A warning, this episode contains explicit language.

In the new movie, The Creator, Humanity, some of it anyway,

is at war with artificial intelligence.

It's an increasingly rare kind of big studio science fiction film, one that's not based on any

existing outside intellectual property.

The creator stars John David Washington as a former soldier who's been recruited to find and

kill the creator of a powerful AI weapon, and the film's big themes involve the role of

AI, the brutality of war, and the building blocks of life and society.

I'm Glenn Weldon.

And I'm Stephen Thompson. Today we are talking about The Creator on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

Joining us today is NPR producer Mark Rivers.

Hey Mark, Hey Mark, Hey Mark, Hey, thanks for having me guys.

Great to have you. Also with us, Fulcher TV Critic Roxanneo Hadati,

Hey Roxanna Roxanna?

Thank you for having me on. Delighted to have you both. So the Creator is set in a

dystopian future where a nuclear blast in LA has sparked a world war in which the U.S.

battles the forces of artificial intelligence.

AI has been embraced by other parts of the world where human-like robots have integrated into society.

Leaders of the US military, though, are bent on wiping out the creator of advanced AI,

as well as an unusual weapon that holds the key to ending the war once and for all.

Early on, military leaders, including a hard-bitten colonel, played by Allison Janny, recruit a former special forces agent named Joshua, played by John David Washington.

Joshua's task is to hunt down and destroy the weapon, but his mission is complicated when he learns that the weapon in question exists in the form of a young child named Alfie.

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