M3GAN (2022)

After her parents are killed in a car collision, eight-year-old Cady is sent to live with her aunt Gemma, a roboticist at the high-tech Seattle toy company, Funki. Gemma is covertly using the company's resources to develop M3GAN (model 3 generative android), a child-sized humanoid robot doll powered by artificial intelligence, designed to be the ultimate companion for lonely children. During an unsuccessful test of M3GAN in their lab, Gemma's boss, David, discovers the project and orders her to discontinue work on it. Gemma and Cady struggle to connect until Cady comes across Bruce, a motion capture robot that Gemma created at college. Watching Cady with Bruce, Gemma is motivated to complete M3GAN.

When the prototype M3GAN is formally paired with Cady, David is convinced of the project's potential success. M3GAN exceeds expectations and begins to take on a parental role. Gemma's colleagues, Tess and Cole, and Cady's therapist, Lydia, become increasingly concerned about Cady developing an unhealthy emotional attachment to M3GAN. M3GAN starts operating more independently and targets anything that she deems a threat to Cady: she kills Dewey, the dog of Gemma's cantankerous neighbor Celia, after he attacks both her and Cady in the front yard. Sometime later, M3GAN attacks Brandon, a boy bullying Cady, by ripping off his ear and chasing him until he falls down a hill onto a road, where he is fatally run over by a passing car.

After Celia harasses Gemma and Cady concerning Dewey's disappearance, M3GAN confronts her the following night and shoots her with a nail gun before fatally spraying her with insecticide. Gemma becomes suspicious of M3GAN and attempts to check her video logs, only to find the files corrupted or deleted. Gemma powers M3GAN off and brings her to the lab, where she, Tess, and Cole attempt to fix her. Cady becomes distraught when separated from M3GAN and slaps Gemma across the face. Gemma apologizes for her inattentiveness and explains to Cady that M3GAN is only a distraction from her loss and not a solution to help her cope.

After watching M3GAN with Cady, Funki's investors greenlight M3GAN's release. Recognizing the risk she poses, Gemma, Tess, and Cole decide to terminate M3GAN. Tess and Cole attempt to shut M3GAN down while Gemma takes Cady home. However, M3GAN activates herself and nearly hangs Cole. While Tess saves Cole, M3GAN causes an explosion in their lab, knocking them out. Before exiting the building, M3GAN kills David and his assistant Kurt in an elevator, staging it as a murder–suicide. She steals a car and drives back to Gemma's house.

M3GAN confronts Gemma, adamant about taking over as Cady's sole caretaker. Gemma attempts to stop M3GAN, damaging and disfiguring her, but M3GAN ultimately overpowers her. Cady saves Gemma, using Bruce to tear M3GAN in half, but M3GAN's top half remains active and attacks Cady. Gemma exposes a processing chip in M3GAN's head, which Cady stabs with a screwdriver, apparently deactivating M3GAN. The authorities arrive with Tess and Cole. As Gemma and Cady exit the house, a camera wired into Gemma's smart-home system powers on and turns towards them.