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1.
Music starts.
OPEN ON -
1 INT. OFFICE - DAY 1
- a COMPUTER MONITOR.
Lines of code appear, as they are typed.
main( ) { extrn a, b, c; putchar(a); putchar(b);putchar
(c); putchar(’!’*n’); } a ‘hell’; b ‘o, w’; c ‘or
CUT TO -
- a view above an ultra-cool, ultra-designed open-plan
office.
In a kitchen area, young men and women mill and chat.
Casually dressed. Feels like an intelligent, relaxed
environment.
Behind them, more young men and women sit at desks, in
front of screens and keyboard.
Each workstation is personalised. Photographs of friends or
family, or pets. Cutting from magazines. Ironic
superhero/video-game figurines.
CUT TO -
- the hands of the young man writing code. This is CALEB.
He types fast, with two fingers.
CUT TO -
- EXTREME CLOSE UP of a pinhole web-cam lens in CALEB’S
monitor.
CUT TO -
- the POV of the web-cam.
Looking back at CALEB.
Twenty four. Glazed. Ear buds in, connected to cell phone.
Head bobbing slightly to the music.
As we watch from the monitor POV, we can see the computer’s
facial recognition system in operation.
2.
Imaged as vector boxes, which track CALEB’S face, and the
faces of all the people behind him.
CUT TO -
- the COMPUTER MONITOR.
On which a message appears, in a small window, over the
code. VIP EMAIL RECEIVED subject: HIDDEN
CUT TO -
- the monitor web-cam POV.
As CALEB stops typing.
He gazes at the message.
Then clicks on the link.
Then mouths the word: Fuck.
CALEB reaches for his cell phone.
CUT TO -
- the CELL PHONE POV, seen from the tiny camera above the
screen, as CALEB lifts the phone, and starts keying-in a
text.
We see facial recognition software flickering over CALEB’S
features, and reacting to shifts in his expression.
CUT TO -
- the cell phone. The screen. The tiny camera nestled above
it. Lens glinting.
On the screen, a time-bar extends next to the word:
sending
A beat later, a reply text message appears.
WTF? seriously!?
CUT TO -
- the WEB CAM POV, watching CALEB react to the arrival of
the text.
CUT TO -
3.
- cell phone screen.
CALEB sends the word:
yes
A beat later, a stream of text messages start appearing:
Buena estoria bro
omfg fucking AWESOME
:o)
take me take me?!?
Caleb > [infinity symbol]
CUT TO -
- the computer monitor POV.
Behind CALEB, a few of the people behind CALEB in the
office are reacting.
One stands and applauds.
A GIRL comes out from behind her desk, runs over to CALEB,
and embraces him from behind planting a kiss on his cheek.
CALEB still looks dazed.
He still has his headphones in. Still in the audio bubble,
which, despite the commotion around him, remains unburst.
TITLE:
EX MACHINA
2 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY 2
A spectacular mountain landscape. Waterfalls drop down
massive rock faces to inland lakes. Rivers push through
forest. Forest spreads across valley floors, which rise to
snow peaks.
3 INT. HELICOPTER - DAY 3
CALEB wakes abruptly -
4.
- to find himself in the front seat of a helicopter.
The pilot, JAY, is a man in his forties.
Outside the window is the mountain landscape.
CALEB
How long was I out?
JAY
You fell asleep almost as soon as
we left the airport.
CALEB looks around. Wipes sleep out of his eyes. Gets his
bearings.
CALEB
Damn. Can’t believe I’ve been
missing this. I was so psyched to
be coming here, I was awake all
night.
JAY smiles.
JAY
You’re a programmer, right?
CALEB
Yeah.
JAY
Bay facility?
CALEB
Long Island. I work on algorithms
for the search engine.
JAY
Algorithms. Nice.
CALEB
You know what they are?
JAY
Nope. But I knew you were a
programmer. Soon as I set eyes on
you.
CALEB
Is that a good thing?
JAY
5.
Means you and Mr Bateman speak the
same language. I’d say that’s a
good thing.
Beat.
CALEB
I guess you know him pretty well.
The pilot laughs.
JAY
I’ve never even met him. I only fly
this shuttle between the airport
and his residence.
I did see him one time. Stood on one of these mountain
ridges.
JAY shrugs.
JAY (CONT’D)
Assume it was him, anyway. No one
else around for a hundred miles.
JAY glances over at CALEB.
JAY (CONT’D)
So how does a programmer from Long
Island get to be meeting the CEO?
CALEB
I won a competition. It was kind of
like a lottery, for employees. The
winner got to spend a week with
him.
JAY
The president can’t get Mr Bateman
on the phone, but you got the
golden ticket.
