Style & Culture

On Location: To Invent a Sci-Fi Version of Planet Earth, ‘The Creator’ Shot Over 60 Locations Around Southeast Asia

AI simulants and humans go to war in this sprawling epic, for which Thailand served as production's home base.
A scene still from 20th Century Studios THE CREATOR. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century...
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios.

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The world of The Creator feels familiar and alien at the same time. The film brings viewers to a near-future where artificial intelligence exists alongside humans as both working robots and humanoid simulants. The US government seeks to eradicate all non-humans after a nuclear explosion devastates Los Angeles, hunting them down with a space station defense system called NOMAD. As the story unfolds, the audience follows Sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) as he searches for the creator of the AI, the mysterious Nirmata, and ends up on the run with a young simulant named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), who may be the key to stopping the war.

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