In the near future, the streets are patrolled by police robots. One such robot is captured and reprogrammed to be the first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself. Named Chappie, his programmer Deon Wilson (Dev Patel) tries to teach the childlike robot about books and art.

However, Australian engineer Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) is very opposed to the idea of artificial intelligence and wants to destroy Chappie.