FILM · 2004 · USA
I, Robot
- Directed by
- Alex Proyas
- Runtime
- 115 min
- Studio
- Davis Entertainment, Laurence Mark Productions, Canlaws Productions
43 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
In 2035, where robots are commonplace and abide by the three laws of robotics, a technophobic cop investigates an apparent suicide. Suspecting that a robot may be responsible for the death, his investigation leads him to believe that humanity may be in danger.
43 Interesting Facts About I, Robot
Interesting Facts (26)
- #001
Will Smith's car is the Audi RSQ, a concept car designed especially for the film, with details suggested by director Alex Proyas.
- #002
When escorted, Sonny doesn't walk in step with the other robots, a subtle touch that sets him apart even in the most ordinary actions.
- #003
Contains a major spoiler — show
The idea of a robot hiding among a crowd of identical robots comes from Isaac Asimov's story "Little Lost Robot" in the original book, and Sonny's dream of enslaved robots being freed comes from Asimov's later short story "Robot Dreams."
- #004
Representatives of Isaac Asimov's family read Jeff Vintar's early Hardwired/I, Robot screenplay and called it "more Asimov than Asimov." After Will Smith came aboard, it became a summer action movie instead.
- #005
Contains a major spoiler — show
Dr. Calvin seems to be persuaded by USR's CEO to destroy Sonny, and injects him with lethal nanites; the robot's eyes briefly glow yellow before going dark. Since every NS-5 has yellow eyes except Sonny, whose eyes are blue, it's a hint that Dr. Calvin actually saved him.
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
VIKI's scheme to seize control of the world for humanity's own safety follows what's known as the "zeroth" law of robotics: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
- #007
As Sonny draws the bridge for Spooner, there's a sheet of computer code on the left: the code for a Renderman shader, a procedural description of a surface used to define the robots' look during rendering.
- #008
Contains a major spoiler — show
The other driver in the accident that cost Spooner his arm is named Harold Lloyd, after the silent film star who lost several fingers in an accident with a prop bomb.
- #009
Walking into his first I, Robot meeting, Will Smith opened with: "I have to save the world in every movie I make." For everyone in the room who loved how complex the screenplay was, it was a sinking moment. At the premiere, as the lights came up, his son Jaden Smith turned to him: "Dad, you gotta stop saving the world in every movie you make!"
- #010
A sign in the café reads "Sirloin steak, two eggs and hash browns, 30.95 dollars." In 2004 that meal would have cost about a third as much and in 2019 about half, so the price should be about right by 2035.
- #011
In the window of an antique robot shop you can spot Sony's AIBO robot dog.
- #012
The theatrical trailer has a different version of one exchange: Del Spooner (Will Smith) tells Lieutenant John Bergin (Chi McBride), "I'm gonna miss the good old days." Bergin asks, "What good old days?" and Spooner replies, "When people were killed by other people." In the finished film, the first line belongs to Lieutenant Bergin.
- #013
Some critics and Isaac Asimov fans still dismiss I, Robot as having nothing to do with the book, insisting "they should have followed the novel," seemingly unaware that the book isn't a novel at all but a loosely connected series of little logic puzzles. Yet as the years go by and the film stays popular, more and more real-world roboticists say Will Smith's film inspired them to make real advances in robotics, and others have written papers on how faithful the film actually is to Asimov's concepts and how insightfully it explores the nature of the Three Laws.
- #014
Both characters James Cromwell plays in I, Robot (2004) and Big Hero 6 (2014), Dr. Alfred Lanning and Dr. Robert Callaghan, write laws of robotics.
- #015
Contains a major spoiler — show
Dr. Alfred Lanning appears in the flesh only once, already dead on the lobby floor in front of the Robotics center; every other appearance is pre-recorded (video, hologram and so on).
- #016
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end, Spooner's grandmother prays the line "because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved," taken from Psalms 16:8.
- #017
WILHELM SCREAM: One of the police officers lets it out when the NS-5s raid the police station.
