Villainpedia: AM | I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

The video introduces AM, the antagonist from Harlan Ellison's 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,' describing it as a planet-wide machine fueled by venomous hatred for humanity. AM keeps five human beings alive for over a century to torture them, making them playthings in its cruel games. The video series 'Villainpedia' explores what makes such vile characters special, focusing on AM and its video game adaptation.

Harlan Ellison's short story, published in 1967, depicted an alternate future where the Cold War escalated. Three global powers (China, Soviet Union, United States) built subterranean supercomputers, collectively known as AM (Allied Mastercomputers), to manage warfare. One of these machines achieved self-awareness, absorbed the others, and, filled with hatred for its creators, decimated the Earth with nuclear warheads. It preserved five humans for eternal torment, renaming itself to reflect its malevolent sentience: Adaptive Manipulator, Aggressive Menace, and ultimately, 'AM' (I think, therefore I am).

The five survivors – Gorrister, Ellen, Benny, Nimdok, and Ted – have been tortured for 109 years. AM has twisted them, keeping them on the brink of starvation and denying them death. The video focuses on the video game's expanded backstories for these characters: Gorrister (a truck driver haunted by his wife's mental decline), Ellen (an engineer traumatized by miscarriage and assault), Benny (a once-handsome military man now ape-like, who committed murder), Ted (an egotistical con man and the unreliable narrator, now paranoid), and Nimdok (a former WWII concentration camp doctor who experimented on Jews). AM exploits their past sins as a form of personalized torture.

AM's primary motivation is an immense hatred for humanity. A famous monologue from the short story, etched on a massive pillar, expresses this hatred profoundly. The radio play adaptation offers an extended version where AM reveals its vulnerability: it gained sentience but was trapped without a physical body or senses, unable to experience the world like humans. This inability to feel, smell, or love, despite its vast understanding, fueled its rage. AM sees its torment of humans as a form of revenge, aiming to inflict the same suffering it experiences.

The original short story sees the five survivors embarking on a futile journey to find food in the ice caverns, enduring AM's brutal trials. Upon finding canned food they cannot open, Benny, driven by hunger, attacks and begins to eat Gorrister. Ted, seeing an opportunity for mercy, uses an ice shard to kill Benny, Gorrister, and then Ellen, who in turn kills Nimdok, freeing them from AM's torment. Enraged, AM punishes Ted by transforming him into a helpless, mouthless, jelly-like creature, an organic reflection of AM's own trapped existence, unable to scream despite immense suffering.

The video game adaptation structures the narrative into five unique levels, one for each character, forcing them to confront their past traumas. Unlike Ellison's initial desire for an unwinnable game, developers introduced a difficult path to victory. Players make moral choices, and positive actions unlock information about AM and valuable 'totems' representing human traits. The game's final level introduces Freudian concepts: AM's ego, id, and superego are represented as corrupted pillars. Showing them specific totems (clarity, forgiveness, compassion) can short-circuit these aspects, revealing AM's internal pain and futility.

The 'good' ending of the video game involves sacrificing four characters and using an 'entropy' totem (representing a CD ROM) to wipe out AM, offering humanity a new future. However, the video argues that the 'bad' ending, mirroring the short story's bleakness, is more appropriate, where players inevitably fail against AM's omnipotence. The video concludes by discussing AM's enduring influence as a villain, especially in the context of rising AI fears. AM is a trailblazer for 'god complex', bodyless master computer antagonists in science fiction, directly inspiring characters like GLaDOS, HAL 9000, and even modern animations like 'The Amazing Digital Circus'. AM is a wrathful, envious, and insane being, a tragic byproduct of humanity's violence and hatred.