I have seen a lot of movies once. Some I wish I had never seen at all, like The Fast and The Furious 8. There’s also a handful of movies I’ve watched 3 times or more. Then there’s some movies that I have watched twice, and are begging to be watched again, because they stick in your head. Ex Machina is one of those.
The title comes from that Latin phrase “Deus Ex Machina”, a favourite of lazy reviewers on Youtube who review lazy movies. It means “god from the machine”. It is usually used to describe a moment in a text where a main character is rescued from peril by a completely out of context device, or character. Think Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Ron’s Ford Anglia flies from the woods to save them from the giant spiders.
Ex Machina came out in 2014, written and directed by Alex Garland. Despite it’s impressive cast, it seemed to go under the radar. The film follows a programmer named Caleb, played by Domhnall Gleeson. He wins an internal competition at his place of employment, Blue Book, which is a search engine very much like Google. The prize is a week-long vacation/internship with the genius CEO of Blue Book, Nathan Bateman – played by Oscar Isaac. It is soon revealed that Nathan has been working on an artificial intelligence, who lives in an isolated room in an eerie mechanical body. It’s name is Ava, and it is played by Alicia Vikander. Nathan wants Caleb, a neutral in this situation, to subject Ava to the Turing test – essentially to talk to Ava and decide whether or not the AI can truly think for itself. The tight, 1 hour 40 minute, character driven psychological thriller that ensues is at least one of the best films of the 2010’s.
Caleb’s very first moment on screen is from the point of view of a webcam, as he codes on his work computer. It seems innocent enough at first, but given what transpires afterwards, it seems as though Caleb was being watched, and perhaps even selected. Caleb is young, he’s basically a boy. Domnall Gleeson plays the character of a talented yet slightly gullible young man, who thinks he knows more than he actually knows, perfectly. He tries his best to play the role that Nathan wants him to play, the apprentice, the bro to drink beers with, and the inquisitive mind that will prove that Nathan has indeed created AI – but ultimately his true character emerges. He is the one that the audience can hang their coat on, his intentions are always fairly transparent, and he acts as the catalyst.
If only the same could be said for Oscar Isaac’s Nathan. Nathan tries to adopt the role of a laid back mentor for Caleb, but it never comes easy. Nathan has too many boundaries, too many locked doors in his house, and is too touchy about certain subjects. He drinks far too much beer, and the decision to shave Oscar Isaac’s head gives Nathan a militant look that makes him difficult to be at ease with. His character becomes even more unsettling when you see him on screen with Kyoto the housemaid. His violent side comes out at the slightest inconvenience, and Kyoto doesn’t seem to speak a word of English. What else is Nathan hiding from the audience, and is he the good guy or the bad guy?
Even more confusing than Nathan’s true intentions are Ava’s, played to perfection by Alicia Vikander. The confusion with her is multi-layered: Firstly, is she intelligent, can she think for herself? Secondly, if she can think for herself, are all of her actions innocent, or is she just looking for a way out of her glass room? Ava is cold and eerie, she seems like an alien, or a child in a metal, adult-sized body. There are hints throughout, that make you wonder, is she just playing a role, like Caleb is – for Nathan? Or does the AI have ulterior motives?
Part of what makes this film so good is modern day context – we’re all a bit obsessed with AI and digital simulations these days – the same way people were with automatons leading up to and during the Industrial Revolution. Ex Machina throws up a host of interesting questions. If AI were created – what would the consequences be? And is there any chance that it would be kind?
If you like this sort of thing, there’s lots of further reading. The Terminator series and Blade Runner would be the obvious ones. The TV series Westworld is also excellent. Or if you just want to spend 4 minutes rather than several hours, the song Saviour Machine by David Bowie also touches on very similar, scary themes.
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