"Love, Death and Robots": the meaning of all episodes and an explanation of the endings

On March 15, 18 episodes of the cartoon anthology from Tim Miller and David Fincher were released on Netflix. The producers brought together a team of animators from all over the world and gave them complete creative freedom. That is why all the series came out completely different, both visually and in atmosphere.

Most of the scripts were written by Philip Jelatt, most often based on science fiction stories by various authors. As a result, the endings of some episodes look clear and predictable, while others leave questions or raise important topics.

Sonnie's Edge

In the middle of the XXI century, battles are held in the rings between huge monsters, which are controlled by people through special devices connected directly to the brain. The businessman is trying to convince the champion Sonny, once a victim of violence, to "surrender" the fight. But she replies that for her it is a matter of principle.

In battle, her monster wins, receiving serious injuries. Then the businessman's mistress comes to Sonny and kills her. But it turns out that in fact, after a long-standing attack, the girl's body was saved, and her mind was placed in a monster. Human flesh for her is just an “avatar” that she controls.

Fear is my trump card.

Sonny

This is a survival story. Sonny explains to the businessman: she wins primarily because for her every fight is not just a competition for victory, but a matter of life and death.

Three Robots

Three robots go on a tour of an extinct post-apocalyptic world. They find various human toys, sit in a cafe and take pictures for memory. And then the robots meet the cat.

This is one of the funniest episodes in the entire anthology. The only intrigue in it is how people died after all. As explained in the finale: it was not a nuclear war that ruined them, but "their own stupidity." It turns out that genetic engineering allowed cats to develop the opposing thumb and they learned to open canned food on their own.

After that, they did not need people, and a war broke out between the species. Obviously, the cats won it.

The Witness

A visually realistic episode (worked on by one of the animators of the cartoon "Spider-Man: Into the Universes") tells the story of a dancer who accidentally saw through the window how a man killed someone. She tries to escape from her pursuer.

In the finale, the heroes face off again in the same house. At first it seems that the story will simply go in cycles, he will kill the girl again, and her "new version" will notice it through the window. But in fact, the next round of events is the opposite of the previous one: the dancer accidentally kills the man herself, and the other "he" notices it from the house opposite.

The heroes are enclosed in an endless loop, where each one in turn acts as a murderer or victim.

Suits

Several farmers living in the neighborhood are constantly attacked by unknown monsters. For defense, they created huge mechanical robots for themselves. But this time there are too many enemies.

This episode seems simple at first, very reminiscent of the film "Pacific Rim": the heroes fight monsters, sitting in robots. But the final shots completely turn the situation around. The action takes place not on Earth, but either on Saturn, or on an unknown planet with the same rings.

And, apparently, these monsters are real local residents, and people are just colonists who "clear" the territory. Perhaps the authors here even hint at the colonization of America.

Sucker of Souls

During an archaeological expedition, the professor and a team of mercenaries encounter an ancient vampire. As it turns out, this is Count Dracula himself.

Everything is quite simple here and there are no unexpected twists: the heroes learn that it is possible to defeat the vampire with the help of the cat, and it seems to them that they have already escaped. But then the whole team ends up in a cave full of bloodsuckers. The light goes out. Whether one cat managed to defeat all the monsters is unknown.

This series, created in France, looks more like nostalgia for adult animation of the eighties and nineties: blood gushes here, and vampires are drawn as unpleasantly as possible. And visually, the episode is closer to old cartoons than to 3D animation.

When The Yogurt Took Over

Scientists have connected a developed DNA strand with yoghurt bacteria. Soon he regained his senses, solved the issue of cold fusion and came up with a program for the country's exit from the economic crisis. As a result, yogurt became the president of the United States.

The satirical episode lasts only 5 minutes, but this is enough to reveal an important social topic. When yogurt came up with a plan to get out of the crisis, people did not follow it, as a result of which they led the economy to a complete collapse. And all because of personal involvement and ambition.

Of course, politicians did not follow the instructions. In six months, the world economy collapsed.

The authors show that humanity could prosper and, perhaps, would have already set out to colonize space if officials thought primarily about the common good, and not about their own interests.

