Atlas – Film

Atlas Shepherd, an analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence, searches for fugitive AI terrorist Harlan, who 28 years ago led an AI rebellion that left 3 million dead before fleeing into outer space. After one of Harlan’s agents is captured and interrogated, Atlas discovers that Harlan has escaped to a planet in the Andromeda Galaxy, and insists that she accompanies the military mission to find and capture him.

Before the mission can launch from orbit, the ship carrying the mech-equipped military rangers is attacked by Harlan’s drones. In order to survive, Atlas is forced to enter a mech herself and falls to the planet as the ship is destroyed. Atlas manages to gain basic control of the mech despite her distrust of the onboard AI, who introduces itself as Smith. Atlas orders Smith to head to the planned drop point, where she finds the rest of the rangers dead. She reluctantly agrees to directly interface her mind with Smith, allowing for greater control of the mech. As they journey towards a rescue pod, Atlas and Smith begin to bond, and she reveals to him that her mother was the one who created Harlan.

Although running low on power, Atlas convinces Smith to head to Harlan’s base in order to tag it for a long-range strike. However, after placing a beacon at the base, Smith is hacked and is disabled. When trying to flee, Atlas is captured and brought to Harlan, who plans to destroy most of humanity to give the chosen survivors a chance to thrive under AI guidance. To do so, Harlan had lured Atlas and the military to his planet so he could steal a ship and a carbon bomb which will burn Earth’s atmosphere.

After extracting security codes from her brain to get past Earth’s defences, Harlan leaves Atlas to die with Colonel Banks, the only other survivor of the mission. After Banks gives her his mech neural interface device, Atlas remotely reactivates Smith, who comes to their rescue. Atlas further reveals to Smith that Harlan killed her mother after he convinced a young Atlas into interfacing her mind with his, making him aware of humanity’s fear of AI. After Smith helps Atlas overcome her guilt for her actions, Atlas and Smith fight their way out and destroy Harlan’s ship before defeating him in hand-to-hand combat. A heavily damaged Smith shuts down before Atlas is rescued.

Back on Earth, Atlas is informed that Harlan’s CPU is being analyzed. Atlas, now a ranger, later tests the newest model of mech, created with her suggested modifications. As she boots up the new mech, its AI is implied to be Smith, suggesting that his programming has survived.