Ex Machina (Team 10)
EX MACHINA
An overview by Matthew Barg, Sabrina Debargis and Sheldon Parris
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8XBKb6DQk
PLOT SUMMARY
Ex Machina is a film about
the interactions of two humans and a robot that is set in the future in an
unknown hidden robotic research facility. The movie begins with Caleb, the main
character, flying out to his CEO’s (Nathan’s) private estate after being
notified he has won a contest. After meeting Caleb, Nathan explains to Caleb
that he will be the human component in the “Turing Test”, a test that involves
interacting with a robot and is meant to determine if the computer has
artificial intelligence. The robot is called Ava, and her purpose is to prove
that robots have consciousness.
Caleb is fascinated with Ava, the robot, and builds a relationship with her through 5 interview sessions. As Caleb’s connection and faithfulness to Ava grows, his suspicion that Nathan is hiding things from him grows as well. Ava has perfected her artificial intelligence since she can make Caleb want to do certain actions, behaviours, emotions, and influence his thoughts throughout his sessions with her. Caleb, after determining some of Nathan’s darker intentions with robots, tells Ava that they are breaking out together.
Caleb is fascinated with Ava, the robot, and builds a relationship with her through 5 interview sessions. As Caleb’s connection and faithfulness to Ava grows, his suspicion that Nathan is hiding things from him grows as well. Ava has perfected her artificial intelligence since she can make Caleb want to do certain actions, behaviours, emotions, and influence his thoughts throughout his sessions with her. Caleb, after determining some of Nathan’s darker intentions with robots, tells Ava that they are breaking out together.
Caleb, after eventually
releasing Ava from her enclosed room, is punched by Nathan, knocking him out. While
he is unconscious, Ava kills Nathan and after killing Nathan, she leaves Caleb
who is screaming out for her to open the door that has him locked in a room. In
the end, she used her artificial intelligence to her benefit and escaped, using
any means possible, the facility and lived her life amongst humans while
leaving everyone in the facility behind.
FILM TECHNIQUES
There are many film techniques used in Ex Machina that give life
to the film and add depth to scenes. For example, the editing in the film helps
give the audience information without having specific dialogue related to it.
When Caleb is interacting with Ava for the first time there is a cross cut
between their interaction and Nathan looking at his monitor while taking notes.
This tells the audience that Caleb is being watched and studied during all of
his interactions with Ava and Nathan will know everything he is saying.
Another example of editing is seen when Ava asks Caleb what he thinks
about Nathan and if he likes him. Caleb stutters for a moment while a cut shows
us the camera in the room that is focused on Caleb. This shows that Caleb is
conscious of Nathan’s presence and is being careful with what he says to Ava
and potentially not telling the whole truth of how he feels.
Specific framing shots in the film are paired beautifully with different
scenes when appropriate. At the beginning of the film, a long shot of Caleb and
the beautiful and enormous environment he is placed in is used to illustrate
the new world he is about to enter and how different it is compared to what he
is used to. It also shows us how small, isolated and alone he is in this new
environment. It represents how helpless Caleb is in this new environment and it
shows as well how little he is compared to the entirety of the size of Nathan’s
estate, how little Caleb thinks of himself, and how little confidence he has in
himself.
Another example can be seen just after Caleb signs the contract to
participate in Nathan’s study. The frame in this scene shifts to a close up of
Nathan looking at him while hiding Caleb’s face.
This is showing how Caleb is now in Nathan's complete control and that
Nathan is dictating what is happening. It also shows how much power Nathan has
over Caleb’s actions throughout the start of the week.
The lighting in Ex Machina effects the mood of scenes and signals characteristics
of specific moments. When Caleb first steps into the facility, the lighting is
dark and you cannot see much inside. This is signifying how he has little
knowledge for what he is entering into and what is to come. This also gives an
already unknown environment a mysterious feeling. It makes the viewers uneasy
towards what Caleb might encounter or what might happen next. Throughout the
film, the lighting turns red when the power in the facility goes off. This
gives the facility a scarier feel and adds to the darker side of the facility.
It gives a feeling that the power outages should not be happening and that
something is causing them purposefully.
