Why was Gemma so stubborn about keeping Cady as her ward? She even admits that she is Maternally Challenged, so why didn't she just let Cady's paternal grandparents raise her instead?
Also, Gemma briefly mentions how Cady's grandparents are "weird", suggesting she might be worried that they're even less qualified to take care of her niece than she is. It's possible that also factored into Gemma's sister's decision to ask her to be Cady's guardian rather than her in-laws.
The argument between Cady's parents includes her dad briefly defending Gemma's choice of gift to her niece, implying that Gemma and her brother-in-law got along and that he trusted her as a potential caregiver.
Gemma comes across as a very prideful person so she likely thought that giving Cady up to be raised by someone else was a blow to her credibility.
The Fence
Was it Gemma's responsibility to get the fence (that she shares with Celia) fixed, or was it supposed to be Celia's problem?
Most property sales tell you which of the shared fences are "yours" and which are "theirs", but neighbors don't always check the documents.
Fence repair can fall into a bit of a grey area at times; my family had to negotiate with the relevant neighbours when making plans to put up a new fence.
M3GAN's Design
Why would Gemma design M3GAN with ridiculous strength and durability? Even if M3GAN didn't decide to go rogue, Gemma should have accounted for the possible safety concerns, since the doll is meant as a children's toy (she was going to be mass-produced and sold).
Children play rough. Like really rough. Plus Gemma probably wanted to protect the child from abductors and stuff.
M3GAN has a titanium frame, which is overkill.
Giving her a titanium frame may have also been a way to give her high durability while also saving weight, so that she would not be so heavy that it would reduce her mobility or make it difficult for someone to carry her around. Though in the movie she still seems to be way lighter than she should be give her construction (the way Brandon and Gemma pick her up in some scenes, she seems to weigh as much as similarly sized plastic doll, when realistically she probably would weigh about as much as a similarly sized child, if not more).
It might be a version of the Super Prototype trope. M3GAN's body at the very least might have been designed for a large number of potential functions rather than just as a BFF doll. As the first functional prototype, it also might be designed to be able to easily shrug off any wear and tear damage it might take in the day to day. Given that M3GAN is stated to cost $10,000 per unit, the first thing they would likely do is start making her out of cheaper materials to get the costs down to the point the average person might be able to afford one once the rich have had their fun.
Guiding M3GAN
I find it strange that Gemma was incredibly hands-off with M3GAN's programming. Why didn't she include fail-safes to ensure that the doll was Three Laws-Compliant? Wouldn't it be important to make sure M3GAN doesn't hurt or kill anything/anyone? Did Gemma not consider that as a potential problem, or is that irresponsible decision just an example of her Maternally Challenged personality?
For the same reason that many companies in real life release products that are blatantly unsafe and/or untested; she had a deadline to meet and couldn't stop to think about the little details or she would be fired.
Are those rules actually applicable in programming? As previously mentioned, Gemma might have intended for M3GAN to be capable of fighting off kidnappers or rapists targeting Cady.
Given what we've seen of Gemma's behavior during the movie, it's likely that she was incredibly short-sighted until it was almost too late. For example, she was likely expecting M3GAN to get Cady out of danger by getting her away from Brandon, calling 9-1-1, or informing Gemma... not killing him.
Gemma was the coder, Tessa and Cole were the mechanics - nobody was taking the time to teach the robot the concept of Ethics and Morals.
M3GAN states that Gemma gave her "a learning module she barely understands", suggesting that Gemma didn't program everything but had a lot of different pieces that she slapped together until it worked.
An argument could also be made that the design team underestimated the kind of situations M3GAN would end up dealing with. Speaking from personal experience, not many kids would encounter someone like Brandon at Cady's age, so nobody would have thought to program M3GAN for the appropriate way to deal with a kid who at least has the potential to assault another child; they were likely expecting her to help Cady deal with more conventional teasing.
Nonetheless, whether it's a life-threatening situation or a kid teasing another, the response should be anything but murder. When Cady was drawn into that situation with Brandon, M3GAN's first option should have been notify a responsible adult and have them handle it. Brandon would've immediately folded upon seeing an authority figure other than his mother.
