Warning: Major spoilers for Mother/Android ahead.
Dystopian sci-fi drama Mother/Android has many twists and turns that lead to a heart-shattering ending, which resolves many of the questions that arise throughout the movie. The post-apocalyptic thriller is written and directed by Mattson Tomlin, and it’s set in a contemporary version of North America where androids are used as butlers and household help until they revolt and a civil war between them and humans starts. Despite getting mixed reviews, Mother/Android has an ending that has lingered with audiences.
Mother/Android follows Georgia (horror movie star Chloë Grace Moretz) and Sam (Algee Smith) as they are on their winter break visiting Georgia’s family when they realize that they’re expecting a baby. At the same time, the android revolt starts. The movie then flashes nine months forward to find Sam and Georgia in survival mode, trying to cross the wilderness to reach Boston. From there, boats depart for South Korea, where they might have a future with the baby they’re expecting. The feat is particularly difficult not only because of the ongoing civil war but also because Boston is surrounded by a no man’s land, an impenetrable area controlled by androids that is impossible to cross.
Led by a game cast of characters, Mother/Android skillfully mixes common sci-fi themes, such as human-android conflicts and a country in disarray because of a civil war, with more personal themes. Every day struggles such as being unsure about a partner or deciding how to handle an unexpected pregnancy are superseded by the more difficult decision of whether or not to send their baby away so that he might have a future. The dystopian drama packs many twists and unexpected, heart-wrenching turns that lead to a painful but somehow hopeful end. Here’s the meaning of Mother/Android's ending twists explained.
Why The Androids Turn On Humanity
Although Mother/Android does not directly explain the reason for the organized uprising by the butler androids in the U.S., Atypical cast member Raúl Castillo’s Arthur offers a possible explanation after he saves Georgia from the androids outside Boston. Arthur's explanation takes the form of a philosophical debate about the concept of playing God. In it, he uses Karel Capek’s 1920 play R.U.R. about a scientist’s creation of the "roboti," constructs made of flesh and artificial components, as an example. Arthur advances that even just the creation of the word "robot" is the origin of all the evil, as the very existence of the word will give humans the idea to create it. Thus, they essentially play God, just as Capek’s scientist did. And just like Capek’s play, it must end in tragedy, as, after being used as household help and servants, it's inevitable the androids would end up revolting against their human masters, resulting in humanity’s extinction.
Arthur's Twist & The Androids' Goal Explained
Army of the Dead actor Raúl Castillo’s Arthur represents the best of humanity when he saves Georgia and helps her get Sam back, even accompanying the two of them to Boston. When Georgia finally pieces together that the coat/armor Arthur gave her was a placebo, meaning that the androids she faced were avoiding her to pursue some other goal, she realizes that Arthur isn’t actually helping them. Arthur’s twist changes everything for humanity in Mother/Android: not only does he ends up leading some of the androids into Boston, but he also reveals himself to Georgia as being an android himself, with his own ulterior motives. In doing so, Arthur reminds Georgia of something he told her when they first met: the androids are winning the war against humans as, while humans are wired to process and pursue love with other humans, for androids the only thing that matters is their final goal of obliterating humanity.
Individual androids do not matter; only their goal matters. So they easily sacrifice themselves if it means the ultimate goal is reached, and in Arthur’s case, it was reaching Boston and helping the androids infiltrate the city and take it over. The city of Boston is painted throughout Mother/Android as one of the few outposts that are free from the androids and safe for humans, but that isn’t the case after Chloë Grace Moretz’s character leads Arthur to it. Worse, it also upends one of humanity's last strongholds in a catch-22. Boston has the means to defend itself from the androids as it has one EMP that can be used to disable them. However, any other android that is not in the blast zone can then enter Boston as EMPs can only be used once, making Boston effectively unprotected, which is what happens when Georgia decides to use the EMP.
Why Georgia Decides To Use The EMP
When Georgia realizes Arthur’s ultimate goal, she runs into the Boston compound with her newborn son Forest to look for the EMP and protect it. But she soon learns she's too late. Arthur and other androids are not only already inside Boston, but have already found the EMP and are about to deactivate it. Thus, Georgia is left without much of a choice. Kick-Ass 2 star Moretz’s Georgia could, indeed, decide to perish in order to protect the city. But, cornered between the EMP and the net that is the only thing protecting her from a swarm of lethal androids, and with her Forest on her, she does the only thing she can think of to protect her newborn while simultaneously destroying the androids: activate the EMP. Georgia was in a no-win situation: eventually, the androids would have disabled the EMP. Thus, she makes the choice that will allow her son, Forest, to have a chance at life.
Does Sam Survive Mother/Android's Ending?
Like many other things that Mother/Android implies but doesn’t show or clearly tell, Sam’s death can only be presumed. When Georgia and Sam arrive in Boston, Sam needs surgery after being badly wounded. His legs are amputated, as the damage inflicted by the androids is too much and they can’t be saved; the doctors then tell them that Sam needs further procedures if he wants to live. Euphoria star Algee Smith's Sam and Georgia had always agreed their goal in reaching Boston was to get on a boat to Korea, but when they finally reach the refugee boat, they're told the only one it can take is their newborn. A horrifying new realization dawns on them: with Boston fallen to the androids and Sam needing medical treatments, he'll probably bleed out before he can find help. As Georgia is shown at the end of Mother/Android burning the only picture she has of her, Sam, and Forest, before walking alone through Boston, it can be assumed that Sam died. The theme of him sacrificing to protect Georgia and Forest echoes throughout Mother/Android, and his willingness to do so was shown often. As both of them are safer than before, it would seem his goal to protect them was achieved, making his end noble, if no less tragic.
The Dual Meaning Of Mother/Android Explained
One of Mother/Android’s messages is darker and bleaker. It's the one conveyed by Arthur when he tells Georgia that humanity's imagination is what will always inevitably lead to humanity’s extinction, because imagining things will lead humans to create them, and eventually, their creations will always turn against them. This is a common message in sci-fi movies, especially post-apocalyptic ones that portray a world overrun by evil AI bent on destroying humankind. Another message, more attuned to the spirit of Mother/Android, is told through Sam and Georgia’s personal tragedy of selflessly separating from Forest to give him a chance to live a better life by sending him alone to Korea.
The scene by the water that involves Korean authorities, Sam, Georgia, and Forest is probably the most intimately gut-wrenching of the movie, and it was coincidentally what The Batman’s co-writer Mattson Tomlin envisioned when he wanted to create a sci-fi drama that, along its usual post-apocalyptic tropes, would also send a message of hope through difficult and intimate personal choices. It's this thread of hope through the devastating ending that makes Mother/Android stand out, and the scene by the water succeeds precisely because it’s personal to Tomlin and thus the heart of the movie. Just like Forest, Tomlin’s biological parents sent him from war-torn Romania to the United States to give him a better chance at life. The post-apocalyptic drama is defined by Tomlin in a new interview as the “love letter to the parents he doesn’t know.” While the surface message of Mother/Android may seem bleak, the emotional performances it delivers in the ending scene by the sea reveal the more inspiring message that underpins it.