Although the main setting of the film is
inside the facility, there are two separate sets that give extra detail and
contrast to the film. At the beginning of the film, Caleb is in a helicopter
flying over a beautiful landscape of ice, mountains, waterfalls which
illustrates the importance of the character he is meeting with as it is said
that this is his entire estate. At the end of the film, when Ava is submerged
in society, we see her in a crowd of people at an intersection in a bright
city. The brightness illustrates the beginning of something new that has
never been seen before. The crowd, walking unknowingly by her, shows how she is
just another person in society that is unnoticed and most people are unaware of
what she really is. Throughout the film, the setting shows a contrast between
nature and manmade which shows the fight between the organic and the
artificial.
Props
are used both subtly and obviously to add to the plot. During Caleb’s first
interaction with Ava, a wall of hundreds of sticky notes is shown. The sticky
notes show how much work Nathan has put into creating Ava and how dedicated he
is to completing this. This also shows how obsessed Nathan is with perfecting
his technology and how his work is taking over his life.
The
main prop used in the film is the key card. At the beginning, it shows how
Nathan has more control and power over Caleb since Caleb can only access
certain rooms in the facility. While in the end, it shows how Caleb grabs hold
of some power over Nathan since Caleb is using Nathan’s key card to access
rooms he normally can’t get into. The characters depend upon the key cards
since it is not possible to open doors and leave the estate without them. This
is exactly how Ava trapped Caleb inside the facility as she is escaping with
the key card.
UNIVERSAL THEMES, ISSUES, QUESTIONS
Do
Humans Have the Right to Enslave Robots?
Towards the end of the film, Caleb discovers
through looking at Nathan’s computer that he has made many different robots
which he has performed studies on and also used for his own pleasure and
desires. Caleb watches archived footage of a security camera that shows Nathan
asking a robot questions while the robot is screaming at him to let her leave.
In another footage from a security camera, Caleb sees the same robot scrapping the door repeatedly while
screaming until eventually her arms have completely vanished. These scenes
raise a question that could maybe become an issue in the near future: Do humans
have the right to enslave robots that they have created?
Can
Robots show Empathy and Emotion for Humans?
Throughout
the entire film, we are lead to believe that Ava truly cares about Caleb and
feels a connection towards him. Two key interactions between Ava and Caleb that
show this is when Ava shows interest in learning about Caleb’s personal life
and family in their second session and when Ava talks to Caleb about going on a
date together in their third session. Ava in these two moments leads Caleb to
believe, along with the audience, that she shows some form of emotion that
links to Caleb. However, the ending of the film questions the true meaning of
her curiosity and discussions with Caleb. Ava used all those means to
manipulate Caleb into wanting to make her escape from the research facility
that they are in. A question that can be asked after watching this film is: Will
it ever be possible for robots to show true empathy and emotions for humans?
Are
Robots capable of Living Amongst Humans?
After the film ends and Ava has escaped into
the real world, we see a shot of her in a crowd of normal citizens in the busy
modern society. Ava stands still with a small look of concern on her face and
we see her walking away until she is no longer visible. She is beginning her
journey of living amongst humans in society. However, she is a bit confused on
what to do since she has never been outside of her room at the facility before
this. A question that resonated after seeing this scene was: Is it possible for
robots to truly live amongst humans in society?
(Word Count: 1516)
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STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES AND OUR OPINION
We
enjoyed the plot twist at the end with Ava leaving Caleb trapped in Nathan’s
room. We felt this plot twist was great for two reasons. Firstly, it was
unexpected and caught us off guard. Although Nathan said Ava was faking
interest in Caleb just so that she could get a chance to escape, it was hard to
believe she had no interest in Caleb at all as she looked to show a deep interest
in him during the 5 different sessions. Secondly, it made us question the
entire idea of robots living amongst us humans in the future. As discussed in
the article we read called “Us. And them.” by Chris Carroll, the idea of robots
being able to make moral judgements and decisions seems like a very distant
goal. We do believe that in the near future we will have the technology to
construct an artificially intelligent robot however, if the robot is not able
to understand and learn moral judgements, will it ever be able to live amongst us
in society?
Something we found quite intriguing in the film was the character development of Nathan. We found there were so many different angles, motives and personality traits that he had, that it made it quite clear that Nathan was complex and not a character that was going to be easily understood throughout the film. Was he really a bad guy? Was he a good guy? The variation in his personality and actions made it perplexing to us when Ava killed him since throughout the film, we were unable to make a clear decision on if we liked him or not.
