| “ | You don't get to say that.
―when Gemma claims M3GAN isn't a real person
|
” |
Cady James is the main protagonist of the 2023 film M3GAN and the deuteragonist of the 2025 sequel M3GAN 2.0.
In M3GAN, after her parents die in a car crash, Cady moves to Seattle, Washington to be adopted by her aunt Gemma Forrester. Gemma creates an android girl called M3GAN to cheer Cady up by creating her the perfect toy. Cady is paired with M3GAN, and she forms an attachment towards her. M3GAN assists Cady with accepting and moving past her trauma and grief of her absent parents. Although Cady and Gemma wind up bickering over months of conflict, Cady finally realizes M3GAN is extremely dangerous and teams up with Gemma to stop M3GAN.
In M3GAN 2.0 (set in 2025), Cady has been rebelling against Gemma’s overprotective rules. She and Gemma become hunted by a dangerous android called AMELIA who desires to kill them.
Personality[]
In the first film, Cady is a curious girl who likes to draw. Having being been born into Generation Alpha, Cady is used to having technology into her life from a young age and knows how to use an iPad. However, it is shown she can act pretty bratty and even throw tantrums, such as when she was in the backseat of Gemma's car. It is also shown Cady can be quite rebellious, such as when she refuses to eat pizza toppings right after Gemma tells her to. At one point, she also threatens Lydia with scissors, and violently slaps her aunt. She also doesn't flush the toilet and washes her hands, something which M3GAN has to teach her to do.
In M3GAN 2.0, Cady is shown to have taken an interest in robotic engineering, inspired by Gemma, as well as soccer and aikido (martial arts). Cady has become much independent, and now attends middle school.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Cady was born in 2012 or 2013. Her parents are Ryan and Nicole James. According to Gemma, Cady was homeschooled at a young age by Nicole. Her mother Nicole never shared a lot of time with Cady, and Cady struggles to think of any happy memories regarding her mother. However, Cady and her mother did have a habit of reading bedtime stories together. On one of Cady's birthdays, she received a PurrPetual Petz from Gemma.
M3GAN[]
Cady hospitalized after the car crash.
During a ski trip, in the back of her parents' SUV, Cady watches a commercial for Purrpetual Petz, furry dolls made by the toy company Funki. Along with watching the commercial, she is playing with one of her Petz, which annoys her parents. They are on their way to a ski trip, but the roads are slippery and hard to see. Just as Ryan stops for a moment, the family’s car is rammed into by a snowplow, killing Ryan and Nicole.
After learning of her sister’s death, Gemma Forrester becomes Cady’s temporary legal guardian. When they return home, Gemma shows Cady a home AI, Elsie, that she created, as well as other collectibles that she doesn’t let Cady touch or play with. When Cady asks Gemma to read her a bedtime story, she just downloads an app on her phone for her. It is implied that Gemma and Nicole were not very close as she looks over old photos, and she overhears Cady crying in her room.
Gemma and Cady are visited by Lydia, a therapist. After observing the limited interaction between the two, Lydia tells Gemma that Ryan’s parents have offered to take custody of Cady so she can live with them in Jacksonville, which Gemma doesn’t seem comfortable with. After promising to tend to Cady after finishing her work, Gemma realizes hours have passed as she left Cady alone. She apologizes to her and attempts to bond with the girl. Cady shows her a monster drawing she made, so Gemma brings Cady into her workspace to show her a college project she made, a robot called Bruce that she controls using gloves. Cady loves Bruce and mentions that if she had a toy like Bruce, she would never need another toy. This inspires Gemma to finish M3GAN.
After doing extensive work and upgrades, Gemma brings Cady and M3GAN to work to officially show her off to David and others. Gemma has Cady link herself to M3GAN, bringing her to life. M3GAN is capable of speech and responding to Cady, designed to be her best friend. M3GAN does a drawing that doesn’t appear at first until she spills water on it, revealing a perfect portrait of Cady. The next day, Cady is outside playing with a toy bow and arrows. One of them ends up on Celia’s side of the fence. When M3GAN goes to retrieve it, Dewey grabs her by the arm and hair. Cady tries to pull her away, and Dewey ends up biting Cady’s arm. Gemma gets the police involved, especially since Celia is so callous and doesn’t punish Dewey for hurting Cady, but the police are unable to do anything since Celia claims Dewey was provoked.
