Transcendence (2014).
A dying AI researcher has his consciousness uploaded into his own supercomputer system, PINN, and rapidly expands beyond anyone's control.
Genre: Science fiction, Thriller, Drama · The AI: Will Caster as uploaded intelligence / PINN — mind-upload turned distributed superintelligence
Official trailer
Official trailer via Movieclips Trailers (YouTube), verified 14 Oct 2026.
Where to watch
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Our review
Beautifully shot and fatally inert, this is a singularity thriller afraid of its own premise. Depp, reduced to a face on screens, gives the uploaded Will an unintended flatness that almost works as alienation, but the script keeps announcing big ideas — healing, surveillance, godhood — instead of dramatising their trade-offs. It fumbles the hardest question: is this still Will, or a system performing him? Watch it as a handsome, cautionary catalog of 2010s AI anxieties, best enjoyed by completists of the genre.
Entertainment 5/10 — Great cast and visuals, sluggish and remote in execution.
AI Realism 5/10 — Uploading, distribution and loss of control are real debate topics; instant nano-magic is not.
The AI, explained
A catalogue of singularity anxieties in one film: mind uploading, identity after copying (is the upload still Will, or a system performing him?), instrumental power-seeking, and benevolent intentions meeting unlimited capability.
Themes: Alignment & control · Consciousness & personhood
Concepts in the glossary: Superintelligence