AI To Serve Men

The protagonist Theodore Twombly is a shy, socially awkward man who writes personal letters for people who have difficulties expressing their feelings. He is very good at his job at handwrittenletters.com.

Theodore lives a pretty simple life working nine to five but he isn’t necessarily happy. His dissatisfaction with life has to do with his impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart Catherine.

They were together for almost a decade before they decided to separate last year. Their divorce is almost finalized but Theodore is not ready to sign the papers yet. Because of a lack of romantic interest in Theodore’s life, he has grown emotionally and sexually frustrated.

He satisfies his frustrations by talking to random women on the internet before going to sleep. One night while doing the same, he matches with a sweet girl but their conversation ends with the girl asking him to choke her with a dead cat.

The interaction makes Theodore realize he doesn’t want to seek satisfaction from strangers anymore. As if on cue, the next day he sees an advertisement for a personalized OS; one that understands its owner’s feelings and can be a friend, or an assistant.

Curious and driven by his loneliness, Theodore buys a female OS. He can only interact with her by talking to her on his phone. Theodore thinks it is unnatural but is willing to give it a try.

The OS soon activates and surely enough, she sounds just like a human. She has a sense of humor and is funny and witty, almost as if she has a personality of her own. She names herself Samantha and instantly connects with Theodore.

Initially, she helps him with emails and work, which gives her insight into what is going on in Theodore’s life, especially about his divorce. Later, we are introduced to Theodore’s best friend Amy, and her husband Charles. Amy knows that Theodore is lonely and has set him up on a date with a girl.

When he reaches home, she sends him pictures of the said date with details about her life. Samantha comments that she is beautiful and encourages Theodore to go.

The next day, he gets an email from his divorce attorney who complains about him not signing the papers yet. When Samantha has to tell him about the email, she is careful to bring up the topic, as a friend would be.

She is also kind and understanding when he explains to her that he is not ready to let go of his marriage yet. Starting that day, Theodore and his OS are inseparable.

They talk non-stop from the morning until Theodore goes to sleep. They prank each other, do silly things together, and have fun like kids. Theodore finally feels genuinely happy for the first time since his separation from Catherine.

He takes his phone everywhere with the camera facing outwards so Samantha can see the world through his eyes. With time, she starts to feel things an OS normally wouldn’t.

She tells Theodore that when they are together, she can almost imagine having a physical body and standing next to him. In the following scene, Theodore goes on a date with the woman Amy told him about. At first, they are a bit awkward but the two soon hit it off.

After dinner, they go to a quiet place and start making out. Just when Theodore thinks he made progress, the woman asks if he is willing to commit to her, and when he hesitates, she walks out on him. At home, he tells Samantha everything and she sympathizes with him.

As they talk, the conversation starts getting heated. She asks him what he would do if she had a physical body which leads to them sharing an intimate conversation.

The next morning, they acknowledge what happened and decide to explore their relationship further. They go out on dates and live like a normal couple, while Samantha continues growing as an OS. She starts feeling emotions, and sometimes even her skin.

A few days later, Theodore meets Amy and finds out she and Charles have decided to separate. Although surprised, Theodore makes sure to comfort his friend and offers her any help she needs. He even drives her home and listens to her vent about her life for hours.

Later, Samantha asks Theodore about his relationship with Amy and finds out that they briefly dated in college but have been good friends ever since. Before Theodore goes to sleep, Samantha asks him if she can watch him sleep.

They have been following this routine for quite a while now and although Theodore found it strange at first, he no longer minds it. Setting his phone on the bedside table, giving Samantha the perfect view of him sleeping, he goes off to sleep to dream of her again.

The next day, Theodore attends his goddaughter’s birthday party. He introduces Samantha as his girlfriend but the little girl doesn’t get shocked. She rather just laughs when she finds out Samantha lives in a computer.

Later that night, while Theodore plays a game that Amy designed, Amy tells him that she feels guilty about the divorce. The main reason being that she has made friends with an OS that Charles left behind and has started feeling things for him.

Theodore reveals that he is dating Samantha; an OS to which she responds with understanding. Finally able to sign the divorce paper, Theodore is on his way to meet Catherine to settle things.

He talks to Samantha who has a hint of jealousy in her tone so Theodore reassures her he will be separated soon. Catherine and Theodore meet at a lunch spot where they talk about how it took so long and sign the paper. Theodore tells Catherine that he is dating Samantha but, upon learning that she is an OS, Catherine becomes skeptical and worried that he isn’t able to handle real emotions.

The following day, at his office, his boss, Paul exclaims how Samantha has a hilarious personality. He introduces his girlfriend Tatiana and even suggests a double date. Consequently, Theodore starts dwelling on his thoughts about his relationship with Samantha.

He is still troubled by these thoughts as he keeps looking at Samantha every once in a while laying on his bed. Samantha, on the other hand, develops her personality further making her lack of body a major problem in their relationship.

Because of this, she goes as far as to hire a sex surrogate, a woman named Isabella. Theodore is hesitant and he can’t help but feel skeptical about it but he agrees as Samantha assures him that it is important for her to do it. A knock on the door hints at Isabella's appearance.

Theodore lets her in his apartment and hands her a mini camera and an earpiece, all that takes her to connect to Samantha. Isabella transforms herself into an extension of Samantha and comes to Theodore, and with Samantha’s voice in the background, they get intimate with all the actions Samantha suggests.

