What would make your life easier? A Roomba to do the vacuuming? A self-driving car? Or maybe… a permanent extra hand around the house? After a post-I, Robot lull, artificial intelligence has been on the rise again recently on our screens – so who, or what, is T.I.M. and should you be tuning in?
After the huge global success of micro-budget M3GAN last year, it looks like we’re in for a slew of ‘creepy robot companion’ movies. Netflix’s new movie T.I.M. is a British techno chiller – ‘a cross between Fatal Attraction and The Servant, Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey’s 1963 drama about a malevolent manservant’ (Guardian). There are also dystopian elements from Black Mirror, Ex Machina and Humans.
The character of T.I.M. – short for ‘technologically integrated manservant’ – played by Eamon Farren, is a humanoid robot. He’s a prototype being tested at home by robotics engineer Abi (Georgina Campbell).
‘I think we’re going to be really happy here’, Abi says optimistically to their estate agent, as she shows Abi and her husband Paul (Mark Rowley) round their uber-smart home. Yes, that’s definitely going to happen, then.
They’ve moved into their fancy pad, supplied by the company Abi’s working for, hoping to start over following Paul having had an affair. On day one of Abi’s new job at the lab, where she’s heading up a team focusing on new T.I.M. models and upgrades, her boss promises her a present, which will be waiting at home for her. Paul opens the garage to reveal a huge black box – not unlike the black monolith from Kubrick’s 2001. It’s housing a T.I.M. and before long, like many an android before him (we’re thinking David from Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant in particular), he’s decided that maybe he wants to do things on his terms, rather than follow his programming.
Paul grows uneasy, but can he outwit the devilishly clever – and increasingly tech-savvy – T.I.M.? And how far will the malevolent manservant go to get what he wants?
The Creative Team
T.I.M. is the feature debut from comedian turned writer-director Spencer Brown, who describes the film as a ‘stalker thriller’. He and his partner and co-writer Sarah Govett (The Territory) drew on the fact that they’re ‘weirdly paranoid’ about technology, Big Data and the impact that devices and algorithms such as Alexa are having on our lives. Plus, they’re both huge fans of 90s thrillers like Fatal Attraction, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Single White Female. T.I.M. brings both of these elements together in one terrifying persona.
And as for the character of T.I.M. himself, Brown revealed to Sci Fi Now that, ‘I think it was really important that the whole thing felt very grounded… the whole journey of the film is about the way that Abi stops seeing him as a robot and forgets that he is a robot. So we wanted it to be the case that you could forget it.’
He’s certainly helped by a terrific performance by Australian actor Eamon Farren (who fans might recognise from The Witcher) as the titular android, who segues effortlessly from super-helpful to sinister, and then keeps ramping up the shocks when he becomes obsessed with Abi.
As for what Brown wants viewers to take away from the film, as well as being entertained? ‘I’m hoping that it will resonate with people and make them think about AI. I guess the big question for us is, what are you letting into your life and for what? Yeah, you can have access to our camera. Yeah, you can follow my location. Yeah, you can do these things. But what’s it for really? A bit of convenience, just to make our lives 1% easier? It’s a very small gain for a potentially very big loss.’
Brown himself confesses to being ‘a complete Luddite’, with zero smart features in his own home; the underlying message of the film is definitely worth thinking about. Even if, hopefully, your Ring doorbell isn’t going to try to kill you...
The Soundtrack
T.I.M.’s soundtrack has been written by Ivor Novello-nominated and Telly award-winning composer Walter Mair. Mair has worked with every combination of music, from epic orchestrations recorded with 80-piece choirs to intimate, small ensemble and hybrid electronic pieces.
Mair’s portfolio includes feature films, documentaries, TV dramas and video games. He scored 2021 survival thriller Till Death and psychological horror The Unfamiliar, which won the 2021 Telly Award for Best Original Music. He’s also worked on Netflix docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive – another Telly Award-winner – and video games including Grand Theft Auto, Killzone and the Total War series.
Mair’s soundtrack for T.I.M. is elegant and spare. There’s soft, dreamy piano at the start of the film, as we’re introduced to Abi and Paul’s new house, deep in the countryside, promising a calm life as they make plans to start a family and leave their previous problems behind them.
The lab sequences have a slightly otherworldly, more electronic feel to them, picking up on the story’s tech elements. Perhaps the most striking part of the soundtrack is when Abi listens to a classical piece on her headphones when she’s out jogging, and then T.I.M. plays the same piece on the piano for her later in the film – he’s monitored how many times she’s listened to it, and knows it’s one of her favourites.
Mair has avoided the most common horror/thriller tropes, creating an interesting backdrop for the film’s blend of countryside idyll and tech terror.
Need Music for Your Project?
If you’re looking for sci fi tracks, then our hand-picked playlist has plenty of options, or create ominous atmospheres with our dark choices. We have a huge classical collection and if you want to merge classical techniques with modern electronic production, then our hybrid orchestral selections have you covered.
