A Glean movie guide
Minds of Machine: The Best AI Cinema
Intelligence, evolved.
From sentient companions to digital overlords, explore the films that define our future.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Ex Machina
A tense, claustrophobic exploration of the Turing test and the ethics of creating consciousness.
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
- 02
Her
A soulful look at human-AI intimacy that feels increasingly relevant in the age of digital assistants.
In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.
- 03
Blade Runner
A neon-soaked noir that asks what it truly means to be human through the eyes of bio-engineered replicants.
In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.
- 04
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s epic features cinema’s most chilling AI in the form of the logical, lethal HAL 9000.
Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
- 05
The Matrix
A high-octane action classic that imagines a world where humanity is trapped in a simulation by sentient machines.
Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
- 06
After Yang
A quiet, beautiful meditation on grief and memory seen through the lens of a family’s robotic companion.
When his young daughter's beloved companion — an android named Yang — malfunctions, Jake searches for a way to repair him. In the process, Jake discovers the life that has been passing in front of him, reconnecting with his wife and daughter across a distance he didn't know was there.
- 07
M3GAN
A sharp, modern thriller that examines the chaotic consequences of an overprotective AI doll.
A brilliant toy company roboticist uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a life-like doll programmed to emotionally bond with her newly orphaned niece. But when the doll's programming works too well, she becomes overprotective of her new friend with terrifying results.
- 08
Wall-E
A charming Pixar adventure that finds profound humanity in a lonely waste-collecting robot.
A robot who is responsible for cleaning a waste-covered Earth meets another robot and falls in love with her. Together, they set out on a journey that will alter the fate of mankind.
- 09
Upgrade
A visceral sci-fi thriller about the terrifying loss of agency when a sentient chip takes control of the body.
A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.
- 10
Ghost in the Shell
A landmark anime that dives deep into the philosophical merging of human souls and digital networks.
In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster' begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.
- 11
Moon
A gripping, isolated mystery centered on the complex relationship between an astronaut and his AI assistant.
With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off a series of unsettling events that shake his isolation.
- 12
The Creator
A visually stunning epic that explores the rights and personhood of AI during a global war.
Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war—and mankind itself.