‘Electric state’ blurs the line between technology and humanity

At first glance, “electricity” can seem like just a widespread sci-fi-a road trip through a retro-fourious dystop where weak heroes sail a landscape filled with destroyed technology and interned robots. Is that. But under his wonderful images and moments of heart attraction stands a movie that is asking some deeply uncomfortable questions about the world we already live in. What happens when the cars we create become more than just tools? What is the moral responsibility we hold when it crosses the threshold to sensitivity? And, perhaps more worrying of everyone, are we already very dependent on technology to see the risks ahead?

I recently sat down with Anthony and Joe Russo, the filmmakers of “The Electric State” to talk about the film – which broadcasts Netflix starting March 14. The film attracts us into an imagined alternative of the 1990s, where sensitive robots – even just cheerful masquerades and aides – are expelled after a failed rise.

At the heart of this adventure is Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown), an orphaned teenager who goes beyond American West to find her younger brother. It is accompanied by Cosmo, a robot with a giant cartoon head and one’s spiritual eyes – or something – that can be more than just a car.

But as Anthony Russo told me, history is not just about that Sentency. It is about humanity’s relationships with technology, and how that relationship is evolving from the late 20th century digital boom. “We were really running on these real-world hardcore issues,” Russo said, “but the fantasy space was useful to us here because we were putting them in the field of fantasy … You can re-finish them intellectually and emotionally in ways that can be very difficult to do in your real life.”

A retro-philosal mirror of now

The world of “electricity” is both well known and strange – a deliberate choice from the Russo brothers to make its warning tale more relevant. Setting is a nostalgic past that was never, where the aesthetics of the 80s and 90s America clashes with speculative technology. It is a world anchored in the models of specific robots of the decade, the sounds of needle points and cultural references-but even the one that swims enough in fantasy to encourage reflection in our current trajectory.

Neurocasters in the film are thin attitudes for today’s smartphones, inviting the audience to consider how our lives we already live online. These devices allow users to withdraw to personalized realities, turning the human connection into something curated, mediated and – event -event – artificial.

The moral question of the personality of it

Cosmo is more than just a pixar -level charm attack. It represents a deeper ethical question that is approaching reality: when does one take more? In the film, robots show emotions, form relationships and make moral decisions. At what point do we owe them the same rights, responsibilities and respect we reserve for people?

Anthony Russo touched on this moral uncertainty during our conversation. He pointed out how the film reflects a broader digital evolution that we have been in the 90s now. As the systems of it grow increasingly autonomous, capable of learning, adapting, and even seem to be “felt”, the lines between the tools and the misty of the person.

“Electricity” offers no answers, but asks critical questions: if a being can think, choose and suffer, what are our obligations for it?

Two -edged sword of addiction

The co-dependent relationship of mankind with technology is in full screen in the “electric state”. Even after a robot uprising, people continue to depend on cars – whether through neurocastra or robot strips – to navigate their world.

Next to an unpleasant reflection of our lives, where convenience often violates caution. We ask Alexa to manage our schedules and allow algorithms to decide what we see, buy and believe. The film is almost less a sci-fi structure and more a metaphor for digital silos and walls we already live in.

History antagonist, Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci), personifies this seductive addiction, and provides the echoes of what we are proving to unfold with Doge and current titles every day. A technology genius that begins with noble purposes, it gradually becomes trapped in the very fantasy world that he helped create. As Russo explained, “he is living a fantasy of what is human connection, compared to what it means in his current life with the people around him.”

An unpleasant story of isolation

At first glance, the area of ​​exclusion in the “electric state” can seem like a purely scientific-scientific construct-a no one’s imaginative land, where robots are interned after a failed rebellion. But you look a little deeper, and it is difficult to ignore worrisome parallels in real world spaces, where societies have historically isolated those who fear or consider them undesirable.

The exclusion area echoes the concept of US native reserves in the United States – geographically and politically designated spaces created to remove indigenous people from their ancestral lands and isolate them from the wider society. Reservations were often adapted as places of “autonomy”, but in reality, they were a means of displacement and control, interrupting access to resources, freedom of movement and cultural heritage.

Even more directly, the exclusion zone holds a wonderful resemblance to World War II Japanese internment camps. In both cases, an entire population was corrupt, not because of individual guilt, but because of collective fear and prejudice. American Japanese – many of them American citizens – were stripped of their rights and freedoms on suspicion that they could be a threat. In the “electricity”, the robots were once received as assistants and friends are suddenly treated as enemies, massively interned regardless of their individual stories or goals.

Both historical examples – and the exclusion area in the film – ignite a repeated moral failure: societies that choose fear over empathy, control over cohabitation. While Anthony Russo placed it in our conversation, “You can find humanity in technology and you can find inhumane in people.”

The real-world parallels make the “electricity” feel less like fantasy and more like a warning reflection on what happens when we isolate than integrate-and how easily we can lose the attention of our common humanity in the process.

The technology that made all the truth

Ironically, the film’s warnings about technology addiction have been brought to life by some of the most advanced technologies of creating surrounding films. The Russo brothers mix VFX, capture movement and practical effects to create the living, tangible film world.

A particularly attractive detail is how each robot was created to match a specific decade, creating a sense of historical continuity. “We would choose a decade for any robot we used in the film,” explained Anthony Russo, “and we would try to be mechanically loyal as we could in that period.” This gives the cars a dressed, familiar look-as they were relics from our time, not just a scientific future.

In fact, the filmmakers took it a step further, partizing with UCLA robotics lab to create a real -life Cosmo robot. Although the film relied on CGI for Cosmo’s screen on screen, the physical robot has appeared in shows and events, blurring lines between fabrications and reality in a way that feels exciting and disturbing.

A warning tale – and a master class in stories

At its core, “Electricity” is a film about the connection – between sisters and sisters, friends and, yes, even among people and cars. But also serves as a warning. Technology can wish the gaps, but it can also expand them. Can approach people or isolate them after digital walls.

“Electricity” suggests that while he may deserve a day of personality, ultimately depends on us to decide how we engage with the technology we create. Do we use it to connect – or to check?

We stand on the eve of a world full of autonomous machines and systems that can overcome us. As our technology evolves, the questions asked by “electricity” feel less like scientific fabrications and more like tomorrow’s titles. And if nothing else, this film is a reminder that even in a car -driven world, is our humanity that must remain in the center.