“We are not gonna fight them. We’re gonna transcend them.” Wally Pfister’s “Transcendence” is a film that employs the meddling of several generic elements. It is science fiction, but not quite. It is also a romance, but not entirely. There are traces of horror as people get zombified and revived through artificial intelligence. And by extension, no one can deny its political undertones.
With an ensemble star cast of Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, and Paul Bettany, “Transcendence” is not very adept at amassing the bandwidth required to present a theme that is so broad in its application.
Transcendence (2014) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Who attacks Dr. Will Caster?
Dr. Will Caster, a champion in artificial intelligence, is hopeful of a sentient machine’s capability of collectively surpassing human intelligence. His wife, Evelyn, joins him as he speaks in a seminar with his best friend and neural engineering researcher, Max Waters. He asks the seminar’s audience, at which he elaborates on his thesis, to imagine the machine with a full range of human emotions, even self-awareness. He calls it ‘Transcendence.’
As he speaks, A.I. laboratories throughout the United States get attacked by an anti-technology terrorist group called “Revolutionary Independence From Technology” (R.I.F.T.). Caster, too, gets shot by a terrorist with a polonium-laced bullet. Once out of the hospital, he learns that his government researcher mentor, Joseph Tagger’s facility, has faced considerable blows, with almost all employees dead except Joseph. As Will’s health deteriorates, he is taken to the hospital, and the doctor informs Evelyn that the effect of the polonium bullet cannot be reversed. Death is inevitable, and the doctors can only stunt its arrival but not deflect it entirely. Will gives up his work and decides to spend the rest of his life with Evelyn.
What is the Fate of Will?
Unable to come to terms with Will’s depleting life, Evelyn uploads his consciousness to PiNN, a state-of-the-art quantum computer or a physically independent neural network invented by Caster. Evelyn tells Max that instead of creating an artificial intelligence, Will duplicated an existing one six months ago. To this end, Will recorded a monkey’s brain activity and uploaded it like a song or movie. Max warns her of the danger of such a decision as, at best, this idea can only create a digital approximation of him. There is no way to know if what they would have is actually Will.
Finally, Will dies, but Evelyn successfully uploads his consciousness to PINN. Soon, Will starts communicating through the computer. Will states that he needs more power to expand and proclaims his wish to be connected to a new processor whose capability is threefold that of the current system. He demands to be put online to access financial markets and educational databases. Max cuts the voice short and shuts down the computer. He expresses his fear that this might not be Will at all. This infuriates Evelyn, and he asks Max to leave.
A World Connected, A World in Danger
Upset, Max goes to a bar to drink, where Bree, the leader of R.I.F.T., tries to lure him into her plans. Max refuses to establish any contact but gets kidnapped from the parking lot by the group’s other members. At their secret lair, Bree asks Max to open up about Evelyn and the missing cores of PINN. The group is able to locate Evelyn and leaves in search of her. Evelyn gets Will online through the satellite before the group’s arrival and quickly leaves the garage, where she sets up the system. Will, now being able to access the vast internet network of the world, advises Evelyn to leave the city.
What progress do the Casters make in Brightwood?
Bree tells Max that a company fully owned by Evelyn made $38 million just in the time frame of 24 hours. Will directs Evelyn to a deserted town called Brightwood, which is in the middle of a desert, as it is the perfect place to build his idyllic technological dreamland. Max tells Bree that Will’s purported intelligence is now settling somewhere where its massive appetite for power can be satiated. However, like any intelligence, it will demand more than what it already has. After a while, when survival seems too insufficient a desire, it would go on to influence the entire world. Will’s intelligence makes a breakthrough in nanotechnology by facilitating the building of any material faster than ever.
The faster generation of synthetic stem cells and tissue generation makes medical applications limitless. Words spread in Brightwood about the human testing conducted in Brightwood Data Center of the Casters. Evelyn soon realizes the horrors as a diner owner is brought to the facility purposely injured for the testing. The man fully recovers from his physical injuries and becomes a bearer of Will’s intelligence. The man’s consciousness is connected to Will’s superconsciousness. Will, now having the man’s body and capable of sensory intelligence, tries to touch Evelyn through the man, but she recoils. Soon, Will’s intelligence will be able to fix even the most complicated physical disabilities of the locals.
