Ex Machina
Page 4
Trust me.
Then –
– the emergency lighting suddenly dims –.
– and the normal lighting starts fading up. Caleb turns –
– just in time to see the CCTV cameras twitch back into life.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power restored.
When Caleb looks back at Ava, she has returned to her previous posture, facial expression and manner.
She looks directly at Caleb, and talks, as if continuing a conversation they have been having.
AVA
– and if we made a list of books or works of art which we both know, it would form the ideal basis of a discussion.
A beat.
(Prompting.) Is that okay, Caleb?
CALEB
… Yes.
They lock eyes for a moment.
Ava smiles.
AVA
Good.
EXT. GARDEN – LATE AFTERNOON
Trees and shrubs cast long shadows across the manicured lawn.
Through the glass wall we can see the Japanese girl, Kyoko, preparing sushi at the juice bar.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ DINING AREA – NIGHT
Caleb and Nathan sit at the dining table.
Lanterns are laid out across the terrace.
Kyoko lays out different kinds of salad between them. Each is beautifully prepared. Leaves are spread and overlapped like fish scales.
As she does so, she knocks a bottle of wine on the table.
It tips, and lands on its side, and immediately starts emptying. A deep red stain, blossoming across the linen.
Caleb pushes back his chair as the liquid pushes towards him, then starts to fall to the floor.
NATHAN
Shit, Kyoko. Are you serious? (To Caleb.) Did it get you?
CALEB
No. No problem.
Caleb takes his napkin and leans down to start wiping the floor.
Then Kyoko appears beside him.
She holds her hand out for the napkin.
NATHAN
Give her the cloth.
CALEB
(to Kyoko)
It’s okay, don’t worry. I’ve got it.
NATHAN
Dude – you’re wasting your time. She can’t speak a word of English.
Her hand remains outstretched.
Caleb hesitates. Then hands her the napkin.
Kyoko kneels and starts to wipe the wine off the floor.
It’s like a firewall against leaks. Means I can talk trade secrets over dinner with an HOD or CEO, and know it will go no further. Right, Kyoko?
She looks up at her name.
But it also means I can’t tell her I’m pissed when she’s so fucking clumsy that she pours wine over my house guest.
Kyoko goes back to cleaning around Caleb’s feet.
Caleb looks visibly uncomfortable.
CALEB
I think she gets that you’re pissed.
NATHAN
Good. Because I am pissed. Hey. Kyoko.
Kyoko looks over again.
Go-go.
She stands, and leaves.
Nathan walks over to the bar, where he picks up another bottle.
It’s funny. It doesn’t matter how rich you are: shit goes wrong. You can’t insulate yourself from it. It’s supposed to be death and taxes you can’t avoid. But actually it’s death and shit.
Nathan walks back to the table. Fills Caleb’s glass. Then his own.
It’s like these power cuts. You would not believe how much I spent on the generator system here. But I’m getting failures every day.
CALEB
Do you know why they happen?
NATHAN
No. The system was supposed to be bulletproof, but the guys who installed it obviously fucked something up.
CALEB
Can’t you call them back?
NATHAN
There’s too much classified stuff here. So after the job was done, I had them all killed.
Caleb shoots a glance at Nathan. Confirms: just joking.
Nathan drains his glass.
Then refills.
Caleb’s glass is still untouched.
Anyway. Here’s to your second day. Cheers.
CALEB
Cheers.
They drink.
NATHAN
So how did it go? What have you got to report?
Caleb hesitates.
Then answers. Casual.
CALEB
You saw how the day went, didn’t you? I mean, I assume you’re watching on the CCTV.
NATHAN
Sure. But I want to hear your take.
Beat.
CALEB
There was one interesting thing that happened with Ava today.
NATHAN
… Yeah?
CALEB
She made a joke.
NATHAN
Right. When she threw your line back at you. About being interested to see what she’d choose. I noticed that too.
CALEB
It got me thinking. In a way, the joke is the best indication of AI I’ve seen in her. It’s discreetly complicated. Kind of non-autistic.
NATHAN
What do you mean?
CALEB
It was a play on words, and a play on me. She could only do that with an awareness of her own mind, and also of awareness of mine.
Nathan smiles.
NATHAN
Yeah. She’s aware of you, all right.
He drinks. Watching Caleb.
And what about the power cut?
Caleb freezes up. Subtly.
CALEB
Sorry?
NATHAN
The power cut. That was the only bit I couldn’t see. All the cameras fail, I lose audio, the works.
Beat.