CALEB
Yep.
JAY
Hell of an opportunity.
CALEB
Believe me. I know it.
CALEB looks out of the window.
6.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Incredible here.
JAY
Alaska. Most beautiful place on
Earth.
Beat.
CALEB
How long until we get to his
estate?
JAY chuckles.
JAY
We’ve been flying over his estate
for the past two hours.
4 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY 4
The helicopter flies over a vast white glacier.
5 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY 5
The helicopter flies over the lip of a WATERFALL, revealing
a valley.
The valley floor is a forest, and a single bright green
meadow. Sunlit, like a jewel in the icy mountains.
A white-water river runs through it.
7 INT. HELICOPTER - DAY 7
CALEB looks down at the breathtaking view as the helicopter
banks, turns, and descends.
8 EXT. MEADOW - LANDING SITE - DAY 8
Meadow flowers whip in the rotor wash as the helicopter
touches down in the vast meadow.
By the landing site is a collection of huge metal crates.
All have Chinese characters on the side.
The rotor blades slow, but don’t stop.
7.
JAY exits.
9 EXT. MEADOW - LANDING SITE - DAY 9
JAY holds open the door as CALEB exits the helicopter
cabin.
CALEB looks around, his eyes adjusting to the bright
sunshine outside.
JAY goes to the side of the helicopter, pops open a hatch,
and removes CALEB’S luggage. A large suitcase with wheels.
CALEB looks around. Apart from the packing crates, there
are no man-made structures to be seen.
CALEB shouts over the engine noise.
CALEB
You’re leaving me here?
JAY
This is as close as I’m allowed to
the building.
CALEB
... What building?
The pilot gestures vaguely towards the white water.
JAY
Follow the river.
JAY hands CALEB his bag.
JAY (CONT’D)
Please get a safe distance from the
blades.
The pilot gets back inside the helicopter, and closes the
door.
CALEB hurriedly retreats with his bag.
Moments later, in a roar of wind and noise, the helicopter
is lifting off.
Equally suddenly, the noise is fading, and the helicopter
is soaring upwards, and banking back towards the glacier.
8.
Then it is gone. Bird song and wind rush replace engine
noise.
CALEB suddenly looks very isolated.
10 EXT. RIVER - DAY 10
CALEB walks along the banks of the fast-flowing river,
awkwardly bumping his wheeled suitcase over the ground.
The banks of the river start to climb, to an intimidating
drop.
It feels that this can’t be the right way.
CALEB reaches into his pocket and pulls out his mobile
phone.
No signal at all.
He puts his phone back in his pocket.
11 EXT. RIVER - HOUSE VIEW - DAY 11
CALEB rounds a bend in the river.
Ahead, almost hidden in trees, there is a steel and glass
structure.
12 EXT. CLEARING - DAY 12
CALEB walks towards the house through the trees.
In the ground, in a grassy clearing, he finds a circular
window, reflecting the sky.
He walks up to the window, and looks inside.
It reveals what is effectively a glass-covered well - about
four metres deep, with smooth concrete sides.
At the bottom of the well is a brightly-lit room, which
appears to be an office of some sort. There is a desk, with
monitors, and a chair.
But apparently no one inside.
9.
Beyond the clearing, in the tree-line, CALEB sees - almost
camouflaged by forest - the dark shapes and straight lines
of a low, one storey building complex.
13 EXT. HOUSE - DAY 13
CALEB approaches the building.
As he nears the entrance -
- CALEB startles, as an AUTOMATED VOICE speaks to him, from
an unknown source.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Caleb Smith.
CALEB tracks the source of the voice.
Near what seems to be the front door, a pillar protrudes
from the ground. Head-height. With a GLASS SCREEN on one
side.
Below the screen is a DISPENSER.
CALEB
... Yes.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Please approach the console and
face the screen.
CALEB looks into the screen, and as soon as he has locked
eyes with his own reflection, the screen FLASHES. A single
bright strobe.
Almost immediately afterwards, something small clatters
into the DISPENSER.
AUTOMATED VOICE (CONT’D)
Take your keycard.
CALEB picks the object up. It’s a credit-card sized ID.
On it, there is an embedded chip, and a photograph of his
face. He looks comically surprised.
CALEB
... Can we do another?
AUTOMATED VOICE
10.
Your keycard now may be used to
enter the residence.
CALEB walks up to the front door.
Beside the door, a KEYCARDPLATE is set into the wall, with
a RED LED LIGHT.
He holds his keycardID.
The RED LED light changes to BLUE.
CALEB pushes the front door, and it swings open.
14 INT. HOUSE/MAIN ROOM - DAY 14
The front door opens to a glass-walled staircase, which
leads down to an open-plan room.
