Tears of Steel

Title: Tears of Steel

By: Blender Studios

Genre: Sci-fi, action

Language Difficulty: Intermediate

Story Difficulty: Difficult

Ages: Teen+ (mild violence and some bad language)

Run Time: 9 minutes 48 seconds

Listening

Test your understanding

1. What did Thom and Celia do on the bridge?

2. Whose brain did we see?

3. Why did Barley warn that there were "2 minutes left"?

4. While trying to overwrite the memory in the brain, what problem did the people NOT have?

5. How did changing Celia's memory help stop the robot attack?

Find the Mistakes

There are five mistakes in the writing below. Can you find them all?

This is a story of humans trying to prevent destruction by robots. It starts with a scene of two young adults, Thom and Celia, standing outside at the beach. It's clear that they are a couple that is breaking up because they have different interests - space travel and robotics - and also because Thom has trouble accepting Celia's robot arm. The movie then cuts to an futuristic scene of some scientists doing something with a brain. Outside, we see an armed guard (Barley) monitoring for danger. Next to him, an old man wakes up and goes down some stairs into a building. There, we see a giant robot. The scientists start a machine and a hologram appears, creating the scene of the breakup that we saw at the beginning of the movie. The old man enters the hologram, and his appearance changes into that of Thom, his younger self. We see him reenact the breakup scene with the giant robot, but he is unable to do it convincingly. While this is happening, the scientists try to overwrite the memories in the brain that they had been working with. But things start going wrong. Barley warns that there is danger coming in 2 days. There is some kind of technology failure. And the robot, which now looks like Celia, is furious with Thom and threatening violence. Just then, Thom starts to change the script and explain his real feelings. Just then, robots arrive and start attacking, while several of the people try frantically to fight them off. In the hologram, we see Celia start to be convinced by Thom's performance and the memory overwrite of the brain is completed. As a robot damages the machinery, the hologram breaks and we see Thom and Celia in their current forms: an old man and a giant bird. We learn that the brain was actually Celia's and it becomes clear that she was controlling the robot army. By overwriting her memories, the humans have been able to change her attitude. At the end of the movie, we see Thom and Celia fighting while robots move around the facility. The robots do not seem to be attacking humans, suggesting that the mission to stop them has been a success.

Vocabulary

Drag the correct word to each blank.

Real Talk

Here you will find some language that can often be heard in real life, but isn't usually found in textbooks.

Jerk

"Jerk" is an insult used in American English. It is not very strong and is often used by children, especially when referring to a male.

Awesome

This is a very common word that has the same meaning as "amazing". Thom says that he wants to do good things in space (and probably look good too!).

Freaky

The word "freaky" describes something that makes someone feel uncomfortable because it is strange, and probably a little scary too.

Move your ass(es)

The word "ass" is a slightly more adult version of the word "butt"/"bum". But it is often used in sentences where it does not have this meaning. In this sentence, the director is just saying "Move" or "Hurry Up". Similar expressions include "Kick your ass" and "Beat your ass", both of which are not related to a butt.

Speaking Activities

Are you interested in some group speaking activities? Contact us to find out more about how you can talk about this film with a class and a teacher!