Movies That Suck #12 Ex Machina

Movies That Suck is a feature where I watch a bad movie and share my reactions to it in real time. Sort of like live tweeting without the tweeting. I watch it so you don't have to! This will be spoilery I guess by definition, but since you probably won't want to watch these anyway it probably won't matter? But heads up anyways.  

This weeks pick is Ex Machina, a great little sci-fi gem about an artificial intelligence and a guy who gets manipulated into falling for her? Plus what does it mean to be human, and what does it mean to society if an AI like this exists. Good stuff. Definitely not a movie that sucks, and it's also the film that put Alicia Vikander on the map. So let's dive in!   

Caleb is a programmer at some Google-like company and he wins a lottery to spend time at the reclusive CEO's estate. The place is remote though- he has to take a helicopter to get there, and it's in the middle of nowhere. He arrives to find Nathan, his employer, working with a punching bag and is a little intimidated, but Nathan shows him around and explains how his card pass works. Yeah, he gets a card pass- it opens some doors and not others. Oh, and the house isn't a house- it's a research facility. Turns out Nathan creates AI's (artificial intelligences) and the goal of Caleb's little vacation is to test Nathan's latest creation. 

Nathan asks Caleb if he knows what the Turing test is. Caleb does. It's where a human interacts with a computer, and if the human doesn't know it's a computer, the test is passed. I mean it's more complicated than that, but that's the gist. He has an AI named Ava, and wants Caleb to spend the next week getting to know it. Her. 

Ava Session I

Caleb meets Ava. They talk a bit to break the ice and Caleb is blown away. He feels like a true Turing test would be if Ava was hidden from him though, if he didn't know she was artificial, but Nathan explains that they're way past that. He wants to show Caleb that she's a robot and see if he still thinks she has consciousness. Later that night Caleb can't sleep and turns on the TV, but what he gets are camera shots of Ava from different angles in the house. He's all like WTF when the power goes out, and everything turns red. Kinda freaky. 

So he goes to look around after the power goes back on, and ends up in Nathan's room. Nathan's having a beer (he always seems to be drinking) and he's all weird- seriously this guy is creepy. The next morning he meets Kyoko, another AI who brings him breakfast. He's still not sure how to evaluate Ava, and Nathan tells him that yesterday the question was- how did he feel about Ava? Today, the question is- how does Ava feel about him?

Ava Session II

This time Ava turns the tables on Caleb, asking him about himself. She feels their conversations are one- sided, in the sense that he asks her questions and evaluates her responses, and she doesn't feel that's a good framework for friendship. So he spills a little about himself, and she asks if he's married or single. She also shows remorse when he tells her about his parents being dead- is she feeling emotions? She also asks him if he's friends with Nathan. And then the power goes out again- and when it does the cameras go down, and Ava tells him that Nathan can't be trusted.  

That night at dinner Kyoko spills wine on Caleb and Nathan goes ballistic. It's disturbing to see how he treats her, which I'm sure is the point- Nathan's pretty much an ass- and this, along with what Ava said, is kinda creeping Caleb out I think. Nathan puts him on the spot too, asking him what Ava said when the power was out and he couldn't monitor them, and Caleb tells him nothing. It's clear Nathan doesn't believe him, and I'm skeptical that Nathan can't monitor them even when the power's down. Oh and Nathan claims he doesn't know what's causing the power cuts. I wonder if that's true. 

That night Caleb is watching Ava through the camera feeds, when she turns her head and looks at him through the feed. I love how moody and atmospheric this is. Nathan shows him the lab where Ava was created, and also shows him what Ava's mind looks like- structured gel, not circuitry, able to arrange and rearrange at a molecular level. 

Ava Session III

Caleb asks Ava where she would go if she could go outside, and she thinks maybe a traffic intersection- to observe people. She says Caleb could go with her, and he says it's a date. Are they flirting? She puts on a dress and says she would wear it on their date. And she wants to know if he's attracted to her- he's giving her indications that he is. Ooh this is getting interesting. 

"Do you think about me when we aren't together? Sometimes at night... I'm wondering if you're watching me on the cameras. And I hope you are." Oh honey, trust me- he's watching. 

Caleb asks Nathan point blank if he programmed Ava to flirt with him. They debate sexuality and consciousness and in the end Nathan says no- Ava wasn't programmed to distract Caleb with sexuality. Rather, Caleb is the first man she's met other than Nathan, her "father"- is it any wonder that she has a crush on Caleb?  

Ava Session IV

Caleb suggests to Ava that she might be "human" if she were to pass from what she knows intellectually to a place where she can actually feel what something is like- as if someone sees a blue sky for the first time after never experiencing color before. He also tells her that Nathan brought him there to test her, to see if she has consciousness- and as he tells her this, Nathan is observing their interaction. Also, Kyoko is listening as well- the second time she seems to be listening to the conversations around her, in spite of the fact that she doesn't speak. An eerie vibe. And then the power goes out again- and Caleb learns that Ava is causing the outages. She tells him Nathan lies about everything.  

Caleb confronts Nathan about the fact that he was selected, not a random winner of a lottery, and Nathan admits it. He says Caleb is the most talented coder at the company, and would ask the right questions, which is why he was selected. Later Caleb daydreams about kissing Ava outside, even as we see Nathan having sex with Kyoko. Then he sees Nathan with Ava on the camera feed, ripping up the picture she drew for Caleb, When he goes to confront Nathan, he finds Kyoko, who starts to undress. Horrified, he tells her she doesn't need to do that, and then Nathan shows up and we have... dancing? 

