There's a lot of buzz surrounding M3GAN, and with overwhelmingly positive reviews and solid opening weekend box office projections (no easy feat with Avatar: The Way of Water still breaking records), this has all the makings of a new horror franchise. Does this opening chapter set the stage for one, though?
The movie opens with young Cady sent to live with her aunt Gemma after her parents are killed in a car crash, and she's soon introduced to one of her toy designer relative's pet projects, "M3GAN." The lifelike android is designed to serve as a companion to a child, teaching them lessons and acting as an almost de-facto nanny to their owners.
Gemma's boss is sold on the idea and Cady quickly bonds with her A.I. companion. M3GAN even helps the child through the grieving process! However, things begin to go awry when Gemma tells the android to protect her niece both emotionally and physically, an instruction "she" takes too literally.
The killings then begin, starting small and getting increasingly worse. When Gemma's boss tries to rush M3GAN's launch, for example, he meets an untimely end, and it's then her creator figures out what's going on.
After trapping the killer toy, Gemma returns M3GAN to the lab, only for one of her colleagues to inadvertently plug her into the company's systems. Cady walks in on her friend attempting to murder her aunt, and makes use of Bruce - the prototype for M3GAN also created by Gemma - to rip the villain in half.
After one last jump scare, M3GAN is dealt with, but right at the end of the movie, Gemma's Alexa-like smart home device emits a familiar, sinister light...
Her physical form may be gone, but yes, it looks like M3GAN will live on beyond this movie. We're sure she'll continue to evolve, and there are countless stories that can be told with the horror genre's newest, and possibly deadliest, killer doll!