By: Keaton Marcus

Ex Machina is one of my favorite films of all-time. One of the many reasons why is the fact that it can be interpreted in many several different ways, including Man vs. Machine, a manipulation of the audience, or the ignorance in a battle of masculine wits which ultimately let AI take control. It is a haunting look at breaking the rules of God, and easily worthy of an in-depth analysis on how this film hits as hard as it does.

PREMISE:

Ex Machina tells the story of computer programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who wins a contest to spend a week visiting the remote estate of Nathan (Oscar Isaac), his company's reclusive CEO. He then learns that this is no simple vacation.

DEUS EX MACHINA:

The title of the film is quite clearly taken from the phrase “Deus Ex Machina”, which I am sure readers have at least heard of before. The basic definition is explained as God from the machine. Principally, I would explain this as a robot or some type of artificial being transcending the boundaries of AI. Almost as if this being has become something else, bigger and ultimately special. Sure this movie presents itself as a basic thriller about a crazed genius who’s invented the world’s greatest piece of technology, but if one looks deeper, it’s truly about making a robot as human as possible so that an actual person could not tell the difference when talking to Ava.

THE IGNORANCE OF NATHAN:

I explained before that if examined in the most basic sense, one could see this film as a movie about robots and humans clashing with one another, but here, the case is a little different. How I see it is the robot behind the scenes playing it safe while Caleb and Nathan constantly argue, attempting to prove themselves over one another. The two men can both be viewed as clouded and ignorant in vastly opposite ways, with Nathan being cocky, confident, and incredibly stuck-up about his own intelligence while Caleb is the generally silent, shy one yet he yearns for self-confidence and masculine superiority, traits that Nathan clearly has. While Caleb is being lectured by Nathan relentlessly, his judgment is closed off further with Ava, whom he easily falls for and cannot tell if Nathan programmed her to flirt with him. He feels trapped and dominated by the other two, and Nathan simply assures himself that he’s the best of the best to keep himself the alpha male in this situation. However, this leads to his own downfall.

THE IGNORANCE OF CALEB:

Nathan may be on the high horse for most of the film, but Caleb’s ego and ignorance are just as fragile in a whole other way. He attempts to take down Nathan several times and is eventually successful. Nathan’s character story is all about how his confidence leads to falling from grace. On the other hand, Caleb’s character story is about how his need for power and control in his own self-pity leads to his own fall from grace. We can see this as he, on a few occasions, fights back and tries to prove his worth as a great coder and programmer, a special contribution to Nathan’s company and the world’s possibility for evolution. His journey for worth in this dog-eat-dog world leads him to become an unlikely fighter, and surprisingly a stronger character than we previously thought. Little does he know that although his approach to taking the pilot’s seat is smart and reserved at first, it will eventually lead to his own plummeting into nothingness due to a unique, but the still egotistical outlook on power dynamics between men.

MANIPULATION THROUGH SELF-IMPORTANCE:

Although Nathan comes off as a bit of an asshole throughout the first half of the film, audiences don’t perceive him as evil just yet, or even have any sort of hatred for him. That is until we find out that he has been manipulating Caleb even before he came for the week, and how his meticulous planning due to his self-importance leads us to look upon him in a wholly negative sense. We find that he has programmed Ava to look like a combination of Caleb’s pornographic searches, exploiting his loneliness, sadness, and need for connection. This, of course, leads him to clumsily fall for Ava and believe that they had some sort of special relationship without knowing that she would be the final win over the two men. Considering how dominant Nathan seems to be, audiences wouldn’t likely expect Caleb to crack through his masculine weaknesses, and this ends as both manipulation of viewers and Nathan. Absolutely masterful screenwriting if I were to give my opinion on it, subtle, sharp, and wickedly entertaining. Speaking of manipulation, Caleb uses Nathan’s alcoholism and conviction that he’s in control to defeat him unexpectedly. This is how he beats him in this dangerous game of wits.

RESPECTIVE WEAKNESSES:

We see Nathan as the strong and smart one and Caleb as the weak and only mildly useful one at the start, but in his own massive intelligence and ego, Caleb has found his number one weakness. That is, of course, his confidence in his intelligence, which although is deserved to an extent, he takes it way too far to survive. Through his intellectual prowess and clear pride, he has created something almost too ambitious, something that can exploit his weakness herself. Ava is programmed to tell what people are feeling, making her a product of crazed intelligence. However, the unfortunate thing for Nathan is that his own creation has outsmarted him and through tactful manipulation and exploiting weakness, has found a loophole. It’s a complex game of outsmarting and finding fragility in each other, but here is how I would describe it.

Nathan creates Ava through ambition - Caleb arrives, in need of Nathan’s pride and dominance - He finds that Nathan has been manipulating through his creation - Caleb finds his weakness and destroys him - Ava is both men’s weakness and exploits them both.

Outcome: Ava wins.

CREATION LEADS TO DESTRUCTION:

I know, this isn’t necessarily an easy thing to digest, and it’s far more convenient to loom at this as an AI takes over the situation, which in a sense, is correct, but it’s so much more layered than that. I would call it a study on how even the greatest of creation can lead to villainy, destruction, and death. A complex look at how through one man’s sheer ambition, he has self-destructed himself through incredible creativity and intelligence. Nathan and Caleb’s constant search for self-importance, or more prominently Caleb’s has to lead to them creating God, something that can easily overpower any human. They have created a being that this world is not ready for, and by the ending when Nathan is killed and Ava locks Caleb in the facility, she has become in control. The two are left dumbfounded, jaws dropped that a robot has asserted dominance over both of them in their own quests for power. Alex Garland has let audiences witnessed true genius, the twisted psychotic game of how easily humans can turn corrupt just for the sake of self-worth.