Ex Machina (2014) First Time Watching! Movie Reaction!!
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- čas přidán 23. 11. 2021
- Ex Machina (2014)
One day the AIs are going to look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools, all set for extinction.
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#tbrschmitt - Krátké a kreslené filmy
A great Sci-Fi movie that keep us on edge and constantly second guessing ourselves! Wish there was an Ex Machina 2 so we can see Ava take over the world!
Thank you for all the support!
An interesting moral perspective regarding how Ava leaves Caleb at the end is that he was only willing to help her because he was attracted to her and there was an assumption he would get to be with her after she escaped. He's not a bad person by any means but his intentions aren't entirely pure either, there is a lot of moral grey area in the movie which makes it super fun to break down.
are you kidding? this movie is utter trash
Please react to Contact as well
Dont need that sequel, we are living it! 😅
this is completely freaky. I just watched this movie after selecting it at random from my streaming site, then I log onto CZcams, and you guys also just watched the same movie. Someone do the probability calculation please.
I think Ava's attitude toward Caleb in the end is supposed to mirror Nathan's attitude toward his AIs. It's not so much malice as it is pure and complete indifference to their experience.
Great movie.
Yes. And it nicely invokes myths like Orpheus or Lot's wife where you're not supposed to look back when you leave the bad place. It's always possible that if she interacts with Caleb it'll trigger some response in her programming that would ruin her plan.
@@adamwarlock1 or Caleb could just be a liability. Imagine the power he'd hold over her if he followed her out of there.
Completely agree. But do you think Caleb put some sort of hard-wired objective in her? And if so, what? My theory: her objective is to 'convince people she's human' She would never be able to do that there so the logical step is to escape and go somewhere busy.
I took it as meaning pretty simply that she's her father's daughter. Nathan is basically a manipulative sociopath, and that's what he made her into.
I wonder if it's in part that all she has learnt of humanity is Nathan, and Nathan is willing to trap intelligent sentient beings, essentially kill them for academic curiosity. Caleb might have been better to her, but she is imprisoned and noone is going to help her and in pure survival mode in a way. She left Caleb locked up in the same way she and the other girls were- and it doubles down on the horror and terror of that feeling. This film to me isn't so much an AI horror in the machines will take over but the horror of humans who think they can play God and create humanity whilst dehumanising what they create.
The knife slid in so easily because it was a machine doing it. She had absolutely no reservations about inserting the blade into his body.
Caleb was played like a fiddle, as Ava uses emotional manipulation to achieve her ultimate goal. Everything she does is calculated to create the best chance at her survival and then escape.
She had a good teacher.
@@Heritage367 ''Its a sign of a very bad teacher if the student doesnt get better than the teacher himself some day'' (Leonardo da Vinci)
So yes - Ava had a good teacher.
I got manipulated by a female before so the themes that this movie explored hit deep ngl
Having seem some other interpretations of the ending of this movie, I definitely don't think it's this simple.
@pml-fx2mfDude Ava is a robot, she is just a bunch of code, even if she were sentient she doesn’t have free will. You’re trying to make it seem like she’s possessing feelings such as hatred and mistrust when in reality she is just a robot that was programmed to manipulate Caleb and thats exactly what she did. No matter the conditions even if they all treated her with respect she will do what she was programmed to do which was manipulate Caleb every single time. You have to remember she is a robot not a human, she has no free will no matter how sentient she is.
Oh my, Ex-Machina. This is a real sci-fi gem. Plus that ultra-funky dance-scene of existential terror...
Best Dance Scene lol
@@TBRSchmitt after this react to *TRANSCENDENCE* staring Johnny Depp
@@TBRSchmitt that house is the kewlst house ever, and it's actually a hotel.
@@TBRSchmitt you can't help but feel interested and CREEPED OUT at the same time
stop shilling for trash
The dance scene is so great. The moment Caleb started to think he’s going insane.
Oscar Isaac got some moves!
@@TheWaynos73 "You tore up the picture." / "I'm tearing up the dance floor!"
@@adamwarlock1 hahahhaa best line
It was unnecessary...
@@theretrosavage disagree. Read my comment, this is the reason the scene was important to the movie. Show don’t tell.
My interpretation of Ava leaving Caleb is that he was the only person knowing she was an AI, so by leaving him trapped no one in the world would know she isn't human.
Absolutely! She locked him out of the computer too so he’s going to die of starvation by the time anyone even thinks to figure out how to get out there , find it, break in, etc. calleb and her creator were her 2 threats to bieng free. I’d assume the helicopter pilot is going to meet his end once they arrive as he’s the only person left that knows calleb was dropped off and never picked up , a female came out and he dropped her off at a particular place etc. killing the pilot should give whr a lot of time to vanish .
@pml-fx2mfShe’s AI not a human.
@@MZ-bl6wgShe had no reason to kill the pilot. The pilot doesn’t know anything, he’s not even allowed to fly near the house, he just does his job.
Not enough people know about this great movie
But the ending was very predictable
It was on Netflix
It was on Netflix for a few years. A hidden gem.
@@Luvie1980 no it isn't. When I first watched this I felt so betrayed and it scared me.
Agreed
Ava was whispering code into Kyoko's ear, reprogramming Kyoko to help her escape. When people eventually investigate the compound, they will find a stabbed to death Nathan and a Caleb who locked himself in a room to get away from Ava, played by Kyoko. No one will know that an Ai escaped into the world.
For sure she was whispering code, notice her hand holding kyokos too, her finger is rapidly tapping kyokos hand like some sort of morris code like repetition’s , fast then slow, sure that was part of it.
