Bicentennial Man (1999)
One robot's 200 year journey to become an ordinary man.
Richard Martin buys a gift, a new NDR-114 robot. The product is named Andrew by the youngest of the family's children. "Bicentennial Man" follows the life and times of Andrew, a robot purchased as a household appliance programmed to perform menial tasks. As Andrew begins to experience emotions and creative thought, the Martin family soon discovers they don't have an ordinary robot.
In Bicentennial Man, consciousness is carried by machines — a plane of “robotic humanity quest”. The story fights on E8/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing identity, rights, mortality, technology, love.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Also bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Blade Runner (1982)alters at E6 · same rung · rigorous
Vamps (2012)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2014)alters at E6 · same rung · rigorous
Foe (2023)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
Shaun of the Dead (2004)alters at E6 · same rung · loose
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)alters at E6 · same rung · rigorousAlso hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Hello World (2019)consciousness in machines · virtual archive
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)consciousness in machines · cybernetic ghost market
Her (2013)consciousness in machines · digital intimacy
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)consciousness in machines · android longing
Companion (2025)consciousness in machines · rental‑robot economy
TRON: Ares (2025)consciousness in machines · digital gridSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
The Man with Two Brains (1983)consciousness carried elsewhere · identity, love
Morbius (2022)consciousness in monsters · identity, mortality
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)consciousness carried elsewhere · identity, love
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)consciousness in animals · identity, love
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)consciousness in animals · identity, mortality
Every Day (2018)consciousness in the dead · identity, love
