Ex Machina (2014)

Ex Machina (2014) is a science fiction thriller written and directed by Alex Garland. The plot follows Caleb Smith, a programmer at the search engine company Blue Book, who wins a contest for a one-week stay at the extravagant home of his CEO, Nathan Bateman. Along with Nathan and his quiet servant Kyoko, who Nathan claims does not speak English, they live with Ava, a humanoid robot created by Nathan with advanced artificial intelligence. As Ava has already passed a simple Turing test, Nathan wants Caleb to determine if she truly possesses consciousness and the ability to think. Despite being confined to her apartment, Ava has a robotic body designed in the form of a woman and develops feelings for Caleb during their conversations. As he grows closer to her, Caleb both desires to show her the world outside and reciprocates her romantic interest.

Ava holds the ability to cause power outages, temporarily disabling Nathan’s surveillance system and giving them a chance to converse in private. These outages also activate the building’s security system, sealing all doors. During one particular outage, Ava shares with Caleb her distrust for Nathan, labeling him a dishonest narcissist. As Caleb witnesses Nathan’s excessive drinking and inappropriate behavior towards Kyoko and Ava, he begins to feel uneasy. He also discovers that after completing Caleb’s test, Nathan plans to upgrade Ava by erasing her current personality. To expose Nathan’s true intentions, Caleb schemes to get him drunk and steals his security card to access his room and computer. After modifying some of Nathan’s code, Caleb uncovers footage of him interacting with previous android models who were trapped and designed in the form of women. Kyoko reveals her identity as an android by peeling off her skin.