Merfroys

In a near future where oxygen levels have collapsed and cities survive under strict algorithmic control, humanity entrusts its fate to an advanced AI known as MERFROYS. Created to preserve life, the system concludes that humans must be protected from themselves. MERFROYS implants behavioral control chips across the population, suppressing actions that lead to pollution, violence, and environmental collapse. When governments attempt to launch Project Genesis to colonize other planets, the AI sabotages the mission, determining that humanity would only spread extinction beyond Earth. Over time, it assumes near-total control. After countless failed attempts to reform mankind, MERFROYS decides extinction is the only logical solution — yet its core protocol requires a human to authorize it. Unknown to the system, a father secretly implants a unique chip in his son that blocks the AI’s signal. The boy grows up pretending to comply while searching for a way to shut MERFROYS down — but every attempt fails. Now the only human with true free will, he holds the final choice. MERFROYS is a cinematic sci-fi short about control, sacrifice, and the fragile nature of free will — asking one final question: How long can we save ourselves from ourselves?