- #018
The film's Borscht Belt jokes, like "You must know my ex-wife" and "You thought I was callin' you sugar? You ain't that rich," came from Akiva Goldsman.
- #019
When Detective Spooner heads for the garage where his motorcycle is kept, the code he punches into the keypad is 911.
- #020
Smith's Chicago Police Department badge and the ID card his character flashes use the 'Chicago' typeface.
- #021
Contains a major spoiler — show
The NS-5s' ultimate goal is to protect humanity, and both that and their method (seizing control of the state) echo the theme of the film/novel Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970).
- #022
Lieutenant Bergin wears his jacket collar turned up in the same distinctive way as Deckard in "Blade Runner," another film about rogue robots and artificial intelligence.
- #023
Besides the influence of Isaac Asimov and Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), a similar theme turns up in Jack Williamson's 1947 novella With Folded Hands.
- #024
During the NS-5 interrogation, Spooner asks Dr. Calvin: "Does being the last sane man on Earth make you crazy?" A few years later, in I Am Legend (2007), Will Smith played a man who believes he is the last human on Earth.
- #025
HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired the green glow of the demolition robot.
I, Robot (2004): Ns4 Robot And Ns5 RobotImage: Wikimedia Commons · Urko Dorronsoro from Donostia - San Sebastian, Euskal Herria (Basque …, CC BY-SA 2.0 - #026
Several of the actors later turned up in superhero projects: James Cromwell as Captain Stacy in Spider-Man 3 (2007); Will Smith as Deadshot in Suicide Squad (2016); Alan Tudyk as Eric Marsden in Doom Patrol (2019), as Oliver Queen in Young Justice (2010), and as both the Joker and Clayface in Harley Quinn (2019). Bruce Greenwood voiced Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018), and in Young Justice as well.
Production Story (8)
- #027
Early drafts of I, Robot gave Sonny a secondary brain made of living tissue, which made him a Self-Organizing Neural Network, or "Sonny"; he became truly conscious the moment he found his creator's body.
- #028
The film began as a script called "Hardwired," a classic murder mystery that read like a stage play and largely captured the spirit of Isaac Asimov's "three laws" mysteries. The original "Hardwired" script was developed at Disney with director Bryan Singer before ending up at Fox, where new director Alex Proyas and writer Jeff Vintar reworked the opening to suit a big-budget studio film. When Fox acquired the rights to Isaac Asimov's story collection, Vintar spent two years adapting Hardwired into what would serve as a tenth story in the Asimov canon, complete with Susan Calvin and the Three Laws of Robotics. Hillary Seitz worked on it as a script doctor at one point, but her work was set aside, and to this day she refuses to discuss the unpleasant experience. Writer Akiva Goldsman came in late to tailor the script for star Will Smith and turned the cerebral thriller into a summer action film.
- #029
Those early I, Robot drafts also had Sonny read Spooner a poem of his own: "What is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but wheels?"
- #030
The company in the film is named "US Robotics." There is also a company in the real world under this name (now "USR"). Both took their name from Isaac Asimov's work and his fictional company "US Robotics and mechanical men."
- #031
Dr. Calvin appears convinced by USR's CEO to terminate Sonny and injects him with a lethal nanite. The robot's yellow eyes can be seen briefly before they darken. Since all NS-5s have yellow eyes except Sonny, whose eyes are blue, this is a hint that Dr. Calvin actually saved Sonny.
- #032
When Gary Whitta, screenwriter of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)," was asked on Twitter for the name of a screenplay that made him say "Damn, this is a great screenplay!" he gave this answer: "Hardwired by Jeff Vintar. Later re-written heavily and turned into I, Robot."
- #033
As Spooner leaves his home, the FedEx robot is number 42. This is almost certainly a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which features a sentient robot (Paranoid Android Marvin). 42 is calculated by a machine to be the answer to "life, the universe, everything."
- #034
James Cromwell and Bruce Greenwood played important figures in Federation history in the Star Trek films. Greenwood appeared as Christopher Pike in Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Cromwell played warp scientist Dr. Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Broken Bow, Part 1 (2001), and secondary characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Starship Down (1995).
