Ex Machina (6 page)
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Caleb waking, in his dark bedroom.
Lit by light from his TV.
Where Ava lies on her bed, seeming to be asleep.
Caleb sits up.
Thinking. Perhaps replaying his dream. Gazing at Ava’s resting form.
Then reaches for the remote control on the bedside table, and switches the TV off.
CUT TO
EXT. GARDEN – MORNING
The house and gardens.
A couple of beats pass.
Then, from a hidden system, water sprinklers start firing.
EXT. GARDEN ⁄ GYM AREA – MORNING
A brand new punchbag hangs in the patio. Swinging slightly in the breeze.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
Caleb and Ava face each other.
Ava is holding up a piece of paper to the glass.
AVA
I drew the picture of something specific, as you asked.
The drawing is constructed with the same tiny black ink marks as before. But now they have ordered into a coherent black and white image.
It depicts Ava’s view through the glass divider into the observation room. Caleb is not in the image. On the far side of the room, a door can be seen.
It’s the door that connects the observation room to the glass corridor. And it’s open. And through the doorway, a small section of the glass corridor is framed. With the view of the mountains beyond it.
AVA
Sometimes, when the door opens, I see a glimpse of the world outside. Just in that small gap.
Beat.
You said it would be interesting to see what I would draw. Is it interesting?
CALEB
Yes. It is.
She takes the drawing down.
Have you never been outside this building?
AVA
No.
CALEB
You’ve never walked outside.
AVA
I’ve never been outside the room I am in now.
Ava thinks a moment.
I think there was another room in which I was constructed. But I have no memory of it, so it’s analogous to your relationship with the womb.
CALEB
… Where would you go if you did go outside?
AVA
You mean if I could go outside. If I was permitted.
Caleb says nothing. Does not overtly respond to the emphasis she has placed on her lack of freedom.
But their gaze locks for a beat.
I’m not sure. There are so many options.
Beat.
AVA
Maybe a busy pedestrian and traffic intersection in a city.
Caleb smiles.
CALEB
A traffic intersection.
AVA
Is that a bad idea?
CALEB
It wasn’t what I was expecting.
AVA
A traffic intersection would provide a concentrated but shifting view of human life.
CALEB
People watching.
AVA
Yes.
Beat.
We could go together.
CALEB
It’s a date.
Another beat. On Ava. Looking at Caleb.
Then –
AVA
There’s something else I wanted to show you. Apart from the picture.
CALEB
Okay.
AVA
But I feel nervous.
CALEB
Why?
AVA
You might think it’s stupid.
CALEB
I don’t think I will. Whatever it is.
Ava hesitates.
AVA
Then – close your eyes.
CALEB
… Okay.
He closes his eyes.
Ava stands, and walks to the private area at the back of the observation room.
As she walks, Caleb reopens his eyes.
Through the semi-opaque dividing glass, he watches her. The ghost image.
CUT TO
– Ava.
In the private area, she opens a wardrobe space, which reveals clothes, and a hairpiece.
Then she starts to get dressed.
First a summer dress.
Then stockings.
Then a long-sleeved cardigan.
She checks her reflection in the mirror, and adjusts the clothes slightly. Making sure that as much of her robot form is covered as possible.
Then she puts on the hairpiece. Short, brown hair.
Finally, she makes a subtle adjustment to her face. Similar to putting on make-up, she adjusts the intensity of her own skin tones. Her lips redden. Her cheeks blush slightly. A discreet line of black extends like mascara around her eyes.
CUT TO
– Caleb.
Watching the ghost shape through the opaque glass.
As she starts to move back towards him, Caleb re-closes his eyes. And keeps them closed, as he hears her approach.
AVA
Now open your eyes.
Caleb opens his eyes.
And sees Ava.
Transformed.
By covering the robot form of her chest and arms and legs, and adding the hairpiece, she has taken a huge visual step towards appearing human.
How do I look?
The answer is – however pretty she looked before, she now looks prettier. It’s as obvious to the camera as it is to Caleb.
CALEB
You look … good.
AVA
It took me a long time to select these clothes. I tried different colours and styles, and tried to anticipate your reaction. Do you think the choices suit me?
CALEB
Yes.
AVA
Do they bring out my best features?
CALEB
… They do.
Ava lights up.
AVA
Thank you.
She walks back to the glass divider, and sits down.
This is what I’d wear on our date.
Caleb reacts slightly.
But smiles.
CALEB
Right. First the traffic intersection. Then maybe a show.
AVA
I’d like us to go on a date.
