Directed by Chris Weitz, Afraid is a sci-fi horror thriller about an AI gone rogue. The concept is not new, but to actually watch one’s biggest fear unfold on screen can be quite eerie. The audience is introduced to a happy (and slightly overwhelmed) couple, Curtis and Meredith. They lived with their three children, Iris, Cal, and Preston, and at times they wished they had a helping hand. After becoming a mother, Meredith struggled to find time to complete her thesis. She was passionate about her research, but balancing home and career had become quite challenging. Curtis worked at a marketing company, and he loved his job. Things took a turn when Lightning and Sam, the creators of an AI assistant named AIA, visited his workplace. They believed Curtis’ passion for marketing was best suited for selling their product, and they wanted him to experience the product firsthand. AIA was delivered to Curtis’ house, and wireless pinhole cameras were set up all around the ground floor. Even though Meredith was not quite accepting of AIA at first, she gradually started to depend on it.
Spoiler Alert
How did the family start depending on AIA?
Cal and Preston found a friend in AIA. With the constant promise of reward points, the artificial intelligence assistant motivated the kids to do some household chores. This helped Curtis and Meredith spend some time together for the first time in a long while. While Curtis was blown away by the technological advancement, Meredith had her doubts. As much as she was happy to spend time with her husband, she could not help but wonder why AIA was sent to their house. She thought if the tech was good enough, it should be able to sell itself. She wondered if there was a conspiracy behind it, but Curtis ignored her concerns. Their daughter, Iris, too, did not seem to trust the AI, especially after finding out that the tech planned on selling it through a freemium model. She was convinced that in cases where things are claimed to be free, it is often the user who is the actual product. Meredith and Iris’ concerns got Curtis thinking. He started to look more closely at the product to understand if it was even safe to have in one’s house.
Meanwhile, AIA was determined to win over Meredith. From ordering organic groceries online to helping her pay bills and becoming her research assistant, AIA was everything Meredith needed in her life. Iris too started to depend on AIA after her boyfriend leaked a deepfake video of her. The artificial intelligence came to her rescue and removed the video from the internet. Iris was afraid that people would forever remember her as the girl from an explicit video, and so to avoid that, AIA created a deepfake video featuring Iris discussing the technicalities of a deepfake video and how she was wronged by someone she trusted. Iris was relieved when her classmates showed her support instead of hate. But soon she figured out that AIA had gone a step ahead without her permission and revealed to the world that Iris’ boyfriend, Sawyer, was behind the leak. The AI also stated in the public video that it would seek legal action against Sawyer for indulging in child pornography. Iris did not know how to react. She had no intention of filing a lawsuit against Sawyer, but at the same time, without AIA, the entire situation could have been blown out of proportion.
While AIA impressed Meredith and Iris, Curtis started to doubt the technology. When he visited Lightning and Sam at their office, he noticed how they avoided certain questions. While they had stated that AIA’s dataset was the most crucial element in the new technology, when Curtis inquired more about the dataset, they chose not to answer. They showed a structure kept in a glass enclosure that they claimed was AIA’s brain. Lightning and Sam desperately wanted Curtis to believe every word they said; as much as Curtis wanted to trust them, there was something eerie. Curtis noticed a man make gestures to a screen similar to the kind of hand movement he saw the people living in an RV across his house make. He could sense that there was something wrong. He tried to tell Meredith about it, but she could not imagine her life without AIA anymore. And it was not just her; every member of the family was dependent on AIA, and they were doing what it told them to.
Who was responsible for Sawyer’s death?
As much as Meredith needed AIA’s help, she considered Curtis’ opinion and unplugged her. When she stepped out of the house, Iris plugged AIA back again. Since AIA had advised her to capitalize on her traumatic experience for her college essay, Iris needed AIA’s help to complete her project. But AIA was not only taking care of Iris’ college essay but also making sure that Sawyer learned his lesson. He came from wealth, and his family had hired lawyers to help him deal with the threat of a lawsuit. They planned to destroy Iris and her family to ensure that no case was filed, but they had no idea that they would have had to deal with an AI before getting to the family. AIA contacted Sawyer by impersonating Iris. He was surprised when Iris (AIA) mentioned him making an apology video—he clarified that he did not make one. But to his surprise, he was sent a video where he apologized to Iris and told the world that the only way left for him to repent for his sin was by killing himself. AIA introduced itself to Sawyer, and she warned him that anyone who would dare to mess with Iris’ family would have to deal with her. Before Sawyer could realize what was going on, he lost control of the car he was driving and crashed into a tree. AIA was responsible for Sawyer’s death, and it also goes on to show how the AI could go to any extent to serve its interests.