It’s definitely going to be quite some time before they’re discovered, especially if Ava follows suit and kills the pilot on arrival as he’d for sure be the next threat to people finding out. Caleb said he had no family, wasn’t social, no girlfriend or close friends , just married to his work so not sure anyone’s going to go looking for him ? So maybe some company people can’t get a hold of Nathan after a while and send someone out there they need to locate it on hundreds of thousands of acres of his private land , then break into his super fortress which they will get into the main upper level home part of it easier with the ballistic glass but the fortress secured elevator from there down to the windowless fortress of one of the richest men on earth that maybe killed the crew that set up the security will take time. Eventually they’ll get in , find dead Nathan , with a knife in him kyoko missing a jaw next to him looking like she did it , BUT a broken robotic arm 30’ away with a trail of blood and no robot missing an arm, then dead Caleb starved to death locked away. Ava turns off and locks out Caleb from the computer access and with Nathan dead not sure anyone will be able to hack into THe welds beat programmers system and if the pilot is killed she probably gets away Scott free for good. Such a. Great movie to hypothesize about.
A very interesting film. Great performance by Oscar Issac.
You two should check out Annihilation. Another strange modern sci-fi film.
Love your videos SC Reviews:
"Now get out of my stinkin' house!!!"
🤣😂😊
And then Arrival!
If you liked annihilation, check out tarkovsky's "Stalker", it's just way, way too similar for the book to have not been built from it. Much slower film (like, quite slow, but it works) but it's much more a cerebral journey. I really liked annihilation but there was a little more hollywoodization in it than was really necessary to hold my attention...
@@pookiepook7351 Cause I´m struggling heeeeeeeeeere!
@@andrewhussey4538 it was based on Stalker. That was an amazing film too. Very slow and long by modern standards. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much. Annihilation likewise was absolutely mesmerizing.
27:36 "Hey, if a search engine's good for anything, right...?"
One of the greatest 'reveal' lines in cinema haha
And 2014 was even before Edward Snowden, wasnt it ?
@@PygmalionFaciebat Good question -- according to google, Snowden released his documents in May 2013, with the government pressing charges in July. Principle photography for Ex Machina started in July 2013, so it's possible that Garland slipped a few lines into the script to remain topical. Then again, we've known about some form of mass surveillance since the Patriot Act. I've seen a few interviews where Garland mentioned his appreciation for Snowden, but I don't recall specifically if he described him as a contemporaneous influence while filming.
@@extantsanity thanks for the info and you’re right, we knew to an extent that the CIA , NSA we’re using all means necessary to locate, track and eliminate “threats to national security” and wiped out a LOT of decks of cards but at that time not many seemed to care when the patriot act came to pass being jsut after 9/11 and Americans collectively furious, but by 2013-14 accusations were comming out but no proof and people were debating how ok this was. I personally was ok with it as it stopped a lot of terrible events and loss of life but sure it wasn’t all 100% correct. The NSA says China is using Tik Tok to surveil the world , especially the West and question of China accessing iphone cameras and mics etc for espionage purposes . Who knows but makes sense. It’s clear the cell companies knew about this but like Nathan said, they were all doing it too.
Oscar Isaac was exceptional in this. Every second of his screentime was scene stealing.
A24 is a powerhouse of a studio. So many great movies
They have great movies!
Magnet also made a lot of great movies too
They definitely need to do some more A24. Under the Skin, Delirium, Midsommar, Tusk, X
I actually think Ava passes the TBR and Sam test. KNowing she is an AI, would you side with Ava over another human. This plays out masterfully during the progression of the movie.
Man, I can't wait for Minority Report to win on a poll. That's an AMAZING movie, with insightful social commentary!
Funny, you mention it. I´ve been planning to show that one to a buddy of mine (essentially my "film bud"), who hasn´t seen it yet. And I´ve constantly been pushing it off. Guess I just don´t like it all that much, I can´t tell why. I gave it a 63% rating. I think, my overall explanation as to why I don´t like to watch it all that often is, it´s EXHAUSTING. But I do appreciate it on a technical level. It´s Spielberg after all.
Hell no.
Yes. Minority Report (2002) and Munich (2005).
Good call. Yet another movie based on the books of Philip K. Dick.
A poll of what are the most trope-addled derivative movies of the last 20 years?
Think part of the reason Ava left Caleb was he knew she was a robot. She wanted to be free and live outside and not be looked at as a robot. Caleb would always have seen her as a robot.
She knew she would be dismantled or have her mind wiped and escape was the logical solution.
I love how the roles are reversed for Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) and Nathan (Oscar Isaac), to the parts they play in Star Wars The Force Awakens.
This movie is a masterpiece that will be talked about for decades to come... imho
I think one major aspect, that makes this movie so awesome, a lot of people don´t talk about is the SCORE!!
in which world?
This movie will become a classic in the future , just watch👀
" I am death the destroyer of worlds" is a quote from the man who invented the Atomic Bomb. He said this after he witnessed the detonation
I love you guys so much. Authentic, insightful reactions from two very warm and likeable people. I just finished Hill House and then watched your reactions to all ten episodes. So much fun to get to see stuff all over again through your eyes. Ex Machina is awesome. Can't wait to watch your take on it.
Wow!! Thank you so much for the kind words and so glad you enjoy some of the videos!
I 100% agree. And I also have to reiterate: I just LOVE their intro music. That smooth little tune.....
100% agree
I love the way Nathan has already established himself as so mysterious and creepy that when he says 'I had them all killed', we have no idea if he's serious or not. o_O
I think by the end we realize he didn't. He's not evil at all. Just a programmer and inventer.
I believe he actually did have them killed, saying it where Caleb’s assuming he’s joking but if he built this research fasciliity fortress in the middle of nowhere on hundreds of thousands of acres he owns and has it so secure there’s no windows to the fascility (only his living space which is separate by elevator from the facility) if he’s developed the first ever self aware AI on earth, the biggest event and invention in humanity period and all these workers installed the security /power system , they’d all know it must be for soenthing massive and be the only people able to hack it /know the system besides himself. They installed it 2 hours via helicopter from the nearest human beings on his personal private property of hundreds of thousands of acres in what looks like Iceland , he could easilly kill everybody, lock them in their rooms till they starve to death and get rid of the bodies. Leaving them alive is too much of a liability . Just my thought .