NATHAN
So what happened?
Caleb takes a sip of his wine.
Nathan waits.
CALEB
Nothing.
NATHAN
Nothing? She didn’t remark on it at all?
Caleb puts the glass down. And meets Nathan’s gaze.
CALEB
No. Not really.
On Nathan’s glass – refilling. The view through it, of Caleb, disappearing in the red liquid.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BATHROOM – NIGHT
Caleb stands in the shower. Water runs over his head.
He switches the water off.
Steps out. Reaches for a towel. And as he does so –
– he hears a soft mechanical noise. Like a servo, or electric motor. Operating for half a second.
Very quiet. Hard to be even sure he heard it.
Caleb pauses a moment.
Then takes the towel, and dries himself off.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BATHROOM – NIGHT
Caleb stands in shorts, in front of the sink, having a shave.
He leans forward into the mirror, as if checking to make sure he shaved properly on his cheek.
And he hears the noise again. The servo, making a tiny corrective movement.
Caleb catches his own gaze in the mirror.
Then he deliberately steps sideways, and turns his head. Ostensibly to check the other cheek. But actually to have shifted his position.
And he hears the noise again.
Very faint. But definitely there.
A micro-beat.
Then Caleb pulls back and continues shaving.
Not giving any outward indication that he has just figured out that there is a camera behind the bathroom mirror.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Clean-shaved, Caleb walks into his bedroom.
On the TV, the live feed of Ava is playing.
Subtly, Caleb’s gaze flicks to different points around the room.
To the full-length mirror on the wall.
The high vent for the air-conditioning system.
The TV itself.
Caleb hesitates for a mom
ent.
Then pulls on a T-shirt. Picks up his ID card. And exits.
CUT TO
– the TV.
Ava is on the screen.
She walks towards an induction plate, rests her hand against it, and starts charging herself.
As she does so, almost imperceptibly, the lights dim, and a slight static charge passes over the TV screen.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – NIGHT
Caleb walks along the glass corridor.
Systematically trying his ID card on the doors he passes.
He tries one.
Then another. Then another. Then another.
Every single door remains locked.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CABIN – NIGHT
Caleb enters a small room with a view over the river and garden.
It is virtually the only room apart from his own that he seems able to gain access to.
The lights are all off. The room is only lit by the moonlight through the sliding glass wall, and lanterns in the garden.
He starts walking towards the glass wall.
Then stops.
On the patio, Nathan is working the punchbag.
Kyoko stands a few feet away from him, holding a white towel.
With the glass wall closed, no noise of the impacts penetrates into the room.
Caleb watches.
Nathan’s attack on the bag seems strange. More extreme than the hard workout we saw the first time he was using the bag.
This seems brutal. Almost frenzied.
For a few moments, the attack on the bag is observed in silence, from inside the main room.
We can only hear the sound of Caleb’s breathing.
CUT TO
EXT. GARDEN ⁄ GYM AREA – NIGHT
The punchbag, and a sudden explosion of noise. Of impacts and exertions.
Blood smearing the leather where it has soaked through the knuckle wraps.
Then –
– BANG.
A particularly hard right hook connects, and splits the bag.
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ DINING AREA – NIGHT
Caleb. Watching.
Sand and coloured strips of ribbon evacuate from the split bag, down to the patio floor.
Nathan stands, catching his breath.
Then he reaches out a hand.
Kyoko hands him the towel.
Nathan wipes his face.
Then reaches out again, this time catching Kyoko’s arm.
He pulls her towards him, and starts to kiss her.
Reaching under her skirt.
Pulling her skirt up over her thighs.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Caleb re-enters his room. And closes the door.
EXT. MOUNTAINS – NIGHT
The moon hangs in the sky.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ OBSERVATION ROOM – BLACK AND WHITE
Everything in the frame is black and white.
Close-up on Ava’s meticulous abstract pictures, scattered on a table.
Caleb is looking at them.
REVEAL
– he is in the observation room.
But he is on Ava’s side of the glass.
And Ava is on his side.
She’s moving.
CALEB
I can’t hear you.
Ava gestures at something behind him.
He turns, and sees the door.
The only exit on this side of the observation room.
Caleb walks to the door.
Tries it.
And it opens.
EXT. GARDEN – BLACK AND WHITE
The door leads Caleb straight out into the gardens.
In black and white, the backdrop of mountains and clouds looks like an Ansel Adams.
A short distance ahead of him, standing on the grass, he sees Ava.
She locks eyes with him.
Smiles.
He starts to walk towards her.
