A brief introduction to the 2008 animated movie Wall-E.
Wall-E (2008) is a very distinctive film because it presents a unique idea about what might happen if human conflicts continue to devastate Earth. It suggests that humanity could be forced to leave the planet after destroying most species, and that returning might become the only option. Despite this bleak outlook, there remains a faint hope, driving efforts to find any form of plant life, since plants are the foundation of life on Earth. When such life is finally found, a strange conflict arises between humans and machines. Artificial intelligence isn't satisfied with this finding because it threatens its control over humans, whose lives are now tightly linked to it. In fact, artificial intelligence has complete control over their entire lifestyle within the spaceship called Axiom.
The plot of the movie and its key events
The film starts with the robot Wall E, which humanity left alone on the Earth's surface to collect waste left behind. It spends hours tirelessly on this task. When night falls, it goes to sleep in a small trailer, and when it wakes up, it repeats this same monotonous routine.
One day, Wall E finds a small green plant, so he decides to keep it just like he keeps important and strange things in the trailer he lives in, often unaware of how valuable they are. On another day, he's surprised when a shuttle or small ship lands on the ground, causing him to hide and wait in fear until it opens. When it opens its doors, another small robot steps out, seeming more advanced than the first. This robot searches for something unknown for hours, with Wall E watching it the entire time, until eventually the robot discovers his presence and nearly destroys him.
The new robot ignores Wall E and keeps searching, while Wall E tags along, trying to get close or communicate. During their first encounter, Wall E learns the robot's name is Eve, and as they begin to interact, a storm suddenly hits. He quickly pulls her to his place and starts showing her all his collected items, as if he's a child showing his toys to play with.
Then he started showing her a videotape of an old romantic movie full of feelings, and Eve watched it intently until he made her see the plant. At that moment, a strange transformation occurred as she pulled the plant into herself, then fell silent without any warning, and her program shut down immediately after reaching its intended goal.
This situation persisted for several days, during which Wall E repeatedly tried to wake Eve, but to no avail. It was as if he were a lonely child who had found a girl to play with and share his life. She was like a beautiful dream to him, until the day the shuttle returned to retrieve Eve. Wall E would not let his dream be lost. He grew attached to the shuttle, which soon left Earth on a long journey into space.
Finally, the shuttle arrived at its destination, the Axiom ship, which carries the remaining human beings. They live a luxurious life inside, surrounded by all kinds of luxury, and the most they do is wake up from sleep.
The robots inside this shuttle were examined by other robots, and Eve was pulled from among them and sent to another location when they detected a sign of what she was carrying inside. Wall E chased after her like crazy, jostling with the robots at times and with humans at others.
The important thing is that he was able to catch up with her, and he stayed with her until she was examined by the Axiom ship’s computer. A code then appeared on it, prompting him to wake the ship’s captain immediately. The captain woke up and, once attentive, the ship’s computer informed him that Eve had returned positive results. He then stood up and played a recorded video explaining what he should do in this situation.
The video was telling him that the presence of this plant proved that planet Earth had returned to its natural state, that it was now suitable for life again, and that they needed to go back to Earth. The issue would have been resolved if the plant hadn't disappeared from inside Eve, so the ship's captain overruled the decision and sent Eve to finish the task.
He repaired it because he thought he was affected by a defect, so Wall-E accompanied it again to the repair site. He believed they would destroy it, which led him to do something foolish, causing some of the damaged vehicles to escape. What's even funny is that they considered him their revolutionary leader, took him up, and left him in charge of their leadership.
Eve intervenes and quickly rescues Wall-E, taking him to a room filled with small vehicles to prepare him to leave the ship for Earth. However, a small robot enters the room, and they hide. You see the robot placing the plant into one of these vehicles and starting to launch it. The robot then leaves, and Wall-E runs to pick up the plant, but the vehicle... The little girl leaves quickly before he can reach her, and Wall-E realizes she has an order to self-destruct. He tries to escape from her in any way he can, and he manages to do so while Eve was trying to catch him. After several interesting attempts, she finally catches him in this space, and they return together to the Axiom ship, with the little plant along with them.
