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Ex Machina Movie Analysis

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For my essay I have chosen to examine Alex Garland's 2015 sci-fi film, Ex Machina. I decided to focus my research on the portrayal of sexuality and morality in the film, focusing closely on how the characters represent these themes. Is Ex Machina a feminist emancipation story, or a cautionary tale about the future of technology?
Caleb is the first character we encounter. He is a programmer for a company called Blue Book and believes he has won a competition to spend a week with the company's CEO, Nathan. Caleb believes he is to play the human component of the Turing test to see if Nathan's android, Ava, has true artificial intelligence (AI). The Turing test was developed to test whether or not a machine could think and exhibit behavior indistinguishable from that of a human being (Turing, 1950). It is revealed later on that Nathan actually needed him to test if Ava had the desire of self preservation, which would be a better indication of whether or not she would display true human behavior. As a result of this, he also betrayed by Ava who plays the damsel in distress in order to get …show more content…

Having only seen Ava through Caleb's eyes the betrayal is much more shocking and upsetting. Like Caleb, we are convinced that Ava intends to leave with Caleb when in reality she ensnares the heroic male protagonist only to lead him to his doom, which perhaps puts her in to the archetype of femme fatale. Doane (1991) writes that since classic Hollywood films were ultimately controlled by men, the character of the femme fatale is a concoction of male insecurity and fear. However she is an unconventional femme fatale because she faces no consequence. In this way I believe Ava represents a reinvention of the femme fatale. She uses her sexuality to manipulate Caleb and secure her freedom. Ava shows no remorse and becomes her own

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