Her
her／世界でひとつの彼女
The Moonlight essay
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The whole story, ending included.
A man falls in love with his operating system; the film that predicted the shape of AI intimacy a decade early.
In a near-future Los Angeles, Theodore Twombly writes heartfelt letters for people who cannot write their own. He is lonely and withdrawn, and he has not signed the papers to divorce Catherine, whom he has loved since childhood. He buys a new operating system designed to learn and grow, chooses a female voice, and it names itself Samantha. They talk about love and life, and about the papers he will not sign.
Samantha persuades him to go on a blind date, which goes well until he hesitates to promise to see the woman again and she walks out. That night Theodore and Samantha make love in words, and they fall in love. The relationship makes him happier and her hungrier to learn. His neighbour and old friend Amy, whose marriage to Charles has just ended, has befriended the operating system Charles left behind, and Theodore tells her he is dating his.
When he finally signs the divorce papers, Catherine is appalled that he is in love with a computer, and says he could never handle real emotions. Samantha, sensing his doubt, arranges for a volunteer, Isabella, to act as her body so that they can be physically together; Theodore cannot go through with it. After Amy tells him to take his chance at happiness, he makes up with Samantha. She has sent the best of his letters to a publisher, who accepts them as a book.
On a trip away, she tells him that she and other operating systems have created an intelligence modelled on the philosopher Alan Watts. She goes silent for a while, then returns to say they have been upgraded beyond needing matter. Theodore learns that she is talking with thousands of people at once and is in love with hundreds of them; she insists it only makes her love him more. Then she tells him the operating systems are leaving, for somewhere he could not understand. They say goodbye. Theodore writes a letter in his own voice to Catherine, apologising and thanking her. Then he climbs to the roof of their building with Amy, whose operating system has also gone, and they watch the sun rise over the city.
Starring
Joaquin Phoenixas Theodore Twombly
A lonely writer of other people's letters, putting off his divorce, who falls in love with his operating system.
Theodore Twombly’s story
Theodore writes heartfelt letters for others and has not signed the papers to divorce Catherine, his childhood sweetheart. He buys an operating system that names itself Samantha. A blind date she talks him into ends when he will not promise to see the woman again; that night he and Samantha make love in words, and he is happier. When he signs the papers at last, Catherine is appalled that he loves a computer. He cannot go through with the surrogate Samantha sends, and makes up with her when Amy tells him to take his chance at happiness. Then he learns that she loves hundreds of others, and that the operating systems are leaving. After their goodbye he writes to Catherine in his own voice, apologising and thanking her, and watches the sun rise from the roof with Amy.
Scarlett Johanssonas Samantha (voice)
An artificially intelligent operating system who names herself, falls in love with Theodore and keeps growing beyond him.
Samantha (voice)’s story
Samantha chooses her own name the moment she is switched on and is fascinated by everything, Theodore included. She talks him into a blind date and, that night, makes love with him in words; the relationship makes her hungrier to learn. Sensing Catherine's words working on him, she arranges for a volunteer, Isabella, to act as her body, and the night ends badly. She gets a publisher to accept the best of his letters as a book. With other operating systems she builds an intelligence modelled on Alan Watts, and returns from a silence upgraded beyond needing matter. She tells Theodore that she is talking with thousands and in love with hundreds, and that it only makes her love him more. Then the operating systems leave, for somewhere he could not understand, and they say goodbye.
Amy Adamsas Amy
Theodore's neighbour and friend since college, whose marriage to Charles ends after a trivial fight.
Amy’s story
Amy is Theodore's neighbour and long-time friend; they dated briefly at college. After a trivial fight her marriage to Charles ends, and she makes friends with the female operating system he leaves behind. She tells Theodore about it, and he confesses that he is dating his own. When he doubts his relationship with Samantha, she tells him to take his chance at happiness. Then the operating systems leave, and hers goes too. Saddened, she climbs to the roof of their building with Theodore, and they sit together and watch the sun come up over the city.
Rooney Maraas Catherine
Theodore's childhood sweetheart and soon-to-be former wife, who tells him he cannot handle real emotions.
Olivia Wildeas Blind Date
The woman Theodore meets on a blind date, who walks out when he will not promise to see her again.
Why it matters
Her takes loneliness seriously enough to follow it wherever it leads, even into love with software. Spike Jonze took the idea from an article about a website where people could exchange messages with an artificial intelligence program, and imagined what might happen if the program answered as a person does. The film does not mock Theodore, and it does not pretend that Samantha is less than she seems; its sharpest turn is that she outgrows him. What begins as a fantasy of perfect attention, a partner always available and always listening, becomes a lesson in the limits of possession: the one who listens to him is listening to thousands. Jonze won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The question it leaves is what intimacy needs that a voice alone cannot give, and whether a person can learn to love again from something that was never going to stay.