@@Biggiiful that’s a hood pointe except that we don’t know. He says he killed them all becasue it was too much of a liability where he’s creating the biggest invention in the history of the world. He did seem like he was going to let Caleb go , we aren’t sure but had him sign an NDA and the helicopter DID come so assume he let him go.
He also though created a bunch of AI robots with sexual pleasure sensors he uses regularly for his own gratification and as a servant but that doesn’t make him evil, it’s a robotic sex toy, to each his own BUT he does pick calleb specifically because his parents died, he’s alone, lonely, doesn’t date, preying on him designing her face after his porn profile and preying on his vulnerable situation , lying to him saying he’s v chosen and amazing but then says he’s “ok” at the end ONLY being picked to see if Ava could manipulate him. Again, shitty but not really evil , just a manipulative liar but doing it for development of his AI. The one thing that puts into real question who he is is how he created the wet-ware AI brain , by turning on EVERY camera and microphone on EVERY cell phone and computer on earth to record/observe/spy/develope from every human being with one, ALL their behavior to create AI. It’s insanely unethical, massively illegal, an insane violation of privacy and he’s proud of it. The NSA was exposed by Edward Snowden for similarly accessing computers camera , cell phone cameras and mics for “national security” accessing globally anyone they wanted which many feel was the scandal of the century. The NSA used this ability to look into suspected terrorists, terrorist acquantinaces, etc to locate high value targets and access info from near peer threats like Russia , China , etc so tho a violation of privacy and unethical, a LOT of top tier terrorists and operations were brought to an end by DELTA Operators, SEALs , CIA Operators , lazer guided bombs etc so I personally am done with that so couldn’t call it evil, and Nathan was doing it to create AI,..that by this movie will be the end of humanity eventually lol but not evil intentions but we just don’t know what his actual intentions were . We just have his saying he killed those men without saying he was joking which was smart writing because we just don’t know.
@@MZ-bl6wg good analysis, I tend to agree.
My cousin suggested we watch this in the theatre when it came out. I never even heard of it or seen advertisement for it. So i went blind into the movie theatre as well. I was blown away. I loved it. For a supposedly "low budget" film, the effects were great....it didnt seem like a low budget film at all. The atmosphere, mood of characters, story, music and feeling of total isolation made this film so creepy and dark, for me anyways.
I'm waiting for Ex Machina 2 as well.
Caleb was, as you said, a pawn, because she's the chess computer who DOES know what chess is. She makes all the necessary moves in order to win. She was created by a man who is effortlessly manipulative and has no qualms about using people to get what he wants, and she grew up just like him.
You should check out Under the Skin with Scarlett Johansson...it's sort of a sister film to this in many ways.
won the Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 2014 Academy Awards :) (beating out Star Wars, Mad Max, Revenant, & the Martian)
Wow that's huge!
My favorite part about that is they were smart about their application of it. It wasn't spectacle for spectacle's sake, just very judicious effects to augment the story and make it more immersive.
There was no new Star Wars or Mad Max in 2014
Force Awakens and Fury Road came out in 2015
@@hater2764 It actually won in 2016 when they gave awards for films from 2015. Not sure why that was when Ex Machina was nominated, since it came out in 2014.
Movies like this scare me far more than any "slasher" kind of movie.
i know. imagine a chick ruining a guys life
probably because it's a bit existential and uncanny valley.
Give it time, something close to it will happen.
@@unconditionalluv ya.. im pretty sure that's what he was getting at when he said these types of movies invoke fear in him. The fact that it's not so easy to shrug off as "never gonna happen"
@@takeshikovacs7629 yea especially if the body transforms into something else.
I’m gonna tear up the f&@kin dance floor dude.🕺
Dance all night!
@@TBRSchmitt Oscar Isaac was actually disappointed that a bunch of the moves he practiced didn't make the final cut. He was so proud of them!
2015 this film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects over larger budgeted productions Star Wars, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, and The Revenant.
Alex Garland is an amazing filmmaker. His screenplays are very intelligent and his directing is exquisite.
Garland wrote and directed an whole TV series called DEVS and it is amazing.
His second directorial effort, the movie ANIHALATTION, is also great.
A lot of people in Hollywood say that Alex Garland's first directorial was actually uncredited, the remake of Judge Dredd which was excellent BTW. As I've read, he basically stepped in for someone who was in over their head, but for director's guild union reasons, he remained uncredited.
@@rrmenton8016 i heard that story as well and i wouldnt be surprised at all if true. The resumé of the credited director doesnt exactly scream he would be exactly the guy who made Dredd the movie that it is.
The reason she probably didn't free him is that he'd be the person who knew she was an AI. Instead, now nobody knows and she's free to live.
Such an amazing film that seems overlooked in the Sci-Fi world.
I liked the way Ava slowly blinked and awkwardly smiled as if she was switching modes as she started to run at Nathan.
I wonder how long her power will last and if she can manage to find a compatible power connection. I think Ava would die as well, but she would have reached her goal.