Beyond the Aquila Rift

The crew of the spaceship in a state of hibernation sets off on a long journey. Upon awakening, the astronauts learn that they have entered the Shedar sector, located a few light years from their destination. But most importantly, Captain Tom meets his old love Greta there.

Later, Greta tells him that their ship was not even thrown into the Shedar sector, but much further and there is no way to return. And then Tom begins to suspect that everything that happens is unreal.

This episode has one of the most controversial endings in the entire anthology. As it turns out, Tom is actually lying in his capsule and has already grown old, and everything around is an obsession created by a huge insect-like creature. When a ship crashes next to it, it generates pleasant illusions for the crew members. After that, Tom returns to the beginning of his fantasy.

It is not known whether he himself decided to forget about what he saw, or he was again hypnotized by the creature. Judging by the age of the captain, he may have gone through this cycle more than once. And it's not even clear whether the creature really cares about people or consciously keeps them. And here one can only ask a question in the spirit of the "Matrix": which is better, a cruel reality or a beautiful illusion?

Good Hunting

The father teaches his son Liang to hunt werewolf foxes. But when he grows up, he prefers to make friends with one of the foxes named Yan. The world is evolving, technology is increasingly supplanting magic, and Liang is becoming an excellent inventor. And soon he has to create a new body for his girlfriend.

This episode is very reminiscent of the anime "Alita: Battle Angel", recently re-filmed in Hollywood. But the subtext of the story here is somewhat different: Yang becomes a prostitute and at some point gets to a rich man who is aroused by mechanical bodies. They do operations on her, turning her into a robot. And then she kills the employer and goes to Liang. He must create a strong body for the girl so that she can attack rapists.

The episode's authors show how violence breeds counter-aggression. The rich man disfigured the girl and himself gave her mechanical hands, with which she killed him. And Yang decides to devote himself to protecting the same weak creatures that are being abused.

The Dump

Old man Dave has been living in a junkyard for many years. One day an official comes to him and asks to sign documents so that landowners can start construction. But Dave decides to tell him a story about how he met a terrible monster at the junkyard.

As it turns out, Otto, whom Dave called all the time, is not a dog, but the very monster made of garbage and everything that people throw out.

If you live in a junkyard for a long time, the world will come to you.

Dave

This series has two themes at once. First, the authors remind about the transformation of the whole world into one big dump: people pollute the planet, not thinking that they themselves have to end up living in this garbage. And secondly, the plot tells about ordinary people whom large corporations do not want to notice.

Shape-Shifters

In one of the wars in the Middle East, werewolf soldiers serve in the American army. They have a quick reaction, the ability to regenerate and the ability to track the enemy by smell. But they have to face the same werewolves fighting for the enemy.

There are no unexpected twists in this story. But it very vividly reflects the problems in many social structures: despite the fact that werewolves bring clear benefits to the army and save lives, they are still despised and shunned. Well, the ending is dedicated to fidelity to duty: the hero defeats the werewolf enemies, after which he takes the body of his comrade.

Helping Hand

The most intimate story. You could even say a one-actor theater. It tells the story of a girl astronaut who, while performing repairs in space, broke away from the ship. In order not to suffocate in the endless void, she has to go to extreme measures.

The subtlety of this episode is only that the title is suddenly revealed to the finale. At first, it seems that help will come from outside. But first, the heroine tears off and throws out the sleeve from the spacesuit in order to give herself acceleration and fly up to the ship. And after a failure, he tears off his hand, which is still frostbitten. This is the “helping hand”.

And this episode very clearly demonstrates physics in open space: freezing cold and the absence of gravity and resistance. This is what allows you to fly a sufficient distance with a small push.

Fish Night

A father and son working as salesmen are stuck in the desert with a broken car. Father says that once this place was the bottom of the ocean. And at night ghost fish start to "swim" in it.

This episode partly retells the story of Icarus from ancient Greek myths, to whom his father made wings. He was too carried away by flight, flew close to the sun, and his wings burned out. Seeing the ghostly ocean at night, the son enthusiastically decides to swim with the fish and does not notice the shark that eats him.

