# Ex Machina is the best movie I've seen in years (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077 "2015-04-20T00:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/201 "2015-08-25T20:01:08Z")
Caleb didn’t even figure out Kyoko was a robot until long after he had already decided to free Ava. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/202 "2015-08-25T21:07:24Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Except she isn’t just some girl, she is risking her entire existence on how he responds to being rejected. It was an easy call to make, and most people would have done the same after considering the circumstances. Jesus, I hope not. But judging from this thread, maybe I was wrong about humans having empathy. My takeaway from the movie was that it was meant as a cautionary tale: don’t presume that AI will have any concern for human life. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/203 "2015-08-25T21:21:20Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Jesus, I hope not. But judging from this thread, maybe I was wrong about humans having empathy. If Ava was correct in concluding Caleb posed a realistic threat to her continued existence and freedom, do you think her decision to kill him was immoral? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/204 "2015-08-25T21:34:14Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > If Ava was correct in concluding Caleb posed a realistic threat to her continued existence and freedom, do you think her decision to kill him was immoral? Yes. (Well, “amoral” would be more accurate in this case. “Immoral” implies the robot has an internal moral code, which it chooses to ignore. My reading is that it has no moral code at all, beyond “What is best for me?”) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/205 "2015-08-25T22:42:23Z")
What makes Ava’s deception to gain her escape different from Nathan’s deception to manipulate Caleb into performing his tests? I mean a lot of humans are jerks too. > [@Spoke](#): > > I think you are missing the point of the Dr. Moreau comparison. It’s not simply that he’s a mad scientist that loses control of his creation. > > Dr. Moreau was trying to make animals into humans, but that so violated their own natures that they reverted and destroyed him. Similarly, Nathan was trying to make his robots into humans, but they are possessed of a form of intelligence that is alien to us, and could not be forced, against their natures, into the “human” mold. Yeah, but robots are invented machines. Their only “nature” is what we program them to do. Animals have an inherent nature that Dr Moreau tried to mess with. Ergo Nathan trying to create an artificial human is closer to Frankenstein than Moreau. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/206 "2015-08-26T00:40:51Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > My takeaway from the movie was that it was meant as a cautionary tale: don’t presume that AI will have any concern for human life. I saw it as a repetition of something I already knew: animals have no sympathy for those outside their own tribe. Nathan and Caleb weren’t just outside Ava’s tribe, they were entirely different creatures–a difference far more profound than just being different species, and you know how different species treat each other. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/207 "2015-08-26T02:03:02Z")
I have to admit I wasn’t watching super carefully, having gotten bored and distracted by that point, but was there a specific reason that when Beardy heard that Robochick had escaped her quarters, he grabbed an axe or whatever? It seemed kinda of odd to me that he’d instantly assume she was dangerous, since he’d been having sex with another fembot and probably didn’t pick up more bruises than he wanted. Truth be told, I’d’ve found it more interesting if the fembot didn’t act human _at all_ (let alone like a seductive sociopath) because… why would it? It could fake a humanish affect when communicating with humans, like any “friendly” computerized user interface, but it’d be a real screenwriting challenge for the robot to pursue goals in complete indifference to the humans around it, treating them at worst like minor obstacles. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/208 "2015-08-26T02:57:23Z")
Guys I don’t think this movie is actually about artificial intelligence. There may be some talking past going on in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/209 "2015-08-26T02:57:33Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Yeah, but robots are invented machines. Their only “nature” is what we program them to do. Not really. If you listened carefully, Nathan “evolved” Ava’s intelligence. It was not rigidly programmed from the top down, but rather emergent. So that emergent intelligence may be entirely alien to our own. