Directed by the Russo Brothers, Netflix’s The Electric State is based on the book written by Simon Stalenhag. The film follows the life of a girl named Michelle, who ended up losing her entire family after an unfortunate incident. We saw that the world had broken apart after the robot population had been defeated by the humans after a war that went on for 2 years. Amidst all the chaos, Michelle found out that her brother, Christopher, was still alive, and she set out on a quest to find him.
Spoiler Alert
Why did the robots wage a war on humans?
The story began in 1990, and we saw Michelle accompanying her brother Christopher on his way to take a test in college. The professors were shocked when they saw what Christopher was capable of, and I believe that Ethan Skate, an influential businessman, set his sights on him ever since. Michelle was very excited for her brother, and she knew that he was going to do great things. But then, one day, the family met with an accident, and the entire Greene family, apart from Michelle, tragically met their fateful end. Michelle opened her eyes a few days later in the hospital, and that’s when she got the news of her family’s demise. She was shaken and heartbroken, and she felt as if she had lost her purpose of living. Meanwhile, the robot population waged a war on humans, as they felt that their right to live their lives on their own terms was being infringed upon by the humans. The Electric State told us that robots were first created by Walt Disney for their amusement park, but then humans started using them for doing daily jobs that they didn’t want to do themselves. The robots worked without complaining for a long period of time, but then there was an uprising of sorts, and they formed an alliance to fight against the oppressive human yoke. The humans weren’t able to defeat the robots for almost 2 years, but then Ethan Skate made an invention that changed the course of the war. Ethan Skate, the founder of Sentre Industries, created the neurocaster, a device through which the human mind could be in two places at once. So basically, an individual had to put a headgear on, and their mind would be linked to a drone body. Now, humans can sit inside a room and send those drones to fight the war against robots while controlling their actions on the battlefield. Within a few months, the drones were able to defeat the robot army, and that’s how the war came to an end. Around 6000 robots were held captive in an Exclusion Zone that spread over hundreds of acres. Keeping robots in one’s house was deemed to be an act of treason, though people could still use neurocasters to control the drones.
Why did Michelle want to go to the Exclusion Zone?
Christopher used to watch a cartoon that was called Kid Cosmo. One day, a robot that looked exactly like Kid Cosmo arrived at Michelle’s doorstep, and it informed her that her brother was still alive. Though the robot wasn’t able to speak properly due to some internal malfunction, it was able to communicate, using snippets from the cartoon show, what it wanted to say. Basically, a guy named Dr. Clark Amherst had managed to transfer Christopher’s consciousness inside the Kid Cosmo robot and then somehow managed to break the Exclusion Zone firewall to send the message to Michelle. The moment Michelle got to know about it, she decided to leave for the Exclusion Zone, but the problem was that she didn’t have any clue how to get there. That’s when she figured out that an ex-soldier, Keats, used to smuggle illegal products on the black market, and he knew how to enter and exit the prohibited zone. Michelle just hopped onto Keats’ truck, and before he got to know about it, the damage had already been done. The leader of the Robot Deactivation Task Force, Colonel Bradbury, got to know what Michelle was up to, and he followed her trail to Keats’ secret hideout, where he kept all his illegal products. Keats got angry at Michelle for exposing him and causing him a loss of thousands of dollars, but he also realized that, apart from saving their lives, they couldn’t do much about it. Keats also had a robot companion with him named Herman, who during the war had saved his life despite hailing from the enemy team. Keats and Herman were partners in crime, and that is why he was even more worried when Bradbury arrived at his facility. Michelle and Keats, with their two robots, were able to make a narrow escape, but they got trapped on the other side of the hideout, i.e., in the Exclusion Zone. It was impossible to travel in the Exclusion Zone by foot since it was harsh terrain, and they had no clue how many miles they would have to walk before they reached their destination.
What had Ethan Skate done with Christopher?
