Electric State, The

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Electric State, The
• a review of Electric State, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 18 March 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) and her brother Christopher (Woody Norman) live in a world that is full of incredible technical advances, with sentient robots to carry out all the tedious, daily tasks people don’t want to do. However, trouble is brewing as the robots fight to have the same rights as their human creators, triggering a devastating war. With humans almost wiping out robot-kind and banishing the survivors to a desolate, barely survivable place called the Exclusion Zone, a new and dystopian era arose, where people live almost exclusively in virtual reality. After the war and tragic loss of Christopher and her parents, a teenage Michelle is struggling to adjust. However, when a curious and friendly Cosmo bot crashes into her life and claims to be her brother, Michelle’s life is turned upside down once again. As she travels across America with her new Cosmo friend in tow, Michelle is racing against the clock to find out the truth about what really happened to Christopher. Can she unite humans and bots in time to uncover the truth and change the world, or will she be too late?

War; Humans vs Robots; Family, Parent and Sibling Loss; Grief; Societal Division; Dystopian Society; Artificial Intelligence; Self-Sacrifice.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• Parents should note that casual violence between humans and robots is prevalent throughout the movie, with fights including guns, tasers and laser guns often leading to the deaths of both human and robot characters.
• Character in military gear shoulder checks a teenager and yells at him for wearing a shirt with a robot on it.
• A robot character picks up tray and slams it down, destroying tables, while people scream in background.
• A male, foster-parent character verbally berates Michelle, then physically shoves her to the ground.
• A robot character throws a BBQ from the top of a house, causing an explosion that sends soldiers flying backward and presumably dying.
• Cosmo bot shoves a male character backwards hard and he lands on his back. The character then grabs a golf club and starts to beat the Cosmo with it, while Michelle screams for them to stop in the background.
• A male, foster-parent character is injured after a fight and attempts to call the police on both Cosmo and Michelle. Michelle then tasers him in the neck, causing the character to get electrocuted and pass out.
• A character blasts another in the chest with a laser, leaving him to die.
• A character gets angry at another character for unplugging his refrigerator, and lashes out by screaming and hitting the refrigerator repeatedly.
• A male character punches another male character repeatedly in the stomach after getting shot, then grabs him by the throat
• Michelle drives a bulldozer into a character, destroying his robot avatar.
• A male character punches another in the stomach, unprompted, in retaliation to a perceived slight.
• A robot character says, “I watched a Scav attack and dismember my closest friends in front of my eyes”.
• A character rips half of a robot character’s head off, causing him to scream in pain and fall to the floor.
• A robot character punches her hand into the abdomen of another robot character, pulling out handfuls of wires and killing them.
• A male character shoots another male character, unprompted, with a laser gun, sending him flying backward. We then see that he has been impaled, with a bloody piece of metal sticking out from his abdomen and blood leaking from his mouth, and he dies from his injuries.
• Michelle and her friends return to a sanctuary that had been created for friendly bots, only to see that it has been burned to the ground by humans and many of their friends are dead. We see the floor littered with the bodies of robot characters in varying states of dismemberment.
• An adult male character mentions that his mother was an alcoholic, hinting that she may have been abusive.
• In a final battle scene, many robot characters are blown up in explosions and killed. This battle is portrayed with significant exaggerated violence, and is portrayed at times in a comedic light.
• Several human characters refer to the robots as “savages” and “not human”.

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• Several of the robots have a scary and deteriorated look, made up of spare parts, including clown masks, puppets, hooked hands, drill parts and scary cartoon faces. Their wires are showing, and their movement is disjointed and jolting. These appearances are reminiscent of the animatronics seen in the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise.
• Glitching in virtual reality makes a woman look distorted and scary, with a creepy, distorted voice.
• A creepy robot character is shown through glass, making loud scary sounds and smashing items. Loud and ominous music swells as the robot looks for Michelle as she hides under a table, before the bot lifts the table to a scary reveal of the bot’s painted face with a swell of creepy music.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Michelle has a dream of the car accident that killed her family. You hear loud, ominous music, then you see the car swerve to avoid a deer on the road. Christopher’s head hits the car window as it smashes, before it cuts away to a blurred screen with Michelle screaming for her dad.
• Michelle is seen in several scenes becoming visibly distressed and crying when she is reminded of Christopher.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• A robot character appears to have been killed in the final battle, as his best friend cries over his body.
• Michelle is forced to turn off Christopher’s life support to save the world, killing him. You see her visibly distressed and crying while holding his hand as she flips the switch.

• Michelle and Christopher are both very distressed as they discuss having to turn off Christopher’s life support. Both siblings are crying and arguing, as Michelle does not want to have to kill her brother.
• Throughout the film, the themes and scenes of war between the robots and humans may be generally distressing to older children.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Several popular news channels and talk shows are shown in this film, including MTV, CNN, The Discovery Channel, NBC and 60 Minutes.
• Several popular fast-food franchises are either shown or mentioned throughout the film, including Panda Express and McDonalds.
• Characters are shown inside a Volkswagen van.
• A Porsche is thrown at a building.
• A character runs an illegal shop full of branded merchandise popular in the early 1990s, including: Cabbage Patch Kids, Nintendo, SEGA, Twister, Big Mouth Billy Bass; GI Joe and Barbie.
• A Dr Pepper can is emphasised as a means of communication between Cosmo and Michelle.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Characters joke about an “8-inch model” in reference to a penis.
• A character makes a joke about not having the “stones” to do something, in reference to testicles.

Nudity and sexual activity

• None noted.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• A character mentions that his mother is a “3 bottle-a-day drunk”.
• A human character is shown passed out on the street with a VR set on his head, very reminiscent of a drug overdose or drug addiction.

Coarse language

There is frequent coarse language throughout this movie, including:

• Variations of: ‘moron’; ‘shit/shithead’, ‘dick’, ‘piss/pee’, ‘ass/asshole’, ‘hell’, ‘bastard’, ‘damnit’, ‘idiot’, ‘crap’, ‘frickin’’.

In a nutshell

Based on the 2018 graphic novel of the same title, by Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State is a science fiction, dark comedy that touches on the real-life political concerns of Artificial Intelligence, human rights and war. While this may be a fun, dystopian-style film for older teens, this film is not suitable for children under the age of 13 due to violence, scary scenes and coarse language, and parental guidance is recommended under 16 due to the heavy themes of war, death and grief. Additionally, as this film used AI to enhance the voice acting, parents could consider any ethical stances they may have on this.

The main messages from this movie are that it is important to treat each other as equals despite our differences; and to believe in yourself to make your own decisions.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Perseverance
• The importance of community and family
• Asking others for help
• Equality.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• The robots in this film wanted to be treated as equals, but both sides started fighting each other and started a war. How do you think we should treat other people, even if they are different? What would you have done in this situation?
• Do you think this would really happen if we spent too much time on our screens? Why or why not?
• Do you think that it was okay for the robots to start attacking humans to get what they wanted? What do you think they could have done instead?
• You see Michelle’s foster father treating her very poorly at the start of the film. Do you think that this is representative of foster care as a whole? Parents may want to discuss the topic of foster care in general with more curious children.
• Parents should note the significant violence throughout the film, and the way it is played off as comedic or not real because it is against robots. They may want to discuss, with older children, that this violence is not normal or okay even though it is ‘not real’.
• For more sensitive children, Michelle making the choice to take Christopher’s life to save the world may be particularly distressing, and parents way want to talk through the implications of this choice with their kids.