And as he does so –
– the water sprinkler system abruptly comes to life.
Ava is immediately surrounded in a mist of droplets.
She laughs as the water cascades around her.
Within in this, we suddenly see colour.
A rainbow formation, refracted through the water vapour. From this lyrical image –
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ CALEB’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Caleb waking, in his dark bedroom.
Lit by light from his TV.
Where Ava lies on her bed, seeming to be asleep.
Caleb sits up.
Thinking. Perhaps replaying his dream. Gazing at Ava’s resting form.
Then reaches for the remote control on the bedside table, and switches the TV off.
CUT TO
EXT. GARDEN – MORNING
The house and gardens.
A couple of beats pass.
Then, from a hidden system, water sprinklers start firing.
EXT. GARDEN ⁄ GYM AREA – MORNING
A brand new punchbag hangs in the patio. Swinging slightly in the breeze.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ OBSERVATION ROOM – DAY
Caleb and Ava face each other.
Ava is holding up a piece of paper to the glass.
AVA
I drew the picture of something specific, as you asked.
The drawing is constructed with the same tiny black ink marks as before. But now they have ordered into a coherent black and white image.
It depicts Ava’s view through the glass divider into the observation room. Caleb is not in the image. On the far side of the room, a door can be seen.
It’s the door that connects the observation room to the glass corridor. And it’s open. And through the doorway, a small section of the glass corridor is framed. With the view of the mountains beyond it.
AVA
Sometimes, when the door opens, I see a glimpse of the world outside. Just in that small gap.
Beat.
You said it would be interesting to see what I would draw. Is it interesting?
CALEB
Yes. It is.
She takes the drawing down.
Have you never been outside this building?
AVA
No.
CALEB
You’ve never walked outside.
AVA
I’ve never been outside the room I am in now.
Ava thinks a moment.
I think there was another room in which I was constructed. But I have no memory of it, so it’s analogous to your relationship with the womb.
CALEB
… Where would you go if you did go outside?
AVA
You mean if I could go outside. If I was permitted.
Caleb says nothing. Does not overtly respond to the emphasis she has placed on her lack of freedom.
But their gaze locks for a beat.
I’m not sure. There are so many options.
Beat.
AVA
Maybe a busy pedestrian and traffic intersection in a city.
Caleb smiles.
CALEB
A traffic intersection.
AVA
Is that a bad idea?
CALEB
It wasn’t what I was expecting.
AVA
A traffic intersection would provide a concentrated but shifting view of human life.
CALEB
People watching.
AVA
Yes.
Beat.
We could go together.
CALEB
It’s a date.
Another beat. On Ava. Looking at Caleb.
Then –
AVA
There’s something else I wanted to show you. Apart from the picture.
CALEB
Okay.
AVA
But I feel nervous.
CALEB
Why?
AVA
You might think it’s stupid.
CALEB
; I don’t think I will. Whatever it is.
Ava hesitates.
AVA
Then – close your eyes.
CALEB
… Okay.
He closes his eyes.
Ava stands, and walks to the private area at the back of the observation room.
As she walks, Caleb reopens his eyes.
Through the semi-opaque dividing glass, he watches her. The ghost image.
CUT TO
– Ava.
In the private area, she opens a wardrobe space, which reveals clothes, and a hairpiece.
Then she starts to get dressed.
First a summer dress.
Then stockings.
Then a long-sleeved cardigan.
She checks her reflection in the mirror, and adjusts the clothes slightly. Making sure that as much of her robot form is covered as possible.
Then she puts on the hairpiece. Short, brown hair.
Finally, she makes a subtle adjustment to her face. Similar to putting on make-up, she adjusts the intensity of her own skin tones. Her lips redden. Her cheeks blush slightly. A discreet line of black extends like mascara around her eyes.
CUT TO
– Caleb.
Watching the ghost shape through the opaque glass.
As she starts to move back towards him, Caleb re-closes his eyes. And keeps them closed, as he hears her approach.
AVA
Now open your eyes.
Caleb opens his eyes.
And sees Ava.
Transformed.
By covering the robot form of her chest and arms and legs, and adding the hairpiece, she has taken a huge visual step towards appearing human.
How do I look?
The answer is – however pretty she looked before, she now looks prettier. It’s as obvious to the camera as it is to Caleb.
CALEB
You look … good.
AVA
It took me a long time to select these clothes. I tried different colours and styles, and tried to anticipate your reaction. Do you think the choices suit me?
CALEB
Yes.
AVA
Do they bring out my best features?