Irina C. Rodriguez, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2023, Athena Film Festival, Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Drama

Length: 123 pages 

Field of Science: Technology

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

Ten-year old ADA LOVELACE, an exceptionally gifted child, devotes herself to mathematics and mechanical designs. Ada is blissfully unaware of her position in the world – the daughter of LORD BYRON and LADY BYRON, born into wealth yet still a woman and, as such, born also to a world full of closed doors. Young Ada is free, however, at least for now, and is focused on constructing a pair of mechanical wings that will allow her to take flight.

Ada, now 17, is ready for her presentation to society. During the debutante ball, Ada explores the royal palace where she meets two of the main forces in her adult life: LORD WILLIAM KING and CHARLES BABBAGE. Ada and William are instantly smitten with each other. Overbearing Lady Byron quickly catches on and chastises Ada for her behavior but she ultimately gives in and allows Ada and Lord King to correspond through mail.

Ada’s fascination with machines reawakens when she meets Babbage, a renowned inventor who shows her his work. Ada decides that this is her future and resumes her studies with unparalleled passion. Her tutor, however, the impossible DE MORGAN, is repelled by this young woman’s nerve, particularly after she crashes his all-male classroom. De Morgan discourages Ada from pursing her passion and, momentarily, she gives in and decides instead to marry William, with whom she is deeply in love.

Years go by and now Ada is the lady of the manor with children. She becomes restless with the boredom and routine of her domestic life. The passionate man William once was, has been replaced by a husband who only cares about preserving his family name and his tunnel designs.

Desperate and suffocated, Ada reaches out to Babbage and, clandestinely, assists him with the creation of the Analytical Engine, a precursor to the modern computer. The two are clear collaborators and, for a while, Babbage is enchanted by Ada. As the project progresses and some of his colleagues deduce that Ada is an ingenious and significant contributor to his work, Babbage begins to recoil.

When the government decides to stop funding Babbage projects, declaring them a waste of time, Ada turns to gambling on horses to generate money to complete the Analytical Engine, even as her health begins to deteriorate. Her marriage to William is also in danger, as he suspects, along with household staff, that Ada may be having an affair. Oblivious to almost anything and anyone else, Ada continues to assist Babbage with the Engine and her gambling becomes a problem, as she is now at the mercy of unsavory character CROCKFORD.

Finally craving recognition for her work, Ada asks Babbage for credit going forward as well as more control over the rest of the development of the project. Babbage refuses, changing (if not delaying) the course of history by almost a century. At home, William is stunned to learn that Ada has stolen from him to pay her alleged debts to Crockford. He decides to leave Ada.

Ada falls ill and her health quickly deteriorates. She reconciles with William, who is ashamed for having neglected her genius and doubted her fidelity, and forgives Babbage before she dies. Babbage dies in 1871 without building the engine.

While today Ada Lovelace is considered the world’s first computer programmer, we are still left with one burning question about the promise of her work with Babbage: what if?