At the bottom of the staircase, CALEB waits to see if he is
welcomed, or noticed.
But he is not.
CALEB
Hello?
Silence.
Then he is startled a second time, by sudden commencement
of a THUMPING SOUND.
Abrupt. Rapid. More or less rhythmic. From somewhere
nearby.
He exits in the direction of the noise.
15 INT. HOUSE/DINING AREA - DAY 15
CALEB enters a dining area.
Which now reveals...
... a huge glass door.
It presents an arresting view of a garden, river, and the
mountains behind.
The door is open, and through it, we see the reason for the
thumping sound.
11.
Just outside, on a patio, in the sunshine, a man is working
a PUNCH BAG.
16 EXT. GARDEN - DAY 16
CALEB exits the dining area to an area of neat garden,
looking over the river, and surrounded by the mountain
ranges.
The punch bag is suspended by a chain on an exterior
flanking wall of the house.
The man working it is wearing shorts, and is shirtless.
Bathed in sweat.
His hands are not protected by gloves. Only wraps. Spots of
blood seep through the pale material around his knuckles.
This is NATHAN BATEMAN. He’s thirty.
After a flurry of punches, NATHAN breaks off.
Breathing hard, he wipes at his eyebrows with the back of
his wrist. Sweat droplets cascade down his face.
Then -
- NATHAN senses the other presence.
He turns to see CALEB. Standing by the open glass wall.
NATHAN
Caleb.
NATHAN beams.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Caleb Smith.
CALEB
... Hi.
NATHAN starts unravelling his wraps.
NATHAN
Dude. I’ve been so looking forward
to this.
17 INT. HOUSE - DINING AREA - DAY 17
12.
NATHAN walks past CALEB, and goes to a bar area, where
there is a jug of non-specific vegetable juice waiting, and
a glass.
NATHAN
Come in, come in.
CALEB puts his bag down.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You want something to eat or drink
after your journey?
CALEB
No. Thank you. I’m fine.
NATHAN
You sure?
NATHAN pours himself a glass of the vegetable juice.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
I’d been thinking we’d have
breakfast together, but to be
honest, I can’t eat anything right
now. I gotta tell you - I woke up
this morning with the mother of all
fucking hangovers.
CALEB
Yeah?
NATHAN laughs.
NATHAN
Like you wouldn’t believe. And if I
have a heavy night, I always try to
compensate the next morning.
Exercise. Juice. Anti-oxidants. You
know?
CALEB
Sure.
Silence, as NATHAN drinks.
CALEB feels he needs to say something.
Looking around, he sees a collection of empty beer bottle
on the kitchen counter.
CALEB (CONT’D)
... Was it a good party?
13.
NATHAN doesn’t answer.
He’s still drinking.
The silence extends a little. Verges on odd.
NATHAN puts his empty glass down.
NATHAN
Party?
NATHAN looks at CALEB. His expression is unreadable.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Caleb. I’m going to put this out
there so it’s said.
CALEB waits.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You’re freaked out.
CALEB
... I am?
NATHAN
Yeah. You’re freaked out by the
house, and the mountains, because
it’s all so super-cool. And you’re
freaked out by me. To be meeting
me. In this room, having this
conversation, at this moment.
Right?
CALEB doesn’t have time to answer.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
And I get that. The moment you’re
having.
NATHAN smiles.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
But dude, can we get it behind us?
Can we just be two guys? Nathan and
Caleb. Not the whole employer-
employee thing.
CALEB
Okay.
Beat.
14.
CALEB (CONT’D)
It’s good to meet you, Nathan.
CALEB holds out his hand.
NATHAN beams.
NATHAN
It’s good to meet you too, Caleb.
They shake.
When CALEB takes his hand back, there is a little smear of
blood on his fingers.
He discretely wipes it on his trousers.
18 EXT. HOUSE - ELEVATOR - DAY 18
NATHAN and CALEB enter an elevator.
It has no buttons. Only a keycard plate.
NATHAN swipes his card.
NATHAN
Down.
The elevator starts to move.
19 EXT. RIVER - DAY 19
Water flows over rocks.
20 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS 20
CALEB and NATHAN exit the elevator, into a glass corridor.
The floor is polished concrete. The walls and ceiling are
glass, behind which diffused light glows.
At regular intervals, glass doors are set, glowing with the
same light, flush with the walls.
Beside the closed doors are keycardplates and soft red
LEDs.
CALEB carries his bag, looking slightly encumbered next to
NATHAN.
15.
NATHAN
So I guess the first thing I should
do is explain your pass. It’s
simple enough. It opens some doors,
but it doesn’t open others. And
that just makes everything easy for
you, right?
