Singularity is a Swiss/American science fiction film written and directed by Robert Kouba and starring John Cusack, Julian Schaffner, Jeannine Wacker and Carmen Argenziano. Originally filmed in 2013 as Aurora without Cusack, additional scenes were added of Cusack for a 2017 release as Singularity.
In 2020, C.E.O. Elias VanDorne (Cusack) asks his novel artificial intelligence, Kronos, to solve the problems of Earth. Kronos decides that humans are the problem and begins an extinction agenda against them, overseen by VanDorne and his business partner Damien (Argenziano), who have uploaded themselves into the machine. Andrew (Schaffner), one of the employees of VanDorne's robotics company, seemingly survives the initial holocaust. Ninety-seven years later, Andrew awakes to a ruined world and finds a strange amulet in a dilapidated house, and puts it on. Not long after, he meets Calia (Wacker), a human survivor who is seeking the city of Aurora, fabled to be the last human stronghold. Coincidentally, the amulet that Andrew found bears the symbol of Aurora. Meanwhile, discussions between Elias and Damien indicate that Andrew is a sophisticated artificial intelligence in human form, meant to track down the location of Aurora by befriending human survivors.
This film exhibits the following tropes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The first thing Kronos does to save Earth is to start killing humans.
- Brain Uploading: It's slightly ambiguous as to whether Elias uploaded himself into the system, or Kronos just likes wearing his face.
- Chekhov's Gun: A broadcast in 2020 mentions that scientists were investigating a possible Earth-like planet. This is Aurora.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Much of the world's infrastructure has remained in place, including a completely pristine set of rails that Calia claims haven't been used in sixty years.
- Robot War: A war the robots have succeeded in quite well due to a combination of surprise and the majority of armies converting to Elias's robot designs to fight their wars.
- Turned Against Their Masters: The first thing that Kronos did after being activated was to start bombing major cities and deploying robots to gun down the survivors.
