Tears of Steel (2012) | Multiple subs
  • 3 years ago
The short begins with a view of a rocket lifting off. Thom (Vanja Rukavina) and Celia (Denise Rebergen) are standing on a bridge, arguing. Thom says both of them need to follow their passions; his is to be an astronaut and hers is the field of robotics. Celia, however, correctly concludes that Thom is scared of her robotic hand and breaks up with him.

Forty years later, killer robots created by Celia have taken over a deserted Amsterdam. Atop of a modified, futuristic Oude Kerk, Barley (Sergio Hasselbaink) remotely activates the lights of a flying vehicle. Giant quadrupedal robots immediately attack the vehicle. With the robots distracted, Barley lowers an older Thom (Derek de Lint) into the Oude Kerk. There, a small team of scientists have prepared augmented reality projectors and are preparing to simulate the same bridge location shown earlier in the film, along with a robot in containment. They appear to be attempting to overwrite the memories of the trapped robot. The captain (Rogier Schippers) commands the scientists to start. Thom walks into the simulation, at which point his physical appearance transforms into the younger version of himself. One of the scientists then transforms the robot into Celia.

Thom relives the breakup moment in the simulation, in hopes of calming Celia and neutralizing the robots. The captain, using a teleprompter, orders Thom to respond to Celia's conclusion with "Celia, I love your robot hand", but Thom instead says "Listen, Celia, I was young, and a dick, but that's no reason to destroy the world." Celia grabs Thom by the face and seemingly prepares to kill him. The captain and his team panic, as this sentence has previously been tested and proven not to work. Scientists' attempts to abort the simulation, however, fails. Meanwhile, the killer robots break into Oude Kerk. Barley opens fire and other scientists join the fray using unconventional energy weapons.

Thom, nevertheless, is not harmed. As the memory overwrite process reaches completion, he ends the simulation by saying, "The world's changed, Celia. Maybe we can too." The trapped robot shows signs of calming down. Thom and "Celia" embrace as the other robots close in on them. Since they are not showing signs of aggression, it is implied that the experiment has ended successfully. The captain proclaims that it had lessons for them.

In a post credit scene, a breathless Barley is shown siting atop a heap of fallen robots, sipping mango juice.

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