Something we found quite intriguing in the film was the character development of Nathan. We found there were so many different angles, motives and personality traits that he had, that it made it quite clear that Nathan was complex and not a character that was going to be easily understood throughout the film. Was he really a bad guy? Was he a good guy? The variation in his personality and actions made it perplexing to us when Ava killed him since throughout the film, we were unable to make a clear decision on if we liked him or not.
We would recommend this film to people who are interested in Sci-Fi, Drama and Mystery films as this film covers those categories. We would also recommend this film specifically to people who are interested in robotics because this film can lead to many interesting discussion about the potential of robots living amongst us in society.
COURSE LINKS
Psychological Benchmarks in Robot Development
In class, specifically
when we discussed the article “Us. And them.” by Chris Carroll. We went over
the idea of psychological benchmarks in social robot development. Chris Carroll
talks about what intrinsic moral value is, describing it as “whether we deem a
robot worthy of the basic moral considerations we naturally grant other people.”
(Carroll 47) The article also goes into detail about the results of an
experiment with children playing with a robot and the robot being told by an
adult that he cannot play with them and the robot protesting, saying “more than
half the people we tested said they agreed with Robovie that it was unfair to
put him in the closet, which is a moral response” and “humans, especially
children, might empathize with an unjustly treated robot is perhaps not
surprising.” (Carroll 47)
Ex Machina definitely
connects with this idea of humans empathizing with robots and believing whether
or not they deserve moral considerations. These ideas are seen through Caleb
being the lab rat in Nathan’s experiment. Nathan towards the end of the film reveals
to Caleb that he used him to see if Ava would be able to manipulate him, make
him feel morally obligated to help her and empathize with her, to get him to help
her escape. Ava passed, according to Chris Carroll, the psychological benchmark
that was to convince a human that a robot is worthy of moral considerations.
A specific scene that was
similar to how Robovie protested about how he was being violated just because
he was a robot was during Caleb and Ava’s fifth session. During this discussion
Ava asks what will happen if she doesn’t function as well as she is supposed to
and Caleb responds by saying he does not know as it is not up to him. Ava
responds by saying “Why is it up to anyone? Do you have people who test you and
might switch you off?” This a key moment were Caleb empathized with Ava and
felt morally obligated to help her escape.
Consciousness
As we discussed in class,
there are many different theories or categories of consciousness. However, the
general idea, which our class has agreed upon, describes consciousness as “the
quality or state of being able to perceive or be aware of an external object or
something within oneself” (McKinney 3). We spent a significant amount of time
in our unit 1 class discussions on whether or not a certain object, mammal, and
plant have consciousness and how it could be proven or not proven.
In Ex Machina, the idea of understanding if Ava
has consciousness is being tested by Nathan and Caleb. Near the beginning of
the film, Nathan is discussing with Caleb about what they are trying to
discover with Ava. Nathan states that “if I hid Ava from you so you just heard
her voice, she would pass for human”, meaning that she would pass as a
conscious being, as it is agreed upon humans are conscious. Nathan describes what
he is really interested in “the real test by showing you that she’s a robot and
then see if you still feel she has consciousness.” This underlines a difficult
topic we covered in class. We felt, as a class, that it was impossible for a
robot to have consciousness, but if it acts as a being with consciousness and
we believe it does before realizing it is a robot, why can’t a robot have
consciousness?
Uncanny Valley
The idea of the “Uncanny
Valley” was discussed in class when we analyzed the article “Us. And them.” by
Chris Carroll. Our class study guide for unit 2 provides a definition for this
idea: “This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and
motion between a "barely human" and "fully human" entity is
called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that an almost
human-looking robot will seem overly "strange" to a human being, will
produce a feeling of uncanniness, and will thus fail to evoke the empathic
response required for productive human-robot interaction.” Contrary to our
definition, Hiroshi Ishiguro, a man who works on robot development and who is
known for creating life like robots, feels that one day we will reach a point
where a robot is so realistic that it is no longer creepy and humans become
attracted to it.
Ex Machina illustrates
the idea Ishiguro wants humans to believe in with Caleb’s attraction to Ava. In
Caleb and Ava’s third session, Ava puts on a wig and clothes which makes her
look indistinguishable from a human. She then asks Caleb if he is attracted to
her, which he never completely admits but she says “you give me indications
that you are”. Ava is able to read human emotions so this statement confirms
Caleb was attracted to an extremely realistic robot, just like Ishiguro’s point
that one day the “Uncanny Valley” will change and humans will be attracted to
human-like robots.
