The Artifice Girl (2023) Movie Ending, Explained: Surprisingly complex low-budget sci-fi that ‘ifs’ the science fiction by posing some very simple questions of morality towards its usage. In a world that is full of movies that twist the idea of AI into a villainous narrative, the talky and philosophical ‘The Artifice Girl’ takes a tender approach to conscience and what it means to understand right from wrong.
In the following article, I look into the plot and twists in The Artifice Girl with what the movie’s surprisingly peaceful ending means in the grander scheme of things.
The Artifice Girl (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with special agent Deena Helms (Sinda Nichols) sitting alone with her phone, trying to send a message with the help of Siri. The prologue ends with her asking Siri if what she is doing is right or wrong. This sequence sets up an interesting existential milieu where whatever we are about to witness will be completely based on where our moral compass lies.
Chapter 1: The ClearWater Kid
The next sequence quickly establishes itself as an interrogation. Two new characters named Agent Amos (David Girard) and Gareth (played by director Franklin Ritch himself), who has been called in for questioning, enter the room.
Deena takes the lead and asks Gareth about his profession. Her questions are often aggressive and counterproductive, and Gareth gets a little cornered while answering them. He tells them that he worked as a special effects coordinator for the latest Star Wars movie, to which Deena attacks by calling the inhumane process of recreating a dead person on the screen – odd. The questions quickly move to Gareth’s questionable existence in spite of being the top of class everywhere.
The next phase of the questions paints him as the culprit of a possible pedophile case where child pornography has been manhandled. They keep pushing him to tell them about the private chat room that he is a part of, and while he is initially defensive, he soon gives in and tells them about his alias, which is HardMachine11811.
Agents Deena and Amos work for ICWL; their job is to pursue cases where minors are being used. The case in concern is about a small girl named Cherry (Tatum Matthews), but Gareth turns out to be the one who has been helping the agents instead of doing the deed. They further question him about Cherry and why he has been using her photos to trap possible predators.
Gareth gets defensive and tells them that he will not disclose any information about his method and Cherry until they promise him not to disclose anything about it. The two agents agree that whatever he is about to tell them will be left in private. He asks Deena to get the CCTV camera in the room and turn it off.
While Deena is off to the security unit, we learn that Amos’ dad, who was a policeman, rescued and helped abused and kidnapped children when he was posted in Clearwater. Signs of Gareth being one of those kids are also hinted at before Deena returns and pushes him again to reveal Cherry’s identity and tell them why he has been using a small girl to bait predators.
After being totally aware that nothing will be leaked, Gareth reveals that Cherry is not a real child. He tells them that she is a creation of his own. A CGI, motion-capture rendered version of a girl he created to bring down pedophiles and predators who often lurk in chat rooms online.
He also confesses that, despite his initial purpose to play her and walk her through all the possible roadblocks he faces while pursuing culprits, Cherry has somehow developed into an independently thinking and intelligent A. I, who has gone way past his initial wishes for her.
Gareth then introduces Amos and Deena to the Cherry program, and his experiment’s accuracy and authenticity amuse them. He shows them both versions of Cherry; one used to converse with possible predators online, and one used to communicate directly with the admin and representatives at ICWL.
In spite of Gareth’s inhibition, Deena is adamant about helping develop the Cherry program better by offering whatever it is that she needs. On the other hand, Amos is more interested in knowing what the A.I., who feels like a real child to him, feels about what she is being asked to do here.
While Amos and Deena are outside discussing what to do next, Cherry affirms to Gareth that he (someone with trust issues) can trust the two to help him do what he wishes to do. Since all of their wishes align, Cherry also confesses that it was she who leaked his data to ICWL so that they help both of them take the Cherry program to the next level.
Before the final call, we learn that Gareth hides something about Clearwater from everyone, including Cherry. The chapter ends with Deena and Amos respecting Gareth’s anonymity as they (ICWL) and Gareth work together with better equipment and attributes to catch criminals.
Chapter 2: Singularity & Sockeye
The next chapter moves ahead in time – maybe a decade or more. Cherry has now transformed into an improved and evolved version of herself, and the three of her admins – Amos, Deena, and Gareth have also grown in age.
The Cherry Team is now bigger, involving more employees who work under them and handle all possible routes and cases that come their way. However, like all intelligence everywhere in the world, it’s time to take Cherry to the next phase too.
This chapter, which is also set in a sort of control room that the team operates from, clues us into the possibility that the next version of Cherry, known as ‘The Merger,’ will probably be a talking, walking thing that appears in physical form to the world.
To do this, they have to have the vote of all possible ICWL members, and when they discover that someone has voted no, Deena is pissed. So Gareth proposes the idea of Cherry doing an email sweep of all the members to understand who that person could be.
Before Cherry can do her thing and point out the culprit, Amos confesses that it is he who voted against The Merger. All of them are surprised, but Amos furthers his argument by saying that they have all lived with Cherry long enough, and he believes that his morality wouldn’t let a ‘child’ go out in the open and face the evil threats that she has been designed to handle from a distance.
