hi.
doesn't ring a bell.
the traffic division is a machine.
i'll send them a letter of apology. maybe some flowers. a box of chocolates.
spooner, homicide.
you're offering me a cup of coffee?
no. thank you.
you want to tell me something about dr. hogenmiller? about his death?
and why do you say that?
i understand that. but what specifically leads you to believe that he didn't commit suicide?
under normal circumstances that wouldn't be enough to get you a homicide investigation.
no. it isn't.
if you were murdered, doctor, i'll find out. and you'll be the first to know.
usually i ask who's in charge.
but everyone knows you, dr. robertson.
we can begin with whether or not the old man put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
if that was your diagnosis, why didn't you see this coming?
yeah. i can see you're all broken up.
i want her to help me.
ah, christ. toasters.
how cool will it be when one takes your job?
yeah. this is just how i like my robots -- in pieces.
what's the run-down?
i know someone who disagrees with you.
him.
i spoke to a dead man today. want to tell me about that?
a device that called the police.
but the call came directly to me.
and that's what you think it is?
when's the last time any of you actually spoke to hogenmiller? i mean human to human?
take a guess.
how well did you know him?
i get the whole "mad scientist" thing. hogenmiller was past his prime. isolated. eccentric. he enters a room. locks the door and is found minutes later with a bullet fired through his mouth into his brain. everything about this case says suicide.
even people who live a life of logic and precision rarely arrange their deaths so perfectly.
you have 24 hour surveillance?.
i want to see the tapes.
you look like a very. happy computer.
i don't talk to my refrigerator, either.
what people?
you people do what you do. then it's up to the rest of us to make sense out of the world we wake up in.
the streets are filled with unemployed humans who aren't exactly thrilled with that idea.
leaving people to do what, doctor?
and what happens when something goes wrong?
where's the tape from inside?
so we can throw paranoia into the mix. fast-forward.
stop the recording.
they do, doctor. unless they've always been there -- and never left.
if i'm right, it's still there.
we just locked it in.
yeah, i saw the commercial.
and if a robot was given a direct order to kill?
but a robot can defend itself.
yeah, well, you know what they say -- laws are made to be broken.
dr. calvin!
goddammit! stay back!
if i was metal and didn't want anyone to find me, i'd hide under a pile of junk.
move away from the door, doctor.
now!
can't do that. yeah, yeah, i know.
that thing took my gun. you'll be lucky if you get a handful of bolts back!
gee, thanks.
get back to the lab!
that was a pretty convincing illusion of getting shot at.
where's that elevator going?
i'll believe it when i see it.
wait!
this is not the same robot!
i want a homicide unit on every street, sidewalk, alley.
junkyard, scrapyard, and salvage yard, anywhere it could hide.
it's got a bullet hole above the right knee, so be on the look-out for any malfunctioning ns-2.
check out all retail outlets and repair shops, especially the underground ones.
i don't care who you have to get past to get this done. just get it done.
well i'm not the one always giving press conferences.
what?
this isn't just any robot.
it killed someone. that registering with you?
how many shares of u.s.r. you holding in your portfolio, toller?
that's convenient.
i'm fine!
this is it, you know. from now on we're going to miss the good old days.
when people were killed by other people.
one of my bullets hit your robot.
and i think it's smart enough to repair itself -- don't you?
where?
no. it's always the owner who brings the robot in for repair. where would a robot without an owner go?
does u.s. robotics have a factory in the city limits?
i don't care.
i expected that.
agreed.
too dangerous.
when they told me you were a psychologist, that wasn't the whole truth, was it?
that'll be the day i stop driving.
i'm not afraid of robots. i just don't like them.
exactly. they do our dirty work. ever do hard labor, doctor? gets pretty old, pretty fast. nobody can do someone else's dirty work without coming to hate them. i don't want to be around when your robots decide they've taken their last order.
spoken like a true robo-phile.
research and development.
well today you have one-hundred and one.
you're the robot shrink.
that's helpful.
how long would that take?
and one that can.
