Ex Machina (Film) Essay Questions

Describe Nathan, as well as Caleb's perception of him, particularly as it evolves over the course of the film.

Nathan is the entitled, brusque, and self-involved CEO of the technology company for which Caleb works. He is, in many ways, the quintessential image of what we think of as the contemporary "tech bro," and Oscar Isaac's portrayal of his self-involved, oblivious but cunning personality can be alternately unsettling and hilarious. When Caleb first gets to the facility, Nathan is hungover and unceremonious about his guest's arrival. He continues to be oddly detached but increasingly conspiratorial throughout Caleb's stay. He wants to be buddy-buddy with Caleb, but he's not particularly good at having friends. As we learn later, he was only using Caleb to test Ava, and never actually wanted to be his friend. Caleb's perception of Nathan changes from one of awe and a desire to impress his boss to complete mistrust and a motivation to betray Nathan. As he is pulled into Ava's narrative of captivity and falls in love with the AI, Caleb comes to hate his boss, whom he sees as an evil, abusive overlord.

What is the central dramatic irony that spurs the conflict along?

During a power cut in one of Caleb's first sessions with Ava, she tells him that Nathan is untrustworthy, and implies that he is an exploitative and nefarious man. The facility is strictly surveilled, so this is one of the only moments that Nathan cannot hear Ava and Caleb's conversation. This conspiracy, a moment of dramatic irony in which we can see the interactions between Caleb and Ava but Nathan cannot, sets the stage for their plot to help Ava escape.

Why was Caleb chosen for the experiment?

At first, Caleb believes that he was chosen to come to Nathan's facility by a completely random lottery. In his mind, he has won a Willy Wonka-esque contest and has the opportunity to connect with his boss, someone whom he considers a genius and could elevate his career. Then, later in the film, Nathan informs him that he was chosen because of his superior programming skills. By the end of the film, once it's revealed that the experiment was not simply a Turing Test, but a test to see if Ava could manipulate human beings into helping her escape, Caleb learns that he was always just a pawn in Nathan's game. In fact, he was chosen for the experiment because he is isolated, with no family and very few friends.

What is disturbing about the end of the film?

At the end of the film, all of Caleb's expectations and perceptions are upended. He realizes that he was only ever chosen to visit the facility for the purpose of being manipulated, and indeed, Ava has manipulated him into helping her and making her believe that she is in love with him. Ava, with whom he has fallen in love, only simulated loving feelings in order to manipulate him into helping her escape. She kills Nathan with a knife and locks Caleb away before flying away in the helicopter that was meant to bring him back to society.

What is most uncanny about Ava's appearance?

Ava has a human face and hands, but the rest of her body looks like metal and circuits, as we might expect a robot to look. Thus, while her face is exceedingly expressive (provided as it is by the actress Alicia Vikander), we are always aware of the fact that she is not a human. This brings the Turing Test that Caleb is administering into even starker relief. Caleb is not only testing whether the robot can fool him into thinking she has a consciousness with the added help of a full human-like visage. Her exposed computer parts make the test even more daunting. The fact that Ava is enticing and plausible to Caleb as a human—even with this obvious robotic appearance—speaks to the effectiveness of her ability to manipulate human counterparts.