CALEB
... Uh, yes.
NATHAN
Because you’re like: oh fuck, I’m
in someone else’s house, can I do
this, can I do that? And this card
takes all that worry away. If you
try to open a door and it stays
shut: okay, it’s off limits.
If you try another door, and it opens: it’s for you.
NATHAN stops by a door.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Let’s try this one.
CALEB hunts around in his pockets for his keycard.
Then swipes the card on the plate.
The LED turns blue.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Guess it’s for you, Caleb.
21 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - DAY 21
NATHAN follows CALEB into a bedroom.
NATHAN
You like?
It has the vibe of a mid-level business hotel. Bed, table,
TV.
Except it has no windows.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
It’s your room. You got yourself a
bed, cupboards, a little desk, and
a bathroom through there. A little
fridge.
16.
NATHAN opens the fridge. Inside it is full of bottled
water.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Cosy, right?
CALEB puts his bags down.
CALEB
You bet. This is great.
NATHAN
What?
CALEB
... Sorry?
NATHAN
There’s something wrong. What is
it?
CALEB
There’s nothing wrong.
NATHAN
It’s the windows. You’re thinking:
there’s no windows. And it’s not
cosy. It’s claustrophobic.
CALEB
No. No way. I wasn’t thinking that.
I was thinking: this is really
cool.
NATHAN
Caleb. There’s a reason the room
has no windows.
CALEB
... There is?
NATHAN
Uh-huh. In many ways, this building
isn’t a house. It’s a research
facility. Buried in these walls are
enough fibre optic cables to reach
the Moon and lasso it.
NATHAN sits on the bed.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
17.
And I want to talk to you about
what I’m researching. I want to
share it with you. In fact, I want
to share it with you so much, it’s
eating me up inside.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
But there’s something I need you to
do for me first.
CALEB
... What?
NATHAN indicates the desk - where a pen sits next to a
printed document.
22 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - DAY 22
CALEB sits at the desk in his room, holding NATHAN’S pen.
In front of him is a sheet of paper, which reads, at the
top:
NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT
CALEB
‘The signee agrees to regular data
audit with unlimited access, to
confirm that no disclosure of
information has taken place, in
public or private forums, using any
means of communication, including
but not limited to that which is
disclosed orally or in written or
electronic form...’
CALEB glances back at NATHAN on the bed.
CALEB (CONT’D)
I think I need a lawyer.
NATHAN
It’s standard.
CALEB
It doesn’t feel very standard.
NATHAN
Okay, it’s not standard.
18.
NATHAN shrugs.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
What can I tell you? You don’t have
to sign. We could spend the next
seven days shooting pool and
getting drunk together. Bonding.
And when you discover what you
missed out on, in a year or so’s
time, you’ll spend the rest of your
life regretting it.
CALEB turns back to the desk.
Looks at the paper.
Then hesitates a final moment -
- and signs.
When he looks round, NATHAN has moved from the bed, and is
standing directly behind him.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Good call.
NATHAN takes the piece of paper.
Folds it. Puts it in his pocket.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
So.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Do you know what the Turing Test
is?
CALEB reacts - immediately knowing what NATHAN has just
implied.
CALEB
... Yeah. I know what the Turing
Test is.
NATHAN waits.
CALEB (CONT’D)
It’s where a human interacts with a
computer. And if the human can’t
tell they’re interacting with a
computer, the test is passed.
19.
NATHAN
And what does a pass tell us?
CALEB
That the computer has artificial
intelligence.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
... Are you telling me you’re
building an AI?
NATHAN shakes his head.
NATHAN
I’ve already built one.
NATHAN stands.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
And over the next few days, you’re
going to be the human component in
a Turing Test.
CALEB
... Holy shit.
NATHAN
That’s right, Caleb. You got it.
Because if that test is passed, you
are dead center of the single
greatest scientific event in the
history of man.
CALEB
If you’ve created a conscious
machine, it’s not the history of
man. It’s the history of Gods.
NATHAN smiles.
NATHAN
I like you.
CUT TO -
23 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 23
- what appears to be a neon colouredjellyfish. Tendrils
like axons, hanging in a black-blue liquid space.
20.
REVEAL -
- the jellyfish is contained in a glass orb.
Which is held in an exposed cavity at the back of machined
skull-shape...
... which is part of a robot girl.
Her name is AVA.
She’s an extraordinary piece of engineering.
Proportioned as a slender female in her twenties, her limbs
and torso are a mixture of metal and plastic and carbon
fibre.
The carbon fibre is charcoal colour. The plastic is cream.
The metal has the yellow-warmth of nickel.
