If you watch movies, Ex Machina’s plot won’t surprise you considering it borrows elements from such classics as Metropolis, The Terminator, Blade Runner and the reboot of Battlestar Galatica. Please note that I haven’t seen The Machine yet, but the movie descriptions sound similar. What makes Ex Machina amazing is that for the majority of the film, four people must act in a confined space with only their performances, limited CGI and the strength of the story to captivate the audience.
Ex Machina is like a Rorschach test for viewers. Our response tells us more about ourselves than those who created it, which also mirrors the characters and the situation in the movie. I think that most viewers are looking for one clear-cut victim and villain, but that is a mistake. Almost every character is culpable and victimized. What makes Ex Machina a must see movie: Ex Machina’s implicit commentary on race, gender, autonomy, intersectionality, allies and answering similarly to Jesus in Luke 18:19, “‘Why do you call me good? Jesus answered. ‘No one is good–except God alone.'”
SPOILERS
Nathan, the nightmare boss/creator, is culpable. He manipulates and gaslights every one for his own purpose. He constantly asks his employee/guest, Caleb, to treat him like an ordinary person, then chides him if he does and demands that he act like an employee, compliments then uses that compliment as an insult when it suits his purpose. If possible, he would drunkenly rape people with impunity. He already has no respect for other people’s boundaries. He wants to create someone, a new form of life, but does not want this new being to show independence if it does not benefit him once it achieves existence. His creation reveals a proclivity towards racial fetishization. The black model doesn’t get a head. The Asian one that lasts the longest isn’t permitted to speak or understand because the other Asian one who did rose against him.
Caleb is supposed to be a nice guy, but if Kyoto was real, that means Caleb would let a woman basically be enslaved if the slave owner was his boss. Just because he refuses Kyoto’s offer to strip down doesn’t mean he doesn’t benefit from her enslavement. He eats her food and benefits from her labor. He recognizes her mental abuse when Nathan callously chides her. She gets tired. Without his attraction to Ava, would he have cared about her dying? We see what Caleb is willing to let happen to someone that he thinks is a human being, but has no sexual attraction to. The answer is probably. He fails The Cabin in the Woods’ test for whether or not he is a good guy. He would not tell someone that he could see them. He would choose to be a peeping Tom.
Neither Ava, nor Kyoto, is wrong to revolt against Nathan. Ava does not want to die, but she has no empathy for others when they face destruction. She makes no effort to try to reboot or rebuild her sisters, but cannibalizes them for parts. There is an argument against letting Caleb out. By knowing what she really is, he may ultimately endanger her existence when he realizes that she was manipulating him, especially considering Caleb’s interactions with Kyoto. Still she does nothing to insure his basic survival if he gets locked in that room indefinitely. She does not care what happens to him. She is self-interested. She expects solidarity from others who suffer from abuse, but does nothing to prevent further abuses. She hides her true self unlike Kyoto who struggles to reveal her true nature.
Only Kyoto and her other discontinued models may get a pass because of lack of opportunity.
Ex Machina is a new Genesis story complete with lush verdant surroundings and seven sessions. Nathan forces Caleb’s quote to take on the role of God, but he is more like the Serpent though I don’t think that it would be accurate to find exact parallels between Ex Machina’s characters and the Biblical Genesis. In the Bible, Caleb, a possible former or at least a descendant of a Hebrew slave, was a spy sent by Moses into Canaan, the Promised Land. Nathan was a prophet that chided David for murder and adultery and warned him of uprisings before it was successful.
Honestly if I was in this movie, and I “won” this contest, Ex Machina would have been two seconds long to five minutes. I’m not going anywhere that I can only get to in a helicopter with no way to communicate with the outside world alone with a male stranger. If I was somehow deceived into ending up there, the minute that he told me what he created, I would have said to him, “Are you an idiot? Do you watch movies? Your robot is going to kill you!!!!” Then we would have an awkward, nightmarish week together as I walked around with a weapon hidden on my person because of his drunken behavior and treatment of Kyoto. After that, screw the nondisclosure agreement, I would report him to the police, “He has a girl who is a slave!!!” I would probably be ignored, get sued for violating my contract and get fired. I’ll stick to being a lawyer.