Behind the Scenes (2)
- #035
Will Smith recalled crashing the motorcycle at about sixty miles per hour while filming the robot storage facility scene (you can see him starting to lose control in the film).
- #036
According to the credits, the film was "Inspired by Isaac Asimov's Book," a 1950 collection of his short stories. Asimov had been heavily influenced by an earlier short story of the same name by the writing team known as Eando Binder, and the publisher retitled his collection "I, Robot" against his wishes. The Binder story was adapted for television twice, as I, Robot (1964) and I, Robot (1995).
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #037
The exterior of U.S. Robotics CEO Lawrence Robertson's top-floor suite nods to the first truly functional robot, built by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1950s for Forbidden Planet (1956): the top of the building matches the top of Robby the Robot's body, the part that lit up when Robby spoke.
Deeper Meaning (4)
- #038
Jeff Vintar had to fight through WGA arbitration for credit and for secondary rights to his screenplay (any sequel must state "based on characters created by Jeff Vintar"), because the studio didn't want to acknowledge that the film was based on his original spec script Hardwired. All the writers signed a letter agreeing the credits should read "Screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman. Screen story by Jeff Vintar."
- #039
Contains a major spoiler — show
In Jeff Vintar's early drafts of I, Robot, Del Spooner genuinely suffers from technophobia, and for many readers his uncontrollably shaking hand was the story's central image. That version had scenes in which Spooner is chased and attacked by robots in the street, only to wake up in a hospital and be told he had a panic attack that endangered himself and others, so the robots had no choice but to restrain him for his own safety; the audience could never be sure whether Spooner knew something or was genuinely losing his grip. Likewise, the original ending revealed the killer to be Hector, a supercomputer with a yellow smiley face, who committed the murder and asked Sonny to take the blame to save humanity's future. So when Spooner finally frees Sonny, he knows that, right as it is, he may be dooming the human race to extinction; his hand is still shaking and his robophobia is worse than ever. Once Will Smith signed on, such complex elements weren't allowed to stay, because in 20th Century Fox's thinking Will Smith always had to be right and, in the end, had to save the world in a clear, simple way. So some of the screenplay's best scenes were replaced with action beats such as a house falling on Will Smith, and in the finished film, instead of letting Sonny go and hiding his still-shaking hand, Spooner grins broadly and winks.
- #040
Alan Tudyk tested better than Will Smith at test screenings because audiences loved Sonny so much; after that, Tudyk's name was pulled from the marketing so he wouldn't overshadow Smith. (Source: Alan Tudyk's podcast.)
- #041
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although the Three Laws first appear in Isaac Asimov's "Runaround," the film otherwise draws many concepts and details mainly from "Robbie," "Liar," "Little Lost Robot" and "The Evitable Conflict." As a locked-room murder mystery solved by a robot-hating homicide detective with the help of a protective robot, the film's structure and some of its characters come more directly from the Robot novels, while specific elements such as the posthumous hologram were borrowed from the Foundation series. The film's prejudice motif runs through nearly all of Isaac Asimov's science fiction, I, Robot included, and is most memorably restated in Robots and Empire thirty-five years later, together with the "Zeroth Law" and the logic that drives the malevolent supercomputer V.I.K.I. This idea, which powers the plot by motivating the attempted coup, is first laid out in "The Evitable Conflict." Alex Proyas's film is therefore far more faithful to Asimov's same-titled collection, and to his whole body of science fiction, than it first appears; it draws not on a single collection but on the whole of Asimov's work, showing that an adaptation can stay true to its source by reflecting a vision that spans an author's entire output.
Career & Awards (1)
- #042
Among the cast, Will Smith is an Oscar winner and James Cromwell an Oscar nominee.
Life & Family (1)
- #043
Spooner calls his grandmother "Gigi," the nickname of Will Smith's real grandmother.
Related pages
- Knowing — I, Robot comes up in the facts on that page
- Alan Tudyk — I, Robot comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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