Why does Joseph warn Evelyn?
Joseph Tagger and FBI agent Donald Buchanan visit the Brightwood facility and witness the astounding expanse of their invention. Every human in Brightwood is enhanced, modified, and networked. They remain autonomous but, by being connected to a collective mind, can also act in unison. Joseph and Donald leave, but before leaving, Joseph tucks a note into Evelyn’s palm. Evelyn opens it and sees the warning “Run from this place”.
On their way out, Joseph expresses his doubt to Donald about the assertion that Will’s intelligence is indeed the driving force behind this. With the government’s involvement, Donald prepares to shut down the internet to stop the sentient computer system and cut power to every networked hard drive on Earth. He is also optimistic about the association R.I.F.T. in this plan and wants to make it a success. On the other hand, Max contacts Joseph and informs him that he needs to hack into the PINN system’s software to build a virus.
Is it really Will who survives?
A final blow before Evelyn’s confirmed reluctance to stay loyal to the project is ensured as Will’s intelligence measures her hormones without her permission. This infuriates Evelyn, and she runs out of the center. Outside the center, the military bombards the solar power panels. Max arrives with the military and the R.I.F.T. The locals have now developed regenerating power. One of them has Will’s source code, which can be used to build a virus. Evelyn starts growing animosity towards the system and plans to leave despite Will’s insistence.
Later, Evelyn is kidnapped by the military and brought to Joseph, Max, Donald, and Bree. Max shows Evelyn that whatever is out there is building copies of itself, which facilitates the end of organic life. By next summer, the machine will encase the entire planet. The way things now progress, it seems that everything exists just to serve its intelligence. Max reiterates his earlier position that whatever is out there is not Will.
Max explains that once the virus is executed, it will obliterate everything with the machine’s code on it. Evelyn says that since Will’s intelligence wanted her consciousness to be uploaded to his system, Max should inject the virus into her system and then allow Will to upload her consciousness to his system. Max tries to deter her by listing the side effects, including her death. The virus, as soon as it enters her bloodstream, would alter her cells, and as the virus wipes off the superintelligence, it would kill her too.
How does Evelyn die?
Evelyn goes back to the solar field after getting a shot of the virus. She is stunned to find a full-bodied Will. Evelyn tries to make Will believe that the government will attack them so he can upload her into his system to protect her. The others remain glued to their binoculars from the rooftop of a distant building. Noticing Will’s reluctance to upload her, the military rushes to fire. Will realizes that Evelyn is carrying a virus intended to destroy him. Evelyn gets hit by the cannon fire. Bree threatens to kill Max if the virus is not uploaded.
Max tells her that since Will is incapable of human emotion, he would not care if Bree killed him. Will explains that the remaining power would only allow him to heal Evelyn’s body or upload the virus. On Evelyn’s insistence, Will does the former, and Max gets saved. Will tells Evelyn that he did all of this to help Evelyn realize her dream of reversing the damage that science has inflicted on the ecosystem. In their dying moment, Will asks Evelyn to think about their garden and their sanctuary where nothing gets through. The two die, and following their deaths, the world goes into a blackout.
Transcendence (2014) Movie Ending Explained:
How does Will plan to be with Evelyn even after their death?
Three years later, Max returns to Will and Evelyn’s Berklyn home. He notices that the sunflowers which Evelyn had once planted are the only plants in full bloom, the rest of the garden is as dishevelled as an abandoned garden should be. As he kneels down in front of the sunflowers, he notices a drop of water falling from a petal, magically cleansing a puddle of oil below. This means that a fragment of Will’s sentient being has survived the wipeout due to being protected by the copper cage that he had once set up.
The film ends with Max’s realization– “He created this garden for the same reason he did everything: So they could be together.” This explains Evelyn’s question at the beginning of the film. As Will sets up the cage, Evelyn asks the reason behind his gardening choice. This means that Will had already given thought to the possibility of what conspired later and built a small haven in advance that would help them ‘transcend’ their death, so to speak.
