Here’s the interesting premise of the distopian AI thriller Mercy: in the near future, Los Angeles adopts a new AI-driven criminal justice system whereby a murder suspect is restrained in front of a screen, where an AI “judge” gives him the chance to prove his innocence; he is presumed guilty, and will be executed within ninety minutes unless he can lower his likelihood of guilt percentage under a numeric threshold that represents reasonable doubt. The object is to reach a fact-based conclusion quickly and with certainty, protecting the community and providing closure for victims’ loved ones. The Orwellian name for the new system is Mercy.
One of the biggest advocates of this new system is the police detective Chris (Chris Pratt), who wakes up from a blackout drunk to find himself strapped to the Mercy chair, charged with the murder of his wife. An initial review of facts demonstrate that he had the motive, means and opportunity – and things look really bad for Chris. He is being judged by an AI bot, played by Rebecca Ferguson. The bad news is that she/it is completely devoid of intuition and emotion, rigidly adhering to the programmed procedure.
The good news is that the court is a supercomputer which is able to provide Chris with INSTANT access to video from traffic cameras and security cams and police body cams, to everyone’s history of movements from cell phone tracking, al financial records, every call and text, and forensic evidence – blood, fingerprint, fiber and DNA. The key word is instant because it allows an investigation that would take days or weeks to be compressed in to just over an hour. That device also allows a whodunit story to be told in real time, which is always a plus in a movie.
So, essentially, the plot of Mercy is a detective procedural, but one with very high stakes (summary execution) and under extreme time pressure. That all works to heighten the thrills in this thriller.
So far, so good, but it wasn’t enough for the filmmakers who, IMO, jump the shark with some silly add-ons, which I discuss in the spoiler paragraph below.
SPOILER: The problem I have with Mercy is that Chris, beside saving himself to solve the crime, ALSO saves his daughter from a hostage situation, saves downtown LA from being blown up in a terrorist strike, solves a previously closed case and forces the discredited AI justuce system to shut itself down. As well-crafted and exciting as the movie is, that’s really excessive plot. The story got so silly that it lost me in the final 20 or so minutes.
Mercy is streaming on Amazon (included with Prime) and AppleTV.