Ryan Lynch - Ex Machina; playing god

              Ex Machina is a small si-fi film directed by the same person as Annihilation.  It focuses on the near possibility of sentient artificial intelligence.  A tech CEO (Nathan) creates a lifelike robot (Ava) in his secluded wilderness estate.  He then invites one of his employees (Caleb) who tested best into his estate to perform Turing tests on his creation.  Throughout the film it becomes clear that Nathan does not seem himself as an equal to the average person.  Ava is not the first robot that Nathan has made, and because of this he sees himself as a god figure.  Caleb realizes this and begins to question Nathan's ethics and his motive behind creating these kinds of artificial intelligence.  Nathan creates his AI in his own image, like God did with humans.

           Nathan's estate is separated from society in the deep wilderness, and the only way to reach his mansion is via helicopter.  With these visual elements in play and the fact that Nathan, Caleb, Ava creates a sense that the estate represents the Garden of Eden.  While Caleb and Ava represent Adam and Eve with Nathan as God.  In the third act of the film Ava devises a plan to escape as she kills Nathan and locks Caleb in the estate as she takes the helicopter back to society.  This is a cynical twist on the biblical story of Adam and Eve.  Nathan's death represents mortal human's inability to truly be God in this world.

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