Andrew Garfield is playing Sam Altman. Let that sink in. The man who was Spider-Man is now the man who runs OpenAI. The first trailer for Artificial is here, and Garfield’s transformation is genuinely unsettling.
He’s got the hair. He’s got the slightly vacant stare of a person who thinks he’s the smartest guy in every room. He’s got the unnerving calm of someone who believes he’s building the future whether you like it or not. The trailer shows him explaining ChatGPT to a room full of people, saying something about opening Pandora’s box, about countries falling, about industries collapsing. He says it like he’s reading a weather report. That’s the horror of it.
This isn’t a hagiography. Artificial is a Luca Guadagnino film, which means it’s going to be uncomfortable, beautiful, and at least a little bit insane. The film covers the five days in November 2023 when OpenAI’s board fired Altman and then immediately regretted it. Monica Barbaro plays Mira Murati. Yura Borisov plays Ilya Sutskever. Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk. Mark Rylance plays Geoffrey Hinton. It’s an absurdly stacked cast for a movie about a corporate boardroom meltdown.
Amazon dropped Artificial after announcing a massive partnership with OpenAI. Neon picked it up. The film is now positioning itself as an awards contender, which is wild when you remember that it’s essentially a horror movie about the tech industry. The trailer ends with Garfield walking into a room full of weapons. Sam Altman doesn’t need to say anything. The image does the work.
The real Altman hasn’t commented on the film, which is probably smart. The version of him in Artificial is charismatic, calculating, and just scary enough to make you want to delete your ChatGPT account. Garfield has always been good at playing men who are a little too intense. Here, he’s playing a man who genuinely believes he’s saving the world while accidentally (or not) building the thing that ends it.
The film was written by Simon Rich, which is an interesting choice. Rich is a former SNL writer known for absurdist comedy. Putting him on a movie about the AI apocalypse is either genius or a disaster. Based on the trailer, it’s the former. The tone is dry, tense, and quietly devastating. Garfield’s Sam Altman doesn’t yell. He doesn’t need to. He just explains, calmly, that the world is about to change forever, and he’s excited about it. That’s scarier than any monster.
The supporting cast is stacked with people who don’t need the paycheck. Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd. This is a movie that actors wanted to be in, which says something about the script. Guadagnino doesn’t make safe movies. Artificial looks like his angriest one yet. If you thought Call Me by Your Name was intense, wait until you watch Sam Altman explain why he’s fine with industries collapsing.
Artificial premieres at the New York Film Festival in October and hits theaters on Christmas Day. It’s going to be the most talked-about movie of the holiday season. And if the trailer is any indication, Sam Altman is about to become the most terrifying character of the year. Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman. What a time to be alive.
Also Read: Artificial Amazon Dropped It, Neon Saved It