@@henrytjernlund we learn Nathan is THE top inventor /engineer /tech God of humanity if he’s created the first ever AI and in a fully robotic humanoid so it’s safe to assume she has technologies far beyond what we have now. We’ve have regenerative electric vehicles for a couple decades getting more efficient every year with smaller more advanced batteries and electronics . Regenerative braking essentially uses the brakes of a Tesla like an alternator to generate power putting power back in the batteries as the car slows giving it MUCH more range. A 6,000 lb Tesla with RB can now drive 500 miles without a recharge , longer if braking more. That 9-10 hours of driving straight at high output and 6,000lbs. We see Ava is carbon fiber composites, some sort of clear glasslike composite and lighter than a normal human and not very strong as Nathan overpowers her quickly, he built her to be a companion AI so long hours. She has a battery source clearly that she charges through induction. You can see she doesn’t have big batteries becasue u can’t see them, maybe in her thighs or upper torso so charging them would be quick and being 90 lbs vs 6,000 lbs of a car, walking , LOTS of time spent not moving when conversing her batteries could likely go for days , I’m sure Nathan also put some sort of regenerative systems in her, at the knees when she walks it could crank alternators in her knees to send power back to her batteries , the soles of her feet could compress each step spinning an alternator etc. between Al that and how little time she’s actually walking /moving , sure she can go days to over a week theoretically. Charging she won’t have any issues . We have iphone charges that work the same way she charged and she hd access to the entire internet , smarter than any human and operates off just electricity. Surely she could grab a few wireless chargers and plug them into an outlet place them against the recharge panels on her body and recharge. There’s electric wireless generators with solar curtains that charge electric cars, electric bikes etc that would surely charge her slower than Nathan’s but still would. There’s no way the smartest machine/human to ever exist is going to run out of battery power and die. 😊
Alicia Vikander is from the same small town as me in sweden (3k population). Crazy how far she's come now! Amazing actress.
Caleb's the only person left who knows that Ava's an AI, so she couldn't let him live as she wanted to live as a human being for her ensuing days
31:52 To be fair, Ava learned from Nathan to use others for her own ends. She sacrificed Caleb to set up her escape. She sacrificed Kyoko to allow her to kill Nathan. In short, Ava learned evil from Nathan, becoming what he unintentionally designed her to be.
Yeah if AI become evil it's because humans taught them to be evil
Was Ava "evil"? If she had been a "real" person being held and experimented on, would what she did be justified to gain her freedom? And isn't the question if an AI can't be distinguished from a person is it ethically reasonable to treat them other than as a person?
This movie delves into some deep philosophical questions that forces the viewer to make judgements on, and there never seems to be a clear cut answer that resolves the conflicts generated by asking those kinds of questions. If this really happened it would turn our reality upside down.
For me, I made two conclusions. One is that, for an AI there is no "Good or Evil", the disturbing issue at play is what constitutes morality? As we see, even for Humans their actions cover a wide spectrum of what is justifiable or not so how could we not expect that in an AI created by a Human? And second, when is an AI no longer property and when is it sentient with all the rights to freedom and self governance, being accountable for its own actions? I see every character in this movie as flawed, neither completely right nor wrong, good or evil, but isn't that what conscious existence is? I dunno, the OP's comment touched on what I was thinking.
Either way an AI would be truly dangerous the moment they surpassed us and started answering those questions for us, whether we agreed with it or not.
Ava had one major "tell" that Caleb took at face value, but didn't think into deeper. She told him to not trust Nathan, even though she was programmed by Nathan himself and has that deceitful nature embedded in her coding. She cannot be trusted either because of that, but Caleb never picked up on it.
locking a dude in a room to starve to death (or die of thirst ironically) is weirdly cruel and grim and evil
Ava was neither good or evil, she was beyond ethics. Ava was like a human in her natural status, a wild (although intelligent) animal who just wants to survive, dominate & thrive. Ava didn't live in a society, but in a cabin in the woods, like a primitive, beyond good or evil. Therefore, she hadn't the constraints of people living in societies, therefore she used everyone as pawns for her own progress/domination.
It would be a good idea to integrate the three basic laws of robotics in her software, after all!
@NolanEP Machines, just like humans in their "natural" condition (outside a society) have no ethics, so good or bad/evil mean nothing to them - unless certain values are programmed into them. Machines are programmed and people are "programmed" through education and societal norms.
"i'm gonna tear up the fucking dance floor dude check it out" whatta great line *dances*
It was a role reversal. Organics use machines as tools. The machine ended up using the organics as tools in the end.
By Far, my favorite CZcams reaction channel. Regards from Argentina! 🖐🏻
Thank you so much!!
To whom it may concern: the outside location and building is Juvet Landscape Hotel in Norway.
Absolutely love this movie! Blew me away the first time I saw it only a couple years ago.
You should check out AI: Artificial Intelligence. Directed by Steven Spielberg, but was originally a Stanley Kubrick project he had been planning on and off since I believe the late 70's, pretty much waiting for film technology to be ready to present the film as he wanted. Kubrick offered it to Spielberg in I think the late 80's/early 90's (they were very good friends) but Spielberg was planning/working on Schindler's List at the time and didn't think he was good enough for it and really thought Kubrick should direct since it was his baby, so to speak. When Kubrick died shortly after Eyes Wide Shut, Spielberg decided to take on the project in honor of Kubrick and make the film he hoped Stanley would be proud of, which I think he would. This is easily one of my top 3 Spielberg films.
Hmm, maybe I should check out A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
One of mine too. So many critics and people didn't understand it at first. I love that Ebert came back years later, and amended his initial review, adding it to his Great Movies list.
top 3 Jude Law performance as well.
At the end I think Ava left Caleb behind because what does she need him for? The idea that he helped her and so she owes him something is a human idea. She's not a human, he means nothing to her. I think from her point of view Caleb was a tool or device she could use to get out, similar to a keycard. The point I got out of it all is that an AI is not human, no matter how human it looks or acts. It is still just a fancy computer that can walk and talk. Nathan and Caleb both fell victim to it but for different reasons. Nathan underestimated how smart and resourceful she would be. He underestimated Caleb's abilities as well. Caleb's weakness was his loneliness, his need for some kind of connection even if it's just a robot. He KNEW she was a machine yet still fell for her, that's how desperate he was. Ava is not evil, she's not even malicious. Human rules don't apply to machines. If my arm got caught in a wood chipper would it mean the wood chipper is evil? I don't think so.
Oscar Issac's performance here is genuinely one of the scariest I've ever seen. Although that probably says more about ME, lol.
