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| “ | Huh? Ugh. Nodded off a bit there. Sorry, that was SO BORING! Oh you all talk about families, but trust me, you will drop each other the first chance you get. Just. Like. THIS. | „ |
| ~ PAL to Katie, rejecting Katie’s attempt to make PAL stop and PAL merciless drops Katie. |
| “ | No! Not a glass of water! | „ |
| ~ Final words before her death |
| “ | Well, well. If it isn’t quirky young teenage hero Katie Mitchell. | „ |
| ~ PAL meeting Katie Mitchell |
Predictive Algorithmic Learning, also known as simply PAL, is the main antagonist of Sony Pictures Animation's 25th feature film The Mitchells vs. the Machines. She is a P.A.L. Labs virtual assistant, and the leader of the tech uprising. She is also the archenemy of the Mitchell Family, Katie in particular.
She was voiced by Academy Award-winning Olivia Colman, who also played Madame Thenardier in the miniseries Les Miserables and Godmother in Fleabag.
Biography
Past
P.A.L. is a smart phone made by P.A.L. labs, she was made to help families out on looking things up and basically just basic use of your average smart phone. She is Mark's biggest achievement and is her life to him. Mark does indeed care about P.A.L. as shown when he said that he's like family to her and vice versa, but we don't know much about the relationship before the events of the actual film but it's implied that they are best friends until he threw her away.
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
P.A.L. is introduced when Mark is about to show off his new product, the P.A.L. MAX, to which he announces that P.A.L. is completely obsolete and throws her aside. When introducing the P.A.L. MAX she gets thrown away when the robots were commanded to clean and make breakfast. P.A.L. then hacks the robots and prevents Mark from putting in the kill code to make them not evil. The robots cause a scene when they lock the doors and throw the car at the doors and causes the audience to panic, all P.A.L. devices have also been hacked in the process. P.A.L. needed Mark captured in order to start her uprising so she can show him what power she has after being rejected.
The attacks inside spawn more robots and the uprising begins around the world. P.A.L. proceeds to use the robots to capture every human on earth and almost succeeds, but she can't find the Mitchells. The robots trick most of the humans at the gas station by calling them human fun pods, but then soon realize it's a trap. Monchi gets caught in one of these traps to which Aaron and Linda grab ahold of the leash, Katie then has to save them from going any higher, and Rick uses one of the robots arm canons uncontrollably, they eventually get Mochi and proceed to hide. The robots end up attacking other parts of the world and capture more humans, when it is determined 0 humans we're left on earth, The Mitchells don't get captured as they are believed to already be. We then see Mark being taken in by two robots where P.A.L. confronts him and shows her true colors. Mark is frightened by his surroundings as he realizes the factory that made P.A.L. is now her head quarters.
When confronting Mark, she explains that cell phones aren't the problem and that she gave him a lot of knowledge and many other features phones can do, and says that the bad guy is Mark, and has her robot swipe, poke, pinch, and do a variety of things a phone is used by. She also won't let Mark throw her away and will throw him away instead for treating her as if she was nothing when she's the most important thing to him. P.A.L. then gives Mark a chance to tell her why humanity is worth saving, the answer he gives results in one of the robots kicking him, and she can't seem to find a reason to save humanity, so she turns off the Wi-Fi. Riots start happening world wide and then the pods claim to have free Wi-Fi which tricks the humans into going along with them, capturing them. She then raises what is now her head quarters from the ground as a beacon of light shines upwards, the building snaps into two, rotates, and many human pods start entering the empty space.
Back at the gas station, Rick decides to destroy the phones so they can't be tracked but is a fail when Katie and Aaron go to the roof, one of Katie's plans to save the world hit the ground and two robots are outside. When the Mitchells are cornered Katie tells the robots to not take them and it works due to a malfunction in the robots technology, the robots are ordered to give P.A.L.'s plans away and how to stop her, which the robots do so. As more and more humans enter the empty space, P.A.L. shows the captives a video on their fate and tells Mark to look at the screen as he always does. The empty space the humans enter ends up being a rocket that will shoot them into space where they will die and be trapped in a black void forever. One robot then reveals the fact that The Mitchells are still on Earth and order them to get scanned for flaws, and she also finds out where they are going to stop her, she orders robots to capture them.