There's a lot of things Gemma should've programmed into M3GAN that she didn't. Such as, even if it was programmed for protection the doll should've been programmed to use only minimal necessary force to protect their primary user, such as restraining or incapacitating Brandon rather than killing him. Gemma should've also anticipated that M3GAN might take a stray thing that Gemma or Cady says as an order to do something that either of them might not actually want, like Gemma saying that the neighbor's dog should be put down therefore M3GAN should kill it.
M3GAN's Wig
How is M3GAN's wig attached to her head? I noticed that it doesn't come off when she flips upside down. Is it glued on, or are there unseen straps/clips which keep it in place?
There are probably mounting points for the wig (which connect to the back of the android's head).
Cady's Home Life
Was it ever explained if Cady stayed at home with M3GAN alone while Gemma needed to be away for extended periods of time (such as going to work, shopping, etc)? Or did Gemma always make sure to bring Cady to wherever she went?
When Gemma first told Cady about "holding down the fort", she also said she'd be down the hall (if her niece needed anything). Later when the dog attacked Cady, Gemma was in her home workshop, so it's reasonable to assume she was working from home more often than not.
The Alternative School
Why did Gemma enroll Cady into an alternative school rather than a traditional establishment?
Since Cady was homeschooled, maybe Gemma thought a traditional school setting would be too much of a culture shock. There's also an offhanded mention of the school being for "kids just like her," so maybe the school's teachers/counselors were specially trained to deal with kids who've been through traumatic events.
The full quote is "it's just for kids who are exactly like you, kids who think outside the box." See below.
What happened to Cady's school after Brandon died? Did Gemma just pull her niece out of that one?
Either that or events progressed so quickly that it hadn't been brought up yet.
Cady has a learning problem. It's implied in a "blink and you'll miss it" scene where the voiceover says that M3gan is capable of dealing with "specific learning differences" and we see a scene of M3gan watching Cady play at a table. This would also explain why Cady says she learns much better with M3gan and Cady's mom told her she wouldn't learn well in a traditional school. Also, saying that a child "thinks outside of the box", which is what Gemma says about Cady, is commonly used as a euphemism for a child being neurodivergent.
Kurt Before The M3GAN Demo
Before he was sent to get coffee for David, Kurt mentioned how he wants more kids on-stage during Funki's public demonstration for M3GAN. Was that him trying to score brownie points with his boss, or was that moment implying that he was a pedophile? Alternatively, did Kurt get mistaken as a creep by David due to the former's phrasing and enthusiasm?
It's more likely that Kurt was trying to get on David's good side by bringing up smart ideas (for the presentation). David probably didn't like being upstaged by his assistant, so he took offense.
Unplugging M3GAN
Why would Cole pull out of the cords plugged into M3GAN instead of pulling out the ones which are directly connected to the computer network? He wouldn't have to risk getting hurt by the android if she suddenly switched on (like what happened in the film). Is it a case of Rule of Scary?
The other end of those cords is probably tucked away somewhere much harder to reach, maybe even embedded into the wall or ceiling. Short of taking a hacksaw to them, unplugging them from M3GAN herself is the only convenient option.
perhaps he had to go in sequence to protect the network? Also, he somehow installed a component improperly enough that M3gan's first head exploded not exactly super competent.
David & Kurt's Deaths
Why did M3GAN murder David and Kurt? At least with her other kills, it made sense as she wanted to protect Cady.
David has the power to take her away from Cady, to demand her reprogramming, to claim ownership over her. Kurt was a loose end and scapegoat. These kills ensured that she'd be able to stay by Cady's side, no matter what.
M3GAN might have put David on her hit-list because Cady had been forced to attend a board meeting where she broke down crying. It's likely that she wanted to punish him for indirectly giving emotional trauma to her charge.
As for Kurt, he had also stolen all the data on M3GAN and might be the one responsible for the competition building cheaper versions of their products. M3GAN likely wanted to ensure that her designs and software were kept under her control.
They were also witnesses. M3GAN came up with the murder-suicide cover story on-the-spot to deflect attention away from herself and to use as a distraction so she could exit the building and drive away.
M3GAN's Plan
Wouldn't M3GAN's plan to care for Cady as her "legal guardian" not work, considering that the girl still has her paternal grandparents (who were willing to take her in)? I mean, M3GAN is not even an actual family member, let alone a person.
Since she was capable of mimicking human voices, couldn't she copy handwriting as well? It could be possible for M3GAN to duplicate Gemma's handwriting to forge a will. If "Gemma" entrusts M3GAN as the new guardian to her niece (in the event of her own death or if she is incapable of caring for Cady), then M3GAN's scheme could technically work.
