The film stars Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, and Alan Tudyk, as the robot, Sonny.

After Dr. Alfred Lanning, co-founder of USR, falls to his death from his laboratory, a message he left behind requests Spooner be assigned to the case.

The police declare the death a suicide, but Spooner is skeptical, and CEO Lawrence Robertson, Lanning’s business partner, reluctantly allows him to investigate.

Accompanied by robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin, Spooner consults with USR's central AI, VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) about the incident.

The duo pursue it to a manufacturing facility where the NS-5 repairs itself, hides, and assaults Spooner before being apprehended by the Chicago police department.

He draws a sketch of what he claims to be a recurring dream, showing a leader standing before a large group of robots near a decaying bridge.

Massive swarms of NS-5s flood the city's streets, shutting down power and enforcing a curfew and lockdown of the human population.

Lanning, anticipating this but unable to act under VIKI's supervision, had no other solution but to create Sonny, arrange his own death, and leave clues for Spooner to find.

The script was an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery that took place entirely at the scene of a crime, with one lone human character, FBI agent Del Spooner, investigating the killing of a reclusive scientist named Dr. Alfred Lanning, and interrogating a cast of machine suspects that included Sonny the robot, VIKI the supercomputer with a perpetual smiley face, the dead Dr. Lanning's hologram, plus several other examples of artificial intelligence.

[8] Jeff Vintar was brought back on the project and spent several years opening up his stage play-like cerebral mystery to meet the needs of a big budget studio film.

After a couple of years of this, the solid ground that I stood on as a director became shaky, and I became obsessed with keeping as many details as I could to the point that I didn't realise how much of what enthused me originally was getting lost.

I used to describe working on I, ROBOT as running a marathon with the studio lined up beside you throwing chairs under you to make everything that little bit harder.

and perpetuated in subsequent robot books and films, appears infrequently in Asimov's writings and differs from the "Zeroth Law".

[26] I, Robot was released in North America on July 16, 2004, and made $52.2 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office.

Its critical consensus reads, "Bearing only the slightest resemblance to Isaac Asimov's short stories, I, Robot is still a summer blockbuster that manages to make viewers think – if only for a little.

[29] Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review, calling it "a slick, consistently entertaining thrill ride".

[30] Urban Cinefile called it "the meanest, meatiest, coolest, most engaging and exciting science fiction movie in a long time".

It proves that you don't necessarily need to detach your brain in order to walk into a big budget summer blockbuster.

"[34] In a mixed review, A. O. Scott of The New York Times felt it "engages some interesting ideas on its way to an overblown and incoherent ending.

"[35] Roger Ebert, who had highly praised Proyas's previous films, gave it a negative review: "The plot is simple-minded and disappointing, and the chase and action scenes are pretty much routine for movies in the sci-fi CGI genre.

"[36] Claudia Puig from USA Today thought the film's "performances, plot, and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast".

[38] At the 77th Academy Awards, I, Robot received one nomination, for Best Visual Effects (John Nelson, Andrew R. Jones, Erik Nash, and Joe Letteri), losing to Spider-Man 2.

In an interview in June 2007 with the website Collider at a Battlestar Galactica event, writer and producer Ronald Moore stated that he was writing a sequel to the film.