Beware. There are spoilers ahead.
“By 2020, people will not only be having sex with robots, they will be falling in love with them.”
David Levy
The film 2050 tells the story of Michael Green, a married video game developer who is introduced to a warehouse that is capable of customizing androids (E-Mates) for human companionship by his brother-in-law Drew. With his marriage stale in the bedroom and his creative skills blocked at work Michael finds himself unable to resist the temptation of visiting the warehouse and creates his own customized android ‘Sophia’.
Convincing himself that being with a machine isn’t cheating on his wife Brooke, Michael begins visiting ‘Sophia’ at the warehouse more and more frequently as time passes. When those visits aren’t enough for him anymore he decides to take ‘Sophia’ from the warehouse to see the world. Hiding her at his brother-in-law Drew’s so no one will find out about her and lying to Drew about the reasons he has taken her from the warehouse. Drew is too busy to really question Michael about ‘Sophia’ as he’s trying to make himself the best possible version of himself to win his ex-girlfriend back from her E-Mate ‘Cameron’.
When Brooke confronts him about cheating, thanks to information from his business partner, Michael panics and lies to her. Then Michael immediately visits the warehouse to speak to manager Maxwell, to complain and blame him for his life coming apart. Because he’s falling in love with his E-Mate ‘Sophia’. But Maxwell is happy it’s happened because he believes that love is always a good thing and people fall in love with so many things so easily, so why would it be a problem. While Michael’s life is slowly falling apart Drew has been working on improving himself to the point that he thinks he’s finally ready to see his ex-girlfriend Alli again and win her back. But when he actual sees her, and witnesses how happy she is, he can’t make himself go and talk to her. Because she’s finally happy and he loves her and doesn’t want to ruin that for her.
Michael comes clean to Brooke about the warehouse and his E-Mate ‘Sophia’ and after an argument she kicks him out of their house for what he’s done. Despite his home life troubles his relationship with ‘Sophia’ has managed to help him find inspiration at work to finish the game he and his partner were developing and they manage to get a signed deal for it.
After three days apart from his family some of the shine of ‘Sophia’ is wearing off and Michael is missing them and just wants to get drunk to deal with how his life is now. While in the pub with ‘Sophia’, Michael runs into Alli and ‘Cameron’ who she’s been with for nearly a year. Alli explains that just because she has an E-Mate that doesn’t mean she doesn’t date, because not every man is insecure or every woman. How people can be open-minded if given the chance. She tells him “You’d be surprised what people will do for love.”
With that thought in mind Michael drives back to his house, with ‘Sophia’ in the backseat, parking in the garage and phoning Brooke to ask her to please come down to talk to him. Despite being angry at the presence of ‘Sophia’ Brooke gets in the car. When she throws his infidelity with a ‘sex-bot’ in his face he tells her he knows about her prior infidelity with a human. How he never mentioned it because he didn’t want her to feel like he feels now. Michael knows that there’s something broken in their relationship but he loves her and wants to fix it. He believes that E-Mates are the solution to helping them both be fulfilled in their marriage. With them both having an E-Mate to do all the things around the house and in a relationship that neither of them want to do. Which is where the film ends, with Brooke thinking about the possibility of custom designing her own E-Mate.
There was some interesting themes within the film. With Drew’s story of trying to improve himself to as close to perfection to impress the woman he loved, but ultimately giving her up because her happiness meant more to him than his own potential happiness. His growth from a selfish character to one that was willing to put others feelings before his own was a pleasantly gradual journey.
Michael’s journey ultimately led to him discovering that no matter how much you love someone you may not always be enough for them. But if people are willing to compromise and share, that you can live a fulfilled life together.
The film also brings up questions about technology, especially when used in sexual relationships. Because if a ‘sex-bot’ is an AI, is it alive? Are you really cheating? Or is it just a highly technological sex aid? Can you really have a relationship with a machine?
The film stars David Vaughn (Michael Green), Irina Abraham (Brooke Green), Devin Fuller (Drew), Stefanie Bloom (Sophia), Stormi Maya (Quinn), Jace Nicole (Diana), Shannone Holt (Reign Regan), Hope Blackstock (Alli), Chris Riquinha (David), Jonathan Ercolino (Cameran) and Dean Cain (Maxwell).
‘2050’ was produced by David Vaughn, Princeton Holt (who also directed), Chris Riquinha and Brian Ackley (he also wrote the screenplay). The film will be released on Demand and on DVD January the 14th from Uncork’d Entertainment.