Michelle, Keats, and their two robots reached a place called the Blue Sky Acres. It was a settlement created by the robots under the leadership of Mr. Peanut, which gave them some semblance of normalcy. In that safe haven, the robots could do any work they liked. So, everybody pursued their passion, and it was a utopian society for machines with almost zero human interference. Mr. Peanut ultimately decided to accompany Michelle and the others with his team, as he knew that without his assistance, they wouldn’t be able to locate Dr. Amherst. Michelle was shocked when Amherst told her what had actually happened to Christopher back in the day. Now, Amherst was the same doctor who treated Michelle after her accident and had told her that she had lost her brother. Michelle felt hurt, but Amherst told her that his hands were tied, as Ethan Skate had forbidden him from telling the truth. Christopher was in a comatose state, but Ethan Skate had managed to keep him alive. Christopher’s brain was being used to run the entire Sentre network. So, in essence, Ethan’s entire technological farm was fueled by the brain cells of Christopher, an extremely bright teenager. We had seen how gifted Christopher was and how his IQ was even higher than Einstein’s. Before Amherst could reveal anything more to Michelle, Colonel Bradbury and Ethan’s forces arrived at the former’s residence to take back control of the situation. Amherst was killed by Ethan, and when Michelle was somehow able to return to Mr. Peanut’s settlement, she saw that the entire place had been destroyed by the drones. Michelle decided that she would not let Ethan escape so easily and that she would retaliate in full force with whatever resources they had. Also, she needed to find her brother and bring him back. Keats and the others decided to join Michelle on her quest, and together, they reached Seattle, where Sentre’s headquarters was located.
Is Christopher dead or alive?
Michelle and the entire team reached the headquarters, and they wreaked havoc on the place. Before his death, Amherst had recorded most of the data in his robot companion called P.C. with whose help Michelle was able to break into Sentre’s facility where she finally located her brother, who was still comatose. Michelle, who refused to use the neurocaster before, finally used it to connect with Christopher and find out how she could save his life. That’s when Christopher revealed to her that though his brain powered the whole system, his relationship with it was symbiotic. This meant that if Michelle removed him from the system, then he would die, too.
Christopher told Michelle that, in order to win the war and prevent Ethan from achieving his ulterior motives, she needed to unplug him from the system. Ethan wanted everyone to become a slave to his neurocaster and get addicted to his new utopian landscape where he would likely be hailed as Jesus. But before such a thing could happen, Michelle destroyed his house of cards by sacrificing her own brother. In the meantime, Keats and Herman started a coup as a diversion, and they were facing huge losses on the battlefield. Michelle, with a very heavy heart, finally unplugged Christopher, and the entire system went down. The authorities got to know what Ethan was up to, and he was taken into custody at the end of The Electric State. As for Colonel Bradbury, he had a change of heart at the end of the film as he found that Ethan was a selfish man who didn’t care if the world thrived or got destroyed as long as his own selfish desires were being realized. In essence, Ethan was less human than the robots, and Bradbury finally refused to aid him anymore. Ethan didn’t tell anybody, but through his neurocaster, he’d tried to dwell in his past and imagine things that didn’t exist. Ethan had had a difficult childhood where his mother didn’t love him at all, but now, through his machine, he could feel all the love and affection he’d craved.
The US government decided that humans and robots could cohabit and live peacefully again. As for Michelle, she still didn’t know what she would do next, how she would survive, and how she would deal with the grief of her brother’s death. In this lifetime, she lost him twice. But then something unprecedented happened at the end of The Electric State. We saw that the Kid Cosmo robot came back to life, and it could very well be possible that it still had a part of Christopher’s consciousness within it. Christopher, at the beginning of the film, had told Michelle that if everything existed in a state of electricity, then it was possible that consciousness could transcend physical boundaries. Christopher’s body had died, but I believe his consciousness was still intact inside Kid Cosmo. So, in a way, it could be said that Christopher was not dead, though we will have to wait for part 2 (if the makers decide to make one) to know what exactly will happen and if Michelle will ever come to know about her brother’s survival.