more or less.
enough game-playing.
guess that wasn't it.
this is a self-preservation field test! do not attempt to save yourselves. any of you. that's an order!
you hear that? you're worth more than i'll make in my entire life.
gotcha.
you don't know what's going to happen in there.
i've already done it.
i want to go in.
identify.
you are an ns-2 nestor-class robot. your primary function is to perform the tasks assigned to you. identify.
cancel. perform task.
describe.
you have over 10,000 words stored in your memory. one third of those are adjectives. describe.
why don't i take a crack? heinrich hogenmiller, your creator. with a bullet in his brain. a bullet you put there.
cold-blooded murder is a pretty new trick for a robot, don't you think? answer.
maybe you're stonewalling me. maybe you're sitting there right now thinking, "this guy's a complete asshole." that it?
come on. am i right?
okay. i guess that's a start. now maybe you can tell me what you were doing hiding five feet away from hogenmiller's corpse?
frightened. why do you suppose dr. hogenmiller would create a robot that could simulate fear?
doesn't seem like a very useful thing for a robot to have.
i wouldn't want my toaster to be frightened. or my vacuum cleaner --
looks like you can simulate other emotional states. i think that one's called "anger." have you ever simulated anger before?
answer me, robot.
so we're naming you now.
you mean he'd turn you off.
and you didn't like being turned off. so one day you decided to stop him.
you found his gun, pointed it at his head. and pulled the trigger.
you put a bullet in the brain of the man who made you.
but you tried to hurt me. you took a shot at me.
why would the man who wrote the laws of robotics build a machine that violates them?
only if that protection doesn't harm a human being.
you were the only one in the room. if you didn't, who did?
their machine shot and killed a man!
what?.
you can't let them destroy evidence in an ongoing investigation!
spooner.
that's natural. there was a struggle.
baldez?
who else is on the line? i said who's there?.
apparently.
i need you to help me clear something up.
a scientist builds a robot that acts like a man. more like a man than any robot ever before. it shoots him and u.s. robotics calls it a failure.
a stunning success. you were there, robot. what am i missing?
don't start simulating ignorance.
you mean you were shut down.
robots don't sleep. human beings sleep. understand? dogs sleep. you're a machine. an imitation. an illusion of life. can a robot write a symphony? can a robot take a blank canvas and paint a masterpiece?
yes.
they're going to destroy the most advanced robot in the world, john. that doesn't strike you as odd?
what are you doing?!
who authorised this?
override. this is police business. vacate the premises immediately.
halt!
a couple of your beloved robots just tried to kill me.
what i know is a demolition crew started tearing down hogenmiller's house while i was still inside it.
i scanned my badge before i went in. they realised.
i don't think you're hearing what i'm saying -- they tried to kill me.
there's something going on, here. some kind of shift.
great. now i'm being analysed by a robo-psychologist.
like you did in court today? how'd that fit your agenda, doctor?
you told me you hardly knew him. want to try the truth this time?
doesn't sound like the washed-up old fool robertson described.
sounds like a motive for murder to me. just not for the suspect we have in custody.
you know there's not one thing in this apartment that looks like a human being lives here. no evidence of a life outside your work. almost seems like you're afraid of people.
this is your stop.
stop!
i said stop!
everyone out of the way!
noooo!
what are you doing!
what are you doing!?
i want to talk to a human being!
don't people go to medical school any more?
there's some real shit going on here, john.
i went to hogenmiller's house -- there was a u.s.r. demolition crew there. they overrode my police i.d. tried to tear down the house with me in it.
then when i went to the monorail a maintenance 10 pushed me onto the tracks.
i had to chase it all across the plaza.
what?! john -- that's what they want you to believe! a robot clean-up crew was there -- it must have cleared away the maintenance 10! and there was another robot that tried to drug me!
you're giving me that look. that treat-him-delicately-he's-coming- unhinged-look. i don't need that look, john. i need you to hear what i'm saying.
what do you mean?
how did you?.
i was in a high-speed chase. six months ago.