Lucky 13 ("Happy Trinashka")

During the next war, the rookie woman Colby is appointed pilot of transport aircraft number 13. No one wants to fly on it anymore, since two crews have already died. But Colby is imbued with respect for the ship and makes many successful flights on it.

Although this is about the relationship between man and machine, this series is about true friendship and respect. Colby was the first who was not afraid of the ship and was filled with warmth towards it. And the "trinashka" responded in the same way: during the last flight, she deliberately delays self-destruction in order to let the enemy as close as possible, causing the greatest damage.

Zima Blue ("Winter Blue")

A famous artist named Zima once conquered the whole world with a new kind of art. In his works, he uses only one blue color. And now Zima is going to present her last work, and before that she gives the only interview to a young journalist.

The most philosophical series that makes you think about the nature of art and the constant rise of human needs. As it turns out, Zima is a robot. Once upon a time, he simply cleaned swimming pools (just the same blue color). Then he was constantly modernized, and as a result he became even more developed than a person.

The series makes you wonder whether it is possible that artificial intelligence will soon begin to create works of art instead of people - similar experiments are already being carried out now. And in the final, Zima abandons all higher functions in order to return to his original purpose.

I will destroy myself, leaving the ability to appreciate the environment. Get simple pleasure from a task done correctly.

Winter

"Winter Blue" reminds us that the needs of people are becoming more and more complex every day, and many people forget that you can enjoy the simplest things.

Blindspot

This episode was created by the Russian animation team X-Story. She talks about a group of cyborgs who rob an armored convoy. Everything seems to be going according to plan, but the heroes' overconfidence turns into a tragedy.

After a collision with a security robot, the entire team perishes, except for an inexperienced beginner. He still gets the cargo, but grieves for his comrades. However, it soon turns out that the mind of each of them has long been loaded onto the hard disk and the loss of the body is only a temporary inconvenience.

The series is more about action than some philosophical thoughts. But at its heart, the reasoning about the possibility of eternal life after downloading consciousness into a computer is a favorite topic of many science fiction writers.

Ice Age

The couple move into a new apartment and find that the previous tenants did not defrost the refrigerator. In the freezer, they find a frozen miniature mammoth. And soon the ice age in the refrigerator is replaced by a new civilization, which is developing very quickly.

The only episode with live actors, which, by the way, was shot by Tim Miller himself, easily talks about evolution and progress. The people in this plot can be considered gods, aliens, or just any outside observer.

And the world in the refrigerator literally in a day goes all the way of mankind from the first people to a highly developed civilization. True, on the way, they almost destroy themselves with nuclear explosions. But then they reach such heights that they either go to colonize space, or even abandon earthly life, turning into energy.

But the main thing happens in the finale: history loops, and after the disappearance of one civilization, new first people soon appear in its place.

Alternate Histories

In a short episode with a funny video sequence, the authors raise the age-old question of fans of alternative history: what would happen if Hitler had died before coming to power? Here it is presented in the form of a computer program "Multiverse".

The plot is partly devoted to the "butterfly effect": despite the fact that in all cases Hitler dies at almost the same time, the consequences are completely different. Interestingly, believable endings don't look much better than reality.

In the finale, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln with a pistol is shown. This hints at the following model - how the United States and the whole world would have developed if the president had not been shot in 1865. The audience is offered to dream about it.

And the phrase "Lincoln fires first" is a reference to the Star Wars scandal. During the next remastering of the film, George Lucas for some reason showed that Han Solo in the bar fired only in response to the mercenary's shot. This caused massive fan dissatisfaction.

Secret War

In 1943, a platoon of Soviet soldiers tracks down and destroys demons in Siberian forests. But during the next clash, it turns out that there are too many of them and a small detachment cannot withstand.

There is no deep meaning in the series - this is just a dark thriller about the fight against monsters. In addition to the intensity of the plot, only the story is interesting that demons were once summoned by a certain major who wanted to replenish the Red Army with creepy creatures.