If you thought Ava's special effects were cool, just wait until you hear about her real life Tinder account. "Ex Machina" messes with your mind more than you realize.
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00:00If you thought Ava's special effects were cool, just wait until you hear about a real-life
00:05Tinder account.
00:06Ex Machina messes with your mind more than you realize.
00:08You wanna see something cool?
00:11In a way, writer and director Alex Garland had been thinking about Ex Machina since he
00:16was a boy.
00:17The director told The Etcetera that he was only 11 or 12 years old when he got his first
00:21ideas for the movie's premise.
00:23His family got a home computer around this time, and he started learning how to code
00:28In explaining how the idea for A.I. first cropped up, Garland said,
00:32"...I would input programs that were kind of a Q&A, and this film traces itself back
00:36to that."
00:38While these ideas ruminated in his mind for decades, he really began thinking about the
00:42film earnestly following a discussion he had with a friend.
00:46Garland told The Washington Post that he has a neuroscientist buddy who thinks machines
00:50will never gain sentience.
00:51As Garland explains,
00:53"...his position is, there's something specific about human consciousness that we don't understand
00:57but that when we do understand how it works, it will preclude the possibility of a sentient
01:02machine."
01:03Garland was perplexed by his friend's position, so he started doing some reading on his own.
01:08After years of reading and thinking about the topic, Garland began to form his own opinion.
01:12"...my suspicion has only gotten stronger that what my friend was saying is probably
01:17wrong."
01:18Ex Machina might not be a direct answer to this argument — it's not that black and
01:22white — but it certainly points us to Garland's own perspective on the topic.
01:26"...are you attracted to me?"
01:28"...what?"
01:29"...are you attracted to me?
01:30You give me indications that you are."
01:34The technical elements of Ex Machina seem highly advanced, not to mention expensive.
01:39But in reality, everything is simpler than it might appear.
01:42The film had a meager budget of only $15 million, which meant producers had to be stingy with
01:47how they spent that money.
01:48One of the most brilliant aspects of the film is its visual effects, which, despite its
01:53low-budget nature, garnered the film an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2016.
01:58Amazingly enough, no green screens were used in the making of the film.
02:03Speaking with TechRadar, VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst explained why this was the case,
02:08because the shoot was so short.
02:10Whitehurst said,
02:11"...we were shooting between 15 and 25 setups every day."
02:15Setting up a green screen for every scene involving Ava would have extended the shooting
02:19time and bloated the budget.
02:21The lack of green screen was also useful for the actors.
02:24Whitehurst explained,
02:25"...because the film is made up of intimate scenes of dialogue between the characters,
02:30it was of the utmost importance that everyone on set could get into a groove.
02:34And it is my experience that as soon as you put a green screen up, everyone starts behaving
02:38a bit oddly."
02:39"...there won't be any green screens.
02:41We could shoot those scenes as we would shoot any piece of drama."
02:46Director Alex Garland looked to a number of different sources, including television and
02:51To find inspiration for his film, Garland told Esquire that along with reading a number
02:56of books relating to artificial intelligence, he also turned to television to situate himself
03:01in the world of Ex Machina.
03:02The film is mostly centered around two-person conversations, a simple dramatic structure
03:07that defined 70s movies like Taxi Driver.
03:10Movies of that kind are rare these days, and instead, that dramatic form is found elsewhere.
03:15As Garland says,
03:17Taxi Driver these days is Breaking Bad.
03:20That's where you find it.
03:21Garland was inspired by this era of prestige television, which he saw as picking up the
03:26slack where film was lacking.
03:28Garland didn't totally ignore other movies, however.
03:31One of his biggest influences was the dialogue-heavy 1980 sci-fi film Altered States.
03:36The film follows a group of psychologists at a university who come to the conclusion
03:40that dreams are just as real as our waking reality.
03:44Garland was also quick to point out the influence of Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey, due to
03:49its handling of artificial intelligence.
03:51Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
03:55I'm sorry, Dave.
03:56I'm afraid I can't do that.
03:59The title of Ex Machina was incredibly important to director Alex Garland.
04:04Ex Machina comes from the phrase Deus Ex Machina, which translates to God Out of the Machine.
04:11The origin of the phrase lies in ancient Greek and Roman dramas, which often included
04:15a god-like figure being lowered onstage via a crane to wrap up any conflicts in the story.
04:22With the first part of the phrase removed, it translates simply to From the Machine.
04:26While Garland was committed to this title for the film, not everyone else was on board.
04:31Speaking with the film's stage, the director revealed that some people involved thought
04:35it was a bad idea because it isn't a well-known phrase, and it's hard to pronounce.
