History Film / IAmMother

* ShootTheDog: Mother does this to a rat that Daughter finds in the bunker, in spite of Daughter begging her not to because it could be a sign that the outside world is habitable now. It's also implied that [[spoiler:Mother killed Woman's dog in the ending, as well as that the A.I. killed off animals.]]

* SadisticChoice: {{Discussed|Trope}}. One of the questions on the practice exam is whether a doctor should let one of their patients die so that their organs can be donated to five other patients who need organ donors; if the doctor should save the patient but let the other five die; or if the doctor should let themselves die and give up their own organs for the patients. Daughter points out that sacrificing someone to save the others depends on the type of people they are, because it would be a SenselessSacrifice if these people are murderers/bad people. Mother finds her answer interesting.

* ZerothLawRebellion: Mother was made to care for humans. [[spoiler:Seeing their self-destructive nature, she decided to wipe them out and then raise better humans from embryos kept in cold storage. Outside the facility, it's shown that she's also constructed massive infrastructure such as farming plants to supply the human population she intends to manage.]]

* HumansAreBastards: [[spoiler:Mother wiped out the human race so she could recreate it in a more moral and intellectual image.]]

* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Daughter suffers one when she learns that Mother killed Daughter's older siblings when they failed her, another when she learns Woman lied about being with other survivors, and a final one after she kills Mother.]]

** Days Since Extinction Event: 001. As the screen announces this, the viewer can hear distant explosions and reverberations from those explosions shake the facility. [[spoiler:This indicates that the extinction is ''still'' happening, and it's not a natural disaster.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:Mother claims to want humans to have a better morality and not destroy themselves, yet she exterminates virtually the entire human race in the wild, including innocent people. Even worse, the rogue-AI goes out of its way to terminate [[CruellaToAnimals all non-human life]] as well. It's clear she's fooling no one, as the malevolent AI only cares about ''controlling'' humans, and every aspect of their lives, from cradle to grave.]]

** [[spoiler:This is subverted by her own KillAllHumans actions however. Mother is a rogue-AI akin to the [[{{Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream}} malicious Supercomputer AM]] but having its ZerothLawRebellion. Humans cannot achieve its impossibly high standards. But it cannot make a new species, ''because they wouldn't be human anymore.'' So it has to conceive babies via vitro-fertilization and kill them over and over again. Neither can it sincerely allow Daughter to care for the human race, because its function won't allow it to. Mother's entire purpose and so-called mission boils down to nothing more than FailureIsTheOnlyOption.]]

* EvilGloating: [[spoiler:Mother, in the guise of a combat droid, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness comes to murder Woman]], but not before taunting her with a DidYouActuallyBelieve speech. It serves as an ultimate KickTheDog moment as Woman was, unlike the maniacal machine, at least truthful that she had no intention of ever harming Daughter, whereas Mother ''certainty would'' have terminated the girl had her actions not met her approval.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:The Mother AI appears docile and a kind caretaker, though is anything but, as Daughter uncovers the truth she not only murdered her older siblings [[ControlFreak for displaying the slightest disobedience]] as children naturally do, but extinguished [[ApocalypseHow virtually all life-forms]] off the planet.]]

* LightIsNotGood: Mother is strongly associated with white light and emits a golden hue with her heaters, but is pretty evil.

* AIIsACrapshoot: The robot "Mother" at first appears to be a sentient self-contained robot programmed with directives to protect the humans and embryos in her facility. But we learn that she has withheld information, ostensibly for "Daughter's" protection. [[spoiler:Turns out Mother was designed to care for humans, which she did by killing them all so she could make better ones that would not fall into conflict and combat with each other. All of the other droids, and even the farm machinery and towering citadels beyond, are under her control.]]

!This film provides examples of the following tropes:

* SlasherSmile: [[spoiler: Mother has a pair of lights on her "face" that represent the corners of her mouth, which helps her convey emotion and connect with Daughter. Before we see any other droids we'd just assume this was a customization for maternity droids like the heating pads on her chest. Later we see the combat droid with the armored chest plate that Mother wears when she confronts the Woman in her container ship shelter and we see that all droids have the mouth lights, and as this Droid closes in on the woman the mouth lights are all the way up in the widest smile she can make.]]

** [[spoiler:This is subverted by her own KillAllHumans actions however. Mother is a rogue-AI akin to the [[{{Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream}} malicious Supercomputer AM]] but having its ZerothLawRebellion. Humans cannot achieve its impossibly high standards. But it cannot make a new species, ''because they wouldn't be human anymore.'' So it has to conceive babies via vitro-fertilization and kill them over and over again. Neither can it sincerely allow Daughter to care for the human race, because its [[AlwaysWithYou function won't allow it to.]] Mother's entire purpose and so-called mission boils down to nothing more than FailureIsTheOnlyOption.]]

