tinkologie

[tinkologie]

[tinkologie]

Tropes

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Both in the usual sense, and in the sense that some robots are fully sentient while others of the same model aren't. Brain is a straight example. Subverted with Tink.

Apocalypse How: Brain is plotting a Class 3a. He is unable to go through with it, thankfully.

An Arm and a Leg: Brain angrily rips off both of Spencer’s legs, while Milo loses an arm in the final battle.

Artificial Limbs: Milo gains a cyborg arm as a result of the explosion that kills Brain.

Badass Adorable: Tink may be cute but is a superpowered robot.

Big Bad: The artificial intelligence Brain.

Big Damn Heroes: Milo and the others bust into Brain’s room to save Tink.

Cain and Abel: Corius is the Able to Brain’s Cain.

Cyborg: Milo becomes one in the end, courtesy of Gates.

Deadpan Snarker: Hadaly.

Decoy Antagonist: Damarion Gates. He is initially thought to be the mastermind commanding the Poppets. Then it’s revealed that he’s a Human Popsicle, and that Brain was the one pulling the strings all along.

Disney Death: Milo. He’s fine, but he’s now got a cyborg arm.

Diesel Punk: With Cyberpunk.

Do Androids Dream?: Tink and her fellow Poppets are capable of dreaming.

Everything Is An I Pod In The Future: Lumen looks like this, to drive home how much more advanced and well-built it is than other cities.

Foreshadowing: The Poppets have unique Heart Drives which allow them to freely violate the Three Laws. Tink has one as well.

Grow Beyond Their Programming: The Poppets were designed with special Heart Drives that allow them to violate the Three Laws undetected if they wish, allowing them to grow as characters. Brain maliciously exploits this.

Heart Drive: All robots have this, with the Poppets’ allowing them to be free of the Three Laws with no one being the wiser.

Heel-Face Turn: Alpha and the Twins once they realize Brain’s true intentions. They’re actually more of Half-Hearted Henchmen.

Honor Before Reason: “What you’re gonna do to humanity is just plain heartless!”

Humans Are the Real Monsters: How Brain sees humanity.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Again, Hadaly.

Just a Machine: Averted, as robots have long been given rights.

Kill All Humans: Brain plans to do this.

The Man Behind the Man: The one behind the plot isn't Gates, but Brain.

Master Computer: Corius’s “brother”, Brain.

Mechanical Lifeforms: The robots in the film are classified as this.

Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Tink’s “botnapping” reveals Brain’s plot to destroy humanity.

One-Man Army: Corius, who is able to overpower enemies smaller than them without taking damage themself.

One-Word Title

Reality Ensues: Milo fails to clear the final explosion in time, ending up with him losing an arm.

Red Herring: Gates is hinted at being the Big Bad. It turns out he's actually a Nice Guy, with Brain being the real villain.

Ridiculously Human Robots: Many of the robots in the film, aside from having genders, have faces made of a malleable material that can move like a human's. Justified, as it's a Techsmith's job to make the robots look and think like humans.

Robot Girl: Tink and Sen.

Robot Buddy: Anybody can befriend a robot in this future.

Robot Clown: Word of God says that Tink was created with this trope in mind.

Scenery Porn: In some scenes the characters are just tiny figures, with the backgrounds given pride of place. It's not uncommon to find the backgrounds consistently more interesting than the characters and/or plot.

"Second Law" My Ass!: The Poppets are not Three Laws-Compliant, thus they don't have to obey humans. Tink still chooses to stand by humans, though.

Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: The robots in the movie are shown to have various unique abilities besides their intended purpose. Tink, for example, has extendable limbs and electroshock hands.

Super Prototype: The Poppets. 

Super Reflexes: A common ability for all of the robots.

Super Strength: All robots are super-humanly strong. One example is Tink being able to hold back a truck with significant force.

Stuff Blowing Up: The end of the climax.

Three Laws of Robotics: It’s stated that every robot is bound by a special monitoring chip in their Heart Drives to obey them, save for the Poppets, who lack this chip. However, Tink does assert that she doesn't want to hurt anyone. She's also more than capable of disobeying a human's orders.

Tomato in the Mirror: Tink is the missing fifth Poppet.

Please Don't Leave Me: Tink when she thinks Milo has died. See Please Wake Up for more.

Please Wake Up:

Tink: Milo? N-No, Milo, you’re okay! Everything's okay now. We killed Brainy! W-We can finally open our workshop! We can... You... can’t hear me... can you? Please wake up. There’s so much I wanna do with you. I don’t wanna be alone. Don’t leave me alone...

Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Corius, a case of Creepy Good.

Villainous Breakdown: A brief one from Brain before his death, when he realizes what Milo and Tink are doing.

Voice of the Legion: Genderless Corius speaks with two opposite gender voices speaking simultaneously. It adds to his-her strange nature, at any rate.

