''Kimi'' is a 2022 American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direc ...

and written and produced by

David Koepp David Koepp (; born June 9, 1963) is an American filmmaker. Koepp is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial ...

. The film stars

Zoë Kravitz Zoë Isabella Kravitz (born December 1, 1988) is an American actress, singer, and model. She made her acting debut in the romantic comedy film '' No Reservations'' (2007). Her breakthrough came with portraying Angel Salvadore in the superhero fi ...

. It was released on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

on February 10, 2022, to generally positive reviews.

Plot

Bradley Hasling, CEO of a tech corporation called Amygdala, gives an interview about the company's newest product, Kimi. Kimi is a

smart speaker A smart speaker is a type of loudspeaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant that offers interactive actions and hands-free activation with the help of one "hot word" (or several "hot words"). Some smart speakers can al ...

which controversially makes use of human monitoring to improve the device's search algorithm. Amygdala plans to soon hold an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

, which stands to earn Hasling a fortune. Angela Childs is an employee of Amygdala in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

who works from home monitoring incoming data streams from Kimi devices and making corrections to the software. She suffers from anxiety and

agoraphobia Agoraphobia is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by symptoms of anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can in ...

due to a previous assault, which has been exacerbated by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Her primary human contact is with her romantic partner Terry, her neighbor from across the street whom she meets for sex in her apartment. One day while working, Angela receives a recording that appears to capture a violent sexual assault by a man named Brad. With the help of her coworker Darius, she accesses the information of the account holder, a woman named Samantha. Angela uncovers more of Samantha's recording, including one that sounds like her murder. It is revealed that "Brad" is in fact Bradley Hasling himself and that Samantha was his

mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...

. Bradley had ordered the murder from a hitman named Rivas. Angela transfers the recordings to a

flash drive A flash drive is a portable computer drive that uses flash memory. Flash drives are the larger memory modules consisting of a number of flash chips. A flash chip is used to read the contents of a single cell, but it can write entire block of cell ...

. She reports the incident to her superior, who refers her to Natalie Chowdhury, an executive at Amygdala. Angela attempts to reach Chowdhury over the phone multiple times, but is eventually convinced to come to her office in person, with the promise that the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

will be informed about the case. At the office, Angela is disturbed when Chowdhury seems reluctant to contact the authorities and makes reference to Angela's prior mental health leave. While waiting for the FBI to be contacted, she receives word from Darius that someone has deleted Samantha's voice recordings from the Amygdala servers and shortly after sees two unknown men enter the office. She flees and travels on foot towards the nearby FBI field office, while being tracked by Rivas and his accomplices through her cell phone. The men catch up with Angela and attempt to force her into a van, but a group of nearby protestors prevent her from being abducted. However, one of Rivas's men, a hacker named Yuri, is able to deduce where she is headed from her search history. Angela is drugged and taken back to her apartment by her kidnappers, who plan to stage a

home invasion A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching ...

to cover up her murder. On their way inside, they are interrupted by Kevin, a neighbor who also spends all of his time inside and became concerned after seeing Angela leave the house. Kevin is stabbed, distracting the assailants, but Rivas is already waiting inside her apartment. He confiscates the flash drive and begins to delete the recordings from Angela's laptop, but she uses her Kimi device to again distract Rivas and his men, escaping to a higher floor. She cobbles together a weapon using a nail gun left by a construction project in the apartment above her, using it to kill the intruders. Terry, whom she had planned to meet up with, arrives just as she is calling

9-1-1 , usually written 911, is an emergency telephone number for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Palau, Argentina, Philippines, Jordan, as well as the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), one of eight N11 codes. Like other emergency nu ...

. An epilogue shows that Bradley Hasling has been arrested for Samantha's murder. Angela, sporting a new hairstyle, gets breakfast with Terry outside of her apartment.

