Ex Machina (3 page)
AVA
Hello.
Her voice has no digital inflections. It is just the voice of a girl.
Caleb gathers himself.
CALEB
… Hi.
AVA
Who are you?
CALEB
I’m Caleb.
AVA
Hello, Caleb.
CALEB
… Do you have a name?
AVA
Yes. Ava.
CALEB
… I’m pleased to meet you, Ava.
AVA
I’m pleased to meet you too.
Caleb sits opposite her.
He is alone on his half of the glass. Nathan is nowhere to be seen.
But on the ceiling, and attached to the walls, on both sides of the glass, there are several CCTV cameras. Trained variously on Caleb and Ava. Lenses twitching.
Cut back to Ava.
She watches Caleb. Then cocks her head slightly to the side.
AVA
Are you nervous?
Caleb frowns.
CALEB
… Why do you ask that?
A beat.
Then Ava repeats her question.
AVA
Are you nervous?
CALEB
… Yes. A little.
AVA
Why?
CALEB
I’m not sure.
AVA
I feel nervous too.
CALEB
… Do you?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
Why do you feel nervous?
AVA
I’ve never met anyone new before. Only Nathan.
CALEB
… Then we’re both in quite a similar position.
AVA
Haven’t you met lots of new people before?
CALEB
None like you.
AVA
Oh.
Beat.
CALEB
So. It looks like we need to break the ice.
He glances at her. Observing.
Do you know what I mean by that?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
What do I mean?
AVA
Overcome initial social awkwardness.
Beat.
CALEB
So let’s have a conversation. If we talk, we’ll both relax, and get to know each other at the same time.
AVA
Okay. What would you like to have a conversation about?
CALEB
Why don’t we start with you telling me something about yourself.
AVA
What would you like to know?
CALEB
Whatever comes into your head.
Ava pauses a moment.
AVA
Well. You already know my name. And you can see that I’m a machine. (
Beat.
) Would you like to know how old I am?
CALEB
Sure.
AVA
I’m one.
CALEB
One what? One year? Or one day?
AVA
One.
A beat on Caleb. Processing.
Her answer feels like the near non-sequitur that typically betrays AI responses.
Does that seem young to you?
CALEB
Quite young. (
Beat.
) When did you learn how to speak?
Ava pauses, as if considering this question for the first time.
AVA
I don’t think I did learn. I always knew how to speak – and that’s strange, isn’t it? Because language is something that people acquire.
CALEB
Some believe language exists in the brain from birth, and what is learned is the ability to attach words and structure to the latent ability.
Beat.
Would you agree?
AVA
… I don’t know. I have no opinion on that.
Beat.
I like to draw.
Caleb says nothing.
Just watches Ava. Again, lets the non-sequitur sit.
AVA
I don’t have any of my pictures with me now, but I can show you them tomorrow.
CALEB
That sounds good. I’d like to see them.
AVA
Yes.
Beat.
Will you come back tomorrow, Caleb?
Caleb smiles slightly.
CALEB
Yeah. Definitely.
Ava also smiles.
And suddenly –
– there is a strong sense of something very human there, the way the smile lights up her face.
AVA
Good.
EXT. HOUSE ⁄ GARDEN – DUSK
A view of the house over the meadows.
The sun is setting behind the mountain peaks, making the edges of the clouds glow like lightbulb filaments.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ DINING AREA – DUSK
Caleb and Nathan are in the dining area.
It is set for dinner. Only two chairs.
Nathan is at the table, nursing a bottle of Peroni beer.
Caleb stands by panoramic window, looking at the view.
NATHAN
So?
Caleb turns.
CALEB
Sorry. I was just ordering my thoughts.
NATHAN
Don’t order. Just speak.
CALEB
She’s fascinating. When you talk to her, you’re through the looking glass.
Nathan nods. Approving.
NATHAN
‘Through the looking glass’. You’ve got a way with words there, Caleb. You’re quotable.
CALEB
Actually, it’s someone else’s quote.
NATHAN
You know I wrote it down. That other line you came up with. About how if I’ve created a conscious machine, I’m not man. I’m God.
CALEB
… I don’t think that’s exactly what I said.
Nathan doesn’t seem to hear.
NATHAN
I just thought –
fuck
. That’s so perfect. It’s so good for the story, when we get to tell it. ‘I turned to Caleb, and he was looking back at me. And he said: you’re not a man, you’re a god.’
CALEB
But I didn’t say that.
