Marjorie Prime

Marjorie Prime

Sloan Foundation Film

Release Date

2017

Director

  • Michael Almereyda

Cast

  • Jon Hamm
  • Geena Davis
  • Tim Robbins

Awards

  • Sundance Film Festival, 2017

In the near future, in a time of artificial intelligence, 86-year-old Marjorie has a handsome new companion who looks like her deceased husband and is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her.

Marjorie (Lois Smith) is an elderly woman who lives with her daughter (Geena Davis) and son-in-law (Tim Robbins). Marjorie’s mind has started to drift as she’s gotten older, so to help, she’s begun talking to a holographic reproduction of her husband, Walter (Jon Hamm). The creation — referred to as a “Prime” — is a software-driven blank slate that can take on the characteristics and nuances Marjorie remembers about her husband, even if some of them aren’t exactly true. As other family members talk to Walter Prime, it becomes clear that the family has been haunted by unspoken secrets and tragedies they’ve never really dealt with.



Possible Topics

  • The evolving relationship between humans and technology
  • How intelligent machines can challenge our notions of identity, memory, and mortality

Past Programs

2017

2018

What are memories?

The Gem, Bethel, ME

How can you keep mentally sharp?

The Tull Family Theater, Sewickley, PA

Marjorie Prime at the Tull Family Theater

The Tull Family Theater, Sewickley, PA

Why do we do what we do?

Salina Art Center, Salina, KS

On artificial intelligence

Austin Film Society, Austin, TX

Programming empathy in robots

The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul, Minneapolis, MN