“Finch”, a story with Tom Hanks in which robots are not a threat | INTERVIEW

The story of humans left alone on Earth after a catastrophe is nothing out of the ordinary in movies. We have seen it in many science fiction movies, for example, “I robot” or “I Am Mother”. But the novelty in “Finch”, the film of Apple TV+ that opens this November 5, is that that human being on the planet is still accompanied by his dog Goodyear and a robot, Jeff, that he has created almost with the blood of a faithful friend.

The film features Hanks as the only human character, Finch, a robotics engineer who loves his pet and builds a robot specifically to safeguard the life of the dog, Goodyear, when the man is gone. But you are going through a journey when a storm haunts your home, and during the journey you will teach your new companion what trust is and why we humans feel it, or not.

At a press conference, “Finch” director Miguel Sapochnik admitted to Saltar Intro that, were it not for his eight-year-old daughter, Sophian, the robot Jeff would not be the character he is. “All creatives had our inspiration about who Jeff would be, but I found mine in my daughter,” said the director. “Children only have personalities, that thing that makes them unique as human beings. Jeff has this personality, he is curious, stubborn, mischievous, and it made me remember him. I found myself stealing things my daughter says and putting them into the script. Maybe because I admire her so much ”.

The artificial intelligence in this film, as director Miguel Sapochnik admits, “is not an incredible existential threat.” The science fiction of “Finch” is more familiar than scientifically accurate, because the focus of attention is on the social relationship between three different beings who find each other moving signs. And despite the delay of the premiere to finish the special effects work, they went ahead, telling the story of a man in a catastrophic scenario, in the middle of another rugged panorama, such as the COVID-19 crash.

“We made the movie when the pandemic was in full swing. I recently saw a scene where Finch explains to the robot Jeff how society fell apart, and it goes back to something like a solar flare. The movie is not about a slow contagion that kills everyone at the same time. Although, we also did the investigation of how society collapsed and I think that ends when we have seen elements in which ignorance, rationality, passions and opinions dominated. We’re being somewhat realistic in studying human behavior under similar circumstances, ”Hanks, who worked alongside Texas actor and musician Caleb Landry Jones (Jeff), told the media.

JEFF, EL ROBOT

To work on the computer generated image (CGI), in the case of the robot Jeff, the production of “Finch” used the latest technology in motion effects. Caleb Landry Jones dressed in a special outfit, a mask that simulates the character and stilts to give him corresponding height. All of this was done for the purpose of generating traditional drama and detaching ourselves from science fiction.

From shaking hands with Finch to walking, Landry Jones’s work has been praised by “Finch” visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk, as the actor made his participation very fluid, so much so that watching him perform in the set with Hanks did not see a man dressed in a special suit, but Jeff the robot.

“(Jeff) is the reason we communicate the story. (…) The friendship that develops from the robot is much more powerful than Finch would have anticipated. And the connection between the three ends up being a solid equatorial triangle, as opposed to a master-servant type of relationship, ”says Tom Hanks. Well, “Finch” is a story of permanence, where the body of a being (human or not) is not as important as the values ​​it possesses.

“What Finch is constantly trying to do is make sure his sense of right and wrong is cared for and the empathy continues with whatever the next generation is going to be when he sees that he thought of his pet and created Jeff. And isn’t empathy, in some way, a part of the responsibility that we all have? We all have an impact on our friends, families, our offspring, sometimes we are going to have an impact on society, even if it is only a small thing, as we do in our small social sphere of influence, ”Hanks admits.

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