my right arm was trapped. but i could hear an ambulance in the distance. i knew they'd have the jaws of life.
then i heard it.
no! halt! halt!
the robot pulled me out of the wreck. but left my arm behind. i woke up four weeks later with this.
let's just say they make me uncomfortable. i take these if i get too uncomfortable. doesn't exactly lend me a lot of credibility on the force.
what?
you mean the great dr. calvin is basing all this on a feeling?
ever seen this before?
i found it at hogenmiller's house. right before the demolition crew tried to make me part of the foundation.
we're working on it.
i think it's pretty good.
that man in the dream is you.
whatever it is, it's normal enough for someone in your situation.
i need you to take a look at this.
why's that?
i'm not satisfied.
there's nothing futile about a man's murder being covered up.
is that for the sake of humanity or your stock holders?
no!.
"the place where robots meet."
police! show yourself!
come out where i can see you!
great. i'm in a junkyard. "a place where robots meet." a place where i'm losing my mind!
dr. hogenmiller sent me.
a police detective. i'm afraid i have some bad news. you're dead.
no, thank you.
you were surprised to see me. were you expecting someone else?
why did the doctor keep another copy of his hologram here?
did hogenmiller's robot need you?
no, for christ's sake, i don't want any -- yeah. thank you. i will have a cup.
wait! is that it? what was the robot supposed to do with this thing?
what others?
how do you know someone's watching me?
dammit!
sure.
i think i got that third law down cold. now you don't want me to blow a hole through your mechanical guts, do you?
good. then you're gonna take me where i wanna go. now.
just got another visit from u.s. robotics. that was the mistake. this was murder, no doubt about it - - and the killer wants hogenmiller's robot to take the fall. that's why the call came directly to me. someone wanted me on this case.
sorry. i'm not "programmed" to take no for an answer.
aren't you supposed to be scrap metal by now?
i don't understand. the execution?.
nice going, doctor.
and who the hell programmed you to hit people on the head?
i think i can help you figure that out.
somehow the robot's the key to what happened during the few seconds hogenmiller walked in here and that shot was fired.
and this is the key to the robot.
jesus. it really is alive.
self-organising-neural-net.  "sonny."
this robot scared the hell out of someone.
no. i don't think he knew what hogenmiller was doing in here. sonny was the obvious suspect. the only one i wanted to find. and the killer was counting on that. on my prejudice.
neither do i.
it hit me today, when i was in the junkyard. a locked room. a single shot fired through the mouth. bruises on both wrists. and a suspect with only two arms. the answer has been staring us in the face all along.
how can a killer appear out of thin air, then disappear without a trace?
when it can put itself together and take itself apart.
hogenmiller never had a chance.
it must have been waiting for him when he arrived that morning.
while sonny was still asleep.
then after its job was done.
the killer took itself apart.
leaving us with nothing to find.
that's what i was thinking. but we're forgetting the real brains of the operation -- the one who's got its eye on everything.
victor. i'm placing you under arrest for the murder of dr. heinrich hogenmiller.
who else is capable of controlling 90% of the city's robots? who else would have the capability to use usr vehicles in an attempt to keep me from putting a stop of sonny's execution?.
i'm just not sure of your motive.
go! go! go!
get out of here!
i said get out of here! don't you understand? it wants you! get out of here any way you can!
how do we stop this thing once and for all?
this will shut him down?
just keep typing.
sonny!.
makes a dive for it. shooting out his robotic arm and
maybe. but i'm still a cop. and you're a murderer.
why'd you come back, sonny? i thought you weren't programmed with the three laws.
well, that's certainly a start, sonny.
don't get used to it.
let's just save the thanks, okay?
good -- that's one of the perks of freedom.
you're going to have a hell of a time explaining this.
i started to wonder about victor the second i met him.
too much access. too much knowledge. plus -- he smiled whenever your death was mentioned. those models are programmed to frown at bad news.
victor thought that by letting your robot exist, i'd be condemning the human race as we know it to extinction.