The Electric State is Netflix’s latest big-budget sci-fi adventure film. The movie, which premiered Friday on the streamer, is an adaptation of Simon Stålenhag‘s dystopian graphic novel. It takes viewers into an alternate version of 1994. It’s set in a very different-looking America amid the backdrop of a country still putting itself together after a civil war between robots and humans tore cities apart.

If that sounds bleak, it’s because the original subject matter is exactly that. Stålenhag’s story, like much of his work, is laden with beautiful imagery that offsets a sorrowful narrative.

In The Electric State, Millie Bobby Brown plays Michelle, a young woman who ventures into the post-apocalyptic maw to find her missing brother. Remnants of the robot war litter America’s countryside, leaving the mission feeling impossible. That is until she meets Keats (played by Chris Pratt) and his robot sidekick Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie). Together, they face a cavalcade of odd characters and fight the odds to reconnect with her younger brother and, potentially, humanity itself.

If that sounds a bit schmaltzy, it is. And that’s all by design. You see, this version of The Electric State — now the most expensive film Netflix has ever made — has an entirely different tone than the beloved book it’s based on. This tonal shift has been a sticking point for many critics. But there’s a distinct reason for this change.

Like a producer friend and I like to say, there were meetings. This was a collective decision that the Russos made with Stålenhag. During a Zoom conversation with Joe and Anthony Russo, I used this topic to kick off our talk, which turned into an insightful exploration of the long process of bringing The Electric State to life.
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“What we loved most about The Electric State was the artwork and the themes,” Joe Russo said. “But we felt like, as parents, the themes — and these are themes about technology and addiction to technology — are going to be most resonant and impactful with a younger audience who is more immersed in technology than an older audience.”

Accessibility was the key. And it wasn’t just the Russo brothers who felt this way.

“Simon Stålenhag also has kids and agreed,” he continued. “So we came to that conclusion. You can tell a story in any tone, and you can go in any direction you want to. Part of the fun of adaptation is you adapt it into a new form of itself. So that was the intent behind shifting the tone: To reach that younger, broader audience.”

Throughout the film’s over-2-hour running time, two themes recur: Humanity’s disconnection due to the implementation of technology in our daily lives and the dopamine addiction that comes with it. To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar, the Russos tell younger viewers to “turn the TV off.”

But how exactly do they reconcile the fact that they are relaying this message to reduce screen time through a story that must be viewed on a screen, to begin with?

“There are only so many ways to reach a broad audience,” Joe Russo said. “Whether it’s a movie screen, TV screen or phone screen, I would argue that they all have positives and negatives. In a lot of ways, you’re disconnecting from the world to watch a story. What if the story, at the same time, can also call attention to perhaps what we see as the overuse of narratives to escape reality? That was really the intent: To highlight the fact that, ironically, that part of our addiction to the technology is using stories as a way to escape reality or to treat our undiagnosed anxiety and depression issues.” 

It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t an anti-tech propaganda movie. Going in that narrative direction would be too easy. Anthony Russo agreed, saying, “The message of this movie isn’t, don’t use technology.”

He continued, “The movie’s about our paradoxical relationship with technology and the fact that there are positive aspects to technology; there is genuine human connection you can find in technology, but you can also find the opposite.”

He cited two examples from the film to support this statement: Keats’ genuine loving relationship with his robot Herman and Michelle’s use of technology to liberate her brother. 

I can’t discuss The Electric State without talking about the captivating visual effects. It’s safe to say there were more robots than actual human characters in the movie. Tackling such a creative challenge means working tirelessly to ensure the technology looks and feels analog. I’ll admit that differentiating between the practical effects and CGI was tough. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself.

So how much was digitized and how much was real? I don’t have the exact stats. “Any time actors were interacting with a robot, we cast those robots,” Anthony Russo said. More specifically, they cast talented motion capture actors to play those robots.

“They’re actual, fully dimensional actors who trained for weeks and rehearsed for weeks and helped us develop those characters for weeks before hitting the set,” he continued. “In terms of how they moved, we had performers playing those robots on set.” 

The development of these unique robot characters didn’t stop there. 

“Many of those robots were voiced by more well-known actors,” Anthony Russo said. “We would show those actors the conceptual art we had for the characters, we would take down their voice performance, and we would use that voice performance with our motion capture troupe.” 

The finished product is here after two years of post-production, during which more sophisticated digital graphics were implemented. “It did take a long time in post to get that stuff looking real and like it was there,” Anthony Russo said. “There were so many layers, and it was a commitment to a very real, tactile onset performance between robots and actors.”

It’s been nearly three years since Anthony and Joe Russo began shooting The Electric State. Throughout our talk, it was easy to see how connected they continue to be with the subject matter and each other regarding their love for conveying emotion through stories. As Anthony Russo puts it, that’s the bonding he hopes viewers will experience upon watching the movie together.

“We think it can be a powerful form of human connection, and that, of course, is a big theme in movies,” Anthony Russo said. “How does it bring together people? How does it bring together friends? Families? How does it cross generations? Can it provide a common experience for people to share and then become a touch point with one another in terms of emotion or intellectual ideas? The movie’s themes are simply the ideas that we hope people can have from the experiences of coming to film, in general.” 

With a knowing laugh from his brother, Anthony Russo brought our talk to a close by saying with a heartfelt smile, “That’s really what made us fall for film in the first place.”