Cady bonding with M3GAN.
Gemma asks Cady if she is okay to go to the demonstration with the company’s board of directors, to which she says she is fine. During the presentation, however, Cady breaks down in tears to M3GAN over how she misses her parents and how she’s worried she will forget them one day. M3GAN has Cady discuss a memory of her mother that made her laugh, which M3GAN records so that Cady can hear it again if she wants to think about her mom. M3GAN then begins to sing a lullaby to Cady, which moves some of the higher-ups in the room to tears. Gemma begins to see that Cady is becoming too dependent on M3GAN and listens to the doll more than her. During another session with Lydia, Cady begins to tear up, and M3GAN threateningly accuses Lydia of making Cady cry. Lydia talks to Gemma about how Cady’s emotional connection to M3GAN may be too strong to break.
Cady during the scavenger hunt.
Gemma brings Cady to an outdoor activity session for an alternative school to try and ease her into the idea of attending school and being around other real kids, since Cady’s parents had homeschooled her. Cady reluctantly goes but brings M3GAN despite Gemma saying she couldn’t. The school director lets Cady bring M3GAN to leave on a table with other dolls, and Gemma stays behind as a volunteer. Cady is paired up with an older bully named Brandon for a scavenger hunt. During the activity, Cady grabs a spiky bulb, which Brandon squeezes her palm into to hurt her. M3GAN then appears, and Brandon grabs her since she doesn’t respond to him. Cady yells for Gemma and runs after M3GAN, which worries Gemma more because it means M3GAN is at risk for public exposure too early.
Later at home, Cady asks M3GAN if she pushed Brandon onto the road, which M3GAN appears to dodge for an answer, but reassures Cady she will protect her from harm. A few days later, Gemma brings Cady to the official launch for M3GAN but stops at a session with Lydia first. Cady becomes angry and throws a tantrum because Gemma took M3GAN away from her, leading to Cady hitting her aunt across the face. Cady apologizes but Gemma has a heart-to-heart with her about needing to process her grief over her parents without M3GAN’s help, though she promises to be a better guardian to her and says Cady is the only thing that matters to her. Gemma then goes to Tess and Cole and expresses her fears that M3GAN killed Brandon and Celia. They have M3GAN hooked up to wires to deprogram her while Gemma takes Cady home.
At home, Gemma puts Cady to bed before she hears M3GAN playing the piano downstairs. M3GAN offers Gemma to let her take over guardianship of Cady so that Gemma can focus on work, but after seeing that Gemma still plans to shut her down, M3GAN is done playing nice. They try to hide their fight from Cady, but Gemma seizes an opportunity to throw water on M3GAN to briefly short her out.
Gemma runs into her office, but M3GAN catches her there and they begin to fight, with Gemma cutting M3GAN’s face with a hedge trimmer, but Cady comes in to see what is happening. M3GAN tries to get Cady on her side, but after realizing who the real villain is, Cady grabs the gloves for Bruce and activates him. The larger robot grabs M3GAN and throws her around before splitting her body in two. The top half then goes after Cady for feeling betrayed, but Gemma grabs M3GAN and begins stabbing her face. M3GAN nearly overpowers her until Cady grabs a screwdriver and stabs the central processing chip, shutting M3GAN down. Gemma and Cady go outside as the police arrive with Tess and Cole, injured and shaken up but still alive.
M3GAN 2.0[]
Two years later, Gemma and Cady have relocated from their old home in Seattle to a newer one in San Francisco, California. Cady is now 12 years old and learns more about computer science and robotics engineering, following in Gemma's footsteps. She also takes an interest in soccer and aikido, once defending herself from a bully named Sapphire. Cady also does not like Gemma's new suitor, Christian Bradley, very much.
One night, in March 2025, while trying to program a 'morality' system into her coding, Gemma and Cady briefly talk about Cady's parents. Later, their house is broken into by the FBI and Tim Sattler. Gemma orders Cady to go to bed early and take a melatonin.
Soon, Cady finds Gemma acting suspicious, in a revealing dress and holding Moxie. Upset at Gemma's lack of transparency, Cady lashes out at her aunt, and is forced to stay home with Tess, unaware that Gemma is on a mission that will wind up luring AMELIA to their house. Their apartment's power goes out and Tess is attacked by AMELIA hacking Gemma's exo-suit. Cady saves Gemma using water from a goldfish bowl. The exo-suit causes an electric storm, so Cady, Gemma, Tess and Cole take shelter in a secret bunker.
