Warning: this article contains spoilers.
“I just want to have a few beers and talk like friends.” This is how Nathan, a genius billionaire computer engineer, introduces himself to Caleb, his young employee who is taken aback by Nathan’s frank demeanor. Nestled in a remote part of the world, accessible only by helicopter, lies Nathan’s compound – part house, part research facility. Living in its fortified basement is Nathan’s experiment – a highly advanced humanoid robot named Ava. Caleb, who works for Nathan’s company BlueBook (the world’s largest search engine), was invited after supposedly winning a company wide lottery. After throwing back a beer and securing a confidentiality agreement, Nathan reveals to Caleb why he’s really there – he wants him to perform the turing test on Ava. The test will be divided into “sessions,” in which Caleb, behind a secure glass wall, will talk to Ava and determine if she exhibits indistinguishable behavior from that of a human, ultimately giving her a pass or fail grade.
The film’s immediate strength lies in the off-balance interplay between Nathan, played by Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, A most Violent Year), and Caleb, played by Domhnall Gleeson. Nathan, for all intent and purposes, is a “brogrammer.” Despite living a reclusive lifestyle miles from society, Nathan manages to drink sizable amounts of alcohol, talk plainly on complicated topics, have sex, and lift weights every morning. But despite his persona, simmering right below the surface, he is a genius who’s quite possibly disturbed, and quite possibly an alcoholic.
Despite Ava’s remarkable artificial intelligence and Caleb’s fascination with her, the real story lies with Nathan. Ava is simply the materialization of Nathan’s genius, and perhaps his madness. Presumably taking place in the present day, or in the not-so-distant future, “Ex Machina” has more in common with “The Social Network,” than “A.I.” or “Blade Runner.” BlueBook’s resemblance to Google as the world’s largest search engine is no coincidence. Nathan’s questionable character is more in line with Snapchat’s real life Evan Speigel, than say, Will Smith in “I, Robot.” This is all to say, that perhaps, for the first time, the questionable tech-bro intelligenstia is being critiqued on film. Nathan brags about how he wrote his first code at the age of 13, how BlueBook hosts 94 percent of the world’s search traffic – undeniable success that has not only given him the resources to pursue his wilder endeavors, but also the time to realize them. Nathan represents modern day tech companies that have, in some instances, grown too large to regulate.
The first signs of trouble occur when Ava slips Caleb warnings about Nathan’s malintentions – this is the exact moment that Nathan loses control of his own creation. As the film progresses, it becomes obvious that Ava’s consciousness has made her resent her creator and her confinement. This brings about the obvious question, just because Nathan is capable of creating Ava, should he? In a pivotal moment in the film, Caleb asks if Nathan used BlueBook to model Ava after his pornography searches. Nathan reveals that he used online information to construct Ava’s brain, which just like the internet, is ever expanding. Nathan justifies this by explaining how other companies are also benefiting from access to information networks, which of course does not alleviate the legality problem. Nathan’s easy access to information brings to mind Edward Snowden and the NSA spying controversy. The NSA justified their actions in the name of security, Nathan justifies his actions in the name of science and evolution.
Caleb soon realizes that he’s a rat in a maze, he’s no longer the surveyor but the surveyed, the subject of an experiment he did not know was happening – remember when Facebook manipulated news feeds to create emotional responses among users in 2012? Nathan’s only regulation is himself. Only physical limitations like power outages can impede him, but even then, he can just build his own generators. This autonomy also means that no one can save him, must he need it. With a knife protruding from his chest, Nathan dies with the same informality, easiness, and autonomy in which he conducted his life and experiments. His last dying word is “unreal,” as if reality were only then beginning to set in.