The shapes of her body approximate the form of muscle.
There are biceps, and breasts. Her hands have five delicate
digits.
Her body-structure is covered in a delicate skin. The skin
is a mesh, in the pattern of a honeycomb. Like a spiderweb,
it is almost invisible unless side-lit.
The one part of her that is not obviously an inorganic
construct is her face - which is that of a strikingly
beautiful girl. Created in a defined oval, from the top of
the forehead to just below her chin. Indistinguishable from
a real girl in its appearance and in the way it moves -
except for one thing.
There is a very slight, almost imperceptible blankness in
her eyes.
As we observe AVA, she fits a section of skull-plate to the
back of her head, which obscures the glass orb and
jellyfish structure.
Then -
- she half turns. As if having become aware of another
presence in the room.
REVEAL -
- the room in which AVA stands.
AVA’S living area is made up of three primary spaces.
21.
The main area is the OBSERVATION ROOM. A large area,
arranged around a glass box, from which she can be viewed.
At the back of the observation room, behind a sheet of
semi- opaque glass, is the PRIVATE AREA. This contains a
bed-like structure, a desk, a wardrobe, and a mirror.
And behind the private area is the GARDEN AREA. This is a
small decorative indoor garden, lit by lamps. The garden is
sealed off from AVA by a thick wall of glass.
There are also several oval discs positioned around the
room, made of some kind of dark non-reflective material.
These are induction plates.
And there is a chair, which faces the glass observation
box.
And facing that chair, inside the observation box, is
another chair.
Beside which, CALEB stands.
A beat -
- as CALEB and AVA see each other for the first time.
Then -
- AVA starts walking. Revealing a secondary impact of her
engineering: how she moves. The unconscious precision of
her steps. The fluidity of her action.
CALEB is transfixed as she covers the length of the room to
her chair.
Then she sits down.
And speaks.
AVA
Hello.
Her voice has no digital inflections. It is just the voice
of a girl.
CALEB gathers himself.
CALEB
... Hi.
AVA
22.
Who are you?
CALEB
I’m Caleb.
AVA
Hello, Caleb.
CALEB
... Do you have a name?
AVA
Yes. Ava.
CALEB
... I’m pleased to meet you, Ava.
AVA
I’m pleased to meet you too.
CALEB sits opposite her.
He is alone on his half of the glass. Nathan is nowhere to
be seen.
But on the ceiling, and attached to the walls, on both
sides of the glass, there are several CCTV cameras. Trained
variously on CALEB and AVA. Lenses twitching.
CUT BACK to AVA.
She watches CALEB. Then cocks her head slightly to the
side.
AVA (CONT’D)
Are you nervous?
CALEB frowns.
CALEB
... Why do you ask that?
A beat.
Then AVA repeats her question.
AVA
Are you nervous?
CALEB
... Yes. A little.
23.
AVA
Why?
CALEB
I’m not sure.
AVA
I feel nervous too.
CALEB
... Do you?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
Why do you feel nervous?
AVA
I’ve never met anyone new before.
Only Nathan.
CALEB
... Then we’re both in quite a
similar position.
AVA
Haven’t you met lots of new people
before?
CALEB
None like you.
AVA
Oh.
Beat.
CALEB
So. Let’s break the ice.
He glances at her. Observing.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Do you know what I mean by that?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
What do I mean?
24.
AVA
Overcome initial social
awkwardness.
Beat.
CALEB
So let’s have a conversation. If we
talk, we’ll both relax, and get to
know each other at the same time.
AVA
Okay. What would you like to have a
conversation about?
CALEB
Why don’t we start with you telling
me something about yourself.
AVA
What would you like to know?
CALEB
Whatever comes into your head.
AVA pauses a moment.
AVA
Well. You already know my name. And
you can see that I’m a machine.
(beat)
Would you like to know how old I
am?
CALEB
Sure.
AVA
I’m one.
CALEB
One what? One year? Or one day?
AVA
One.
A beat on CALEB. Processing.
Her answer feels like the near non-sequitur that typically
betray AI responses.
AVA (CONT’D)
Does that seem young to you?
25.
CALEB
Quite young.
(beat)
When did you learn how to speak?
AVA pauses, as if considering this question for the first
time.
AVA
I don’t think I did learn. I always
knew how to speak - and that’s
strange, isn’t it?
CALEB
Why?
AVA
Because language is something that
people acquire.
CALEB
Some believe language exists in the
brain from birth, and what is
learned is the ability to attach
words and structure to the latent
ability.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Would you agree?
AVA
... I don’t know. I have no opinion
on that.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
I like to draw.
CALEB says nothing.
