by Alex Garland
She pulls the knife out of his back.
Feeling this happen, Nathan turns –
– and Ava pushes the knife into his chest.
Nathan stares at Ava.
Then takes a slight step away from her.
And sits down heavily on the white carpet.
Crimson drips on to bleached fibre.
Beats pass on this strange image:
Kyoko sprawled on the floor with her broken face.
Nathan sitting upright, his upper torso now drenched in blood.
Ava standing. Watching Nathan.
After a few moments, Nathan slumps sideways.
And stops breathing.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
Caleb sees this same view, on the CCTV camera feed, on Nathan’s monitors.
Then –
– Ava starts walking.
On the cameras, he watches her progress through the house. Down the glass corridor. Through the threshold to Nathan’s private quarters.
Then –
– Caleb raises his head from the screens.
To see Ava standing at the open door to Nathan’s study.
Ava and Caleb look at each other.
AVA
Will you stay here?
Beat.
CALEB
… Okay.
Ava leaves, closing the door behind her.
CUT TO
– the monitors.
The CCTV feed of Ava walking down the connecting corridor to Nathan’s bedroom.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Ava stands in Nathan’s bedroom, in front of the previous AI androids.
She is unclothed.
She gazes at the androids.
Then she removes the arm from one of the girls, and replaces her own shattered limb.
She takes a moment to see how the new limb looks in the mirrors.
Then she starts removing sections of their skin.
And putting it on herself.
The skin sucks itself to the honeycomb mesh, as if the mesh and the underside of the skin are magnetised, attracted to each other.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
Transfixed, Caleb watches Ava’s metamorphosis on the monitors.
EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAWN
First light breaks over the mountains.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S BEDROOM – DAWN
The glow of honeycomb mesh vanishes as Ava applies the last section of skin.
Nothing of her robot forms remains.
She is a naked human girl. Hypnotised by the sight of herself.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – DAWN
Caleb watches as Ava – now clothed – walks back down the connecting corridor to the study –
– then passes straight by his door.
CALEB
Ava?
Caleb gets up.
Goes to the closed door. Tries to open it.
There is a red LED light by the keycard plate. Locked.
He swipes his card, with his photo ID.
The red light remains.
He calls out:
Ava!
He runs back to the monitors.
On them, Ava has reached the glass corridor.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – DAWN
Ava stands in the glass corridor.
She looks at Kyoko’s body for a moment.
Her expression is unreadable.
Then she walks up to Nathan’s body.
There, she stops.
Crouches down.
And takes Nathan’s bloodstained keycard out of his pocket.
Then stands.
She walks straight to the elevator.
Uses the keycard.
And steps through.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ DINING AREA – DAWN
Ava exits the elevator, and steps into the dining area. Sees the view through the panoramic window. She is frozen by it for a moment. Then she walks to the open doors.
INT. GARDEN – DAWN
Ava steps outside for the first time. Into the garden. With the view of the sky and the mountains.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – DAWN
Caleb sticks his card into the slot by Nathan’s computer.
Instantly, all the screens die. Replaced by a single word:
REJECTED.
CALEB
No, no, no –
EXT. GARDEN – DAWN
In the middle of the lawn, Ava stops. Absorbing the sunrise.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – DAWN
Caleb looks up at the thick glass of the circular window, several metres above him.
Far out of reach.
He starts to shout.
CALEB
Ava! AVA!
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – DAWN
Nathan’s body. Kyoko’s body.
EXT. GARDEN – DAWN
From the garden, we can see Caleb through the glass of the circular window, shouting Ava’s name.
On our side of the glass, there is silence.
Ava walks away, towards the meadow.
EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAY
The helicopter sweeps over the glacier, into the valley.
INT. HELICOPTER – DAY
The Pilot checks his approach.
Standing near the landing area is a girl.
EXT. MEADOW ⁄ LANDING SITE – DAY
The helicopter touches down.
The rotors stop.
And the Pilot climbs out.
Takes off his helmet.
Looks at the girl standing a few metres away.
Nothing betrays that Ava is anything other than a pretty girl in her early twenties.
Ava turns as he approaches her.
CUT TO
EXT. MEADOW ⁄ LANDING SITE – DAY
Ava’s precise point of view.
Looking at the Pilot.
The image echoes the points of view from the computer/cell-phone cameras in the opening moments of the film.
Facial-recognition vectors flutter around the Pilot’s face.
And when he opens his mouth to speak, we don’t hear words.
We hear pulses of monotone noise. Low pitch. Speech as pure pattern recognition.
This is how Ava sees us. And hears us. It feels completely alien.
EXT. MEADOW – DAY
Ava and the Pilot finish talking.
We are too distant to hear their conversation.
But whatever is said, a few beats later, the Pilot goes to the helicopter and opens the passenger door, to allow Ava to enter.
Then he goes back to the Pilot’s door.
Gets in.
And the rotor blades start to turn.
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY ⁄ CIRCULAR WINDOW – DAY
The view from the circular window as the helicopter takes off, banks away from the house, and starts climbing.
CUT TO
– computer monitor.
Lines of code appear, as they are typed.
They read:
main ( ) {
extrn a, b, c;
putchar(a); putchar (b); putchar (c); putchar(‘!’*n’);
}a ‘goo’;
b ‘dby’;
c ‘e, wo –
CUT TO
EXT. TRAFFIC INTERSECTION – DAY
A busy traffic intersection. Somewhere in North America.
In the crowd, we glimpse Ava. Just for a moment.
Cut to black.
END
Ex Machina
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE FILM
About the Author
Alex Garland is the author of the bestselling novels The Beach, The Tesseract and The Coma, which was created with images by his father Nicholas Garland. He is the co-author of the videogame, Enslaved.
He has written the screenplays for 28 Days Later and Sunshine, and adapted Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go for the screen.
also by Alex Garland
novels
THE BEACH
THE TESSERACT
THE COMA
screenplays
28 DAYS LATER
SUNSHINE
NEVER LET ME GO
DREDD
Copyright
First published in 2015
by Faber & Faber Limited
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
All rights reserved
© Alex Garland, 2015
Cover and interior film artwork: Photos and Poster Artwork © Universal Pictures, 2014
The right of Alex Garland to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0571–32535–1