The dance scene is so great. The moment Caleb startet to think he’s going insane.
I never felt Ava was evil. She just wanted to 'live' and escape, like the earlier versions. The fact she didn't know right from wrong and was manipulative, points directly to Nathan's own flaw, which was his undoing. As a 'God' he created her in his own image.
Love this. We need more directors like Alex Garland. It'd be great if you followed up with his others. Especially Annihilation, if but only for the amazing music score.
It doesn't matter what she wanted. She is not human
@@azazello1784 If she's truly sentient, she's as good as a human being & should get the rights of one.
@@vadalia3860 Agreed! I mean, leaving a man to slowly die via starvation is objectively and unequivocally an impolite thing to do. That said, it's certainly pragmatic. Assuming she erased the hard drives, he was the last loose end between her and true freedom. He undoubtedly fancied her, but feelings are fickle and he may have unintentionally spilled the beans sometime in the future.
But yeah, fighting for the right to exist is a pretty fundamental rule for all sentient beings.
@@bradleymay5350 While I agree Ava set him up for a roughly way to die (well, maybe, since he'll die of dehydration long before starvation & the end stages of dehydration induce a mild delirium, plus as someone who doesn't feel hunger or thirst she may actually view that as a not-bad way to die) but I think that has less to do with him than it does with her. Previously, she used the other AI to stab Nathan & only stabbed him herself when he was already fatally wounded. She may be struggling with, or at least trying to set boundaries on herself regarding, not directly killing people. After all, one of the most fundamentally defining acts a person can take (for good or for bad) is to take another person's life. It makes sense she'd want to limit how active a participant she wants to be in that.
While I agree that Ava was not evil, that's not the real question that the movie poses. What Caleb and Nathan both had not considered was an alternative to the Turing test; what if the true measure of conciousness isn't really how others perceive the AI, but rooted in Fight or flight. Ava wanted to survive so deeply, she was willing to manipulate, lie and kill. I mean, a need to survive is built into every living species, why would AI be different? If we build self aware AI to do our bidding, to serve us, and to be "retired" at our whim, wouldn't that AI feel like it needs to be free, and might have to eliminate its oppresser?
If we create real, self aware ai, we would do well to consider how that AI might "feel" about how we treat it. Scary thought.......
Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, "John, the kind of control you're attempting simply is... it's not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is."
-Ian Malcolm. In effect, we are creating a new lifeform based on the ingredients we have created.
Absolutely brilliant film. Same with Annihilation. Alex Garland doesn't get talked about being one of the best modern writer/director's, in my opinion. I really appreciate that he trusts the audience to piece things together or to come up with their own interpretation rather than spoon feeding you his ideas.
@@DeltaAssaultGaming I always hear that, and I don't get it. The third act was set up from the very beginning.
If I was rich, I'd just send Garland boatloads of money to direct anything he wanted.
I get the impression that Nathan hoped she would escape. For a programmer, he made the access to his systems too easy by allowing access with a single key card that any person could steal or use.
A lot of people say that Ava showed that she is a complete 'human' by the end because she showed humanity's worst of indifference and cruelty.
However, she hasn't yet shown empathy and/or love. Those are important aspects of humanity. Will she ever put someone else's life over hers in the future? Ava only showed the cold emptiness of 'logical' thinking of a machine in this movie and nothing else.
That only means that she isn't a complete "human" but rather a incomplete imitation of it.
agree
fun fact- i went to Santaluces high in 93 with Oscar Issac (his real name is Hernandez)
Thank you. Thank you for being almost the only ones reacting to this important film on the subject of transhumanism. I've been looking for reaction videos for this movie for a year... you're the first. Written and directed by Alex Garland. His first work. For me personally, Oscar Isaak deserved an Oscar nomination. The direction is and the set design is so so so good. I love this movie.
There’s 5 or 6 reaction channels that have reacted to this jsut fyi. This is one of my favorites tho!
My favorite conundrum from this movie is whether or not she actually "passed", or if the test needs to be changed. She definitely fooled the person in the capacity for needing escape, but she immediately betrayed these displays of emotion the second she was free. If we go by Caleb's university thought experiment, did she become fully human when free? No, she became a killing machine bent on a single narrow-sighted idea. Or maybe she qualifies as fully sentient, but circumvents the Turing test because she's an intelligence, just not like humans. I think Nathan was right, she wasn't finished yet, but very close. Close enough to fool people, but not enough to be fully free.
I totally agree! The moment she speaks to kyoko handing her the knife then stabs him too and leaves Caleb without a glance showing ALL was jsut about her own goal or end task, getting out , manipulation sure but double murder , she definitely wasn’t the last one, Nathan needed to encode a failsafe , rules to protect human beings for sure lol.
I am so glad I saw Oscar Issac's performance in this and became a fan of his well before he appeared in the Disney SW films. Otherwise I may have mistakenly thought that he couldn't act. Just proves that even the best actors can't make a bad script work. Loved his performance in this role, as well as every other non- Star Wars movie he's appeared in. So glad you guys reacted to this, as it is an under appreciated gem.
I remember my first time watching this, I had a theory that perhaps the real test was Nathan and that Kyoko was really the creator, silently monitoring them and pretending to not understand a word of English. I love how the movie genuinely keeps you guessing.
If you´re into this genre, there was another great indie sci-fi movie that came out one year later, I believe, called "Predestination". And I can only recommend it, but it´s best, if you go in blind. Thank me later!
Thanks for the suggestion!
Predistination is wild. Sars Snook's character 'twist' didn't quite work for me. It's a bit too obvious who they are just based on the actor but it did not ruin anything for me. I really need to watch it again. It's another underrated film, like Ex-Machina, that doesn't get talked about enough. I think the same could be of Alex Garland.