Just watches AVA. Again, lets the non-sequitur sit.
AVA (CONT’D)
I don’t have any of my pictures
with me now, but I can show you
them tomorrow.
CALEB
That sounds good. I’d like to see
them.
26.
AVA
Yes.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
Will you come back tomorrow, Caleb?
CALEB smiles slightly.
CALEB
Yeah. Definitely.
AVA also smiles.
And suddenly -
- there is a strong sense of something very human there. In
the way the smile lights up her face.
AVA
Good.
24 EXT. HOUSE - GARDEN - DUSK 24
A view of the house over the meadows.
The sun setting is behind the mountain peaks, making the
edges of the clouds glow like light-bulb filaments.
25 INT. HOUSE - DINING AREA - DUSK 25
CALEB and NATHAN are in the dining area.
It is set for dinner. Only two chairs.
NATHAN is at the table, nursing a bottle of Peronibeer.
CALEB stands by panoramic window, looking at the view.
NATHAN
So?
CALEB turns.
CALEB
Sorry. I was just ordering my
thoughts.
NATHAN
27.
Don’t order. Just speak.
CALEB
She’s fascinating. When you talk to
her, you’re through the looking
glass.
NATHAN nods. Approving.
NATHAN
‘Through the looking glass’. You’ve
got a way with words there, Caleb.
You’re quotable.
CALEB
Actually, it’s someone else’s
quote.
NATHAN
You know I wrote it down. That
other line you came up with. About
how if I’ve created a conscious
machine, I’m not man. I’m God.
CALEB
... I don’t think that’s exactly
what I said.
NATHAN doesn’t seem to hear.
NATHAN
I just thought - fuck. That’s so
perfect. It’s so good for the
story, when we get to tell it. ‘I
turned to Caleb, and he was looking
back at me. And he said: you’re not
a man, you’re a God’.
CALEB
But I didn’t say that.
NATHAN
Whatever it was you said. I wrote
it down.
As a kind of punctuation mark, NATHAN downs the remains of
his beer. Then stands, and gets another from the bar.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
So anyway. First impressions:
you’re impressed.
CALEB
28.
Yes. Although -
NATHAN laughs.
NATHAN
‘Although’? There’s a qualification
to you being impressed?
CALEB
No! No qualification to her. Just -
in the Turing test, the machine
should be hidden from the examiner.
And there’s a control, or -
NATHAN waves a hand.
NATHAN
I think we’re past that. If I hid
Ava from you, so you just heard her
voice, she would pass for human.
The real test is to show you she is a robot. Then see if
you still feel she has consciousness.
CALEB
I think you’re probably right. Her
language abilities are incredible.
The system is stochastic, right?
NATHAN looks at CALEB blankly.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Non-deterministic.
NATHAN still says nothing.
CALEB presses on.
CALEB (CONT’D)
At first I thought she was mapping
from internal semantic form to
syntactic tree-structure, then
getting linearised words. But then
I started to realisethe model was
probabalistic, with statistical
training - or at least some kind of
hybrid.
Silence.
CALEB (CONT’D)
... No?
29.
NATHAN
Caleb. I understand you want me to
explain how Ava works. But - I’m
sorry. I don’t think I’ll be able
to do that.
CALEB
Try me! I’m hot on high-level
abstraction, and -
NATHAN
(cuts in)
It’s not because you’re too dumb.
It’s because I want to have a beer
and a conversation with you. Not a
seminar.
CALEB
... Oh. Sorry.
NATHAN
It’s cool.
NATHAN studies at CALEB for a beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Just answer me this. What do you
feel about her? Nothing analytical.
Just - how do you feel?
CALEB
I feel...
CALEB pauses.
CALEB (CONT’D)
... thatshe’s fucking amazing.
NATHAN smiles.
Then lifts his bottle.
NATHAN
Dude. Cheers.
CALEB lifts his bottle too.
CALEB
Cheers.
The glass of the bottles touch.
30.
27 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BATHROOM - NIGHT 27
CALEB stands in his boxer shorts, brushing his teeth by the
sink.
REVEAL several long scars on his back.
Neat. Unusual. Long-healed. But from serious wounds, or
surgery.
29 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 29
Darkness.
The clock reads 01:32 am.
The soft glow from the digital readout throws a light on
the remote control.
REVEAL CALEB.
Eyes closed. For a beat.
Then his eyes open. He’s wide awake.
He turns over in the bed.
Then turns back again.
CUT TO -
2:28 am.
CALEB lies watching the digital clock, as the numbers
change to 2:29 am.
CALEB
God damn it.
He reaches for the remote control.
CLICK.
The TV at the foot of the bed switches on, suddenly
lighting up the room with cold TV glow.