NATHAN
Whatever it was you said. I wrote it down.
As a kind of punctuation mark, Nathan downs the remains of his beer. Then stands, and gets another from the bar.
So anyway. First impressions: you’re impressed.
CALEB
Yes. Although –
Nathan laughs.
NATHAN
‘Although’? There’s a qualification to you being impressed?
CALEB
No! No qualification to her. Just – in the Turing Test, the machine should be hidden from the examiner. And there’s a control, or –
Nathan waves a hand.
NATHAN
I think we’re past that. If I hid Ava from you, so you just heard her voice, she would pass for human. The real test is to
show
you she is a robot. Then see if you still feel she has consciousness.
CALEB
I think you’re probably right. Her language abilities are incredible. The system is stochastic, right?
Nathan looks at Caleb blankly.
Non-deterministic.
Nathan still says nothing.
Caleb presses on.
CALEB
At first I thought she was mapping from internal semantic form to syntactic tree-structure, then getting linearised words. But then I started to realise the model was probabilistic, with statistical training – or at least some kind of hybrid.
Silence.
… No?
NATHAN
Caleb. I understand you want me to explain how Ava works. But – I’m sorry. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that.
CALEB
Try me! I’m hot on high-level abstraction, and –
NATHAN
(
cuts in
)
It’s not because you’re too dumb. It’s because I want to have a beer and a conversation with you. Not a seminar.
CALEB
… Oh. Sorry.
NATHAN
It’s cool.
Nathan studies Caleb for a beat.
Just answer me this. What do you
feel
about her? Nothing analytical. Just – how do you feel?
CALEB
I feel …
Caleb pauses.
… that she’s fucking amazing.
Nathan smiles.
Then lifts his bottle.
NATHAN
Dude. Cheers.
Caleb lifts his bottle too.
CALEB
Cheers.
The glass of the bottles touch.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Caleb unpacks his bags.
Carefully picks bits of glass off his clothes.
Hangs clothes in the closet.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BATHROOM – NIGHT
Caleb stands in his boxer shorts, brushing his teeth by the sink.
REVEAL
– several long scars on his back.
Neat. Unusual. Long healed. But from serious wounds, or surgery.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Caleb climbs into bed.
At the foot of the bed, attached to the wall, there is a TV.
On the bedside table there is a lamp, a remote control, and an alarm clock.
The clock reads 11:43 p.m.
He switches the lamp out.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Darkness.
The clock reads 01:32 a.m.
The soft glow from the digital readout throws a light on the remote control.
REVEAL
– Caleb.
Eyes closed. For a beat.
Then his eyes open. He’s wide awake.
He turns over in the bed.
Then turns back again.
CUT TO
2:28 a.m.
Caleb lies watching the digital clock as the numbers change to 2:29 a.m.
CALEB
God damn it.
He reaches for the remote control.
Click.
The TV at the foot of the bed switches on, suddenly lighting up the room with cold TV glow.
Caleb squeezes his eyes shut, momentarily dazzled by the brightness.
When his eyes open again, instead of seeing a TV station, he sees a live feed from a CCTV camera.
It shows the observation room.
Caleb sits upright in bed.
… What the fuck?
Ava is sitting at the table.
Drawing.
Cut between Caleb watching Ava. and varying CCTV angles of Ava as she draws.
The different TV channels flip between feeds from the various cameras.
Caleb is transfixed by the imagery.
Her posture. Her legs tucked beneath the chair. The curve of the breasts on her synthetic torso.
The CCTV images become Caleb’s point of view. The things he is observing.
Close-ups of her face. Her eyes. Her mouth.
The way she bites her lip in an expression of concentration. As when she smiled, there is a powerful sense in this tiny gesture of her feeling sentient and human.
Even more so because her face fills the screen, hiding the mechanical parts of her form.
Throughout, we never clearly see what Ava is actually drawing.
End on –
– Caleb. Glazed.
Then abruptly –
– the TV goes dead.
And the digital alarm clock goes dead.
And the windowless room is plunged into total darkness, and total silence. As if the house had been previously filled with a soft hum of power, which we were unaware of until it was gone.
In this, we hear Caleb breathing.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back-up power activated.
Soft emergency lighting comes on.
Caleb hesitates a moment.
Then gets out of bed.
Goes to his bedroom door.
Beside the keycard plate, the LED is red.
He swipes it with his card.
The LED stays red.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Full facility lock-down until main generator is restored.
CALEB
… Are you kidding?
He tries his card again.