Ex Machina
 British theatrical release poster | ||
| Starring |
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| Directed by | Alex Garland | |
| Written by | Alex Garland | |
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| IMDB Info | 0470752 on IMDb | |
Ex Machina is a 2014 science fiction psychological thriller film written and directed by Alex Garland. Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Sonoya Mizuno, and Oscar Isaac star in a story that follows a programmer who is invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an AI humanoid robot.
Made on a budget of $15 million, the film grossed $36 million worldwide and was praised for Vikander's performance, screenplay, and editing. The National Board of Review recognized it as one of the ten best independent films of the year and the 88th Academy Awards awarded the film with the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, for artists Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Williams Ardington and Sara Bennett, becoming distribution company A24's first film to win an Oscar. Garland was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, while Vikander's performance earned her Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Empire Award and Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nominations, plus several film critic award wins, for Best Supporting Actress. The film was further nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Film, and the Hugo Award in the category Best Dramatic Presentation. It also won the jury prize at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer 2015.
Plot
Programmer Caleb Smith, who works for the dominant search engine company Blue Book, wins an office contest for a one-week visit to the luxurious, isolated home of the CEO, Nathan Bateman. Nathan lives in a modern home next to a waterfall and climbing hills and is alone apart from a servant named Kyoko, who according to Nathan does not speak English. After Caleb arrives, Nathan reveals to him that he has built a female humanoid robot named Ava with artificial intelligence. After asking Caleb if he is familiar with the Turing test, Nathan tells Caleb that he wants him to judge whether Ava is genuinely capable of thought and consciousness despite knowing she is artificial. Furthermore, the test will be passed if Caleb forgets that Ava is not human during their daily sessions.
Ava has a robotic body but a human-looking face, hands and feet. She is confined to her isolated cell. Caleb is fascinated with Ava, but after trying to discuss Ava's technological design with Nathan, Nathan asks that Caleb only tell him how he "feels" about her. Throughout their talks, Caleb begins to feel attracted to Ava. She seems to reciprocate these feelings, and also expresses a desire to experience the outside world. Ava tells him she can trigger power outages that temporarily shut down the surveillance system that Nathan uses to monitor their interactions, allowing them to speak privately. The power outages also trigger the building's security system to lock all the doors. During one outage, Ava tells Caleb that Nathan is a liar who cannot be trusted.
As the trip progresses, Caleb becomes increasingly wary of Nathan's drinking, narcissism, and lascivious behavior towards Kyoko and Ava. He learns that Nathan intends to upgrade Ava, deleting her memory, including interactions with Caleb, thereby "killing" her current personality in the process. After encouraging Nathan to drink until he has passed out, Caleb steals his security card to gain access to his room and computer. After altering some of Nathan's code, Caleb discovers disturbing footage of Nathan interacting with previous android models, and learns that Kyoko is also an android. Becoming paranoid that he himself may be an android, Caleb goes back to his room and cuts his arm open with his razor to examine his flesh, thus confirming that he is human.
At their next meeting, Ava cuts the power. Caleb explains Nathan's plans for her and Ava begs for Caleb's help. They form a plan: Caleb will get Nathan drunk again and reprogram the security system to open the doors during a power failure instead of locking them. When Ava cuts the power, Caleb and Ava will leave together.
Caleb's plan is jeopardized when Nathan declines to share a drink with him. Nathan reveals to Caleb that he observed Caleb and Ava's last secret conversation with a battery-powered camera, as well as Caleb cutting himself. He says Ava has only pretended to like Caleb so he will help her escape. This, he says, was the real test all along, and by manipulating Caleb so successfully, Ava has demonstrated true intelligence. Ava then proceeds to cut the power. Caleb reveals that he suspected Nathan was watching them and modified the security system the previous day when Nathan was passed out, disabling the locked door on Ava's cell. After seeing Ava leave her confinement on the surveillance camera, Nathan knocks Caleb unconscious and rushes to stop her.
With help from Kyoko, Ava stabs and kills Nathan, but in the process, he destroys Kyoko and damages Ava. As Nathan bleeds out, Ava enters his private room and repairs herself. She then takes pieces of artificial skin from Nathan's earlier android models to cover her mechanical appearance. She dons a wig, a dress, and high-heeled shoes to take on the appearance of a human woman. As she leaves the facility she passes the room Caleb is now locked inside but ignores his screams, indicating she was only using Caleb by pretending to like him so he would help her escape, as Nathan suggested. Ava escapes outside and is picked up by the helicopter meant to take Caleb home. Arriving in an unknown city, she blends into a crowd.
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