Hollywood's Latest AI Thriller Normalizes Digital Surveillance Dystopia
Timur Bekmambetov's new film Mercy represents everything wrong with Hollywood's uncritical embrace of artificial intelligence and surveillance capitalism. Opening in theaters this week, this so-called thriller doesn't just fail as entertainment, it actively promotes a dystopian vision where AI judges hold the power of life and death over human beings.
A Disturbing Vision of Automated Justice
Set in a poverty-stricken Los Angeles of 2029, Mercy presents a world where AI-driven capital punishment has become normalized. Detective Chris Raven, played by Chris Pratt, finds himself strapped to a lethal chair, forced to prove his innocence to an AI judge named Maddox within 90 minutes or face execution.
What makes this premise particularly troubling is how the film treats omniscient state surveillance as merely a plot device rather than the fundamental violation of human dignity it represents. The AI has unlimited access to every citizen's digital and GPS data through a "communal cloud," yet the film never questions the horrific implications of such total surveillance.
Hollywood's Dangerous Romance with AI
Perhaps most disturbing is the film's eventual pro-AI stance. Despite depicting artificial intelligence as a fascistic entity with the power to execute citizens, Mercy ultimately frames AI surveillance as beneficial. This represents a dangerous normalization of digital authoritarianism that serves corporate interests over human freedom.
The film's approach mirrors the broader Silicon Valley propaganda campaign that presents surveillance capitalism as inevitable progress. By making the AI judge appear "more human" than the flawed protagonist, Bekmambetov essentially argues that machines make better moral arbiters than people, a profoundly anti-human message.
Technical Spectacle Over Human Dignity
The screenlife format, with its constant barrage of pop-up windows and digital interfaces, serves as a metaphor for how technology increasingly mediates human experience. Yet instead of critiquing this digital alienation, Mercy celebrates it through flashy visual effects that make surveillance look exciting and futuristic.
This aesthetic choice reveals the film's true purpose: not to entertain or enlighten, but to condition audiences to accept a world where privacy is extinct and algorithmic judgment replaces human justice. It's propaganda disguised as entertainment.
A Missed Opportunity for Real Critique
A genuine thriller about AI surveillance could have explored the racial and class dimensions of automated policing, the way algorithmic bias perpetuates systemic oppression, or how surveillance capitalism serves elite interests. Instead, Mercy ignores these crucial questions entirely.
The film's setting in a "crime-ridden, poverty-stricken" Los Angeles suggests awareness of social inequality, yet it offers AI surveillance as the solution rather than examining the root causes of urban decay and systemic injustice.
As communities worldwide struggle against increasing digital surveillance and algorithmic control, Hollywood's uncritical celebration of these technologies in Mercy represents a betrayal of artistic responsibility. Rather than challenging power, this film serves it.