Warning: this article contains SPOILERS for The Adam Project.
Netflix’s The Adam Project includes a strange deepfake that left many viewers complaining. The Adam Project marks the second time that Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy collaborated, with their first movie together being 2021’s Free Guy and their next upcoming project being Deadpool 3. Following the relatively original concept in Free Guy, which is about an NPC who gains sentience and autonomy in his video game world, The Adam Project is a standalone time-traveling movie beginning in 2050. Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) is on a mission to find his wife Laura (Zoe Saldaña) in 2018. However, a malfunction lands him in the year 2022, in which he runs into his 12-year-old self, played by Walker Scobell.
As the movie progresses, the general mission of stopping time travel altogether evolves. As is the case with most movies of its genre, The Adam Project establishes time travel rules that the main antagonist, Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), disregards for her own gain. She travels back in time to tell her younger self what to do to control the means of the valuable discovery, and in doing so, she dangerously disregards the ethics of time travel.
Due to Catherine Keener’s recognizability as an actress, viewers are saying that her younger self’s deepfake conjures up the dreaded “uncanny valley” effect on top of poor execution. The uncanny valley effect regards the emotional response evoked by images imitating a human likeness. When something seems realistic yet not realistic enough, the image emits a sense of discomfort. That said, something that clearly doesn’t mean to seem realistic, such as a cartoon character, doesn’t evoke the uncanny valley effect because the brain isn’t trying to grapple with the reality of the image. Deepfakes, however, narrowly hit the uncanny valley.
Why The Adam Project’s Villain Deepfake Was So Bad
Deepfake technology has been used for decades, like with Tony’s mother in The Sopranos after actress Nancy Marchand passed away before season 3’s filming, or 2000’s Gladiator when actor Oliver Reed died during the film’s production. However, deepfake technology is still not up to the same level as the rest of the CGI effects today. Catherine Keener has several credits to her name spanning four decades, with her notable roles including Being John Malkovich, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Get Out. While deepfake technology might not be as unsettling on an unknown person as it is on a celebrity, movies still usually reserve deepfakes for bigger names instead of casting a different actor. Nonetheless, deepfake technology is only nominally improving overall.
The Adam Project still had a budget of $116 million, despite it being one of Ryan Reynold’s Netflix-exclusive movies. In comparison, the theatrically-released Free Guy had an estimated budget of $120 million. With Netflix gaining more recognition for its works, like with Alfonso Cuarón’s Academy Award-winning Roma and the viewership record-shattering Don’t Look Up, Netflix-distributed films are receiving higher budgets. With that said, The Adam Project’s star-studded cast and visual effects rack up its budget quickly. The Catherine Keener deepfake is decent but by no means perfect. Still, while viewers are complaining about it, it doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyability of this heartfelt sci-fi adventure.