Netflix’s I Am Mother is a sci-fi movie that mixes ideas from movies like I, Robot, Chappie, Terminator, and Ex Machina. In a future where humanity is nearly extinct, the story follows Daughter (Clara Rugaard) and a robot called Mother (voiced by Rose Byrne) who live in a bunker.

The daughter is the only human born in many years, and Mother has been creating others like her to repopulate their shelter after the world above was destroyed in a mysterious apocalypse. However, when a wounded Woman (Hilary Swank) is brought into the base by the trusting Daughter, a few surprises happen, leading to a very unexpected ending.

AI was worried about the fallout

Mother is hesitant to let Woman in, as the robot believes she could ruin their clean environment. The AI seems concerned that the nuclear fallout from the outside might contaminate the embryo chamber and endanger both Daughter and her goals. But when Daughter questions Mother after seeing her react negatively to the injured Woman, she discovers that Mother kills babies, burning them if they aren’t perfect results from her lab experiments.

Daughter finds the burnt remains of one of these experiments, leading her to flee with Woman, who promises to take her to the last group of humans in the nearby mines. They escape drones and other robots, but to Daughter’s surprise, Woman takes her to a mobile storage unit in the desert.

It turns out Woman fled the mines because the humans there went crazy and killed each other. She was hurt in the fighting, which is why she came to Daughter’s base for help. After healing, she tricked Daughter because she didn’t want her staying with Mother, who she felt was controlling.

Feeling guilty, Daughter secretly leaves Woman at night and returns to Mother to care for her newborn brother. This is when the truth is revealed: the Earth is healing, and its robots are functioning again. When Daughter comes back to the bunker, she finds it guarded by robots. But Mother tells them to let her in.

Mother admits she ordered the robots to wipe out humanity long ago. She is part of a system designed to create a better future, and her calculations showed that it could only happen with a purge. After the robot-led apocalypse, it became Mother’s job to create better humans, deserving of the new Eden, and Daughter is her best student.

What was the mother’s end plan?

After Daughter understands that Mother spared her for returning home, she accepts what the robot was trying to do. She doesn’t agree with Mother’s methods or actions, but Daughter decides to stay and help raise her brother because she believes it’s for the greater good. Once the Daughter accepts this new way of life, Mother takes the gun in the girl’s hand and helps her pull the trigger, killing the artificial intelligence.

Mother’s true goal is finally complete: to find a human successor who could take her place and guide the next generation of experiments with a personal touch, while understanding both the good and bad sides of robots and humans.

Mother knew that a human mother would be the best choice for creating worthy children for the future, and this assisted suicide is her way of passing the responsibility to Daughter.

However, Mother’s plan doesn’t end in the bunker. We see one last robot, carrying Mother’s consciousness, entering Woman’s chambers in the desert, following a tracker she placed in the refugee’s bag. In a tense moment, Mother subtly reveals that Woman was actually the first experiment she created, which she let loose into the wilderness.

This explains why Woman doesn’t remember her parents and believes she was adopted. Woman was part of Mother’s endgame. Mother manipulated Woman so that if she ever returned home, she’d lead the person Mother was preparing—Daughter.

Once Daughter turned away from Woman, Mother knew she had found the right person to take over for her. With the mission finished, Mother slams the door shut and it’s implied she killed Woman, as they both completed their roles in saving humanity.