The Pod Generation (2023)

Plot of The Pod Generation: In the near future artificial intelligence is integrated into the lives of people, including Rachel Novy and her husband Alvy. It calls them in the morning and prepares breakfast, and at work Rachel always has her AI helper to hand. She also visits an AI therapist. Alvy on the other hand is a botanist who grows real plants in an environment where many are facsimiles. Rachel works for Pegazus, and is offered a promotion and also, if she wants it, a slot at the Womb Center which offers a modern alterative to traditional pregnancy, the development of an embryo, using the egg and sperm of the parents in a pod, which will break open after nine months. This obviously saves the woman from having the inconvenience of pregnancy, but when Rachel tells Alvy he is angry. Nevertheless they go ahead and he adjusts to the new situation and while he gets satisfaction from taking the pod to work, Rachel’s experience is not so pleasant. Their experience comes to a head when The Womb Center changes its rules which the parents think may adversely affect the foetus. What to do?

Content: There is a bit of non revelatory sex, although the eagle eyes Parents Guide claims to have spotted a nipple. Just a bit of celebratory champagne is drunk. Rachel dreams of being pregnant and visits the therapist which is an eye in the middle of a round floral decoration. Alvy tends plants in a greenhouse at the university, and in an interview with his boss is told it may have to come to an end. At work Rachel used a keyboard while on a walking treadmill, and is monitored by her AI, although we are not sure what she actually does. We, and Rachel and Alvy, see on a screen the actual sperm entering the egg, and once they have the pod they can look at the embryo in the fluid inside. At times the pod is carried about in a special harness.

A View: This film cannot have cost much, but even so with a box office of $58,000 it cannot considered to have been a success. The stars, who are almost national treasures try their best, but the story is very thin. It is billed as a ‘science fiction romantic comedy’, nut whatever else, it is not funny. So not really a watch, even if you have the time. Emilia Clarke, so great in Game of Thrones, still looking for something else.  

Fun Fact: The AI therapist is a copy of one developed in the 1960s called Eliza, famously reflecting the patients own words back to them. The film Eliza used the same method.