glass is too thick for the old man to break. So, he concludes that the killer is still inside the room and begins looking around. Before long, a robot attacks him and tries to escape by leaping out of the shattered window. However, Spooner manages to shoot the robot in the leg before it can land on the ground.

Dr. Calvin informs Spooner that since the robot is wounded, it will have to repair itself at one of the company’s warehouses. They head to the nearest warehouse and begin looking for their renegade. Inside, they find that the rouge robot is hiding among its fellow units, the NS-5s. Spooner decides the best way to handle the situation is by shooting the other robots until their renegade flees. He begins shooting the machines, and here is the first plot hole in the story. The robots are allowed to defend themselves, so long as they don’t hurt a human. Therefore, in theory, they should all be able to run away or dodge the bullet, even if the robot was ordered to stand there and be shot. The reason I say this is because, in this scenario, the second and third laws contradict themselves. On the one hand, the robot must obey any order given to it by a human. On the other, the robot must protect its own existence. If the robot’s had chosen to protect themselves, it would’ve made Spooner’s job much more difficult. This would’ve also created a problem if the robots ever decided they didn’t want to be decommissioned.

So, that being said, it’s time to dive into these three laws. Are they as full-proof as the movie makes them out to be? The short answer is no. For one thing, if a human attacks another human, they’re useless. They can’t defend the victim because they’d be required to endanger the attacker. But at the same time, they’re not allowed the option of inaction. So, what is the robot supposed to do? It’s hard to say. And of course, the whole point of the movie is that these robots will inevitably conclude that the only way to protect humanity is to enslave them. In the best-case scenario, they keep a kid from riding his or her bike because it’s too dangerous. In the worst-case scenario, the robots try to take over the world. So, I can’t complain too much about the plot hole because, even by the movie’s logic, the three laws don’t really work.

Despite the robot’s programming, they stand still as Spooner shoots them one by one. Finally, the renegade robot reveals himself and attacks our hero. However, he doesn’t kill him. He simply tosses him across the room, then stands over him and asks, “What am I?” Then he tries to run away again, but the cops are waiting outside, and the robot is captured.

It’s taken to the police station, but USR’s CEO, Lawrence Robertson, wants to reclaim the robot as soon as possible. However, Spooner is able to briefly interview the robot before Robertson arrives. He asks the robot, who calls himself Sonny, why he murdered Dr. Lanning. Sonny insists he did not murder the doctor and tells Spooner that Dr. Lanning was trying to give him emotions, but the robot was having a hard time understanding them. He even displays emotions like anger during the interrogation, and he tells Spooner that he has dreams. The interrogation is soon interrupted by USR, and Robertson takes Sonny back to the company’s lab to be decommissioned. We’ll cover what happens then next time.