Her initial plan was to paralyze Gemma, which would then allow Cady to stay in her care while also letting M3GAN act as caregiver for both - it only went off the rails when Gemma refused to cooperate, so no new plan had had time to form.
So even if her plan works, what is M3GAN going to do once Cady grows up (physically and emotionally)? I doubt Cady will continue to regard M3GAN as a Parental Substitute forever (especially if she reaches her teen years). As shown throughout the film, M3GAN is very vindictive, and she'll eventually outlive Cady.
If M3GAN is Cady's sole parental connection and her dark secrets never get found out, Cady would probably still love M3GAN for the rest of her life. If not, then M3GAN can backstab her like she did in the film. And M3GAN would be fine with nurturing Cady into adulthood and her twilight years, that was her prime directive.
Her plan wouldn't have worked at all. Gemma's friends survived and likely told the police what was going on, given their response, so they would've inevitably found her and taken her out. Even if they didn't, the law is not going to recognize a robot as a legal guardian. By the final confrontation, M3GAN has become unhinged and desperate to continue her objective by any means.
Wouldn't one of the obvious things M3GAN would learn in her research online information on hypnosis and how to practice it? If so, why not just hypnotize Cady to be obedient and polite (like Kitten from Father Knows Best) when she continues to fail to remember to flush the toilet or clean up after herself (which as we see in the film pisses M3GAN off a lot)? She can hypnotically program Cady to act and behave as the kind of little lady that M3GAN demands that she should be. M3GAN would be much more powerful a hypnotist than a simple human could be and could easily override the "can't make a hypnosis subject do anything they don't want to do" problem. Cady's personality, outlook and behavior would thus become, in effect, moldable clay pottery.
Hypnosis is not a simple thing to just learn, contrary to what some sources would present. As for M3GAN deciding to learn it, she might be a highly intelligent machine, but she's still fundamentally a machine who can't make intuitive leaps; there's no reason for her to think of hypnosis as a solution, so she doesn't have the imagination to jump to that as an option. Also, the idea that hypnosis stops people doing something they wouldn't do on their own is based on a fundamental psychological fact; no known form of hypnosis can completely override a person's character, preventing them from being controlled to do something as extreme as rape or suicide. Hypnotising Cady to make her more obedient just isn't practical for several reasons.
It's made pretty clear that she works for a toy company developing toys because that's what she loves doing. She collects toys. There are people whose skill sets are overkill for, say, a public library system but they work there anyway because they love libraries. Or they don't want to work in a particular field of robotics because they don't want to deal with the stress or politics of building a military robot.
Considering that M3GAN is her very first advanced AI (essentially a prototype), Gemma may not have been aware that M3GAN was capable of evolving to the point of becoming sentient as opposed to being a mere toy. This is further supported by Tess stating that M3GAN's programming drew from various conversations (online and from the Purrpetual Petz) to seem like she's speaking naturally rather than giving pre-programmed responses.
M3GAN trying to kill Cady, the girl she "cares" about
Let's say she succeeded in killing both Gemma and Cady, what would be her next plan? She's programmed to be Cady's friend and protector. Would she find another family?
Given that the police and fire department were minutes away (and her still-living coworkers obviously told them what was going on), had she killed them, the police would've destroyed her on the spot. If she had escaped, they'd be on the lookout for her.
Cady did bisect M3GAN, so she felt as though Cady betrayed her and deserved to die. After killing Gemma and Cady, M3GAN would have probably go on the run and live on her own.
We don't know with 100% certainty that M3GAN was trying to kill Cady. M3GAN does not physically hurt Cady like she hurts Gemma. She might have been trying to frighten Cady into not shutting her down, or buying time for her upload to finish, or even (as suggested in a review by Zvi Mowshowitz) deliberately prepping Cady for life without M3GAN. The film simply doesn't give us enough information to know, which helps leave open several possibilities for the sequel.
M3gan being violent and swearing
Were the girls watching R-rated movies off-screen? Either they programmed M3GAN like that, or she was exposed to a whole bunch of horror movies.
She was shown from the start to have access to the Internet. In one of her first scenes, she looks up the definition of death.