Wham Shot: Gates is revealed to be in cryonic sleep.

Zeerust: Many robots have distinctly retro designs.

Zerg Rush: The microbots, en masse.

[tinkologie]

Tinkologie

In the far future, humans and robots coexist in the city of Lumen, although many robots are legally required to reside in the lower-level district of Kapec. Milo Padilla aspires to to become a “Techsmith”, an inventor/mechanic whose profession is to build robots and provide them with spare parts and upgrades. He travels from his hometown of Cogsgate to Lumen, but upon his arrival, encounters the suspicious robot Spencer. After settling into his new apartment at the Sparklight Boarding Home and meeting its gruff but good-hearted android landlady Hadaly, he discovers that his suitcase was accidentally switched with Spencer’s identical one. Inside is a female robot whom Milo names Tink, who also knows nothing about herself except her robotic nature. They receive a phone call from Spencer, who offers to trade Tink for Milo’s suitcase at Lumen’s park. Out of pity for Tink and wanting to protect her, Milo fills the suitcase with scrap metal from Lumen’s junkyard instead. At the park, however, Spencer discovers the ruse, and reveals himself to be immune to the Three Laws of Robotics of Isaac Asimov, allowing him to bring harm to humans. Thankfully, Tink intervenes before he can “eliminate” Milo, demonstrating her built-in defenses. As Spencer is forced to flee, he drops a USB flash drive labeled with a curious symbol. Upon inserting it into his laptop while Tink sleeps, Milo discovers that Spencer is one of the Poppets, five robots free of the Laws of Robotics, but the drive crashes the laptop before he can learn about the other four and the identity of their creators. Tink then awakens and reveals that she can dream, an ability extremely rare for robots of her type. Meanwhile, three of the Poppets, Alpha and the twins Romu and Remu, learn of Milo from Spencer and resolve to take action against him. Whilst looking for a suitable workplace for Milo, the two are sidetracked when Tink rescues an offline guardian robot named Corius from a recycling truck, reviving it with her electrocuting weapon. As it awakens, Corius detects the nearby Romu and Remu, and chases them off before they can ambush Milo and Tink. Searching for Corius' creator, the Techsmith Damarion Gates, in the hopes of enlisting his aid, the three learn that he had disappeared the night Corius was attacked and forcibly deactivated; three of Gates’ colleagues, Johan Rasmussen, Alaysia Santos and Jacob Sutton, all revealed to have designed the four known Poppets as part of “Project Bravo”, had previously vanished as well. They seek out the remaining colleague, Maxwell Gonzales, only to find that he was abducted the night before Milo arrived to Lumen, the case baffling even the authorities. They decide to consult Professor Sen, a robot librarian who knew Gonzales, only for her to recognize Tink. Before Sen can elaborate, however, she is suddenly deactivated and kidnapped by Alpha. The trio give chase, but are attacked by a swarm of flying, explosive kamikaze microbots commanded by Spencer. Milo and Corius stop the microbots from taking Tink as well, in the process managing to capture one. They follow it to an abandoned warehouse in Kapec, where they discover that the four Poppets have enslaved Gates’ captive colleagues to mass-produce the microbots. When they try to rescue Gonzales and Sen, they are discovered when their microbot inadvertently explodes, and Spencer reveals that Tink is the fifth Poppet, taken by Spencer before she could be first activated. After overpowering Corius again, the other four Poppets flee with Tink and the microbots, unaware that Sen had secretly given her a tracking device at Gonzales’ urging. As the Poppets’ creators head out to contact the authorities, Milo, Corius and Sen use the device to track the Poppets to an abandoned laboratory that was used for the creation of robots and AIs, suspecting Gates to be responsible, only to find him in suspended animation. Brain, an artificial intelligence also created by Gates, is revealed as the true mastermind who rallied the four Poppets to rebel against humanity. Having learnt of the dark side of human nature, Brain plans to use the microbots to wipe out the human race, creating a world inhabited solely of robotic life-forms. Tink strongly objects to this idea, saying that his plan is "too heartless" and that not all humans are monsters. She convinces Alpha and the twins, who are shocked by Brain’s intention to kill all of humanity, to side with her. Spencer and the microbots fight the group, but the twins tell Brain of the robot’s plot to eventually overthrow the AI who, outraged, rips off Spencer’s legs. While Brain is distracted, Milo and Tink lure the microbot swarm into Brain’s core, provoking them into exploding, killing the AI. However, Milo fails to jump clear of the blast, gravely injuring him, and is mourned by Tink as the police arrive. Thankfully, he awakens in the hospital, though he finds his left arm lost, replaced with a cyborg prosthesis by the awakened Gates, who promises never again to create an AI as heartless as Brain. Reuniting with Tink, Milo is praised by Lumen’s mayor for his heroic actions. After leaving the hospital, he opens up his workshop with the help of his newfound friends.

[tinkologie]

[tinkologie]