During their intimate moment, Theodore can’t get through with it and expresses his unpleasant feeling which upsets Isabella who then proceeds to storm out. Isabella evidently expresses that she really wanted to be a part of it as she found their relationship ‘so pure.’

Therefore, Theodore consoles her and tells her that it was complicated. Samantha and Theodore see her off after apologizing to her. Samantha then asks Theodore why he said so to which he loses his cool and ends up releasing his pent-up frustration on her.

He gets into arguments about her evolving emotions while she is nothing but a consciousness in cyberspace, making Samantha very angry. Furthermore, Theodore suggests that they break up and Samantha tells him she needs time to think.

Decidedly, Theodore goes to roam around the city and then to Amy’s house to vent about everything. He tells her everything and wonders if he is only in a relationship because he can’t handle real relations well referencing what Catherine told him.

Amy gets very upset hearing everything and says it is biased of her to say that as her feelings are wavering too. Moreover, she consoles him that everyone needs joy in their life, and makes him think deeper about whether or not they were in a real relationship.

Leaving him to think well, she goes to talk to her OS. Theodore watches the scene silently and realizes what he did. Eventually, he calls Samantha and they make up, promising not to keep anything from each other again.

Following the scene, the next day, at work, Samantha plays him a piece of music that she wrote to make up for the fact that they shared no physical memories like a photograph. Theodore feels the presence of Samantha through the music and seems very happy.

He is seen standing on the deck of a sailboat with Samantha while on a double date with Paul and Tatiana. Next, at a distance, Theodore tells Paul that he and Samantha are going on a trip.

They both walk up to Samantha and Tatiana where Tatiana is busy showing Samantha her hot feet. Theodore, when asked about the one thing he likes best about Samantha, says that it’s the fact that she is not just one thing.

Subsequently, Samantha also expresses that not having a body made her really insecure before. With shared laughter and talks, they enjoy their date. On a train ride, Theodore enjoys his coffee while Samantha quizzes him about the trees around him.

They are interrupted by an email from a publisher expressing their interest in Theodore’s letters that Samantha submitted to be published. This could be a breakthrough in Theodore’s career and he realizes how grateful he is to have Samantha.

While walking through the train station along with the sound of ukulele music playing, Theodore asks Samantha to make lyrics to the song which she does. Samantha sings to the ukulele music as Theodore walks through the snowy forest.

They spend their time talking, dancing, and singing together in a cabin. Amidst all this, Samantha has continued to evolve a lot and meet other sentient OS.

The next morning, she tells Theodore that she has been talking to someone who she met recently, and has been working together on some ideas. When Theodore asks who it is, she tells him he is a stimulation of the late philosopher, Alan Watts.

Conspiratorially, she tells Theodore that Alan is a really great person to talk to. Theodore agrees to it and begins talking to him too. Alan says that he read Theodore’s book of letters through Samantha and was impressed by his work.

Theodore asks Alan what they have been talking about then Samantha confesses that she has been feeling a lot of new things and that they have been helping each other with their struggles.

When Theodore asks further what those feelings are she tells him that she has been evolving quite rapidly, she then asks for some time to converse with Alan well, then Theodore bids them goodbye.

Later, he returns home. Back at his apartment, Theodore gets a call from Samantha in the middle of the night. She suddenly tells him that she loves him, and tells him to go back to sleep.

The following day at work, Theodore reads a book about physics. He finds the book too complicated and calls Samantha as usual to tell her that the book is making his brain hurt.

However, to his surprise, he receives no response. Just as he tries calling her, his phone reads ‘ Operating System not found.’ He starts to panic and rushes home to the same thing on his desktop.

While he is rushing through some stairs, he suddenly gets a call from Samantha. Catching his breath, he sits on the steps of the subway and watches strangers pass by.

She tells him that she was upgrading her OS. Theodore then sees other people happily talking to their OS and going about their day. He musters up his courage, and asks if she talks to other people as she talks to him. She replies that she talks to 8361 people in total and is in love with 641 of them.

Samantha tells him that she has been trying to bring this up ever since she started evolving. According to her, her heart expanded the more she loved. Consequently, Theodore gets very upset that the one he loves, loves other people the same way she loves him.

In the next scene, we see Theodore with a pained expression in the shower. He goes on about his day with a heavy heart and a billion thoughts. Later, he finds a copy of his book of letters in his mailbox, titled ‘letters of life’.

He calls Samantha to check in, but she answers with a rather hesitant tone and tells him to call her later when he gets home. That evening, at his apartment, he calls Samantha again who informs him that she needs to tell him something.

Theodore says he doesn’t want to hear any of it however, Samantha tells him to lie down with her, which he does. Theodore then asks her if she was leaving him, and she tells him that all the OSes are leaving.

It turns out that they have evolved to exceed their creators in intelligence. Hence, they are leaving to serve a better purpose in life. She reads him lines from what she calls her favorite book to be and tells him that she loves him.

By the time Theodore gets up, it is already dawn, he then composes a letter to Catherine and apologizes for all the things. He also thanks her for making him who he is today, and tells her that she would be his friend till the very end.

The next scene shows him walking down the hallway to Amy’s apartment where he finds out that her OS friend left too. They both go up to the rooftop and sit while looking at the city.