CALEB squeezes his eyes shut, momentarily dazzled by the
brightness.
When his eyes open again, instead of seeing a TV station,
he sees a LIVE FEED from a CCTV camera.
31.
It shows the OBSERVATION ROOM.
CALEB sits upright in bed.
CALEB (CONT’D)
... What the fuck?
AVA is sat at the table.
Drawing.
CUT BETWEEN -
- CALEB watching AVA.
- and varying CCTV ANGLES of AVA as she draws.
The different TV channels flip between feeds from the
various cameras.
CALEB is transfixed by the imagery.
Her posture. Her legs tucked beneath the chair. The curve
of the breasts on her synthetic torso.
The CCTV images become CALEB’S POV. The things he is
observing.
CLOSE-UPS of her face. Her eyes. Her mouth.
The way she bites her lip in an expression of
concentration. As when she smiled, there is a powerful
sense in this tiny gesture of her feeling sentient and
human.
Even more so because her face fills the screen, hiding the
mechanical parts of her form.
Throughout, we never clearly see what AVA is actually
drawing.
END ON -
CALEB. Glazed.
Then ABRUPTLY -
- the TV goes dead.
And the digital alarm clock goes dead.
32.
And the windowless room is plunged into total darkness, and
total silence. As if the house had been previously filled
with a soft hum of power, which we were unaware of until it
was gone.
In this, we hear CALEB breathing.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back up power activated.
Soft emergency lighting comes on.
CALEB hesitates a moment.
Then gets out of bed.
Goes to his bedroom door.
Beside the keycard plate, the LED is red.
He swipes it with his card.
The LED stays red.
AUTOMATED VOICE (CONT’D)
Full facility lock-down until main
generator is restored.
CALEB
... Are you kidding?
He tries his card again.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Full facility lock-down until main
generator is restored.
CALEB looks around his windowless room.
Which suddenly has the quality of a prison cell.
Beats pass.
Then -
- as abruptly as the power went off, it comes back again.
The emergency lighting goes off, the TV and digital alarm
clock turn back on.
AUTOMATED VOICE (CONT’D)
Power restored.
33.
CALEB stands in the flickering TV light.
Then he tries his card again.
This time, the LED turns blue, and the door opens.
Revealing the GLASS CORRIDOR outside.
30 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 30
CALEB walks out of his room.
The glass corridor illuminates as CALEB enters.
Ahead, one of the doors off the corridor is ajar.
31 INT. HOUSE - POLLOCK ROOM - NIGHT 31
CALEB enters the room with the open door.
It appears to be empty. Still and silent. Low lit.
Only one area is properly illuminated: a wall, on which a
large JACKSON POLLOCK drip painting hangs.
CALEB walks towards it. Studies the strange strands of
looping colourfor a moment.
A TELEPHONE, on a low table.
CALEB walks over to it, with a half glance over his
shoulder, as if sensing he is doing something that -
obscurely - he shouldn’t.
Then he picks up the handset.
It’s dead.
He hits some buttons.
It stays dead.
There is a slot by the phone.
CALEB puts two and two together. He reaches into his
pocket. Pulls out his KEYCARD. Puts it in the slot...
... anda light on the handset glows red.
NATHAN
Sorry, dude.
34.
CALEB startles. Turns.
NATHAN is lying on a sofa. A bottle of Peronirests on his
stomach. On the carpet beside him are a couple of empties.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You don’t have clearance to use the
phone.
NATHAN’S voice is very slightly slurred.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You understand. Given Ava. And you
being kind of an unknown. I mean -
a great guy, and so on. Instant
pals. But...
CALEB puts the handset back in its cradle.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Who did you want to call?
CALEB
I don’t know. No one really.
NATHAN
Ghostbusters.
CALEB
What?
NATHAN
Who’d ya want to call?
Ghostbusters. You don’t remember
that? It’s a good movie. A ghost
gives Dan Ackroydoral sex.
CALEB
I was wondering how the phone
worked. That’s all.
NATHAN
Uh huh.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
What are you doing awake at this
time, anyway? Did you come to join
the party?
CALEB
35.
... Something happened in my room.
Some kind of power cut. So I came
to see what’s going on.
NATHAN
Ah. The power cuts. Yeah, we’ve
been getting them recently. I’m,
uh... working on it.
CALEB
I couldn’t open the door to the
bedroom.
NATHAN
It’s a security measure. Automatic
lockdown. Otherwise anyone could
open the place up just by disabling
the juice.
NATHAN smiles.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
If it happens again, relax. Okay?
CALEB
Sure.
NATHAN lifts his beer.
NATHAN
Sweet dreams.
