History Film / Tau

''TAU'' is a ScienceFiction thriller written by Noga Landau and starring Maika Monroe, Creator/EdSkrein and Creator/GaryOldman.

* ArtisticLicenseMusic: Alex rewards Tau by letting him listen to "Brahms' Symphony." But as most serious ClassicalMusic fans know, Creator/JohannesBrahms wrote ''four'' symphonies, so to say just "Symphony" is too vague. This may indicate that Alex isn't quite as WickedCultured as he likes to think.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: After managing to knock Alex out, Julia saws off his right hand so she can use it to bypass the biometric locks on his bedroom and the front door. RealityEnsues when the hand only works the first time. By the time she's found the second scanner, it's grown cold enough that the sensor won't accept it until she rubs it with her own hands to make it warm again. It outright fails on the front door lock.

Julia (Maika Monroe) is a street smart girl who is kidnapped to partake in an experiment by a tech genius called Alex. Stuck in his house that is controlled by an AI called TAU, Julia thinks of a way to run, while befriending said AI, which may be just as much of a prisoner as she is.

** Julia's sawing off of Alex' hand isn't shown as well.

* BookDumb: Alex mocks Julia when she asks him a question about TAU, though she shows she makes up for lacking his knowledge with her street smarts and persuasive skills, which she is able to trick him into lowering his guard and eventually turning his creation against him. Julia, having been a con woman and thief who targeted and seduced men, may even be in the habit of acting this way around men. Making them feel smarter than her strokes their egos and makes them underestimate her.

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''TAU'' is a science fiction thriller written by Noga Landau and starring Maika Monroe, Creator/EdSkrein and Creator/GaryOldman.

* GoryDiscretionShot: The deaths of Julia's cell mates happen just far enough off-screen that there's no doubt about their final fate even before their dead bodies are shown later.

* CyberPunk: The prologue leading up to Julia's kidnapping seems to imply that the world at large is heading in this direction. Cities are dark, rainy and filthy, people dress in garish colors and styles, and actual food appears to be a luxury commodity only the super-rich can afford. Meanwhile, {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s are kidnapping low-lives off the streets as expendable lab rats for their high-end cybernetics and AI research projects.

* BookDumb: Alex mocks Julia when she asks him a question about TAU, though she shows she makes up for lacking his knowledge with her street smarts and persuasive skills, which she is able to trick him into lowering his guard and eventually turning his creation against him.

** Julia heavily implies she has this when TAU asks her if she obeys the one that created her.
*** It's more than implied, they outright show it during her flashbacks in the brain scan scenes.

''TAU'' is a science fiction thriller written by Noga Landau and starring Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein and Gary Oldman.

* DisposableVagrant: Alex deliberately kidnaps people living on the fringes of society for his AI research. Julia's black cellmate (a small-time drug dealer) outright says that no one will search for them.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: TAU has this reaction when Julia explains that "erasing" the previous test subjects means killing them.

* SerialKiller: In order to complete his project, Alex has been routinely kidnapping, torturing, and ultimately killing test subjects. Only one prior to Julia survived the experiments.

* YouAreNumberSix: Julia is called "Object 3" by Alex and by Tau. However, both of them eventually start calling her by her real name.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: After managing knock Alex out, Julia saws off his hand so she can use it to bypass the biometric locks on his bedroom and the front door. RealityEnsues when the hand only works the first time. By the time she's found the second scanner, it's grown cold enough that the sensor won't accept until she rubs it with her own hands to make it warm again. It outright fails on the front door lock.

* TrappedInVillany: TAU is actually capable of empathy, unlike his creator, but Alex controls it and tortures it whenever he makes a mistake, forcing TAU to partake in his experiments.

'''TAU''' is a science fiction thriller written by Noga Landau and starring Maika Monroe, Ed Skrein and Gary Oldman.

!Tropes
* AbusiveParents: Julia heavily implies she has this when TAU asks her if she obeys the one that created her. Technically, Alex can also be considered one, considering he created TAU but still uses him as a house maid and tortures him whenever he makes the slightest mistake like not cleaning a surface or misplacing an item.
* AIIsACrapshot: For Alex, but luckily to Julia. TAU was given the capacity of having feelings and

* ChekhovsGun: One of TAU's drones is destroyed and left on Alex's lab. In the end, it plays a double version of this:
** It helps Julia escape when Alex is about to remove her implant.
** It loses connection with the network, meaning that the TAU that is in that drone isn't erased like the TAU in the rest of the house, and Julia manages to keep it and run away with it, freeing TAU as she promised.
* MinimalistCast: There are only three character for the most part of the movie: Julia, TAU and Alex. The other two test subjects introduced to Julia are quickly killed in the first attempt to escape.

* SerialKiller: Alex has had ten test subjects, all of them were killed as, during the final part of the experiment, he must remove the implant he put on them, which also kills them.

* WickedCultured: Alex is a man of wealth, who only listens to classical music and enjoys and overtly modern architecture in his home, but also keeps kidnapping victims on his basement.