‘Mercy’ Stars Chris Pratt And Rebecca Ferguson On The Dangers Of AI

In a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to make a growing impact on our everyday lives, for better or worse, one movie in theaters now is highlighting the advancing technology in a most thought-provoking and entertaining way.

Starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, Mercy tells the story of detective Chris Raven (Pratt), who finds himself on trial within the AI-led judicial system that he helped put in place, after someone close to him is found murdered and he is the prime suspect. With AI-created Judge Maddox (Ferguson) leading the trial, Chris has 90 minutes to prove his innocence, with a slew of digital resources at his disposal – or be put to death for the crime, once time runs out.

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, previously known for Wanted, the 2008 Angelina Jolie action project that also featured Pratt early on in his career, Amazon MGM’s Mercy is a heart-pounding popcorn movie that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Knowing that this movie is available to watch exclusively in movie theaters (including a 3D option), rather than the growing release model of straight-to-streaming lately, I wondered during my sit-down Mercy interview with Ferguson and Pratt what the theatrical and communal experience continues to mean to them.

Pratt said, “This is 90-plus minutes of just pulse-pounding entertainment and action. I think it’s a bit of a throwback in that way. It deals with some very serious and resonant themes around AI and justice and morality and all that stuff, but ultimately, it’s not a think piece. This is something that you’re supposed to sit down, be sitting in a chair, throw on some 3D glasses and just get kind of blasted with this edge-of-your-seat experience.”

He added: “I love that we shot it in Los Angeles. There are fewer and fewer things being shot in LA, but we held firm on making sure it could be shot in Los Angeles and employing a bunch of LA actors and crew. It was a great chance for me to work with Timur again, who was one of the first directors to give me a chance to be in a movie. So, to work with him again was really exciting. To work with Rebecca and to become friends with Rebecca is really meaningful.”

“It means everything to me,” Ferguson said about the theatrical experience. “My daughter, who’s seven, we went to see Zootropolis (the movie title for Zootopia in the UK) the other day and my husband hadn’t seen it. He said, ‘But you’ve already seen it.’ And she said, ‘But it doesn’t matter. You sit there with everyone and I love hearing them laugh.’ I thought – Oh, you’re seven! I mean, this is the reason. That’s exactly why we do it. It’s the feeling of being in a room with other people. I try to sneak into films that I’m in, and I try and go without anyone seeing, just to experience what they are experiencing because there’s nothing like it. It’s an escapism. There’s a journey. There’s communication afterwards.”

Being a movie where Pratt’s character is strapped down alone in a room while Ferguson’s AI character speaks to him from a screen for a majority of the story, I assumed with the Hollywood stars in front of me, that they likely did not have to film their Mercy scenes together to pull this off.

Ferguson joked, “It was in my contract. I said I’d rather not see him.”

Pratt continued: “I wasn’t allowed to look her in the eyes until the junket.”

Ferguson then confirmed my suspicions, saying, “You’re right. That is what we did.”

So, as actors, how did they keep that intensity, even when they did not see one another during the filming?

Pratt said, “Well, we weren’t physically in the same space, but we were off-camera for one another. We were speaking to one another in an earpiece. So, I could hear her words – she could hear my words. So, there’s still very much a connection to each other.”

Ferguson added about the Mercy filmmaking process: “He had all of the actual images that you [the moviegoers] see, is floating by him. So, for him, it’s another feeling. For me, I am in the computer. It was quite nice. I was locked in a space with a very little set. It was quite dark with a green screen behind me, but it was a locked environment, which kind of resonates also to the different characters – AI versus human interaction.”

Also speaking briefly with Mercy director Bekmambetov, he had nothing but good things to say about working alongside Pratt and Ferguson on this movie. “It was a pleasure and I feel they’re trying to protect me. I was trying to protect them, but they were trying to protect me. It was really helpful when the actor tries to protect your choices in following you. Just because they’re big enough, they are not too afraid to follow you. They are very friendly, very open and honest. If something is wrong – if something is not comfortable, they immediately would tell you. It was great.”

Charles Roven, longtime Hollywood producer, including The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer, also shared with me his Mercy team’s early production process in bringing this story to the big screen.

Roven said of Pratt, “We went to Chris first because Chris has a relationship from Timur from Wanted. I got to meet Chris because I’ve done a number of movies with James Gunn, and obviously, James Gunn has done a number of movies with Chris. I would bump into Chris and I always wanted to work with him. We did not go to anybody else – we went to Chris. Chris read it and said, ‘I’m in!’”

He added about having Ferguson and Pratt film their Mercy scenes separately: “Having her not in the room really worked. It also allowed us, because he was in a chair and she was in a chair, to actually do these incredibly long takes. That was also, I felt, really good for their performance because they were just kind of rolling with it – and that worked well. The experience of doing this movie with these two great actors, who also had this incredible chemistry, both on and off-camera, it was a very enjoyable experience, I have to say.”

During a time within our real world where AI continues to grow and its possibilities seem almost endless, what do Pratt and Ferguson think of the highs-and-lows of AI within our day and age?

Pratt said, “We’re entering or we find ourselves in an economy of our attention. I think our data is a highly-traded commodity and these big companies are vying for ways to hold our attention, and AI is part of that. It’s sort of figuring out that making us enraged is in fact the best way to capture our attention and turn us into wonderful things that they can sell to their advertisers. So, in a way, what we pay attention to is more valuable than oil on the global market. It truly is. Data as a commodity is traded at a higher rate than oil and gas. Each person has something very valuable inside of them and it’s their attention, and it’s being mined to depletion right now.”

He added: “I think it’s widely important for people to understand the value of their attention and not just give it away for free, and be really mindful where they direct it and if they direct it in a way towards their life. There are amazing AI tools they can use to really optimize their attention to do wonderful things in their life. I think it’s understanding where the guardrails are. How AI can make your life better, but also like anything else, it can make your life worse. You have to be mindful about where you put your attention.”

Ferguson said, “I don’t read much news, and I think it’s scary saying that out loud because I think it’s a choice to actually throw yourself into it, but I get very affected by it. When I go in, I spiral down and the meta keeps feeding me the images that I don’t want to see. I feel despair. I don’t feel that knowledge is power for me. I feel like knowledge is crippling me, when it comes to the outer world. I don’t like seeing people scrolling on their phones and I don’t like being a part of that world.”

She added about AI: “I agree with Chris that it is a tool and it can be beneficial for people in so many ways, but I feel like maybe I’m one of those people who I force myself to try and not engage too much in it because I don’t know where it’s going. I don’t understand it and I don’t trust it – and yet, I am massively impressed. I think the more and quicker evolution of technology is moving, the dumber we’re becoming as a unit and we’re not thinking. It’s like we’re going back in time but with evolution of IT going so quickly. It’s sort of the juxtaposition of human involvement going backwards, and it scares me.”

While concluding our conversation around their new Mercy movie, I left Ferguson and Pratt with my signature and original interview question, wondering (without spoilers) what they would say to their characters Judge Maddox and Chris Raven, if only they could.

Pratt said with his Mercy character Chris in mind, “Oh man! I would say – Listen, you never should have drank yesterday. What are you doing, dummy? Stop drinking.”

Instead of answering for her Judge Maddox AI character, Ferguson chose to turn the question back on me, wondering what I would say to her character.

I responded to Ferguson with, “Be more human. Be allowed to be more human. Judge Maddox has that kind of pressing moments throughout the film.”

Ferguson quickly interjected with, “Is that what we’re after?”

I said, “I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re after. I don’t know the answer to this.”

Ferguson concluded with enthusiasm in her voice, “That’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s interesting!”