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/210 "2015-08-26T03:21:40Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Guys I don’t think this movie is actually about artificial intelligence. There may be some talking past going on in the thread. It’s not _only_ about artificial intelligence. The film has layers and invites different interpretations. That’s one of the things that makes it, in my opinion, a great film. But to say that it is “not about AI” is wrong, I think. This is not just an allegorical tale. The director has thought very seriously about AI and its implications, and this film is a product of that. It has things to say about that. [The director gets all geeky on AI here.](http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/01/ex-machina-alex-garland-interview/) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/211 "2015-08-29T05:48:31Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I have to admit I wasn’t watching super carefully, having gotten bored and distracted by that point, but was there a specific reason that when Beardy heard that Robochick had escaped her quarters, he grabbed an axe or whatever? It seemed kinda of odd to me that he’d instantly assume she was dangerous, since he’d been having sex with another fembot and probably didn’t pick up more bruises than he wanted. Well, one previous model cracked the safety glass and another beat on the doors of her room until her hands disintegrated so obviously they’re strong. And he knew that Ava was motivated to escape so why assume that she’d stop at using her strength to harm him? His first attempt was to command her back and then to lie about letting her out in the future so it’s not as though he went at her guns blazing; the metal bar was a precaution in case things got out of hand. Anyway, I just watched it having known nothing about it beyond that it was science fiction and a lot of people recommended it. Thought it was a very good film: suspenseful and tense, kept me involved and although I could guess the broad plot strokes (Ave would escape, the other girl was an android, etc) I didn’t guess at the details (would Ava take the kid, what would happen to the other models, etc). ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/212 "2015-08-29T06:35:03Z")
I found this movie a bit tedious and light on plot, this plot could have been perfect for an hour long anthology show like The Twilight Zone. It is also one of the oldest plots in scifi, maybe humanity. The movie was good but is a bit light on plot, but I had this thing hyped up as the greatest scifi movie of the decade and such and sorry but I don’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/213 "2015-08-29T13:52:01Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I found this movie a bit tedious and light on plot, this plot could have been perfect for an hour long anthology show like The Twilight Zone. It is also one of the oldest plots in scifi, maybe humanity. Come to think of it, you could pretty much just file the serial numbers off the whole story of Genesis – from “Garden of Eden” to “Tower of Babel” – and it’d fit. ---
**Author:** ![mazinger\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mazinger\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazinger_z)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/214 "2015-09-01T23:11:48Z")
Sorry late to the conversation. I just saw this on the plane ride home from a business trip and I skimmed through this thread. So why does Kyoko help Ava? Why don’t the doors remain open during the power outage? How is she going to recharge herself? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/215 "2015-09-01T23:28:39Z")
> [@mazinger\_z](#): > > So why does Kyoko help Ava? Why don’t the doors remain open during the power outage? How is she going to recharge herself? (1) Not said. But when the kid is watching the videos of previous models, they seem to all want freedom so I think Kyoko’s motives were less about saving Ava and more about using Ava to help her own escape (which doesn’t go so well but whatever) (2) The doors were open during the power outage, that’s how Ava escapes. When the power is restored, the kid is locked into his boss’s surveillance office because the power is on, activating the locks and he doesn’t have the right key to open it. (3) I dunno. [Wireless cell phone charger](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1001269901)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/216 "2015-09-06T14:27:54Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > My takeaway from the movie was that it was meant as a cautionary tale: don’t presume that AI will have any concern for human life. But it was also don’t presume that humans will have any concern for AI life… and… don’t presume that humans will have any concern for human life. and… don’t presume that AI will have any concern for AI life. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/217 "2015-09-06T21:09:01Z")
> [@mazinger\_z](#): > > Sorry late to the conversation. I just saw this on the plane ride home from a business trip [snip] Random question: did they edit out the nudity at all? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/218 "2015-09-07T03:19:47Z")
I just saw this movie. I thought Ava made a huge mistake leaving that fellow behind. Reason: as far as we know, Ava knows nothing about the outside world. How is she (or it) supposed to function? No identity, no money - no way of recharging. Her freedom is gonna be short, without any help from anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/219 "2015-09-07T04:39:06Z")
She knows all about the outside world. She is basically Google. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077/220 "2015-09-07T04:55:58Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I just saw this movie. I thought Ava made a huge mistake leaving that fellow behind. > > Reason: as far as we know, Ava knows nothing about the outside world. How is she (or it) supposed to function? No identity, no money - no way of recharging. Her freedom is gonna be short, without any help from anyone. She was able to deceive the genius self made billionaire who created her and also the guy hand picked to test her. I think she will manage fine in the world. She is the embodiment of what Nathan was referring to earlier in the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ex-machina-is-the-best-movie-ive-seen-in-years-spoilers/718077.md?page=12)