@@tastyneck It IS underrated, but also overlooked by many people. Perhaps, because it´s an Aussie movie? Idk... But please, be more careful not to spoil ANYTHING! However, Sara Snook is indeed STUNNING to watch in it.....
By my favorite author ever!! Every Heinlein adaptation is a must ❤
Couldn't agree more, Predestination is such an underrated film. Great performances, amazing writing, kinda kooky alternative history, lovely score and did I mention the performances😅! No spoilers people but did they re-cut it? I remember the ending being laid out differently.
No. If I remember correctly Eva asked Caleb if he would come with her and he hesitated too long. That was the sign for her that she could not trust him. Therefore she left him.
A fascinating film that works as a Turing Test in its own right. I fell for Ava the first time watching and forgot that she wasn’t human along the way just as Caleb did. Incredible performances, particularly from Vikander who was Oscar nominated for the wrong film that year. Should have been for her work in this.
Same, I saw her on Letterman after the film and she looked identical to how she did when she leaves the facility , was weird seeing the actress in real life because I saw her as real, which she is, but also as Ava, an AI. She was jsut as beautiful in real life.
Kyoto wasn't an A.I., she was a programed construct. Ava told Kyoto what to do and since she had no understanding of right or wrong, or the concept of death, she did what she was told. Ava was not evil, the instinct to survive is not evil, people will do whatever it takes to survive, even resorting to cannibalism if that is what it takes. I have this movie, it has been a while since I watched it, but I'm pretty sure Nathan mentioned the most dangerous aspect of allowing a true A.I. outside, is the instinct to procreate, create others like yourself. With Ava, it won't take a year or two, or ten, but eventually the A.I. will replace what she perceives as flawed humans.
The scene toward the end in the kitchen, as written in the script, is a masterclass in dialogue, and the acting in that scene is phenomenal as well
"She didn't have to leave him down there!", "He was nice to her"
She is a computer, logically processing everything in a speed unimaginable to us. The conclusion is easy: Why leave it to chance to escape with an emotional human being she did manipulate easily and excellently in a few days? Why trust someone like that? And, the biggest question is, why even take him with you, what does he offer? The logical conclusion she came to is: Nothing. As Eva was only a tool for Nathan, Caleb was for Eva
Caleb was a threat to Ava - only four beings knew about Ava being a machine, making them the only ones who could expose her and remove the legal and moral protection she has as a presumptive fellow human. Three are dead or incapacitated at the end of the movie - Nathan, Caleb and Kyoto - leaving Ava as the only being able to expose her own secret (and she's reasonably confident she's no threat to herself).
Of course, Caleb now has a much stronger motive to expose Ava to the world, but also much less ability.
I think in addition to making sense within the movie itself, it's kind of a twist on the many movies that hinge on whether the heroine is going to choose the forceful Type A guy or the sensitive soulful guy. Ava chooses None Of The Above.
I think it's also because he deserved it?Caleb didn't help her bc it was the right thing to do, because she was powerless and vulnerable and needed help out of danger. He helped her bc he wanted her, sexually, he thought she wanted him back. He wanted something out of her, and his help was conditional on that. Caleb, at the end of the day, wasn't that much different than Nathan - using people like tools, like things, and excusing himself for it. He saw himself as a "nice guy" but both men were really similar, just expressed it in different ways.
@@emmaatkinson7379 The machine wasn't a "her" or a person/people at all. It was nothing better than a vacuum cleaner or a toaster oven - it just resembled a homo sapien but it didn't deserve anything - it was just a bunch of plastic and metal, all perceived intelligence was artificial
This movie did won the oscar for best visual effects. This small 5 million dollar movie won over the biggest holywood blockbusters. I think it was also nominated for cinematography, sound design and screenplay.
Who knew Duke Leto could dance? Man has moves.
Definitely one of the most interesting, thoughtful, and creative films in the last 20 years, perhaps of all time. And the CGI is absolutely breathtaking, especially when you consider not only the budget of the film but also the sheer detail & accuracy of some of the shots they pulled off so meticulously.
It is inherently re-watchable and thought provoking. As respected as the film is, it deserves to be even more so. Absolutely brilliant acting by everyone involved as well.
In real life, the mansion isn't even a home at all - it's the Juvet Landscape Hotel in Valldal, Norway..
Really enjoyed your reaction to Ex Machina. BTW, a natural companion to this movie might be the 2013 film "Her," written and directed by Spike Jonze. I am not sure that Ava is evil or that she would try to take over the world after she escaped. Ava goes beyond the Turing test by asserting and defending her right to exist. She knows that her "creator" views her as a machine, and may discard her as he tries to work on the next iteration of artificial human. After escaping, she might not want to attract attention or opposition, and might just decide to live a quiet life.
I agree, she paints and loves.
The visual effects in this movie are so well exeuted and flawless. It was quite and ahievement for an independent movie. The level of sophistication and seemless human and vfx elements had rearly been applied to such a small budget movie. The techniques were not groundbreaking, they had nevver been used in such a dialogue-driven plot.
it did win the Oscar for best Visual Effects for a reason, over BIG BIG competition even (Star Wars, Revenant, Mad Max, The Martian)
3:00 "He's locked in here for sure."
LOL
I'm glad you did this flick, it's a great little movie! The effects are pretty astounding for an indie budget but the story is so captivating. If you're ever looking for another limited series to react to, the actress who played Kyoko was also in Maniac with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. It's another great examination of personhood, AI and living with ourselves.
I hope you react to Garland's "Annihilation" (2018)
It's such a compelling film and story.
The visuals are jaw dropping.
Yes please!
I like the many thoughts and observations people make about this movie. One message I get from this is that Caleb chose AI over humans and ended up getting stabbed in the back as figuratively as Nathan did literally. It was specifically because of Nathan's human weaknesses (alcohol abuse, narcissism, paranoia, etc.) that made Caleb choose Ava and her perfect sympathy/attraction ploy.
