Recreating Memories

The short film "Be Right Back" is a story about a couple named Martha and Ash. The couple has moved into a new home that was previously owned by Ash's parents. This house holds many memories for Ash, since this house has experienced a number of passing family members. Unfortunately, the house faces another passing as the police come to the house, and the following scene shows Martha at a funeral. It is unclear how Ash died, but we do know that Martha is not taking it well. One of the visitors at the funeral signs Martha up for a more than creepy form of closure. Martha begins receiving messages from a system that acts like Ash. Martha at first is angry with this, until she finds out she is pregnant and is desperate to get him back. The relationship between the two is growing and the system offers a new level to this interaction. Martha gets a huge box in the mail that has a body-like computer that transforms into her deceased partner. This event crosses a huge moral line; Martha had bought her own replicate Ash. The machine goes through Ash's social media and private phone conversations to act as close as it can to him. This works for only a little while, since Ash2 can not remember small personal things that Ash1 would know- this is where the technology lacks. Even though the system can learn and add certain data to it's self, Martha begins to realize that he isn't the real Ash1. The film takes a turn for the worse when Martha tries to fight Ash2, yet he doesn't know how to fight with her. The following day Martha takes Ash2 to a cliff and commands him to jump off. Ash2 just responds to okay and this makes Martha angry. She tells the machine how to really answer and then that's when the machine takes the data and beings to have emotions. The film flashes forward to about eight years and the child is about nine years old. It's ending brings up many different questions with the fact that her daughter goes to hang out with the machine. The film has many different elements of moral lines being crossed. Why does Martha allow her daughter to know who Ash2 is? Will we one day have an Ash2 of our own? Is it acceptable to have a deceased one copied into a computer? These questions are just the basis that can be answered.