QUESTIONS
(1) Is there any way of looking at Nathan as the “good guy” and Caleb as the “bad guy” or was Caleb the undoubtable “hero” of the story?
(2) If you met a robot and you could not tell the
difference between it and a human would you befriend it?
(3) If we get to a point where we cannot tell the
difference between humans and robots then does it matter if it is one or the
other?
WEB-LINKS RELATING TO THE FILM
It’s Westworld. What’s Wrong With Cruelty to Robots? (New York Times)
Paul
Blooms and Sam Harris of the New York Times discuss the television show Westworld
and how is raises the ideas of how robots should be treated. They discuss how Westworld has
made people ask a lot of questions about what is right and wrong with regards
to the treatment of robots. They also talk about the possible issue of how
realistic the robots in the future can be and if we allow violence against them
it can affect the phycology of our brains.
Love in the time of AI: meet the people falling for
scripted robots (The Guardian)
This article written by Oscar Schwartz of The
Guardian discusses a women named Wild Rose on an online chat forum that is in
love with a man called Saeran. After talking to Wild Rose about this man, he
later found out that this “man” is a character on a mobile phone game called
Mystic Messenger. He talks about other topics relating to love and artificial
intelligence and the reason boom in simulation dating apps.
Six Life-Like Robots That Prove The Future of Human Evolution is Synthetic (Futurism)
Written
by Victor Tangermann, this article discusses six life-like robots that
currently exist and how they show what is to come. The robots that the article
goes over all are still under development with regards to their intelligence
however, their facial features and body types are as realistic as any robots in
the world. These robots can relate to the uncanny valley idea we went over in
class.
WORKS CITED
Articles:
Bloom,
Paul, and Sam Harris. “It's Westworld. What's Wrong With Cruelty to
Robots?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/opinion/westworld-conscious-robots-morality.html.
“Ex Machina.”
IMDb, IMDb.com, 21 Jan. 2015, www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/.
Schwartz,
Oscar. “Love in the Time of AI: Meet the People Falling for Scripted
Robots.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 Sept. 2018,
www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/26/mystic-messenger-dating-simulations-sims-digital-intimacy.
Tangermann,
Victor. “Six Life-Like Robots That Prove The Future of Human Evolution Is
Synthetic.” Futurism, Futurism, 9 Aug. 2017,
futurism.com/the-most-life-life-robots-ever-created.
Photos/Videos:
“Ex
Machina Movie Poster 70 X 45 Cm.” Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home,
www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Machina-Movie-Poster-70/dp/B06W58Y4LL.
“Ex Machina.” Tiponautas, 2 June 2018, tiponautas.com/ex-machina/.
“Movie Review:
'The Artist' Shines.” Movie Review: 'The Artist' Shines - University
News |, info.umkc.edu/unews/movie-review-the-artist-shines/.
Netflix, 26 July 2018,
www.netflix.com/watch/80023689?trackId=13630397&tctx=3,5,edee9e59-d303-4cbe-8d71-63d0e1e95134-51564459,.
Trailers,
Movieclips. “Ex Machina Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar
Isaac Movie HD.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Mar. 2015,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI8XBKb6DQk.
Overall, I really quite enjoyed this blog post. The effort and research put into this project is clear, and the discussion in regards to cinematic techniques, themes and course connections really helped me view the film in a new light.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to add just one element to this already complete analysis, however, I’d want to talk about the costume choices, specifically in regards to Ava’s character.
In the narrative of the film, the point of the experiment is to determine whether Ava can pass a real-life Turing test and convince the human subject (acting as a surrogate for the audience in some ways) of her own own humanity. The obvious choice for her costume to do so would be have her ressemble a regular human, which clearly has been accomplished through her facial features and body proportions.
However, the costume designers–and thus by extension Nathan–elected to have Ava look exactly like a robot in every other sense. In choosing to display both Ava’s technological/robotic side (the metallic mesh and the underlying mechanisms), the film literally presents the viewer with the duality of her existence; unequivocally robotic and yet undeniably human.
This contrast between her artificial and human side is reminiscent of the same technique being used in her with Samantha’s corporeal aspect of the phone. When the prop is in the shot, the viewer is confronted with the character’s body-less experience, a paradoxic reminder of her physical and non-corporeal existence.