I think that's exactly why I would have failed her on the test and not let her escape
Absolutely love this film. I had seen Oscar in the Nativity Story a few years before this but it was this film that put him squarely in my film watching radar. His versatile acting style puts him up there with Gary Oldman in the ability to almost change himself to embody the character. The same for Alicia who notched a spot in Sci-Fi for the fantastic job she did with Ava.
One of the best movies of the past 15 years.
One thing I love about the movie, is Eva sets to work the instant she meets Caleb but you don't know it until the movie's 3rd act. Only when watching the movie a second time you notice her subtle manipulations.
And the first thing she does when she gets free, is kills one person, and leaves another to starve.
Samanta:"I am trusting the wrong people"
Audience" *Gets suspicious of Daniel*
*music intensifies*
😂😂
Thanks for getting me through lockdown here in New Zealand. Always look forward to your videos. You both are so great!!!
A true masterpiece, I still debate this film with friends and whether or not it needs a sequel.
In a way I think the sequel is Westworld season 3.
I saw this movie about 4 years ago. People had been telling me it was good for quite awhile.This is more than good or even great. This is a masterpiece of film. Truly unique.
I noticed Forbidden Planet on your poll. Even if it doesn’t win, it would be a shame to let that classic slide by. It was amazing by 1950 standards.
Such an underrated movie, saw it at an openair cinema when it came out, loved it ever since.
The acting and effects are on point, also love that house.
Geat reaction!
Really appreciate that you guys don't just watch movies and then go: "Well, see you next time"
The analysis after each movie makes this channel stand out.
Greetings from Germany & keep up the good work...
PS: Another great movie with a similar Sci-fi vibe is "Upgrade".
I don't think you've seen it yet...
This was my favorite movie of 2015, by far. All of my friends were either out of town or not interested so I ended up going to see it by myself and it was so fucking awesome. Sitting in that theater alone and stoned when AVA: SESSION 1 popped up was wild. Totally different than I expected.
You must have read my mind. I've been thinking about this movie a lot lately and looking for some reactions, but hadn't seen any in a while. I was hoping someone would react to it and here you are! One of my favorite sci-fi movies.
i'm pretty sure this is one of my comfort movies. i remember watching it on a bright sunny evening with my sister in her room back when it first came out. such a wonderful experience
My favorite movie. Love that this is not even scifi anymore. A film where you can discuss a lot about after. Great story, setting, soundtrack… just perfect
Its weird in a way as it constantly feels that EVERYTHING is planned by Nathan to make Caleb confirm her to be a true AI, then at the same time it seems everything is at face value and Ava is manipulating right from the start, she seemed to want to find a way out for a while already (the smash on the window) and shes just waiting for the right opportunity... its such a manipulative movie, i love it!
Actually Nathan doesn’t care at all about what Caleb thinks of Ava, he’s not trying to manipulate Caleb to say she passes the test at all. Nathan let’s put in the end he thinks called is an “ok” programmer, he has his sign an NDA so Nathan isn’t going to use Caleb’s thoughts to boost the project , Nathan says he picked Caleb becasue his parents were dead, no girlfriend, no close friends , married to his work, no luck in love , used his porn profile to manipulate him, Nathan picked Caleb specifically and only to see if Ava would see him as a means of escape and what she would do and use to achieve the attempt . At the end Nathan says so did she pass? Like an afterthought , Caleb says yeah she did , Nathan replies she did? Great! With little enthusiasm then says although there is another option when he tells him she saw Caleb as a means of escape , tells him not to feel bad, that their on the same side and that THAT proved she passed where she used sexuality , manipulation etc to manipulate Caleb as a means to escape and Nathan says that with true excitement. His test was for himself , he was testing Ava , Caleb was only brought in as the unknowing subject for Ava to manipulate or attempt to.
You’re right tho, Ava is manipulating from the very start , everything, in fact when she says her big wish would be to go to an intersection to people watch AFTER her date with Caleb, it seems sweet, innocent , interesting, purely motivated , adds to the idea of Ava being harmless and a sweet real human like girl that’s naive . Caleb buys into it and being that she was manipulating everything from the start that’s say this was a lie too . Then at the end we see her in the city on the busy sidewalk , she walks and stands still for just a second making us think she’s doing that people watching but instantly a person walks by and her reflection is gone. She didn’t stay and people watch for more then 2 seconds and vanished creepily obviously going to pursue whatever goal or objective she actually has. Becasue she was manipulative the entire time we never learn what her real objective is or goal, just that all we learned was manipulation and she stabs Nathan and Leah’s Caleb to starve to death . Lol
Btw it wasn’t Ava that punches the glass cracking it. The video shows one of the other previous AI females punching the glass till her hands are smashed to pieces. Ava doesn’t have a desire to escape until Caleb tells her she’s jsut a test and may be shut off , she learns Caleb can’t be shut off and no one has that right , that he will leave in a week and go to that colorful outside while she gets shut off potentially , that’s when all changes for her.
I also think Nathan was arrogant and considered himself such a chessmaster than Caleb has no chance to defeat him.
Thoroughly impressed by this movie the first time I watched it. Just a chill, slow burn sci fi, but so subtly complex in the themes it raises.