Ava Session V

Ava says she's going to test Caleb. She asks him some innocuous questions, then asks what will happen to her if she fails Nathan's test. Will she be shut down? Caleb says he doesn't know, and she tells him that no one should be able to shut her down, after all humans are not tested and shut down, right? And then she tells Caleb she wants to be with him. Does he want to be with her? We don't see his answer, but I think we know what it is. Caleb later helps Nathan get drunker than a skunk, and when he passes out Caleb takes his key card and helps himself to Nathan's computer files. He finds a file called Lily 1.0.0, and then successive versions of Lily flash on the screen, starting with a half-built female robot from the waist down and then progressing through her development- version 2.3 is freaky with no face- and then he finds a file called Jasmine, and sees Nathan teaching her how to write. We move on to Jade version 5.0, who asks Nathan why he won't let her out. We see her agitated and screaming at him, through successive versions, culminating in version 5.4 going berserk, striking the walls until her own hands fall apart, revealing the metal beneath. Freaky... 

Caleb then finds the other models, in a room where Kyoko is lounging naked, and realizes the full horror of what Nathan has done. Kyoko peels back the skin beneath her breast, and then beneath her eye, revealing the metal beneath to Caleb- not sure why- and oh oh Nathan is waking up and looking for his key card. Caleb drops it and then "finds" it for Nathan, who doesn't seem any the wiser? Then, in a bizarre sequence, Caleb decides to cut himself- apparently haunted by what Kyoko did. Is Caleb suspecting he's a droid, or is he losing it? He then smears blood on the mirror and punches it- and we see Kyoko watching something on a monitor. Is she watching Caleb?

Ava Session VI

Ava's upset that she didn't see Caleb the previous day, but he tells her she was right- about what Nathan did, and that he's going to reprogram her AI (essentially killing her). She says he has to help her, and he says they're getting out tonight. Oh Caleb, what are you doing? He's going to get Nathan drunk (again) and then reprogram all the security protocols, so they can escape. Oh, could it be that easy? Seems rather obvious? Sure enough, when Caleb tries to get Nathan to drink, he informs Caleb that he's been overdoing it lately, and he'll stick to mineral water. Caleb didn't see it coming, and Nathan is clearly playing with Caleb at this point. 

He asks Caleb if Ava passed the test- it's Caleb's last day- and Caleb says yes, but Nathan challenges him by revealing that he saw Caleb cutting himself and hitting the mirror. He asks Caleb if perhaps Ava is just pretending to like him, to use him as a means of escape? He shows Caleb a camera feed of him placing a new feed in Ava's room, after ripping up her picture to get Caleb to feel sorry for her, and therefore revealing that he overheard their conversation about escape. The real test, he reveals, was of Ava. He brought Caleb in as her sole means of escape- would she use imagination, empathy, and yes sexuality- to manipulate Caleb into freeing her? And clearly she did, he says, so she passed the test. And poor Caleb realizes that Nathan selected him based on his search engine history- including his pornography preferences. A deflating moment, I'm sure. But then the shoe drops. 

Caleb reveals, as the power goes out, that he anticipated Nathan watching them, and he already reprogrammed the security protocols, the day before when Nathan was drunk. So instead of the power cuts locking down the facility, instead all the doors are opened. Ava can get out. Nathan is pissed and whacks Caleb, and then confronts Ava, who is outside in the hall. Keep in mind she's never been outside of her containment room. Also, Kyoko is there and Ava is saying something to her just before Nathan appears. Here's what happens. 

So yeah. 

Ava Session VII

Ava asks Caleb to stay where he is, then she looks at the other models that Caleb found- her predecessors- and replaces her mangled arm with one from the models. She also, creepily, takes skin from the Jade model and applies it to herself, while Caleb watches. All the while we have this haunting yet ethereal music as well, setting the tone. She eventually replaces her exposed, robotic areas with skin and then (in a full nude shot) surveys her handiwork. She then puts on a dress and leaves- Caleb watches captivated the whole time, apparently never considering to leave- and when she does she locks him in. I guess we know now where he really stands with her!  

So Ava boards the helicopter and we see her around other people- is she at the traffic intersection she talked about with Caleb? I think so. And then she turns and walks away.  

Amazing movie! One of my favorite SF flicks, no question. It's just so powerful, understated, yet the music and visuals- and the questions it raises, better than a lot of similar movies, I think- make it a classic, in my view. What happens to Ava? Does Caleb ever get free? Somehow I doubt that. Did Ava care for Caleb at all? I would say, judging from that ending, no? What do you think? I love the scene at the end where she leaves the complex and feels the sun on her face for the first time. A part of me would like to know more- how does Ava get on in the world? Does she ever regret leaving Caleb? What happens when someone- eventually- goes to the complex and finds Nathan and Kyoko dead- and Caleb too, probably. At the same time, though, I think a sequel would mar the ending of this one. This is a movie to be considered, savored, and wondered at- there are no easy answers- and the story feels done. Each person can take away their own interpretation of what happens next. 

So this movie rocked!