Ex Machina: A Hotel California of Science

In our weekly column, Thriller Thursdays, we recommend specially-curated thrillers that’ll send a familiar chill down your spine.

The exquisite intrigue of the superb Ex Machina is to figure out who is playing whom. The premise itself sets off the increasingly tantalising interplay of wits between three beings. Well, two are humans and one is built of artificial intelligence. And Ava (Alicia Vikander), as the AI is known, is a being which  evolves in front of our eyes. How much is learnt, how much is supplemented, and what is special to it that it supplements with the intelligence it has been bestowed, and what would that lead it to do? That's the incredible fascination of the film.

The gem-like precision of the movie unfolds languorously, but under its sheen lie scathing discoveries. When we create something in our image what do we give, and what do we exclude? And how much does, that which we bestow, make of what is given to it? And what does Ava, finally take and give back?

We, humans, are so unpredictable and complex. In our denials lie the seeds of what we will finally accept; in our tenderness is future perfidy. We are vagrants, we are insidious, but we have goodness and the ability to irrationally love and care for. Would any AI ever be able to live up to our decisions of whim, unanchored in design?

Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a 26-year-old programmer at a large tech company, wins a competition to spend seven days at a private mountain retreat-cum-laboratory belonging to Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location, he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with a fully-developed artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl, Ava.

In the utterly compelling claustrophobic environs of the secluded laboratory, the creator, the created and the tester measure each other out. Each, as it turns out, has dynamics of motive, driven by what they are. Yes, even the AI is a machine with growing consciousness – not necessarily conscience.

Scientists and thinkers over the years have warned about what AI would likely be capable of, going far beyond what goes into them. Ex Machina takes the concept forward in an utterly compelling direction, giving it a bewitching and completely shattering twist.

Of the three superb castings, the most incredible one is Alicia Vikander. As Ava, she is a creature which is cold to behold but has passion and feeling shimmering beneath a placid facade. In a finely calibrated performance, Alicia gives a vision of AI's possibilities, with all its delicious consequences. Feeling unfeeling, cold and freezing, Ava’s personality takes on dimensions which both overwhelm, and confirm, all our concerns, fears and seductions of beings created in our own image. Once the die is cast, humans must face the consequences. And no smart algorithm can predict the mechanical heart's mayhem. QED.

Ex Machina is director Alex Garland's first film and is a dazzling debut, helmed as it is with superb performances. Though the film is steeped in abstruse ideas and concepts, it is its dystopian vision of the possibilities of science and technology which make it a completely accessible thriller. It is also a story of irretrievable passages, where progress is nothing but a compulsive descent into the darkest recesses of our imaginations. Science, in fiction and reality, is often a Hotel California of disaster.

Trivia:

• Nathan recites a scripture from the Bhagavad Gita whilst drinking copiously – "...In the depths of shame, in confusion, in sleep, all the good deeds a man has done, before come and defend him." J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, recited the same poem some days before a failed atomic explosive test.
• The etymology of the names of its principal characters gives an insight into their characters – Ava, or Eve, comes from the word 'khavá, meaning "to experience," as that is Ava's principal goal. Nathan comes from the Hebrew word for natán, meaning "gave," as he gave life to Ava. And Caleb means either "whole-hearted" from the root source kéleb, referring to Caleb's loyalty throughout the story.
• To create Ava's incredible robotic features, relevant scenes were shot without and with Alicia Vikander's presence, allowing the background behind her to be shot also. The parts which were necessary to be kept were then transferred, while the rest was painted out digitally with the background restored.

Watch Ex-Machina here.

(Views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of OTTplay)(Written by Sunil Bhandari, a published poet and host of the podcast ‘Uncut Poetry’)