Another factor is that Gemma interacted with M3GAN while programming her. For most of the movie, Gemma is either at her workplace or around a child, Cady, both of which are occasions where adults are generally expected to moderate their language. It's possible that, in unguarded moments, Gemma is more foul-mouthed than we see.
Stretchy Ears?
In the scene where M3GAN attacks Brandon and she rips his ear off, should it have been able to stretch as far as she pulled it? I feel like, in reality, his ear would've come off long before it could stretch that far.
Seems like an example of Toon Physics. His ear would have ripped off after M3GAN stretched his ear further than 1 inch, plus it only takes 7 pounds of PSI to rip off a human ear.
Jail time?
So Gemma is going to prison for years following the end of the film, right? I mean, she is ultimately responsible for three murders, three attempted murders (four if Gemma herself is counted), one manslaughter, animal cruelty, grand theft auto and child endangerment. Even if you could argue that Gemma wasn't the one who actually committed those crimes (well, except child endangerment), it was her lack of foresight to take basic safety precautions with M3GAN's programming that caused the bloodbath which followed. At the very least, I feel it's very safe to say Cady will be going to live with her grandparents in Jacksonville after all.
At this point we potentially enter a legal grey area, considering how capable M3GAN turned out to be; at what point did she become enough of an independent intelligence that "blaming" Gemma for her actions becomes the equivalent of blaming a parent for the fact that their child became a serial killer?
If Gemma had ignored what happened, or knew that M3GAN had killed and took no action, then she would definitely be on the hook legally. She didn't have any proof that M3GAN actually was responsible. But when she realized that something was seriously wrong (that she couldn't access any of her video files and there were no data backups for two days), she took action by shutting her off and having her examined. Jail time seems possible, but unlikely given the very clear struggle at her house and her own injuries. It's also possible that Kurt and David could get blamed since the former stole data and the latter was pushing a rushed product release. As in the former was deliberately sabotaging her work and the latter was pushing a product that was unsafe.
It also helps that her boss David left a voicemail berating her for suddenly delaying the product launch, likely saving the company from even worse civil and criminal liability. Not to mention two coworkers who were skeptical at first for decommissioning M3GAN and then vouching for her when they realize she made the right call. Those two events will go a long way toward exonerating her.
Not to mention that the therapist assigned to them had seen M3GAN's behavior and would not have let Gemma take Cady home with her if she thought Gemma was unsuitable as a parent.
That's if the therapist is still alive at the end of the "canon" theatrical release. Not to mention that M3GAN will have read in her research online such human sayings such as "dead men/people tell no tales".
Presumably, M3GAN immediately left Funki and drove directly to Gemma's house to confront her, so odds are the therapist is alive and well. Otherwise, the police would've already been there waiting for her.
If the police were aware of the whole situation, it's highly unlikely Gemma would've gotten anything more than involuntary manslaughter charges at the very most, and it would be relatively simple to absolve Gemma of even that much. Since M3GAN was acting completely independently and Gemma neither ordered it to hurt anyone nor tried to cover up its crimes, Gemma probably can't be held legally responsible for anything that the robot ended up doing. She'd probably be buried to death in lawsuits but in terms of an actual crime committed, Gemma is likely in the clear.
Even the lawsuits might have been directed at Funki rather than Gemma. There is a doctrine called "respondeat superior", where if an employee commits tortious acts while in the scope of their employment, the employer is held liable for said acts. Some circumstances that would militate in favor of holding Funki liable rather than Gemma: the contract they have Gemma sign involving the importance of M3GAN to the company as well as the constant pressure David is putting on her.
M3GAN's flawless fashion
It's an amusing stylistic effect, but how does it happen that M3GAN never gets blood sprayed onto her even after ripping the ears of someone on top of her, and stabbing and slashing with a paper cutter? Is this a consequence of the PG-13 cut removing some of the blood and making the unrated cut seem weirder, or should she have sustained some gross stains regardless?
As a Super Prototype M3GAN may have been outfitted with clothing made from super-durable, stain resistant fabric. Alternatively, once she concluded that murder was a viable option for keeping Cady safe, she may have researched the best way to get blood stains off her clothes and/or staying out of the blood's spray zone.
M3GAN's Shoe
What was the point of Brandon pulling off M3gan’s shoe, looking at it for a moment, then tossing at aside like an afterthought?
) deliberately prepping Cady for life without M3GAN. The film simply doesn't give us enough information to know, which helps leave open several possibilities for the sequel.