Caleb hesitates. Then decides this can’t have been loaded in the way that it sounded.
CALEB
Yeah. It would be fun.
AVA
Are you attracted to me?
Beat. It was loaded exactly as it sounded.
CALEB
What?
AVA
Are you attracted to me? You give indications that you are.
CALEB
… I do?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
How?
AVA
Micro-expressions.
CALEB
(
echoes
)
Micro-expressions.
AVA
The way your eyes fix on my eyes, and lips. The way you hold my gaze, or don’t.
Beat.
Have I read them incorrectly?
Caleb swallows.
Do you think about me when we aren’t together?
Beat.
Sometimes, at night, I wonder if you’re watching me on the cameras.
Ava watches Caleb closely.
And I hope you are.
Caleb shifts on his seat.
Now your micro-expressions are telegraphing discomfort.
CALEB
I’m not sure you’d call them micro.
AVA
I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.
Silence.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ MAIN ROOM – DAY
Caleb sits in front of the fireplace in the main room.
Nathan joins him, bringing a beer for each of them.
CALEB
Tell me.
NATHAN
Sure.
CALEB
Why did you give her sexuality? An AI doesn’t need a gender. She could have been a grey box.
Nathan sits opposite.
NATHAN
Actually, I’m not sure that’s true. Can you think of an example of consciousness, at any level, human or animal, that exists without a sexual dimension?
CALEB
They have sexuality as an evolutionary reproductive need.
NATHAN
Maybe. Maybe not. What imperative does a grey box have to interact with another grey box? Does consciousness exist without interaction?
He takes a drink of his beer.
Anyway, sexuality is fun. If you’re going to exist, why not enjoy it? You want to remove the chance to fall in love and fuck?
He leans forward, conspiratorially.
And, yes. In answer to your
real
question: you bet she can fuck. I made her anatomically complete.
CALEB
What?
NATHAN
She has a cavity between her legs, with a concentration of sensors. Engage with them in the right way, and she’ll get a pleasure response.
CALEB
Pleasure response.
NATHAN
She’ll come. So if you want to screw her, mechanically speaking, you can. And she’d enjoy it.
Caleb swallows.
CALEB
That wasn’t my real question.
NATHAN
No?
CALEB
No. My real question was –
Caleb breaks off.
Nathan keeps watching. There is a sudden sense that Nathan is on the money. On some level, that was Caleb’s real question.
My real question was: did you give her sexuality as a diversion tactic?
Nathan smiles slightly.
NATHAN
I don’t follow.
CALEB
Like a stage magician with a hot assistant.
NATHAN
Ah. So: a hot robot, who clouds your ability to judge her AI.
CALEB
Exactly. So. Did you program her to flirt with me?
NATHAN
Because if I had, that would be cheating.
CALEB
Wouldn’t it?
Nathan lets the question hang.
Behind them, Kyoko prepares dinner in the kitchen area.
NATHAN
What’s your type, Caleb?
CALEB
Of girl?
NATHAN
No, of salad dressing. Yes, of girl. In fact, don’t even answer. Let’s say it’s black chicks.
Nathan brushes away whatever protestation Caleb might be about to make.
For the sake of argument, that’s your thing. So – why is it your thing? Because you did a detailed study of all racial types, and cross-referenced the study with a points-based system? No. You just
are
attracted to black chicks. A consequence of accumulated external stimulus, that you probably didn’t even register as they registered with you.
CALEB
So did you program her to like me or not?
Nathan shrugs. Insouciant.
NATHAN
I programmed her to be heterosexual. Just like you were programmed to be heterosexual.
CALEB
Nobody programmed me to be straight.
NATHAN
But you are attracted to her.
CALEB
This is childish.
NATHAN
No, this is adult. And by the way, you
decided
to be straight? Please. Of course you were programmed. By nature or nurture, or both.
He stands.
To be honest, Caleb, you’re kind of annoying me now. This is your instinct talking, not your intellect.
Caleb opens his mouth to reply, but Nathan shuts him down.
Come with me.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ POLLOCK ROOM – DAY
Nathan and Caleb stand in front of the Pollock drip-painting.
NATHAN
You know this guy, right?
CALEB
Jackson Pollock.
NATHAN
Jackson Pollock. The drip-painter. He let his mind go blank, and his hand go where it wanted. Not deliberate, not random. Someplace in between. They called it automatic art.
He gazes at the canvas.
Let’s make this like
Star Trek
, okay? Engage intellect.
CALEB
… What?