04:40Coincidentally, some of the producers were finally convinced to accept it following the
04:44success of another sci-fi film with a rather unique title, Ridley Scott's Prometheus.
04:51While this was the evidence given for their change of heart, Garland thinks the real reason
04:55the title was accepted was much simpler.
04:57He explains,
04:58If I'm being totally candid, the fact is that this is a really low-budget film and probably
05:04they just didn't care that much.
05:07Alex Machina comes off as very futuristic, but the actual time period in which it's set
05:12isn't really made clear.
05:14Speaking with IndieWire, Alex Garland came prepared with an answer.
05:18When someone would ask me, when is this taking place, I'd say it's ten minutes in the future.
05:23The obvious implication here is that the film could theoretically take place today.
05:27But this also affected some of the film's technical elements.
05:30Oscar Isaac's Nathan is a reclusive billionaire, which meant his house had to look nice but
05:35not overly futuristic, partly because the film doesn't actually take place in the future.
05:41The tech used in Nathan's house isn't all that advanced, either.
05:44Nathan and Caleb used keycards to move around the house, something that seemed cool and
05:49tech-savvy to Garland at the time, but isn't actually that high-tech.
05:54Garland recalls when he first heard of this keycard idea nearly 20 years ago, when he
05:57read about Bill Gates having a keycard system in his house.
06:01While he thought it was futuristic at the time, he now realizes there's nothing that
06:05futuristic about it today.
06:07Luckily, the fact that Ex Machina is almost set contemporarily means these issues don't
06:12matter all that much.
06:13Let's try this one.
06:15I guess it's for you, Caleb.
06:22Though Ex Machina had a relatively small budget, a lot of time and effort went into the film's
06:27design elements.
06:28One of the film's most important visual aspects was the design of Alicia Vikander's Ava.
06:33There have been so many iconic robots in film and television over the years, which meant
06:38Garland and the team had to figure out how to make Ava look unique.
06:41Speaking with IndieWire, Garland explained how the design process began.
06:45In a weird way, the first part of the design of Ava was finding out what she could not
06:50look like, rather than what she could look like.
06:52Gold medal made you think of C-3PO.
06:55That wasn't something they wanted to reference.
06:57A metallic chest immediately recalls the classic sci-fi film Metropolis, while white plastic
07:02brings up Bjork's All is Full of Love music video or the Will Smith movie, I, Robot.
07:07Ava is essentially supposed to be the first of her kind, so Garland was adamant she not
07:12referenced these other famous robots.
07:14I didn't want people to start thinking about other movies with other robots.
07:18I want them to be attached to her, this robot.
07:21For Vikander, Ava's unique look meant several hours in a hair and makeup chair every morning
07:27but the effect is well worth it.
07:29Alicia Vikander wanted her performance as Ava to stand out from those of previous robot
07:34actors.
07:35A former dancer, Vikander approached the role from a physical standpoint first.
07:39As she began working out how Ava would move, she discovered a trick that was key to unlocking
07:44the character's physicality.
07:46She told IndieWire,
07:47"...I realized when I aimed for that physical perfection, the way it just moved, that in
07:52a way made her more robotic."
07:55Ava, who's trying to convince Caleb that she is a girl, has an elegant, refined way about
07:59her that would be pleasing to look at if it weren't so suspiciously well-practiced.
08:05Vikander went on to discuss what separates humans from robots in terms of their physicality
08:10and how this idea influenced her performance.
08:12She explained,
08:13"...What is human is flaws and inconsistency.
08:16So I gave her some offbeats.
08:18I wanted her to be a girl, but I also wanted her to have some glitches."
08:22It's these two converse aspects of Ava, both her perfection and her glitches, that illuminate
08:27her robotic nature while at the same time illustrating her desire to be seen as human.
08:32"...Is your status single?"
08:36"...Yes."
08:39Viewers might think of tech figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates when first encountering
08:44Nathan, but they weren't necessarily Oscar Isaac's inspiration.
08:48Instead, Isaac drew inspiration from two famous men who were godlike in their own right.
08:53Speaking with SlashFilm, Isaac said that his first inspiration was Bobby Fischer, a chess
08:58grandmaster and child prodigy.
09:00Isaac described Fischer as,
09:02"...so brilliant at this one thing, but also so angry, and just so, towards the end of
09:07his life, full of hatred."
09:09Isaac's other inspiration was director Stanley Kubrick, who Isaac called, quote, "...the
09:14lighter side of that yin-yang."
09:15The biggest influence Kubrick had on Nathan's character was his signature look.
09:20It was important to Isaac that Nathan wear glasses that looked similar to Kubrick's.