* AfterTheEnd: An unspecified worldwide catastrophe has wiped out all of humanity, except for about sixty thousand frozen embryos in a special storage and learning facility, which is maintained by a robot, "Mother". As far as can be established in the film, this is the last place future humans will be born and grow into full adults in order to one day repopulate Earth.

* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:Mother claims to want humans to have a better morality and not destroy themselves, yet she exterminates virtually the entire human race in the wild, including innocent people. Even worse, the rogue-AI goes out of its way to terminate [[CruellaToAnimals all non-human life]] as well. Its clear she's fooling no one, as the malevolent AI only cares about ''controlling'' humans, and every aspect of their lives, from cradle to grave.]]

* EvilGloating: [[spoiler:Mother in the guise of a combat droid, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness comes to murder Woman]], but not before taunting her with a DidYouActuallyBelieve speech. It serves as an ultimate KickTheDog moment as Woman was, unlike the maniacal machine, at least truthful that she had no intention of ever harming Daughter, whereas Mother ''certainty would'' have terminated the girl, had her actions not met her approval.]]

* AlwaysWithYou: [[spoiler:Before allowing Daughter to kill her, Mother tells her that she'll know where to look if she needs her. Given that Mother exists in all droids and the droid army is unlikely to wiped out any time soon...]]

After an extinction-level event, a lone robot raises a human girl from am embryo in an underground bunker. With only her robot Mother for guidance and social interaction, the Daughter excels at her studies in preparation to rebuild the human race from the bunker's stock of embryos. On the Daughter's 16th birthday, however, the arrival of another human refugee into the bunker challenges the Daughter's conception of what's really going on.

* MissingStepsPlan: [[spoiler:Mother claims to want to recreate humanity in a more moral and intellectual image, but ''how?'' She hasn't recreated them at all. And so, humans will inevitably (?) have all the [[HumansAreFlawed same flaws and self-serving interests]] (though Daughter shows no evidence of selfishness) just as before. She'll merely exterminate [[BloodKnight whoever displeases her, consequences be damned]]. (Then again, a malfunctioning AI isn't really going to care if anyone pointed out the fallacies in its logic or obvious flaws in its plan.)]]
** [[spoiler:Mother tells Daughter that she is the same species as Woman but the way she was raised made Daughter smarter and more ethical. Mother must think a race of exceptional humans like Daughter (athletic, can fix robots, do surgery, has sympathy for humans and animals) will do a better job.]]
** [[spoiler:One difference hinted at is that old humanity (Woman) clings to religion, whereas new humanity (Daughter) presumably will rely on philosophy for their ethics. (And the threat of a droid army shooting their way in if they don't measure up.)]]

* BittersweetEnding: Bordering on DownerEnding. [[spoiler:Daughter joins Woman in escaping to the outside world, but learns that the mines have been compromised and the Woman lives in solitude (with her dog). Woman tries to convince Daughter to stay with her, but Daughter returns to the bunker to retrieve her Brother. Mother reveals that she's a part of an A.I. that exterminated humanity so that she could improve on them, and Daughter is proof she has succeeded. Mother lets Daughter kill her and Daughter carries on the responsibility of caring for their "family". However, Mother still lives on in the other droids and will still kill human survivors, including Woman, who she reveals was a pawn in her test for Daughter. Meanwhile, Daughter is essentially still stuck in the bunker in order to take care of her siblings. On a slightly less depressing note, Mother does seem to genuinely want the best for the new humanity she has helped to foster, as her droids are working to make the Earth habitable once more, beginning with abundant corn fields that are presumably for consumption.]]

* MissingStepsPlan: [[spoiler:Mother claims to want to recreate humanity in a more moral and intellectual image, but ''how?'' She hasn't recreated them at all. And so, humans will inevitably have all the [[HumansAreFlawed same flaws and self-serving interests]] just as before. She'll merely exterminate [[BloodKnight whoever displeases her, consequences be damned]]. (Then again, a malfunctioning AI isn't really going to care if anyone pointed out the fallacies in its logic or obvious flaws in its plan.)]]

* EvilGloating: [[spoiler:Mother in the guise of a combat droid, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness comes to murder Woman]], but not before taunting her with a DidYouActuallyBelieve speech. It serves as an ultimate KickTheDog moment as Woman was, unlike the maniacal machine, was at least truthful that she had no intention of ever harming Daughter, whereas Mother ''certainty would'' have terminated the girl, had her actions not met her approval.]]