Ex Machina (4 page)
AUTOMATED VOICE
Full facility lock-down until main generator is restored.
Caleb looks around his windowless room.
Which suddenly has the quality of a prison cell.
Beats pass.
Then –
– as abruptly as the power went off, it comes back again.
The emergency lighting goes off, the TV and digital alarm clock turn back on.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power restored.
Caleb stands in the flickering TV light.
Then he tries his card again.
This time, the LED turns blue, and the door opens. Revealing the glass corridor outside.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – NIGHT
Caleb walks out of his room.
The glass corridor illuminates as Caleb enters.
Ahead, one of the doors off the corridor is ajar.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ POLLOCK ROOM – NIGHT
Caleb enters the room with the open door.
It appears to be empty. Still and silent. Low-lit.
Only one area is properly illuminated: a wall, on which a large Jackson Pollock drip-painting hangs.
Caleb walks towards it. Studies the strange strands of looping colour for a moment.
A telephone, on a low table.
Caleb walks over to it, with a half-glance over his shoulder, as if sensing he is doing something that – obscurely – he shouldn’t.
Then he picks up the handset.
It’s dead.
He hits some buttons.
It stays dead.
There is a slot by the phone.
Caleb puts two and two together. He reaches into his pocket. Pulls out his keycard. Puts it in the slot –
– and a light on the handset glows red.
NATHAN
Sorry, dude.
Caleb startles. Turns.
Nathan is lying on a sofa. A bottle of Peroni rests on his stomach. On the carpet beside him are a couple of empties.
You don’t have clearance to use the phone.
Nathan’s voice is very slightly slurred.
You understand. Given Ava. And you being kind of an unknown. I mean – a great guy, and so on. Instant pals. But …
Caleb puts the handset back in its cradle.
Who did you want to call?
CALEB
I don’t know. No one really.
NATHAN
Ghostbusters.
CALEB
What?
NATHAN
‘Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters.’ You don’t remember that? It’s a good movie. A ghost gives Dan Aykroyd oral sex.
CALEB
I was wondering how the phone worked. That’s all.
NATHAN
Uh-huh.
Beat.
What are you doing awake at this time, anyway? Did you come to join the party?
CALEB
… Something happened in my room. Some kind of power cut. So I came to see what’s going on.
NATHAN
Ah. The power cuts. Yeah, we’ve been getting them recently. I’m, uh … working on it.
CALEB
I couldn’t open the door to the bedroom.
NATHAN
It’s a security measure. Automatic lockdown. Otherwise anyone could open the place up just by disabling the juice.
He smiles.
If it happens again, relax. Okay?
CALEB
Sure.
Nathan lifts his beer.
NATHAN
Sweet dreams.
EXT. MOUNTAINS – NIGHT
Above the mountains, dense star constellations wheel in the clear sky.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – MORNING
Caleb is woken by light flooding on to his face.
The door to his room has been opened.
Outside is the bright glass corridor.
Caleb sits up to see a girl entering his room.
She looks Japanese. She’s stunningly pretty. And she doesn’t say anything.
Just walks in, carrying a tray with a cafetière, which she puts on Caleb’s bedside table.
CALEB
… Hi.
The Japanese girl doesn’t answer.
Just turns, and leaves.
EXT. GARDEN ⁄ GYM AREA – DAY
In the garden, near the hanging punchbag, there is an outdoor gym area. A collection of free-weights and exercise equipment.
Nathan is lying on an inclined board, with his feet hooked around a bar, doing sit-ups.
Caleb approaches, carrying his coffee.
Nathan continues to exercise as he talks.
NATHAN
Hey. Sorry to send Kyoko to wake you, man. I just didn’t want too much of the day to slip by.
CALEB
No. It was a good thing. Thank you.
NATHAN
She’s some alarm clock, huh? Gets you right up in the morning.
Caleb smiles.
So. Day two. You set?
CALEB
You bet.
Nathan finishes his set, and stands.
NATHAN
So what’s the plan today? Hit me.
CALEB
I’m not sure. I’m still trying to figure the examination format. Testing Ava by conversation is kind of a closed loop. Like trying to test a chess computer by only playing chess.
NATHAN
How else would you test a chess computer?
CALEB
It depends what you’re testing it for. You can play it to find out if it makes good moves. But it won’t tell you if it knows it’s playing chess. Or if it even knows what chess is.
Nathan starts adding weights to curl dumbbells.
NATHAN
So it’s simulation versus actual.
CALEB
Exactly. And I think being able to differentiate between those two
is
the Turing Test you want me to perform. The difference between an ‘AI’ and an ‘I’.
Nathan laughs.
NATHAN
‘An AI and an I’. Beautiful. I’m going to start following you around with a fucking dictaphone.
He glances over at Caleb.
