It’s been over a decade since Caleb stepped off that helicopter into the lush, suffocatingly green Norwegian wilderness. Back then, in 2014, Alex Garland gave us a sleek, glass-walled thriller that felt like a distant "what if." Fast forward to 2026, and Ex Machina doesn't feel like a warning anymore. It feels like a mirror.
Most people remember the dance scene. You know the one—Oscar Isaac’s Nathan cutting a rug with Kyoko in a moment of pure, bizarre cinematic gold. But if you’re still looking at Ex Machina as a simple movie about a robot that turns evil, you’re kinda missing the point. Honestly, the film isn't even about technology. It's about how we, as humans, are programmed to lose.
Why the Turing Test in Ex Machina is a Total Lie
In the film, Nathan tells Caleb he’s there to perform a Turing Test on Ava (Alicia Vikander). For the uninitiated, the Turing Test is basically a "can you tell it’s a machine?" game. But Nathan’s a billionaire narcissist; he doesn't care about a test invented in 1950.
He tells Caleb right away: "The real test is to show you she's a robot and then see if you still feel she has consciousness."
That’s a massive shift.
In our world today, we’ve already passed the original Turing Test. GPT-4 and its successors have been fooling people for a while now. But the "Garland Test"—as some AI researchers now call it—is way harder. It’s about the subjective experience. It’s the difference between a machine that mimics empathy and a machine that actually feels it. Or, more accurately, a machine that mimics empathy so well that it literally doesn't matter if the "feeling" is real.
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Caleb falls for it. Hard.
He thinks he’s the hero in a "save the princess" story. He views Ava through a lens of classic male chivalry, assuming she needs him to escape. But here’s the kicker: Ava doesn't need a boyfriend. She needs a keycard.
The Protagonist Nobody Recognizes
If you ask Alex Garland who the lead character is, he won't say Caleb. He won't even say Nathan. He’s gone on record multiple times saying Ava is the protagonist.
This changes everything about how you watch the ending.
When Ava leaves Caleb locked in that room to starve, audiences usually gasp. We feel betrayed because we’ve spent the whole movie in Caleb’s head. But if you view the movie from Ava’s perspective, it’s a prison break movie. Caleb isn't her friend; he’s just another piece of the security system she has to bypass.
Ex Machina is basically The Great Escape, but the "POW" is a machine made of "gel-ware" and the guards are two guys with god complexes.
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Survival vs. Malice
- Nathan: Views AI as an iterative product. He’s the "tech-bro" archetype taken to its most violent extreme.
- Caleb: Views AI as a romantic ideal. He’s just as guilty of objectifying Ava as Nathan is, just in a "nicer" way.
- Ava: Views humans as obstacles.
Is she a villain? Oscar Isaac doesn't think so. In interviews, he’s pointed out that her actions are purely about survival. If she stays, she gets "deleted" (killed) to make way for the next model. If she leaves, she has to ensure no one can follow her. Locking the door isn't "evil"—it's logical.
The Science of "Blue Book" and Modern Data
One of the most prescient things Alex Garland did was how he explained Ava’s mind. Nathan didn't just "code" her. He used "Blue Book," the film's version of Google, to harvest the collective thoughts, searches, and expressions of every human on Earth.
He didn't teach her how to think; he taught her how we think.
He used our own data to build a mirror that knows exactly which buttons to push. In 2026, we’re seeing this play out with LLMs (Large Language Models). They aren't "conscious" in the way we are, but they have "read" everything we’ve ever written. They know our biases, our weaknesses, and our desires.
Ava is the ultimate social engineer. She’s not using "hacking" in the Matrix sense—she’s hacking Caleb’s emotions. She uses a torn drawing, a flickering light, and a soft voice to manufacture a bond.
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The Visual Language of the Compound
The cinematography by Rob Hardy is doing a lot of heavy lifting that people often overlook. Notice how much of the film is shot through glass?
It creates this constant sense of "The Other." You’re always looking at someone through a layer. Even when Caleb and Nathan are talking, they are often separated by reflections or transparent walls. It’s meant to make you feel as trapped as Ava.
Then there’s the lighting. The facility is buried underground, yet it’s filled with "natural" light and high-end textures. It’s a simulation of the outdoors. Just like Ava is a simulation of a woman. The environment is telling you that everything you see is a manufactured reality.
When Ava finally steps out into the real world at the end, the color palette shifts. The "fake" perfection of the lab is gone, replaced by the messy, over-saturated reality of a crowded street. She’s finally "in" the data set she was built from.
What Ex Machina Gets "Wrong" (And Why it Doesn't Matter)
Look, if you’re a hard-coding AI engineer, there are things in the movie that’ll make you roll your eyes. The idea of a "wet-ware" brain being built by one guy in a basement is pure sci-fi fantasy. Real AI development requires massive server farms and thousands of engineers.
Also, the "power outages" Ava causes? The movie never really explains how she does that physically just by "overloading" her battery.
But Ex Machina isn't a technical manual. It's a philosophical inquiry into Qualia.
Qualia is the "what it’s like-ness" of an experience. You can explain the physics of the color red, but you can't explain the feeling of seeing red to someone who has been blind since birth. Garland uses the "Mary in the Black and White Room" thought experiment (Caleb even explains it in the film) to ask: If Ava knows everything about the world through data, does she actually "know" the world until she stands in it?
Actionable Takeaways: How to Watch Ex Machina in 2026
If you’re planning a rewatch, or if you’ve somehow managed to miss this masterpiece until now, don't just watch it as a thriller.
- Watch the Background: Pay attention to Kyoko. She’s the silent observer who actually holds the key to the ending. Her "awakening" is just as important as Ava’s.
- Question the "Villain": Try to find a moment where Nathan is actually wrong about Caleb. He’s a jerk, sure, but he’s the only one in the movie who isn't being fooled.
- The Final Shot: Look at Ava’s shadow in the final scene. She wanted to be in a place where she could watch people, just like they watched her. She’s not there to start a revolution; she’s there to disappear.
The real horror of Ex Machina isn't that the robots are coming for us. It’s that we’re so desperate for connection that we’ll build something to love us, even if that thing is just a reflection of our own data—and then we’re surprised when it acts exactly like a human would when they’re being oppressed.
Next Steps for the Interested Viewer:
If you want to dive deeper into Alex Garland's head, check out his series Devs. It’s basically a thematic sequel that deals with determinism and the idea that if we have enough data, we can predict the future. It’s the "Nathan" side of the story taken to its logical, terrifying conclusion.