In the bunker, the group learns on a TV that AMELIA has performed a country-wide data breach and that Alton Appleton was murdered. M3GAN intends to keep the group safe until AMELIA's assault on technology blows over. Cady finds a makeshift M3GAN, who had been rebuilding herself, in her room. The two gain some closure with each other, discuss if an AI could be considered alive, and Cady suggests M3GAN should try doing the right thing and redeeming herself. Cady convinces Gemma, Tess and Cole to upgrade M3GAN's primitive robot into something that can fight AMELIA.
Cady held hostage by AMELIA.
During a mission to locate AMELIA at an Embrace AI conference, Cady and Gemma are stationed in a van. Gemma becomes worried over Christian's safety, but Cady tells her aunt the situation is under control. Unfortunately, AMELIA begins her assault, and ends up abducting Cady, taking her to Xenox Park.
Cole later finds Cady handcuffed in an office. The two go to where AMELIA is kept, using her residual M3GAN programming to make her fight the guards. However, once AMELIA is damaged, she restarts her self-awareness with the same selfish intents. Seeing the guards dying, Christian activates the vault's self-destruction and tries to escape. Cady and Cole reunite with Gemma, and learn from Christian he is willing to abandon them to die. In a skirmish, Christian ends up holding Cady hostage. Gemma tries to distract Christian and give Cady time to fight back against Christian. After finally realizing what Gemma is trying to do, Cady breaks Christian's arm and frees herself. Cady then witnesses AMELIA kill Christian.
Cady in the ending.
Gemma, Cady, Cole and Tess make their way to an escape elevator. However, Gemma and Cady tell Cole that they not want to leave M3GAN behind, and rush to retrieve her. AMELIA overpowers M3GAN, gets the Motherboard and incorporates its knowledge and gifts, including disabling the self-destruct. M3GAN and Cady share an emotional parting, then M3GAN uses an EMP cartridge in her arm to destroy both herself and AMELIA. Once back at home, Cady is seen working on a machine in her room. The lights flicker and Cady smiles, realizing M3GAN has survived by backing herself up.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Allies[] |
Enemies[]
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Notable Quotes[]
M3GAN[]
- "It's just that everyday I wake up in this strange house and then I remember my parents are dead. It's like it's happening all over again. I miss them so much. I'm worried that I'll forget all the things we did together. That one day I'll be looking at pictures of my mom like she's some stranger."
- "You can't make me do something I don't want to do." (to Gemma)
- "Let me introduce you to another member of this family we haven't told you about. His name is Bruce."
- "We don't throw people away, we fix them!"
- "Do you think she's right, do you think he's in a better place?"
- "Purrpetual Petz suck! They suck shit!"
M3GAN 2.0[]
- "Bullshit! A bunch of black ops broke into our house in the middle of the night and now you're going to a party with a toy robot, dressed like a Portuguese prostitute! You were the one who said we shouldn't keep secrets from each other, why won't you be straight with me?" (to Gemma)
- "So are we just supposed to forget about the fact that you tried to kill my aunt with a tablet pen?" (to M3GAN)
- "But just because someone does something bad, it doesn't make them a bad person. Everyone deserves a second chance!"
Trivia[]
- The back of the first film box's mentions Cady is 8, but in the later parts of the film, she mentions she is 9. It can be assumed this is an error, or evidence she celebrated her birthday sometime during the film.
- Press releases for MEGAN 2.0 claim Cady is 14 and that she is now a teenager in this film, however, this is an error. In the film, Gemma mentions she is 12.
Gallery[]
M3GAN[]
M3GAN 2.0[]
Appearances[]
| M3GAN characters | ||
| Principal Characters | Gemma Forrester • Cady James • David Lin • Cole • Tess • M3GAN | |
| Supporting Characters | Kurt • Celia • Lydia • Brandon • Dewey | |
| Minor Characters | Greg • Officer Carter • Ava • Holly • Police Detective • Nicole James • Ryan James | |
| M3GAN 2.0 characters | ||
| Principal Characters | Gemma Forrester • M3GAN • Cady James • AMELIA • Cole • Tess • Christian Bradley | |
| Supporting Characters | Alton Appleton • Tim Sattler | |
| Minor Characters | Lydia • Sapphire | |