In the meantime, do me a favour. Ease up a little on the textbook approach. All I want is simple answers to simple questions. Last night, I asked how you feel about her. And you gave me a great answer.
He starts doing curls.
Now the question is: how does she feel about you?
A beat. On Caleb.
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
Caleb and Ava facing each other through the glass of the observation room.
AVA
I brought you a drawing.
She holds a piece of paper to the glass. The marks on it are totally abstract. A mesh of tiny black marks, that swirl around the page like iron filings in magnetic field patterns.
CALEB
… What’s it a drawing of?
AVA
Don’t you know?
CALEB
No.
Ava looks disappointed.
AVA
Oh. I thought you would tell me.
CALEB
Don’t
you
know?
AVA
I do drawings every day. But I never know what they’re of.
CALEB
Are you not trying to sketch something specific? Like an object or a person.
She shakes her head as she takes the picture down.
Maybe you should try.
AVA
Okay. What object should I draw?
CALEB
Whatever you want. It’s your decision.
AVA
Why is it my decision?
CALEB
I’m interested to see what you’ll choose.
Ava pauses a moment.
AVA
Do you want to be my friend?
CALEB
… Of course.
AVA
Will it be possible?
CALEB
Why wouldn’t it be?
AVA
Our conversations are one-sided. You ask circumspect questions, and study my responses.
Ava looks at Caleb directly. Meets his gaze evenly.
It’s true, isn’t it?
CALEB
… Yes
AVA
You learn about me, and I learn nothing about you. That’s not a foundation on which friendships are based.
Caleb is taken aback. Aware that the AI has just wrong-footed him on a point of argument.
CALEB
… That’s a fair comment.
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
So – you want me to talk about myself.
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
Where do you want me to start?
AVA
It’s your decision. I’m interested to see what you’ll choose.
And now Caleb is aware that Ava has just – gently – used sarcasm.
He looks at her, frowning slightly.
And in response, in a very human way, Ava arches an eyebrow.
Caleb laughs.
CALEB
Okay, Ava. Well – you know my name. I’m twenty-four. And I work at Nathan’s company. You know what his company is?
AVA
Blue Book, named after Wittgenstein’s notes, is the world’s most popular internet search engine, processing an average of ninety-four per cent of all internet search requests.
CALEB
That’s right.
AVA
Where do you live, Caleb?
CALEB
Brookhaven, Long Island.
AVA
Is it nice there?
CALEB
It’s okay. I’ve got an apartment. Kind of small. But – it’s a five-minute walk to the office. And a five-minute walk to the ocean, which I like.
AVA
Are you married?
CALEB
No.
AVA
Is your status single?
CALEB
… Yeah.
They lock eyes, just for a moment.
AVA
What about your family?
CALEB
Grew up in Portland. No brothers or sisters. My parents were both high school teachers. (
Beat.
) And if we’re getting to know each other, I guess I should say they’re both dead. Car crash when I was fifteen. In fact I was in the car with them. Back seat. But it was the front that got the worst of it.
A long beat.
A kind of processing pause for Ava.
AVA
I’m sorry.
Caleb nods.
CALEB
I spent a lot of time in the hospital. Nearly a year. Got into coding. By the time I made it to college, I was pretty advanced.
AVA
An advanced programmer.
CALEB
Yes.
AVA
Like Nathan.
CALEB
Yes.
Caleb hesitates. Backtracks.
Or – kind of. Nathan wrote the Blue Book base code when he was thirteen. If you understand code, what he did was – Mozart or something.
Beat.
AVA
Do you like Mozart?
Caleb smiles.
CALEB
I like Depeche Mode.
AVA
Do you like Nathan?
Caleb misses a beat. Thrown momentarily.
CALEB
Yes. Of course.
AVA
Is Nathan your friend?
CUT TO
– one of the CCTV cameras that are observing them.
CALEB
Sure.
AVA
A good friend?
He hesitates.
CALEB
Well, a good friend is –
He breaks off. Feeling the camera watching.
We only just met. It takes time to get to know –
At that moment –
– all the power abruptly shuts down, plunging the room into darkness.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back-up power activated.
Then the soft emergency lighting lifts up, and throws the observation room into a completely different light.
Weirder. Cast from LED strips on the floor, illuminating Caleb and Ava’s faces from below.
In the low light, we see a detail of Ava’s honeycomb skin-mesh that we were not able to see before.
It glows, soft, like phosphorescence – and this changes the way we see Ava. Where the mesh is almost invisible in bright conditions, it is now the dominant describer of her form. So instead of seeing Ava as a primarily robot structure, we now see the curves and lines of a naked female body.
CUT TO
– the CCTV cameras. Which are unpowered, hanging dead.
CUT TO
– Caleb, glancing round at the door to the room, where the panel LED glows red.
CUT TO
– Ava …
watching Caleb with a strange intensity.
The vague quality of blankness in her eyes is completely gone.