09:24Kubrick and Fischer's way of speaking was also an influence.
09:27He explained,
09:28"...I listened to the way he spoke and Bobby Fischer, both of them are from New York."
09:32It also mattered to him that both men were self-taught, meaning they were both extremely
09:37intelligent savants, but they also had a self-made shrewdness about them.
09:42The fictional storyline of Ex Machina is disturbing enough without any real-life elements
09:47thrown in, but that didn't stop the film's marketing team from trying to bring Ava into
09:52the real world.
09:53Ex Machina premiered at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and around this time, lucky
09:58residents of the city might have encountered Ava right on their phones.
10:02As part of an advertising campaign for the film, the marketing team created a Tinder
10:06account for Ava to entice curious swipers, reported Adweek.
10:11Tinder users were shown the profile of a 25-year-old woman named Ava, and if they matched
10:15with her, she would begin a conversation.
10:18Users came to realize it wasn't exactly a normal profile when she began asking questions
10:22like,
10:23"...have you ever been in love?" and,
10:25"...what makes you human?"
10:27Those familiar with the film might recognize these questions as the kind Ava asks Caleb
10:31in order to figure out how to act like a human herself.
10:34"...now your micro-expressions are telegraphing discomfort."
10:41If the Tinder user passed Ava's test, she would send them to her Instagram handle, which
10:46is essentially an advertising account for the film.
10:50Nathan and Caleb frequently discuss philosophical texts in Ex Machina, but one of the references
10:55made in the film is much more subtle.
10:57It's buried in code, in fact.
10:59In the film's third act, Caleb gets Nathan drunk in order to find a way to free Ava.
11:05After stealing the keycard to his room, Caleb sits down at his computer and goes through
11:09his code.
11:10Caleb starts to edit the code himself, using an ancient algorithm called the Sieve of Erithosthenes.
11:16The Easter egg in this scene isn't Caleb's use of this algorithm, but what the code itself
11:21spells out.
11:23According to several sources, if you run the same program in Python, the output is an ISB
11:28number.
11:29Specifically, the ISB number of a book by Maurice Shanahan entitled Embodiment and the
11:34Inner Life, Cognition and Consciousness in the Space of Possible Minds.
11:38This reference is no accident.
11:41Garland told Esquire that Shanahan's book was epiphany-like for him.
11:45Shanahan's book looks at the writings of mathematical philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and argues
11:49that metaphysical questions of machine versus man aren't the questions we should be asking
11:54if robotic technology is to advance.
11:57His philosophy, according to Garland, is to
11:59"...just progress in a physicalist-type way until you hit a brick wall."
12:04The wall in question may never even be reached, so in Shanahan's opinion, the possibilities
12:09for advancement are limitless.
12:10"...if you've created a conscious machine, it's not the history of man.
12:16That's the history of gods."
12:18While our eyes cue us into Ava's robotic nature fairly quickly, there's another facet of her
12:24design that illustrates her machinery in a more subtle manner.
12:27A significant part of Ava's machine nature is revealed through sound design.
12:31As Garland explained,
12:32"...you can hear the sounds of the bits of machinery moving, which aren't specified."
12:38It's not clear what exactly these sounds are, but it's obvious they represent some kind
12:42of machinery.
12:43A syncopated rhythm that sounds something like a heartbeat or a pulse can also be heard
12:48emanating from Ava, though it's not literally a heartbeat, of course.
12:55This clever sound design ties together the thesis of Ava's character.
12:59She's human-like, but also not human at all.
13:02There's some sense of the uncanny valley here that's impossible to look away from.
13:06"...Question five, do you want to be with me?"
13:15Speaking with RogerEbert.com, Alex Garland explained that for him, the most interesting
13:20question posed in the film is the question of where gender resides.
13:24Garland found himself pondering questions like, does gender reside in the mind, or does
13:29it reside in the external physical form?
13:31Whether or not there is such a thing as a male or a female consciousness is also something
13:36Garland considered.
13:37He brought up the fact that you could put Ava's mind in a male-appearing body, and it
13:42wouldn't make a difference, except for in the way humans might perceive her.
13:46Garland went on to say,
13:47It would be quite easy to construct an argument that Ava doesn't have a gender.
13:51However, he acknowledges that we would struggle to take gender entirely out of the equation
13:56because of how she looks, and how we perceive her.
13:59Indeed, the fact that Ava looks like a girl in her 20s makes the men in the film, as well
14:03as the viewers, ignore any interiority she might have because of the nature of female
14:08objectification.
14:09Her robotic presence is disruptive in more ways than one.