We watched Ex Machina, one of last year's highly acclaimed movies. It's a combination sci fi and psychological thriller, with a quiet drama-like tone to much of the film. Caleb works as a programmer for a large corporation and wins a lottery to spend a week with the company's mysterious, reclusive founder. He is whisked away by helicopter over miles and miles of wilderness to what looks like a quiet retreat among jaw-dropping natural beauty, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Caleb meets the famous CEO, a heavily bearded guy named Nathan wearing jeans and a t-shirt and bare feet, and is surprised to find that the home is actually a high-tech underground fortress. Nathan is a bit overwhelming and disconcerting but seems like a good guy, who greets Caleb warmly and tells him he just wants to talk and have a beer with him.
Then Nathan explains that the real purpose of Caleb's visit is to help test Nathan's invention: the most advanced Artificial Intelligence ever devised. Nathan tells Caleb his job is to perform the Turing Test, a classic test defined by Alan Turing to see if an AI is advanced enough to be indistinguishable from a human. Caleb is to have a series of conversations with Nathan's AI, while observed by Nathan. The first day or two are fascinating but then things start to get a little weird. Nathan's AI is distinctly female, though only her face and hands have a skin-like covering. The rest of her looks like a conglomeration of wires and lights and electronics, encased in a workout clothes-like metal outfit that leave much of her inner workings visible. Still, she is remarkably life-like, and Caleb begins to think of her as a real person.
Up to this point, the movie is fairly quiet in tone, with little action, though there is a vague feeling of unease and suspense building. Nathan seems to be hiding some secrets, Caleb begins to feel more like a prisoner than a guest, and it's unclear where this test is heading or how it will end. Toward the end of the film, the pace picks up considerably as the sinister tone builds. We were glued to the screen, as unexpected surprises and secrets unfolded and the tension built. All three of us enjoyed the movie very much and found it quite thought-provoking, too. Afterwards, we discussed if the events in the movie could really happen, if technology was moving toward this very point, and about some of the more paranoid fears about AI that my husband said had been voiced by real-life high-tech geniuses.
All in all, it was a suspenseful movie with sci fi elements, some action, and a thoughtfulness that we all enjoyed. It's pretty fascinating that a movie with only a few actors (one of them portraying a robot) was so engrossing. Ex Machina gave us plenty to ponder, plus was entertaining and fun. Our son enjoyed it so much, he is watching it again tonight with his girlfriend!
Ex Machina is currently available for free on Amazon Prime, through Netflix on DVD only, at Redbox, and probably through most cable streaming services, too.
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