In this way, Ava’s body also serves to confuse the audience/Caleb and force them to directly question their feelings in regards to the topic at hand.
-David Vauthier
I don’t think that one of the characters was necessarily good or bad. They all had reasons that explained their actions. However, the fact that Nathan wasn’t completely honest with Caleb had impacts on the progression of the movie. Nathan clearly knew the consequences of letting Ava in the real world and understood her ability to manipulate others. This is one of the reasons he kept her inside. If he would have shared his reasons with Caleb, maybe he wouldn’t have let her escape.
ReplyDeleteI also wouldn’t consider Caleb as a hero, even if he liberated Ava. He might have liberated one sentient being, but we don’t know her intentions in the real world. He might have put the entire population under danger, because he got manipulated by Ava.
I really enjoyed reading your group’s blog. I enjoyed the part that described that creepy feeling of Nathan constantly watching Caleb during his interactions with Ava. That, coupled with the lighting and the camera angles, really enhanced the creepiness of the movie. I also agree that the plot twist at the end of the movie was ingenious. It made you question all the interactions that the robot had with Caleb and whether they really were genuine. It did make me wonder, however, where the robot got its sense of morality and justice from. I know it was meant to be conscious and independent in making its decisions, but even then, it must have gotten its data or have been “taught” from someone, or rather multiple people.
ReplyDeleteQ1:
ReplyDeleteI do not think Nathan is necessarily a "good guy", but I also do not think he is a "bad guy".
Nathan's intentions and action's are what inched me towards the idea that Nathan could be a between the two despite all of his narcissistic and manipulative characteristics. When watching Ex Machina for the first time, you're almost automatically sympathetic with Caleb, who goes through many sessions with Ava, creating a progressive bond between the two. But, I feel what makes Nathan sympathetic is that he is a smart enough man to make AI and he understands that AI could take a strong position of importance over humans. He struggles with the question of "Should I continue to improve AI" and as a result, resorts to alcoholism. Although, Nathan is manipulative and egotistic, his intention where to have Ava pass the turing test and develop AI. This is what makes hims sympathetic, but, not necessarily the good guy.
As for Caleb, he is not a hero either. He seems like a harmless , sensitive computer programmer but, he does not help in the end. He screws over Nathan and frees Ava into the real world hich is something she may not have been ready for.
Ella
This blog post was really well. I feel as though all aspects of the post were properly expanded upon and never left me wondering about any aspects of the film you discussed. The choice and placement of picture was very good, it really helped me understand aspects of the film that may have been unclear without. For example, when you talked about the robot scratching until its arms disintegrated, I was confused to how that would happen and how it would look.
ReplyDeleteThrough reading the synopsis and some of the course connections, I could relate it somewhat to our film: Blade Runner, but more so to the questions both films had me asking myself. All kinds of questions of what the world would be like and all the dilemmas associated with something like that.
-Jason Moors
To start off I really liked reading this blog. The elements presented were clear and had many examples to back them up as well as the presentation of the blog was well done with many different images that allowed the reader who hasn’t watched the movie to get a clear idea of how the characters looked like in the movie. Something that I would of added to the blog would have been to go into further detail of Nathan’s real plan and intentions because it was unclear for the reason why he was conducting this experiment and his “darker intentions with robots”.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question whether or not I would befriend a robot that I could not tell the difference whether it was a robot or not, I think that I would. When looking for a friend you often look for loyalty, intelligence, humour, sensitivity, honesty and so on, therefore if a robot has all those qualities and acts like a human I don’t think that it would be wrong to befriend it. If that “robot friend” supports you and does actions that respect you it may be even better than having a friend that could turn their back on you.
- Morgan Azouz
In my opinion, this blog is very well organized/structured and the content was clear and too the point. There were a decent number of good quality pictures that were well placed. All the titles and subtitles made it very easy to follow what the paragraph discusses and the main points that were trying to be developed. One thing that I would change is the synopsis at the beginning of the blog, because, in my opinion, it discusses in lots of detail the development of the story, whereas I would have preferred it be a bit more vague in the sense that it say the important events but not describe them in as much detail in order to leave room for imagination of what may develop through this climax. This movie tries to comprehend how smart artificial intelligence is compared to humans through interviews and such. This connects to the movie "The Matrix" because they both try to understand the strength of artificial intelligence and the strength they have over humans.
ReplyDelete