Warning: This article contains spoilers for “The Electric State.”
“The Electric State,” which premiered on Netflix on March 14, takes a new spin on the age-old tale of robots taking over.
This time, robots lose the war and are an oppressed class.
To understand the film, which was inspired by a 2018 graphic novel, you need to understand the world’s history. Humans invented robots and put them to work doing manual labor and service jobs. Eventually, the robots rebelled and started the Robots Rights’ Movement, led by a robot version of Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson). During the Clinton Administration, a deadly war broke out between the humans and the robots.
Technology mogul Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) developed Neurocasters, a technology one puts on their head (like VR) which links the human mind to mechanized drone bodies. Neurocasters split your consciousness, a la “Severance.” One version of a human can be in a drone body working, while the other version is having fun in the human’s original body.
Once humans developed this new technology, they defeated the Robot Equality Coalition, banishing all the robots to Sentre’s Exclusion Zone (known as The EX).
Stanley Tucci explained on TODAY March 12 that Neurocasters were “originally sort of designed to sort of ease people’s pain and suffering, but it’s gotten out of hand.”
“The Electric State,” directed by the Russo brothers, takes place in the aftermath of this war in 1994, following Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) as she races across the country to find her genius brother, Christopher, whom she had previously thought died in a car crash along with their parents.
Accompanying her is a robot named Cosmo (Alan Tudyk). Although he can not fully speak, Cosmo conveys that Christopher is alive and projecting his own consciousness into Cosmo.
Eventually, she teams up with Keats (Chris Pratt) and his own robot friend Herman (Anthony Mackie). Together, the foursome journeys through The EX to find Christopher.
Along the way, they find Dr. Amherst (Ke Huy Quan) who informs them that Christopher is actually the reason that the Neurocasters exist. In fact, Christopher’s brain is such a marvel, that in his comatose state after the car accident, his brain was strong enough to power — and still powers — all of Sentre’s (Ethan Skate’s company) technology.
“There’s so many elements of animation, it’s a massive, epic scope and scale, but really rooted in humanity,” Chris Pratt said on TODAY Oct. 17. “And that relationship between these two folks is a big part of that.”
Throughout the film, Michelle befriends many more robots who are voiced by big names like Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Brian Cox and Hank Azaria.
All the while she’s on the run from Col. Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito), a leader in the uprising and now a bounty hunter catching robots (Coleman Domingo also makes a cameo here as a soldier within Bradbury’s ranks).
The sci-fi/adventure film ends similar to how the world’s history began: a huge battle between humans and robots, but this time the viewer is rooting for the robots. Read on the understand why and what happens.
‘The Electric State’ ending explained
During a battle in The EX, Col. Bradbury successfully kidnaps Cosmo. He gets ready to fly him back to Sentre when the drone that Ethan is Neurocasting into kills Dr. Amherst. Col. Bradbury still brings Cosmo back to Sentre, but face-to-face, he tells Ethan that he’s crossed a line by killing someone and lying to him.
Ethan doesn’t care as he has Christopher’s essence back, meaning his company won’t completely crumble and instead is back at functioning capacity.
This is when Michelle, her friends and a bunch of robots from The EX begin their attack on Sentre’s headquarters with the mission of freeing Christopher.
Amherst’s computer, which stores all his knowledge, had revealed that removing Christopher’s brain from the system would free him and cause a complete system failure for Sentre.
Keats and Herman start the first wave of the attack, launching cars into Sentre’s headquarters. Ethan deploys his entire security squad to stop their attack. Michelle, meanwhile, sneaks into Sentre through a backdoor using the code she’d secured.
The second wave of robots then attack Sentre, coming to Keats and Herman’s aid and launching a full on war against Ethan’s security forces, who are Neurocasting into drones.
Michelle reaches the room holding Christopher. She discovers that she has to put on a Neurocaster and go inside Christopher’s mind to speak to him.
While inside, Christopher confirms that if his brain is removed from the system, Sentre dies — but his physical body cannot survive without Sentre. He tells Michelle that she needs to be the one to save the world from Sentre, meaning that she must kill her own brother.
While Michelle grapples with this realization, unsure of what to do, Ethan fires up his own Neurocaster, which is connected to a giant, lethal drone. He steps into battle in the suit and immediately begins destroying the robots.
Separately on the battle field, Col. Bradbury confronts Mr. Peanut, but instead of fighting him as he had the entire film, he admits he was wrong and tells Mr. Peanut what room and floor Ethan’s real body is located on. Col. Bradbury then exits the battle.
Keats and Herman fight Ethan in his drone suit. They defeat him, but Herman dies in the process. As the real Ethan is taking his Neurocaster off, he’s confronted by Mr. Peanut inside Sentre to renegotiate the treaty.
Meanwhile, Michelle is still talking to Christopher, unwilling to let him die. Then he tells her that Sentre has put tighter controls over him this time and he doesn’t want to live like this forever. Sentre could keep him alive for 100 years. Michelle sayas she doesn’t want to lose him again.
“You can’t lose me,” Christopher tells her. “But you can lose them. You. You’re the one whose gonna change the world.”
After a final cry, hug, and exchanging of “I love you’s,” Michelle leaves, pressing three buttons that kill her younger brother. She holds Cosmo’s hand and Christopher’s chest in both her hands.
The timing is impeccable as Keats is about to be killed by a drone, but all of Sentre’s technology ceases to work before the fatal strike.
Despite Christopher dying, there’s a happiness to the battle as Herman emerges alive and well after Keats bears his soul to what he believed to be his lifeless friend.
What follows is a montage of Sentre shutting down across the world and news emerging that the company had been experimenting on a little boy to stay afloat. Ethan Skate gets arrested in the aftermath. The media montage ends with a reporter saying, “You know who I want to talk about? The girl who trucked a ton of bots to Seattle to kick Skate’s butt.”
Cut to Michelle, who films a video for the world saying that the technology Sentre made was bad for everyone, not just robots.
“I know the war happened and things fell apart and life really sucked,” she says. “And maybe for a little while the Neurocasters helped you forget that. We got so used to it that we thought that’s what real life was. But it’s not. Real life, it’s contact. It’s you and me. We’re flesh and bone, yeah, but we’re also electricity. And when we hug and laugh and hold hands and argue, my particles stay with you and yours stay with me. And maybe we stay together forever. But that can’t happen if you close yourself off.”
Michelle continues on, saying humanity needs to start over. She tells everyone that they need to stick together and help each other to make it work.
“Look around,” she says. “There’s someone near you right now. They’re real and alive. And they need you as much as you need them. And if there isn’t, if you don’t have anyone, then come find us. Because we’re starting over. We’re going to do it right this time.”
What does that last scene mean? Is Christopher alive?
With Michelle saving the world like Christopher had instructed her to do, the movie could end — but instead it tacks on one last scene.
Cosmo, the robot Christopher had transferred some of his essence into, is dumped into what looks to be a pile of trash. Nearby, a stray dog laps water from a puddle.
The final shot shows the reflection in the water as Cosmo rises up, hinting that some of Christopher’s essence may still be alive within him.
