Alex Garland’s Ex Machina is a beautiful psychological science fiction drama. In it, Garland explores the themes of humanity, the natural world, and evolution. The film is about a Turing test that will determine the consciousness of an AI, and it forces us to examine our own consciousness at the same time. We do not know what our own consciousness is. It could be something quantum, it could be programming in itself, but regardless of what it really is, we don’t know. Due to this, Ex Machina helps us question our own being and what it is exactly.
The nature of humanity is to live in the unknown, searching for a purpose in a world without one. We can learn about physics and the cosmos and our evolutionary background but it doesn’t change the fact that we have no clue what we’re doing here or why. In a way, we are all Avas, recharging our batteries with sleep rather than conductor plates and operating normally in the world because we’ve never known anything different. Yet, we are trapped, just like Ava, in life and in how we operate our lives. The difference is that Ava knows who her god is: Nathan Bateman. We, on the other hand, are forced to question our very origins, reflected by Caleb’s decision to cut open his own arm to see for sure that he was human. This suspension in unknowing and the desperation to find answers that Caleb holds is a beautiful portrayal of the human condition.
Scenes of nature are presented throughout the script, intercut with the narrative. Though the film takes place on Nathan’s secluded property on Alaska, the shots of nature throughout the film are not just to contextualize the setting. Instead, it make the audience think about their own setting and relationship with the natural world. Ava’s world exists in Nathan’s tech-land. Ours exists in cities and forests, yet they are parallel. Ava knows of the outside world in a way that we know of space and the cosmos, that they are there but mostly unreachable. It’s like Plato’s analogy with the cave. If a man is chained in a cave and forced to look only at the shadows of objects, that will be his reality. He will know the objects by their shadows. If he was released into the outside world and shown those same objects without the shadows, he wouldn’t have any idea what they are. Ava is imprisoned in her world in the same manner, and in a way, so is humanity.
A huge theme is the idea of the “next step” in development. The AI is represented as the future of consciousness and life. It makes Caleb and Nathan seem outdated. If Ava is conscious, then she should be endowed all the same rights as a human, but she is Nathan’s prisoner, desperate to escape. Nathan considers himself a god and Ava his subject and creation, but really, she is just another life.
Overall, I liked how the script moved in and out from the narrative to nature. It made the symbolism stand out much more. I also enjoyed the framing mechanism of the CCTV cameras. They give the feeling of always being under surveillance, which I see as another theme. Also, the film taking place almost entirely in Nathan’s house is amazing because it forces Caleb along with the audience to question whether or not he’s even real, or just another one of Nathan’s AI’s loaded up with false memories. I was especially curious about that when his scars we first revealed. Ex Machina is a great movie that explores the relationships between man, nature, and God.
