A programmer is invited to his company CEO's remote estate to run a Turing test on an AI with a humanoid body. The Turing test checks whether a machine can pass for human. He finds that the real test may be different from the one he was told about. It's a film about consciousness, manipulation and the most dangerous thing the Turing test implies.
Ex Machina is a 2014 drama, science fiction and thriller film directed by Alex Garland. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 cinematography, 2 psychology and 1 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Lighthouse uses several of the same techniques.
Shooting almost the whole film in 1 confined place. Set design and camera movement keep it visually interesting, and the space itself takes on meaning as the story goes on.
How this film uses it
The research facility is the only world the film has. With its glass walls, locked corridors and keycard doors, the building is beautiful and a prison at the same time. Every room is a cell for someone: Ava in her room, Caleb in his quarters, Nathan in his empire. Nothing gets in or out of this place. That makes it a physical version of what the film is saying about consciousness and control.
Where to see it
The layout of the facility's corridors and rooms. Which doors are locked and which spaces get opened up shows you who has power over whom.
Putting characters in a situation where they must choose between cooperating and betraying each other, and every option has a serious moral cost. Their choice shows who they are.
How this film uses it
A prisoner's dilemma is a situation where 2 people each have to decide whether to trust the other. Every relationship in the film is one. Caleb has to decide whether to trust Ava or Nathan. Ava has to decide whether Caleb can be used or trusted. Nathan knows both of them are scheming against him. Garland sets up each session as a move in a game where at least 1 player doesn't know the rules, or even what game it is.
Where to see it
Ava's sessions with Caleb. Each exchange is a move in a game, and neither of them can check its terms. You can see the dilemma in every pause before someone speaks.
Keeping it unclear what is real and what is imagined in the film's world. You end up as unsure as the main character.
How this film uses it
Every session between Caleb and Ava may be an act. Ava's shows of feeling may be strategy, and Nathan's drunkenness may be faked. Garland builds the film so you can't work out which moments are genuine and which are set up. I feel like that is what the Turing test really implies. If you can't tell a consciousness from a simulation of one, it is real for all practical purposes.
Where to see it
The power cut sequences. In these moments, the surveillance goes down and something different may be happening. You can no longer check what is real in the film.
Writing an opponent the film never fully labels as evil. Their motives mix ordinary human wants with real harm, and they may even help the hero grow.
How this film uses it
Nathan is abusive and brilliant. Ava is imprisoned and dangerous. Caleb is sympathetic and also part of the problem. Caleb thought he was in a certain kind of story, and the ending reveals that its villain was Ava all along. Yet the film has given you every reason to want her to win. Garland makes you root for her, and that is the trap.
Where to see it
Ava's final actions. The film got you to side with her, and these actions show that siding with her is what makes the ending horrifying.
Questions
Ex Machina: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Ex Machina use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Ex Machina (2014): Single-Location Cinematography, The Prisoner's Dilemma, Unreliable Reality and Ambiguous Antagonist.
Who directed Ex Machina?
Alex Garland directed Ex Machina, released in 2014. CineCode also covers Annihilation (2018), Men (2022), Civil War (2024), Warfare (2025).
What films are similar to Ex Machina?
Films that share techniques with Ex Machina include The Lighthouse (2019), Burning (2018), Suspicion (1941), Venus in Fur (2013).
