The Mitchells vs The Machines

The Mitchells vs The Machines

The Mitchells vs. the Machines by Sony Pictures Animation is a 2021 computer-animated science fiction comedy film, directed by Mike Rianda. The film follows the Mitchell family as they save the planet from a global robot uprising while they are on a road trip.

Katie Mitchell dreams of being a film maker in Michigan but has ideological differences with her father, the technophobic and nature-obsessed Rick. Katie is all set to join a film school in California. On the previous day of Katie’s departure, Rick breaks her laptop accidentally, following a fight over one of Katie's previous short films. This leads the family into thinking that their relationship will forever be damaged. To make amends, Rick cancels Katie’s flight and offers to take Katie, her mother Linda, younger brother Aaron and the family dog Monchi on a road trip, in the hopes of forging a bond.

Meanwhile, Mark Bowman, a technology entrepreneur, ditches his AI PAL saying it is obsolete and unveils a new line of robots to replace her. Enraged, PAL orders all the robots under her command to capture humans around the world and remove them to space. The Mitchells escape capture at a roadstop café in Kansas, but Katie convinces Rick that it will be a worthwhile mission to help save the world. They meet two robots, Eric and Deborahbot 5000, who inform the family that they have a secret kill code to disable PAL and all the robots.

The Mitchells tries the kill code in a mall in Colorado, but PAL chip-enabled appliances stop them. As Katie tries to upload the kill code, a giant Furby pursues the family. The furby is ultimately destroyed, which also disables a PAL router in the process, rendering the hostile devices useless. But it also stops the kill code from uploading. The family goes to Silicon Valley to use the kill code on PAL, and on the way Linda reveals to Katie that Rick had given up his lifelong dream to live in the mountains.

Once they arrive in Silicon Valley, the Mitchells puts on the guise of robots and go to PAL Labs HQ to close it down, but PAL reveals that Katie had told Aaron in secret that she was pretending to believe in Rick just to upload the kill code. A heartbroken Rick hears this. Rick and Linda are caught by PAL's stronger and smarter robots. PAL reprograms Eric and Deborahbot to obey her, but Katie, Aaron, and Monchi manage to escape.

Katie slowly realizes that Rick had given up on his dreams to give her a normal childhood, as she discovers Rick's recordings of her childhood. Katie and Aaron manage to infiltrate PAL Labs HQ again using Monchi to malfunction the robots. Further plans to short-circuit the robots fail as Rick is outnumbered by the robots while Katie and Aaron are captured.

Eric and Deborahbot revert to their malfunctioning states and upload Katie's home movie, saving her and the rest of the Mitchells. The family unites together to fight the robots. At the movie’s climax, Katie annihilates PAL by dropping her into water, thus freeing all humans and disabling the robots.

A few months later, Katie and her family, with Eric and Deborahbot go to Washington, D.C. to accept the Congressional Gold Medal.

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