What Defines Humanity?

A heartbroken man finds companionship through a new operating system that builds itself around him. The operating system becomes a unique and thoughtful entity throughout the movie while Theodore battles with his emotions and with this new taboo relationship.

We follow the story of a man named Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix), who composes personal letters for people, as he is dealing with his recent divorce. Theodore overhears of a new operating system and it earns his intrigue enough to where he orders this operating system. Theodore names the new O.S ‘Samantha’ (played by Scarlett Johansson) who brings a bubbly and playful personality to his life. Theodore and Samantha quickly become acquainted and we follow their story where Samantha fills in the cracks of his recent divorce. She goes along with him slowly turning into his friend and even later down the line, lovers? One question that comes along as you watch is, what is humanity? What does it mean to have humanity? Can something that doesn’t have a physical body be classified as a being?

One of the movie's best points is how it handles Samantha as a character. She comes into Theodore's life at his most vulnerable and becomes an anchor for him to ground himself. Theodore latches onto something that is being kind and compassionate after his recent rough patch. Shortly after, he begins to take her with him through the use of a video camera that she can see through. The director handles Samantha with human-like qualities giving her compassion, thoughtfulness, and even love later down the line. The personification of Samantha gives leadway into the question of what is humanity?

Humanity is a big piece of the film. The world is in an advanced state of technology where people can do everything with assistants. However, they only do the basics such as reading and sorting through emails or sending messages to people. Conversations are not being had between a person and their assistant. Samantha gives a whole new idea to what it means to be a person. The old saying it is if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, is it a duck? That raises the question of if Samantha has qualities of a human, such as compassion and love, does she need a physical body to be classified as human. The only problem that Samantha has with being a person is the fact that she doesn’t have a physical body. This problem comes to fruition when Samantha hires a body actor to give the physical attributes that she herself is missing. Theodore struggles to accept the fact of this even when they have “made love” without the need for physical contact. What is interesting about this is Theodore’s reaction to having this body actor. It is shown he is falling for Samantha and it is a problem for him when she takes a physical place through someone else's body. It brings in the point of asking, does having a physical body matter?

Her is an excellent movie where it questions the social norms of the world and makes you reconsider your morals. Theodore slowly gives Samantha her human nature and makes you wonder if the human body matters in the end. The story and concept bring the term humanity into question in the end.