During this time, the ship's captain was looking at his computer screen, which displayed several descriptions of Earth and what his ancestors were doing. He was very fascinated by what he saw. He also began dreaming that he and everyone on the ship would arrive on Earth, while Eve was on her way to him. When she arrived, she appeared. He had the plant, and just as he was about to return to Earth, the ship's computer, Auto, intercepted him and told him they could not go back. When the captain asked why, Auto replied that it was top secret, so he ordered him to disclose it. Auto then started playing a video showing a figure who seemed to be their leader, warning against returning to Earth and explaining that the computer had been programmed so that if they decided to return, Auto would assume responsibility instead of the leader.
This made the captain angry, and he tried to persuade the computer using logic, pointing out that this message was 700 years old. Auto rejected his argument and ordered the ship's captain to give it the plant. When he refused, Auto deployed a small robot to forcibly take the plant from the captain. The captain then ordered Eve to intervene, but the small robot threw the plant away. In one of the ship's holes, Wall-E appeared, saving the plant. However, Auto pounced on him and electrocuted him, causing him to fall into the hole. Auto then succeeded in shutting down Eve and dropping her through the same hole.
After that, Auto stopped communications in the commander's room and locked him inside. At the same time, Eve was turned on by coincidence, finding herself inside a room for waste collection to be expelled outside the ship. She called Wall E, only to discover he was nearby inside an airlock, and they were about to be expelled. Outside the ship, luck once again saved them; Eve found Wall E in very bad shape, with his main chip nearly burned out. She tried to find a replacement chip among the waste but failed. Wall E then alerted her that they need to reach Earth to save him, and he carried the plant, flying both of them to the leader. Auto quickly realized this and sent robots after them. Meanwhile, the leader pulled off a clever trick, convincing Auto that the plant was with him. He then went to the leader’s room, resulting in a small battle between them. At the same time, there was a fight between Wall E, Eve, and their robot friends, who had escaped and were being chased by robots sent by Auto.
The commander successfully executes the return to Earth program, and Wall E and Eve manage to bypass the robots to reach the plant and bring it to its designated spot on the ship, until the journey back to Earth actually begins.
Auto is relatively successful in overtaking the leader and shutting down the program, but Wall E blocks that and sacrifices himself to prevent the shutdown, causing his devices to be severely damaged. In the leader’s room, we see him holding himself together, standing firm with great determination. He then forcefully grips Auto and shuts down his program until Forever.
Last scene:
The journey back to Earth begins quickly, and they actually reach it. Eve carries her beloved Wall-E in her arms and rushes to the trailer. She enters and starts repairing Wall-E using the spare parts in the trailer. When his exposure to the sun ends quickly, he actually begins to move from New, but he pays no attention to Eve and continues with his mission, which is why they left him on Earth's surface. Eve follows him, intertwining her fingers with his, feeling very sad because she knows she created a new robot. When she tries to loosen her fingers, Wall-E sticks to them and begins to move as usual. He says her name in amazement, as if he can't believe he sees her, and they embrace in a love that we may not see among humans.
The people had all disembarked from the Axiom ship and gathered around the leader, who was planting a seed in the ground with great joy, cheering and telling the young children that this plant would soon grow into many kinds of plants they loved to eat. Then, the last shot was fired. Between Wall E and Eve at the trailer door, the shot extends to show us the green plants covering a large area of the ground in a beautiful and expressive scene.
The film's message is meant for everyone.
The film delivers three very important messages:
- Despite the weirdness of the idea, the movie showed Wall E as if he were a creature with a beating heart and deep feelings. He felt lonely on this planet, and when Eve arrived, he thought he shouldn’t lose her and that she would fill his life and heart, so to speak. This suggests that everything in this world might carry feelings to some extent, and it also hints that artificial intelligence has been programmed to have these emotional reactions so it can interact better.
- The second point is that humans should not overuse technology and other forms of luxury because it can make them incapable later. We have seen what humans have become on the Axiom ship, in terms of weakness that could lead to impotence, due to their complete dependence on that technology.
- The third and most vital message is that humanity must steer clear of anything that could ruin this planet, such as wars, conflicts, pollution-causing technologies, and other harms. We need to be careful to protect the planet sufficiently so that we can continue to live on it, because there is a saying that reminds us that every... The beginning of the end, and there's no other refuge for humanity except this planet, which we are rapidly destroying in every possible way.
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