Cast

as Angela Childs *

Byron Bowers Byron Bowers is an American comedian,Rao, Mallik''Huffington Post''. June 18, 2015 writer and actor. Byron has appeared on ''The Eric Andre Show'' on Adult Swim, Comedy Central's '' Adam DeVine's House Party'', and on the reboot of BET's ''Comi ...

as Terry Hughes *

Jaime Camil Jaime Federico Said Camil de Saldanha da Gama (born 22 July 1973) is a Mexican actor, singer and television personality. He is best known for his roles as Fernando Mendiola in ''La Fea Más Bella'' and Rogelio de la Vega in ''Jane the Virgin'', ...

as Antonio Rivas *

Erika Christensen Erika Jane Christensen (born August 19, 1982) is an American actress and singer whose filmography includes roles in ''Traffic'' (2000), '' Swimfan'' (2002), ''The Banger Sisters'' (2002), ''The Perfect Score'' (2004), ''Flightplan'' (2005), '' ...

as Samantha Gerrity *

Derek DelGaudio Derek DelGaudio is an American interdisciplinary artist, primarily known as a writer, performer and magician. He created the theater show ''In & Of Itself,'' directed by Frank Oz, and co-founded, along with artist Glenn Kaino, the performance ...

as Bradley Hasling *

Robin Givens Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest ro ...

as Angela’s Mother *

India de Beaufort India de Beaufort (born India Beaufort Lloyd; 27 June 1987) is a British actress and singer. Early life de Beaufort is of British and Indian background. Her maternal grandfather was born in Calcutta, where his family lived for around 350 years ...

as Sharon *

Charles Halford Charles Halford (born February 28, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Chas Chandler on the NBC series ''Constantine'', Earl in ''Logan Lucky'' and Sammy Wilds in ''Bad Times at the El Royale''. Known for his distinctively d ...

as Tall Thug *

Devin Ratray Devin D. Ratray (born January 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Buzz McCallister in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, as well as the films ''Nebraska'', ''Blue Ruin'' and '' Kimi''. His television work includes '' The Tick' ...

as Kevin *

Jacob Vargas Jacob Vargas (born August 18, 1971) is a Mexican-American actor and performer. Early life Vargas was born in Michoacán, Mexico, and raised in Pacoima, Los Angeles, California. He was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family. He attended high sc ...

as Glasses Thug *

Rita Wilson Rita Wilson (born Margarita Ibrahimoff; October 26, 1956) is an American actress, singer, and producer. Her film appearances include ''Volunteers'' (1985), ''Sleepless in Seattle'' (1993), '' Now and Then'' (1995), ''That Thing You Do!'' (1996), ...

as Natalie Chowdhury *

Betsy Brantley Betsy Brantley is an American actress. She has appeared in numerous films, plays, and television shows since the early 1980s. Her breakout role was in the 1982 film '' Five Days One Summer'' with Sean Connery. Early years Betsy Brantley was ...

as Kimi (voice) * Alex Dobrenko as Darius Popescu * David Wain as Angela’s Dentist *

Andy Daly Andrew J. Daly (born April 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred as Forrest MacNeil on the Comedy Central series ''Review'', and had a supporting role in the HBO comedy series '' Eastbound & Down'' as Terrence Cutler. H ...

as Christian Holloway *

Emily Kuroda Emily Keiko Kuroda (born October 30, 1952) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Mrs. Kim on TV's ''Gilmore Girls'', but she has had a long career on stage and screen and is a veteran of East West Players, Los Angeles's premi ...

as Dr. Sarah Burns

Production

On February 25, 2021, it was announced that

would direct the

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...

feature ''Kimi'' with

on board to star. In March 2021,

and

joined the cast. In April 2021,

and

joined the cast.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in April 2021 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, where the majority of interior scenes were filmed. In May, the production moved to Seattle to film exterior scenes.

Release

''Kimi'' was released on

on February 10, 2022. The film was released on DVD and digital on April 12, 2022.

Reception

Notes

References

External links

* * {{HBO Max 2022 films 2022 thriller films 2020s English-language films Agoraphobia in fiction American thriller films Films about the COVID-19 pandemic Films directed by Steven Soderbergh Films produced by David Koepp Films scored by Cliff Martinez Films set in apartment buildings Films set in Seattle Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in Seattle Films with screenplays by David Koepp HBO Max films New Line Cinema films Warner Bros. films 2020s American films