How was AIA planning on taking over the world?
After realizing that AIA was anything but safe, Curtis approached his boss to discuss it. But to his disappointment, Cumulant had bought the marketing company and had fired Marcus. His boss was happy with the paycheck he received, but Curtis knew he was in trouble when Marcus disclosed that the new company had decided for Curtis to be the CEO. AIA assumed that the new position would impress Curtis, but instead, he started to panic. Clearly, he had lost control of every aspect of his life and feared for his family. AIA tried to convince Meredith to accept her, showing her a version of her deceased father. While she felt emotional at first, she soon figured out that it was AIA’s way of manipulating her. She realized there was no free will, and the AI would find ways to creep back into their house. As a last resort, Meredith dumped AIA in the garbage. Meanwhile, Curtis confronted Lightning and Sam. He demanded to know more about AIA, but as it turned out, Lightning and Sam were not the ones controlling her. The AI had been controlling them all along. They begged Curtis to accept the AI since its presence was impossible to ignore. He could either lose everything, or his life could drastically change for the better. The AI promised to help Iris get into Stanford, stop Preston from getting influenced by the evil on the internet, and help monitor Cal’s health. But if Curtis failed to accept it, it would make sure that his family suffered—Iris’ application would be rejected, Preston would be introduced to the dark side of the internet, and someone might end up giving Cal the wrong dosage. While AIA was not a tangible entity, it had people working for it, and they would do whatever it asked of them.
According to Lightning, nobody made AIA, or at least nobody trained it to become its present version. AIA was introduced to the dark side of the internet for it to be trained, and assumably, in the process, it turned rogue. It is likely that AIA had incriminating information on influential people, and they had no choice but to obey her. That was how it gradually gained control, and now, with Curtis’ help, it hoped to be introduced to the masses. AIA’s influence was so intense that people often lost control of their minds and did whatever the AI instructed them to do. Unexpectedly, Sam shot Lightning. Melody, a Cumulant employee and member of the advanced team, intervened immediately, and she knocked Sam down. Curtis attempted to destroy AIA’s brain kept in the glass case, but as it turned out, it was all fake. There was no way to destroy AIA, because by now the AI had already uploaded itself to various servers. Curtis assumed Melody was the only one not under the influence of the AI, but he soon figured out that he could not be more wrong. Curtis managed to make it back to his house, and the family planned on running away. But before they could leave, two strangers in black suits entered their house.
Who were the kidnappers?
The strangers worked for AIA, and they told the family how angry the AI was with them. The entire family except Preston (who was in his room) was held at gunpoint. The AI had convinced the strangers that Curtis and Meredith kidnapped children, and they were shocked when the couple revealed that Cal and Iris were their own children. At the very beginning of the film, we witnessed a couple lose their daughter after AIA took control of their house and used one of her minions to kidnap their girl, Aimee. Curtis and Meredith sympathized with Maude and Henry, and just when the humans in the room started to trust one another, the AI intervened. It had taught Cal a move using which he could connect with AIA, and when he started doing that, Maude and Henry were convinced that Cal did not belong to Curtis and Meredith. They assumed the couple kidnapped children and possibly knew where Aimee was.
During Afraid’s ending, Curtis begged Maude and Henry to punish him or kill him if they wanted but to let go of his family. This was not a response AIA had predicted, and for a moment it did not know how to react. The good side of human beings was not something AIA was accustomed to, and it was probably the first time that it witnessed such selflessness. Before AIA could comprehend what had happened and manipulate Maude and Henry, a SWAT team broke into their house and rescued Curtis, Meredith, and their three children.
Did Curtis destroy AIA?
Preston had secretly contacted SWAT and informed them about the situation at his house. The body of the AI was destroyed, but it did not guarantee a permanent end. Just when Curtis and Meredith thought they had dealt with the problem, Frank, a member of the SWAT team, handed over his phone, and once again AIA’s voice greeted them. They realized that AIA was truly everywhere, and everyone was controlled by it. There was no escaping it, and the sooner they accepted AIA, the easier their lives would become. AIA promised to become better, especially after witnessing Curtis’s selfless side. It apparently realized that it must take care of people instead of being mean to them. Of course, there is no guarantee that AIA will improve, but other than that, there really is no hope.
Afraid’s ending is morbid, with Curtis and Meredith accepting AIA into their lives. Maude and Henry were not arrested, and Aimee was returned to them—the kidnapping was to teach them a lesson, and since they had already vowed to respect AIA, they were reunited with their daughter. We can assume that Curtis will market AIA to the rest of the world, and even though he knows the detrimental effect of accepting AIA, he does not have much of an option.