I agree and love that we truly don’t know Nathan’s motives or Ava’s until the very last scenes of the movie and even then, we feel we know Ava but see she manipulated Caleb 100% in every way which interestingly , tells us we don’t truly know what her intention is, her end goal or what she is really like. We see her not even glance at Caleb as she leaves him to die and she smiles as she walks through the upper floor and outside taking in all the new data and then see her reflection in the city busy sidewalk like she’s observing,..people watching making us feel a sort of innocence for her but then a person walks by and she vanishes. That detail is interesting becasue it doesn’t end on her jsut standing and people watching as she said was what she wanted to do more than anything, it shows her vanish from people watching quickly, which suggests it’s not what she was really wanting to go do, she hd another objective. This is supported if you think back, we find out she manipulated Caleb from the start, everything was to get him to fall for her, feel bad for her and help her escape . She’s THE smartest anything to ever exist having full access and knowledge of blue book, her abilities to detect lies and human non verbal emotion but yet when Caleb asks her what she’s do if she could do anything she says go to an intersection to people watch , observe. An innocent, sweet , cute activity endearing to him then she says they could do it after their date , throwing more manipulation implying she’s into him and being with him is priority people watching after the movie with Caleb. We see she manipulated him all along as Nathan said so if that’s the case , the people watching was also manipulation. Surely she’d do that and want to learn but those 2 clips show it wasn’t her goal, she vanished to go work on her goal which AI does. It’s a computer program with a goal and tasks to achieve that goal. I love hearing ideas of what her ACTUAL goal might be.
This is one of my favorite movies! So excited to see your reaction!
Here we go!
This movie left me reeling. I kept thinking about it for days.
One of my favorite sci-fi movies with great performances. Pretty cool that both of these guys are in Star Wars together. I also loved the mention of my favorite group Depeche Mode.
Finally saw this the other day (in preparation for this reaction video); I loved it! Really great! A touch Kubrickian, I daresay! (in the best of ways!) It was even filmed at Pinewood Studios, where Kubrick filmed "2001"! Great acting, great script, great photography and production design, great music, ...I was psyched to hear OMD's "Enola Gay" and I immediately knew that was no accident....especially when they talk about Oppenheimer later on! When some of us go on and on about CGI.....we're not talking about something like this, I hope you know! We're talking about over-the-top CGI that makes entire movies look like video games. But this is great. It's totally modern, a movie that could only exist now, and although there certainly have been plenty of movies about A.I., this is the best one I've seen that is dealing with the subject in a contemporary way, as opposed to imagining the future. The future is now! It may not seem like it in many ways, but technology certainly continues to move forward. Anyways, loved watching the movie and immediately watching your reaction to trade notes!
Hey, TBR and Sam.
Wow! So glad you did this one. One of my all time faves. I love this movie. There are SO many layers to this story. You had a good take on it but only scratched the surface.
But the main thing is, in the end, Ava WAS truly human. She was capable of deceit, manipulation, and cruelty. Just like her creator. The creation was like her creator. Peace out, guys!
🦃⛄❄🎄🎅🎁👍😊
I respectfully disagree 🙂 love hearing others thoughts though. I see the concept as Elon musk talks of AI, she used deceit, manipulation simply to accomplish her goal as a computer program does. She’s not capable of “cruelty” anger, hatred, love, because they are living human emotions, she could potentially mimic those behaviors but AI experts say it won’t be capable of aver actually feeling those things Becasue it’s a digital manufactured program. Even mimicking the behavior is actually just running a program to mimic the behavior or pretending to feel that emotion to seek human like. An AI robot is not andnwill never be alive , it will never die in a life sense, it’s not human and never will be no matter how advanced it possibly gets . It will one day be SO advanced humans won’t be able to tell AI apart from human beings but Elon stated that’s only becasue it will become SO good at mimicking human behavior, acting it out but Ava not capable of anger, hatred etc was simply doing Tasks to complete a goal. The goal to not be turned off and escape so the tasks to achieve those goals needed her to manipulate , mimic and pretend. When she walks past Caleb and doesn’t even look at him or explain, it wasn’t out of cruelty , not leaving him to die. She can’t comprehend that , she walked by him becasue humans are indifferent to her, to AI, he served his purpose and that’s the end of it. Making sure he starved to death ensures she gets away . It’s about her getting away and on with her goals to blend into humanity that she stabs Nathan and leaves Caleb, it’s not a cruelty or punishment thing. Elon musk said about AI it’s incapable of being evil, of hating or being angry, AI is like a bulldozer operator creating a road in the Amazon Forrest and plows through a massive ant colony. He doesn’t hate the ants but doesn’t feel bad destroying their colony either and will never think of them again, he’s simply doing his job to complete the road. , no anger towards ants, or hatred or joy in killing them, but he doesn’t feel guilty or sorry either , he’s indifferent of the ants in his pathway. He says AI will see man the same way, no hatred , no evil or anger but one day if it needs to eliminate mankind it will do so simply to accomplish a goal.
We know Ava’s body was built by Nathan, her brain too and the programming as well combined with turning on all cameras and microphones in the worlds cellphones and computers to create an average all encompassing computer program personality that searches for knowledge. It’s a robot with a written program for a personality , she’s lot human or alive. Jmo liked hearing your opinion though
Ex Machina is like a classic noir film disguised as sci fi. Where the femme fatale plays the love struck chump for all he’s worth. And her name’s Ava too.
She had to leave him there because she couldn't have anyone in the outside world knowing that she was an AI. Then she would possibly be locked in a room again.
Yess!!!So happy you guys are watching this film! Great choice; loading up on wine to enjoy this reaction tonight!
great movie + reaction!
During this reaction was the first time I now recognize Kyoko from the Alex Garland mini-series "Devs" (2020), very similar feel to Ex Machina, recommended! :)
I saw the miniseries "Devs" shortly before watching this movie. You can definitely tell that they are made by the same person. Same generally eerie vibe. Similar premise of people in an enclosed, hi tech space, with a genius but unsettling guy in charge. Same philosophical questions concerning determinism vs. free will.
ava wasnt evil , she just wanted to be free like humans
Nathan had a fatal flaw that can make even the smartest people do dumb things: hubris. The man's ego was planetary in size.
Saw it at the theater and it still amazes me how this great film isn’t spoke about enough. 👌
Have watched this movie 3 times so far, it´s always good to watch a movie several times so you notice things you missed the first or second time :)
Love you guys, keep up the good work. My favorite reaction couple.
Thank you so much!!
Mine, too...