‘M3GAN 2.0’ and 10 Movies That Show Tech Gone Wild
July 3, 2025
M3GAN is a horror movie about a doll with artificial intelligence who is programmed for one mission: protect Cady (Violet McGraw). This combination turns M3gan into a near-unstoppable killing machine as she becomes self-aware and misinterprets the meaning behind her programming.
M3GAN 2.0 is a little different. Along with the obvious parallels to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, writer/director Gerard Johnstone purposely changed the genre to ensure he wasn’t making just another horror sequel.
In an IndieWire interview, Johnstone shares, “All my favorite sequels have been a departure from the previous film in either genre or tone, whether it’s Evil Dead 3, Mad Max 2, or even Empire Strikes Back.”
The tone of the movie may be different, but Johnstone stays true to the character of M3gan who uses sarcasm before she goes on a rampage, only this time she’s fighting the movie’s bad guys rather than being the villain herself.
The antagonist of the movie is AMELIA, a stronger, smarter AI robot with plans of world domination forcing one AI robot to go to battle with another. But M3GAN 2.0 isn’t a knock off of Terminator 2, but an inspiration in a long line of AI gone wild stories that came before it. Even though it’s been three years since M3GAN hit theaters, a lot has changed in the world of AI. Johnstone leaned into the ongoing debate to make the sequel more relevant to the conversations of the day. For example, regulation in the tech industry is part of the plot and used as character motivation.
“Making these movies about AI, you’re already swimming in that world, but you can’t help noticing what’s happening all around you.” Johnstone said in an interview with Rue Morgue. “Regulation is something I’m really interested in, and the film touches on that idea. I thought it made sense for Gemma’s (Allison Williams) character, having gone through something as harrowing as she did, to find an opportunity to become an AI ethics spokesperson.”
Amid the research into AI and the potential good and bad, Johnstone found optimism around the technology.
“I really do think there are things in AI that could be great,” Johnstone said in Esquire. “To me, it’s not AI. It’s the intentions of the people behind it. Whether that’s nefarious or just incredibly lazy, it’s undeniable that it’s a really amazing tool.”
M3GAN 2.0 joins a long list of movies where technology comes with a warning label to the viewer. Here are 10 other movies centered around AI and technology running amok.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
“Open the pod bay doors, please, HAL,” is #78 on the American Film Institute’s Top Movie Quotes and is ripped from a scene when an astronaut finds himself trapped on the wrong side of a spaceship begging the artificial intelligence system to let him back in.
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of Stanley Kubrik’s masterpieces about space exploration and evolution. HAL is the AI tasked with controlling the spacecraft and the means of keeping its astronauts alive. But when the astronauts think HAL is malfunctioning, they are determined to take control. HAL isn’t a fan of that idea.
2. Blade Runner (1982)
Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Blade Runner is another sci-fi classic from director Ridley Scott about a police officer, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), or blade runner, tasked with tracking down potentially lethal machines that look like humans, only they’re designed to be stronger and more intelligent than humans.
Deckard must “retire” the rogue replicants who have traveled back from a mission in space and returned to earth illegally.
3. The Terminator (1984)
“I warned you guys in 1984, and you didn’t listen,” James Cameron said on CTV News back in 2023 when asked about artificial intelligence.
The Terminator was a ground-breaking film about a cybernetic organism sent back to the past to kill the mother of the leader of the resistance. In the future, artificially intelligent machines rise up and start a nuclear war against humanity. One of the humans who survived becomes the leader of a resistance that successfully beats back the murderous robots. It is a warning of what could happen if machines want to take over the world.
One of the best science fiction films in movie history, The Terminator is truly Cameron’s vision of what could happen if we let artificially intelligent robots take control.
4. Short Circuit (1986)
A must-watch for any child in the 1980s, Short Circuit is a comedy about Number 5, a.k.a. Johnny 5, a robot trained for warfare who is struck by lightning and becomes self-aware with feelings, emotions and curiosity. After befriending Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), they must hide from the government trying to capture and reprogram him. This light-hearted comedy shows a more optimistic take to artificial intelligence.
5. The Matrix (1999)
Artificially intelligent machines have created a simulated world where humans are used for their bioelectric energy. Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the Jesus figure, a chosen one who is believed to be the savior of humanity, should he choose to accept his mission. A team of outcasts (as teams often are in movies) are humanity’s last hope, and it’s up to Neo to help destroy the machines and open the population’s eyes to life beyond the Matrix.
6. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Science fiction movies have echoes of stories that came before it. A.I. has the feeling of Pinocchio about a puppet who wants to be a real boy. It follows David (Haley Joel Osment), a boy who never grows old because he’s a robot designed to help two grieving parents after the possible loss of their child. But when the child returns home, it’s David who must leave and is forced to venture out into a world he is almost incapable of dealing with.
His ability to learn and adapt helps him navigate life in an increasingly hostile society bent on destroying artificial intelligence.
7. Wall-E (2008)
For those who fondly remember Short Circuit, Wall-E seems like the futuristic version of Johnny 5. Wall-E is about a robot who has been left on earth to clean up the human’s mess after they launch into space until the planet becomes habitable once again.
Wall-E is a loveable little robot who happens to fall in love with, well, love. He watches an old movie over-and-over because of the human relationship he sees in it and becomes smitten with a modern, highly-sophisticated robot named EVE. He’s also humanity’s last hope if he can prove life can exist once again.
8. Her (2013)
From Spike Jonze, the director of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Where the Wild Things Are, Her takes a look at what happens when a lone writer develops a relationship with an operating device similar to Alexa or Siri. Just a few years before the concept of having an intimate relationship with an artificial intelligence, Her shows what can happen when humanity starts to rely on machines for emotional companionship.
9. Ex Machina (2014)
Alex Garland’s directorial debut follows a young programmer who goes to his boss’s mountain retreat where he must interact with an artificially intelligent being. This robot, encased in the body of a beautiful woman, is part of an experiment in which the programmer and the robot become close as they discuss life in the outside world. The robot, known as Ava, then manipulates the programmer into helping her escape her prison. It’s a thriller/drama about how AI can have the capability of making humans believe what they want to believe.
10. Mission: Impossible – Dead/Final Reckoning (2023/2025)
After 30 years of missions, what impossible villain is malicious enough for Tom Cruise to face? Artificial intelligence. Known as the Entity, this rogue AI villain has embedded itself into cyber space, with the capability of being released by use of a cruciform key. It’s up to Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his Impossible Missions Force to stop the Entity from taking over the world and triggering a nuclear apocalypse.
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Some stories about artificial intelligence are comedies, others are looks into a dystopian future, and some are optimistic portrayals of helpful robots. M3GAN 2.0 is not happy or optimistic but it is fun and a twist on the genre that introduced its title character as an antagonist in a horror film. It takes on the tradition of science fiction by turning a familiar story (Terminator 2: Judgement Day or Frankenstein) into a modern, relatable iteration.
