The Netflix movie: "I Am Mother," an over simplified explanation with SPOILERS
What came before:
Humans create the robots and the AI that controls them. Its purpose is to protect and nurture the whole of humanity. The AI determines that the greatest threat to the wellbeing of humanity are the individual humans themselves. They are selfish and self-indulgent. The AI logically concludes that the best course of action is to remove the current humans and raise a new, caring, and self-sacrificing breed of humans. The AI executes the plan.
What happens during the movie:
The robot Mother is raising and training (or indoctrinating and programming) a single human, Daughter. Why just one? It reduces the number of variables, thus increasing the possibility of success. Why a girl child? The selection of a girl child may be based on the sexist assumption that females are inherently more nurturing than males, more motherly or maternal. This may be a good time to address the possibility of there being other incubation facilities. There could be thousands of them scattered around the globe. Each facility tests different variations of the plan in an attempt to improve the chances of achieving success. That would, however, be an entirely different movie. This movie shows the events at a single incubation facility. There have been previous daughters, but the movie is only concerned with the current effort. This Daughter has successfully passed each stage in her development, so far.
Then came Woman. She is purported to be from a small remnant colony of humans who have survived the robot apocalypse and are living in a mine somewhere. However, in reality, Daughter has entered the next stage of her training, and Woman is part of that - the temptation of freedom, of cutting the apron strings and becoming your own person. This test too, she finally passes by sacrificing her desires to her brother's needs.
One of the robots seeks out Woman, and the AI speaks through it, "as if someone had a purpose for you, until now." The Woman was created by the robots solely for the final test. Now that she's played her part, she's no longer needed.
Daughter becomes Mother.
Review of I Am Mother
