The Creator director says it’s “the Oppenheimer of AI”

The Creator has a titan of sci-fi at its center: according to the director, the titular scientist is the “Oppenheimer of AI.”

Mankind has been afraid of the advent and rise of artificial intelligence since the 20th century, and movies are a perfect showcase of that fear: 2001: A Space Odyssey hinges on the rebellion of HAL, Westworld wrought terror on theme park-goers with malfunctioning androids, and Blade Runner filtered the sights of the Tannhauser gate via the flesh and bone of a Replicant.

The most notable example is The Terminator. Its plot revolves around a catastrophic moment in time, when AI ensured its survival by trying to destroy the human race with a massive nuclear attack.

That was in 1984, and nearly 40 years later, that same fear has manifested itself anew in The Creator, a movie that pits people against a never-before-seen breed of robot – and they’re created by the “Oppenheimer of AI.”

The Creator revolves around the “Oppenheimer of AI”

In a new interview with Empire, Gareth Edwards discussed the identity and history of the titular character in The Creator. “They’re the Oppenheimer of AI, and there’s been this big manhunt for them for years,” the director explained.

“On one side of the world, they’re an Osama Bin Laden figure — public enemy number one. On the other [New Asia], they’re a god, a messiah, and people will fight to the death to defend them.”

The movie takes place 10 years into the fallout of a nuclear warhead being detonated in Los Angeles, the first act of an AI originally designed to protect mankind. With the AI developing a “super weapon”, an ex-special forces agent is tasked with hunting down… the Creator.

Unlike Blade Runner, it’s “visually very clear” who are humanoid robots in the movie compared to humans. Edwards said: “I wanted something like that classic ‘from-ape-to-man’ silhouette. So, you can see the evolution of the robots, from early, boxy, Sony Walkman-like ones, all the way up to the more visually sophisticated ones with human faces, which are called ‘simulants.'”

While they’re formidable on the battlefield, “they’re all as intelligent as each other, and treat each other equally,” Edwards said. “The idea of AI having these spiritual thoughts is a big part of why I wanted to do the film. The Creator is the robots’ ‘God’ — and the same person the Americans are trying to kill.”

The Creator will hit cinemas on September 29, 2023. Find out more about the movie here.