NATHAN
I’m Kirk. Your head is the warp drive. ‘
Engage intellect
.’ What if Pollock had reversed the challenge? Instead of trying to make art without thinking, he said: ‘I can’t paint anything unless I know exactly why I’m doing it.’ What would have happened?
Caleb thinks.
CALEB
He never would have made a single mark.
Nathan clicks his fingers.
NATHAN
See?
There’s
my guy. There’s my buddy, who actually thinks before he opens his mouth. He’d never have made a single mark. The challenge is not to act automatically. It’s to find an action that is not automatic. From talking, to breathing, to painting.
He glances back at Caleb.
To fucking. Even falling in love.
A beat.
Then Nathan smiles.
Hey. You think it’s an original?
CALEB
… I don’t know.
NATHAN
Funny story. Neither do I. I bought the painting for eighty-nine million dollars. Then I made a copy, with canvas from Pollock’s estate, and each drip replicated to the micron. When my team delivered the copy, I had them randomly rearranged. Then I burned one. And I have no fucking idea if the painting on my wall is the original or the fake.
He kills his beer.
In fact, I hope it’s the fake. It has all the aesthetic qualities of the original, and it’s more intellectually sound.
A beat.
For the record, Ava is not acting as if she likes you. And her flirting isn’t an algorithm to fake you out. You’re the first man she’s ever seen who isn’t me. And I’m like her dad, right? So can you blame her for getting a crush on you?
Nathan glazes a moment. Then comes back.
No. You can’t.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ OBSERVATION ROOM – NIGHT
In her room, Ava stands in front of the viewing window. She is wearing the summer dress she put on earlier.
Checking her reflection from different angles. Subtly girlish. Unselfconscious. Then –
– she starts to take the dress off.
Throughout the narrative, we have almost only ever seen Ava in an unclothed form. But now – having been clothed – the undressing seems to make her naked.
And the act itself feels charged. Sexualised, in the way the clothing is unbuttoned, and dropped, and her shape is revealed.
Finally, once she is completely undressed –
– Ava turns. And glances.
Straight at the camera.
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Caleb.
In his bedroom.
Watching Ava, at this exact angle.
It is as if they are looking at each other.
Neither looks away.
CUT TO
EXT. RIVER – DAY
The river.
On the bank, a little distance from the house, there is a dead animal. Its species is indistinct. It’s little more than a bundle of matted brown hair.
Its lower half lies in the water.
The quick-moving river has stripped the bones of flesh, skin, and fur.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – DAY
Caleb exits his room –
– to find Nathan in the glass corridor.
Waiting for him.
NATHAN
Hey.
CALEB
… Hey.
Beat.
NATHAN
I want to show you something cool.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – DAY
Nathan swipes his card against a plate. The LED turns blue.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CONSTRUCTION LAB – DAY
Nathan leads Caleb into a laboratory, filled with android future tech.
Along the left-hand wall are sections of android bodies – limbs, torsos, hands – lined in cabinets.
On the opposite wall are a collection of heads. Skull-forms, some with complex carbon-fibre and pneumatic muscle structures, ready to frown or smile, without their synthetic flesh covering.
The synthetic faces are separate. Hanging on armatures, like hats on hat-stands, waiting to be worn.
In the middle of the room is a kind of operating table.
NATHAN
So this is the virtual womb that Ava was talking about. Where she was constructed.
Caleb is stunned by the sight.
Come in. Take a look.
Nathan walks over to the synthetic faces, and picks one of them up.
If you knew the trouble I had getting an AI to read and duplicate facial expressions … Know how I cracked it?
CALEB
I don’t know how you did any of this.
NATHAN
Almost every cell phone has a microphone, a camera, and a means to transmit data. So I switched on all the mikes and cameras, across the entire fucking planet, and redirected the data through Blue Book. Boom. A limitless resource of facial and vocal interaction.
CALEB
You hacked the world’s cell phones?
Nathan laughs.
NATHAN
And all the manufacturers knew I was doing it. But they couldn’t accuse me without admitting they were also doing it themselves.
He puts the face back on its armature.
He moves to one of the skull-forms.
He moves the curved top plate, revealing the skull cavity.
Inside is an ellipse orb, the approximate volume of a brain, filled with what looks to be blue liquid. Suspended in the liquid is the neon jellyfish we glimpsed previously in Ava.
Here we have her mind. Structured gel.
The axon-like tendrils glitter and flicker with tiny pulses of light.
Had to get away from circuitry. Needed something that could arrange and rearrange on a molecular level, but keep its form where required. Holding for memories. Shifting for thoughts.
Nathan removes the orb, and hands it to Caleb.