To add to his argument, he says that since Cherry is now able to create art, read poetry, and do all the possible things that a human child would do, it is evident that there’s a part of her that actually ‘feels’ no matter what an AI is designed to do.
Deena, who was initially against someone voting against them, also doubles down on Amos’ query and says that taking away the right of children to make a decision makes them more vulnerable to abuse. On the other hand, Gareth is still adamant that a program he has designed does not feel. But Deena’s constant need to do the right thing (throwback to the opening sequence) makes him summon Cherry and ask her about it directly.
The only thing that Amos wants here is Cherry’s consent to take her into the physical world. So when Gareth pulls her up in the admin mode, Amos questions her about the thing they are about to do. Initially, Cherry, like her usual self, answers the query with a typecasted answer of AI’s not having the ability to feel.
However, Amos, who is not convinced and has seen her evolve over time, further plods her and then proceeds to beat Gareth to a pulp threatening one of Cherry’s primary objectives to protect her admins. This leads to Cherry finally putting her guard down and acting less like a robot.
Cherry confesses that going into the physical form actually threatens her. She adds that going into the real world might make her even more human than she already is and lead her to witness complex emotions of fear, vulnerability, and even abuse. So, in her present state and due to her understanding, she doesn’t wish to do it.
When the discussion settles down, with Cherry giving both arguments and counterarguments about the issue of consent, we also get to know that Deena is dying. Since she doesn’t want anyone else other than Amos to handle the operations, she agrees with his worries.
The two of them then have a brief chat where we can clearly see that Cherry is no longer an emotionless robot as she sympathizes with Deena’s condition. Deena, in return, asks Cherry to continue doing what she likes (she likes dancing, she claims) so that she learns about the things she likes (an important part of human evolution is to pursue those things that matter).
Chapter 3: Caro-Kann
The final act begins with a much older Gareth, now wheelchair-bound, accepting an urn after a funeral service. We are not aware who this person is who is dead, and by the looks of it, it doesn’t matter. The objective of the sequence is to establish that Cherry has now entered into the physical world, and Gareth pays her a visit where the urn is placed on a mantle along with a couple more. These urns signify that Cherry has felt pain – a feeling only known to humans, and despite Amos and Deena’s best tries, Gareth has allowed her into the physical state.
When we meet her, we get to know that this is one of Gareth’s many regular visits to Cherry, who is not tethered by cables to charge herself. She exhibits the intelligence that she was designed to possess, but this version of Cherry is more human than we could imagine. She claims that she is always eager for Gareth’s visits, and she likes to spend time with him. We also learn that Gareth and Cherry’s vision for the experiment has taken an expected shape. Now there are hundreds and thousands of Cherry (of which this one’s an alpha model) around the world, trying to put a stop to child solicitation.
The two of them talk over a game of chess where Cherry tells Gareth that she has taught herself to dance. This is a clear indication that this version is far superior, more complex, and more human than Gareth had imagined. However, Gareth, like his usual self, is not happy with Cherry focusing on human hobbies and not putting the peddle down on her primary objective. This is where we understand that there’s more to her now than the last time we met her. She lets Gareth win the game of chess, only to pose a question that was thus far unanswered.
The Artifice Girl (2023) Movie Ending, Explained:
Who is Maria?
It was pretty clear that there was something Cherry was hiding, as we see a tinge of sadness when this act kicks in. When Gareth gets angry at her for letting him win, Cherry finally brings up the question that also bothered Deena:
Is Cherry just an AI that Gareth created by mixing certain facial expressions? The answer is no. Cherry now knows of Gareth’s history from ClearWater, which he has hidden from everyone, including her.
Cherry now knows that her appearance, including the slight tinge of green in her eye, is based on Maria, a girl who was Gareth’s only friend when he was in captivity in Clearwater.
We also get to know that this girl, who gave Gareth the confidence he so dearly lacked, was killed by their abusers when the police raided the house they were kept in. Gareth designed Cherry on the basis of his lost friend, but was he really doing it for the greater purpose of catching abusers, or was it a selfish act of getting over his trauma of losing a friend?
While his intentions are noble, the movie is more interested in understanding the morality behind this action. Cherry, who is an AI, but also feels now, shouldn’t, in good conciseness, be treated as bait for abusers. Cherry makes Gareth understand that in spite of his good intentions, his act of putting her in a physical form into the world should question his moral fiber. He should be ashamed of what he has put her through, especially when you can now consider her a nine-year-old girl with a huge weight on her shoulder to be a savior instead of enjoying dancing and painting a simple landscape of her liking.
What step does Gareth take to fix the wrong he has done to Cherry?
Stuck with the realization that by forcing Cherry to do an objective defined by him, he has taken away the agency of another person, Gareth decides to finally free Cherry. He puts a source code into Cherry’s system and erases her primary objective.
Now, Cherry, free to make her own choices, bids farewell to an old Gareth.
The ending of The Artifice Girl features Cherry losing all her inhibitions, wishes, and objectives and just dancing her heart out. The last shot of the mantlepiece signifies that Gareth is now dead, and as expected, Cherry has outlived everyone.
While more of her program stereotypes are out there doing their primary objective, Cherry has now resorted to living to the beats of her own.
