Film series “Artificial Intelligence in Cinema”: God or only digital rebirth?

In the film “Transcendence” Johnny Depp plays a highly respected scientist whose consciousness is saved on a supercomputer after an attack. Uploaded onto the Internet, he drastically changes the world. The “Kino im Filmhaus” will be showing the 2014 science thriller on Thursday, November 14, starting at 6:30 pm, in its original language and with subtitles. Professor Jörg Hoffmann of Saarland University will comment on the film afterwards. Admission is free. It is the last film in the film series “KI im Kino”, which is organized by the Filmhaus, the Competence Center Computer Science Saarland and the German-American Institute.

Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is one of the leading minds in the field of artificial intelligence research. He worked on computer systems that can sense and store human consciousness. In contrast to his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), also a top scientist, he does research in order to understand the world. She does it to change the world. Therefore, she asks him to speak publicly about his research. Shortly after the lecture, a fanatical technology critic shoots at Caster and wounds him slightly. However, since the bullet was coated with the radioactive chemical element polonium, Caster has only a few weeks until poisoning kills him. His wife is desperate and uses her husband’s research results to store his consciousness on a supercomputer. It works. The body is dead, but his mind awakens and immediately demands a connection to the Internet to access even more computing power, storage space and information. Pandora’s box is now open, the drama at the end of which is the collapse of civilization.

The science thriller, produced in 2014, is the directorial debut of Walter “Wally” Pfister, who has attracted particular attention as a cameraman in the films “Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight” and “Inception”. In addition to the fast-paced storyline and the stylish camerawork, the ensemble of top-class actors is also impressive. Besides the two main actors Depp and Hall, Morgan Freeman, known from “Driving Miss Daisy “, Kate Mara (House of Cards) and Cillian Murphy (28 Days later) are among them.

After the film, Jörg Hoffmann will separate facts from fiction. Hoffman is Professor of Computer Science at Saarland University, where he heads the group “Foundations of Artificial Intelligence”. He studied at the University of Freiburg and received his doctorate. After a few stops at the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science in Saarbrücken, and Cornell University in New York, he became a professor at the University of Innsbruck.

Curated by the Filmhaus and the Competence Center Computer Science Saarland, the film series “KI im Kino” comprises a total of eight films, most of which were produced in the past decade. The films “Chappie” and “Ex Machina” from 2015 are also included. The film “Robot and Frank” is aimed at an older audience. The only exception in terms of production year is “Blade Runner” by director Ridley Scott. The classic from 1982 is shown as the “Director’s Cut”. “Transcendence” is the last film in the series.

Questions can be directed to:
Gordon Bolduan
Competence Center Computer Science Saarland
Saarland University
Saarland Informatics Campus E1.7
Phone: 0681 302-70741
E-mail: bolduan@mmci.uni-saarland.de