With Artificial Intelligence or AI becoming a main pillar in the new wave of technological advances in our present world, A Million Days is a topical examination of its effects on our future both good and bad. The film is staged like a play and lets the interface at hand be one of human character, not just special effects. The effect of this is to pull you in closer and make the work more of a thinking man’s science fiction.
Anderson (Simon Merrells) is an astronaut on the eve of a space mission. His mind is clouded by an obsession with finding out the circumstances behind the tragic loss of a female comrade who was lost out in space during a mission. He is hard-wired to think only in facts but the night before launch will have an indelible effect on that state of mind.
He lives in relative isolation with his partner Sam (Kemi-Bo Jacobs). She is an expert on AI and helped design a program that everyone calls Jay. Their night is interrupted by the arrival of Charlie (Hermione Corfield) a fellow person of science who helps the couple discover a bigger truth about Jay. This rocks Anderson’s world and changes many of his long-held beliefs.
Events play out in a very subtle manner and almost every scene has nuances that need to be paid attention to. It also asks audience members to decide in their mind if AI is a benign entity that we as humans control explicitly or does it have the ability to advance past human control. Depending on your take on this, A Million Days is either a wondrous science fiction yarn or an outright horror show.
Rob Hudson
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