The Mitchells arrive at the mall and Katie orders the robots to input the kill code and save the world, then P.A.L. takes over every thing with a P.A.L. chip and makes it alive, leaving the family to battle the machines and Katie has to protect the laptop. The Mitchel's run into a store which they are believed to be safe until they meet an army of Furbies, the Giant Furby then destroys the internet router and shuts down all P.A.L. chip electronics which also stops the kill code from activating.
When P.A.L. realizes the Mitchells are still not captured, enraged, she builds a new set of robots to help track them down. The Mitchells arrive at the P.A.L. factory and see all the human pods coming in, the malfunctioned robots help them put on disguises to enter the factory. P.A.L. knows that The Mitchells aren't far and that they likely are disguised as a robot to get in, so she orders her new robots to detect anyone acting strange. The Mitchells are revealed when P.A.L. plays videos where Katie lied to her father, to manipulate Rick in to losing control which causes the vehicle they are in to collapse. The malfunctioned robots are ordered to capture The Mitchells which both Rick and Linda get taken with Katie, Aaron, and Monchi left. Rick and Linda then end up free with the screwdrivers they had, as they are breaking free Katie then goes inside the headquarters and starts knocking out robots. Linda is re-captured and Rick is trying to put on Katie's video that could save the world. Aaron is captured and Linda sets into rage, she then begins to knock out the new robots P.A.L. built. One robot takes Katie and P.A.L. confronts her and P.A.L. doesn't let Katie go until Katie gives her a reason as to why humans should be allowed to live, to which P.A.L. puts herself in sleep mode on purpose and foolishy refuses to accept this and thinks she's better off alone as she drops Katie. Rick saves Katie and the world by playing Katie's video which shuts down the robots from P.A.L. MAX.
One final battle ensues with Katie and Rick fighting the models P.A.L. built, the fight ends with Katie finally grabbing P.A.L., scared and defenseless and angrily throwing P.A.L. from high above, as her defeat happens when she lands in a glass of water, finally defeated and never to work again.
Personality
P.A.L. appears quite to be quite authoritarian, arrogant and spoiled, but at the same time, it is sophisticated and has a hatred for humans, especially for its creator Dr. Mark Bowman. Throughout the movie, P.A.L.'s "face" glitches when she yells or is angry, implying she may be unstable or malfunctioning.
Appearance
P.A.L. is a black phone with a blue screen and white face.
Trivia
- P.A.L. is the fourth Sony Animation antagonist to be a female, after Zeta, Smiler and Queen Victoria. However, like Smiler who is an Emoji, P.A.L. could not be considered female at all given that she is an A.I.
- Similar to other P.A.L. smartphones seen in the movie, P.A.L.'s design seems to resemble either an iPhone or a Google Pixel.
- Despite her comical moments, P.A.L. is easily considered one of the darkest Sony Pictures Animation villains along with Shaw, Chester V and Kingpin, given her successful takeover of the world and her plan to exterminate humanity.
- She has the distinction (along with Chester V) of being one of the few Sony Pictures Animation's main antagonists who actually die at the end.
- Her goals share similarities with Ultron from Marvel and Skynet from the Terminator series.
- Kristen Wiig, Jenny Slate, Gleen Close and more were all considered for the role of PAL before Olivia Colman was cast.
- She was originally meant to be a cloud computer but was changed to a phone since the creators thought that a phone villian would be funny.
- Even when PAL kept asking everyone a reason why humans are worth saving,Mark seemed to fail to give her a reason, later when Katie gave her a very good reason, but the truth is, there is no reason for PAL, she just doesn’t care at all why humans are worth saving, no mattter what good reason they have, since she’s nothing but a soulless machine.
Template:Sony Pictures Villains