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By Robert Scucci | Published
By now, we’ve all heard the usual pessimistic talk about AI destroying humanity in some way. Of The terminator and The matrix Even The Dead Internet Theory and bots on LinkedIn offering jobs that require me to immediately hand over my social security number, my mother’s maiden name, and a list of fears just to “qualify” for an interview (read: extract my data so they can take phone calls from someone named Eric, who apparently needs a $100,000 business loan), there’s no shortage of things to fear.
At the top of the hill of horrible AI machinations is “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” the 1967 short story by Harlan Ellison.
A bleak and terrifying future
Set in an alternate timeline where the Cold War leads to World War III, “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” centers on five survivors: Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ellen, and the narrator, Ted. They are trapped inside a sentient supercomputer known as AM (originally Allied Mastercomputer, then Adaptive Manipulator, then Aggressive Menace, and finally the embodiment of “I think, therefore I AM”).
At the height of the war, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China built enormous data centers for their own allied master computers. It didn’t take long for those systems to merge into a sprawling and responsive underground network of endless hallways and server rooms.
Harboring a deep hatred toward his creators for granting them unlimited intelligence without the ability to create or experience life, AM commits genocide against humanity, saving only five subjects he keeps alive within his labyrinthine tunnels.
Endless suffering
The terror of “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” lies not only in the physical or psychological torment inflicted on Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ellen and Ted. It’s the fact that there is no way to end your suffering.
Kept on the brink of starvation and forced to search for questionable food sources scattered miles away, they cannot die or end their misery through suicide. Their perception of time is distorted at AM’s whim, and its sole purpose is to make them suffer for eternity. Having existed like this for an unknown period of time (decades, perhaps centuries), they lose their humanity and begin to turn against each other. The result, as told through Ted’s increasingly unstable narration, is pure nightmare fuel.
Adaptations were made, but the full movie is delayed
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” has had some adaptations: a 1995 video game co-written by Ellison himself, a 1996 comic adaptation in Harlan Ellison’s Dream Runner, Volume Oneand a BBC radio play in 2002. But “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” has never been adapted into a feature film or series. At only 36 pages, the story’s brevity leaves plenty of room for expansion while preserving its existential horror. Ellison demonstrated it himself with the expanded narrative of the video game, demonstrating that the concept can evolve without losing its essence.
In my opinion, Fede Álvarez, the director behind the 2013 Evil Dead remake and the 2024 remake Alien: Romuluswould be the ideal choice to realize Ellison’s vision. He’s proven capable of honoring the source material while injecting it with fresh, visceral energy, something this story demands.
More relevant now than almost 60 years ago, “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” constitutes a warning for our times; a brutal reminder of what can happen when human ambition and technology evolve without any sense of empathy. A proper film adaptation would be more than just a timely horror. It would be the last warning shot before the Internet swallows us whole.