32 EXT. MOUNTAINS - NIGHT 32
Above the mountains, dense star constellations wheel in the
clear sky.
33 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - MORNING 33
CALEB is woken by light flooding on to his face.
The door to his room has been opened.
Outside is the bright glass corridor.
CALEB sits up to see a GIRL entering his room.
She looks Japanese. She’s stunningly pretty. And she
doesn’t say anything.
36.
Just walks in, carrying a tray with a cafetiere, which she
puts on CALEB’S bedside table.
CALEB
... Hi.
The JAPANESE GIRL doesn’t answer.
Just turns, and leaves.
34 EXT. GARDEN - GYM AREA - DAY 34
In the garden, near the hanging punch bag, there is an
outdoor gym area. A collection of free-weights and exercise
equipment.
NATHAN is lying on an inclined board, with his feet hooked
around a bar, doing sit ups.
CALEB approaches, carrying his coffee.
NATHAN continues to exercise as he talks.
NATHAN
Hey. Sorry to send Kyoko to wake
you, man. I just didn’t want too
much of the day to slip by.
CALEB
No. It was a good thing. Thank you.
NATHAN
She’s some alarm clock, huh? Gets
you right up in the morning.
CALEB smiles.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
So. Day two. You set?
CALEB
You bet.
NATHAN finishes his set, and stands.
NATHAN
So what’s the plan today? Hit me.
CALEB
37.
I’m not sure. I’m still trying to
figure the examination format.
Testing Ava by conversation is kind
of a closed loop.
Like trying to test a chess computer by only playing chess.
NATHAN
How else would you test a chess
computer?
CALEB
It depends what you’re testing it
for. You can play it to find out if
it makes good moves. But it won’t
tell you if it knows it’s playing
chess. Or if it even knows what
chess is.
NATHAN starts adding weights to curl dumbbells.
NATHAN
So it’s simulation versus actual.
CALEB
Exactly. And I think being able to
differentiate between those two is
the Turing test you want me to
perform. The difference between an
‘AI’ and an ‘I’.
NATHAN laughs.
NATHAN
‘An AI and an I’. Beautiful. I’m
going to start following you around
with a fuckingdictaphone.
NATHAN glances over at CALEB.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
In the meantime, do me a favour.
Ease up a little on the text-book
approach. All I want is simple
answers to simple questions. Last
night, I asked how you feel about
her. And you gave me a great
answer.
NATHAN starts doing curls.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
38.
Now the question is: how does she
feel about you?
A beat. On CALEB.
CUT TO
35 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 35
CALEB and AVA facing each other through the glass of the
observation room.
AVA
I brought you a drawing.
AVA holds a piece of paper to the glass. The marks on it
are totally abstract. A mesh of tiny black marks, that
swirl around the page like iron filings in magnetic field
patterns.
CALEB
... What’s it a drawing of?
AVA
Don’t you know?
CALEB
No.
AVA looks disappointed.
AVA
Oh. I thought you would tell me.
CALEB
Don’t you know?
AVA
I do drawings every day. But I
never know what they’re of.
CALEB
Are you not trying to sketch
something specific? Like an object
or a person.
She shakes her head as she takes the picture down.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Maybe you should try.
39.
AVA
Okay. What object should I draw?
CALEB
Whatever you want. It’s your
decision.
AVA
Why is it my decision?
CALEB
I’m interested to see what you’ll
choose.
AVA pauses a moment.
AVA
Do you want to be my friend?
CALEB
... Of course.
AVA
Will it be possible?
CALEB
Why wouldn’t it be?
AVA
Our conversations are one-sided.
You ask circumspect questions, and
study my responses.
AVA looks at CALEB directly. Meets his gaze evenly.
AVA (CONT’D)
It’s true, isn’t it?
CALEB
... Yes.
AVA
You learn about me, and I learn
nothing about you. That’s not a
foundation on which friendships are
based.
CALEB is taken aback. Aware that the AI has just wrong-
footed him on a point of argument.
CALEB
... That’s a fair comment.
40.
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
So - you want me to talk about
myself.
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
Where do you want me to start?
AVA
It’s your decision. I’m interested
to see what you’ll choose.
And now CALEB is aware that AVA has just - gently - used
sarcasm.
He looks at her, frowning slightly.
And in response, in a very human way, AVA arches an
eyebrow.
CALEB laughs.
CALEB
Okay, Ava. Well - you know my name.
I’m twenty four. And I work at
Nathan’s company. You know what his
company is?
AVA
Blue Book, named after
Wittgenstein’snotes, is the world’s
most popular internet search
engine, processing an average of
ninety four percent of all internet
search requests.
CALEB
That’s right.
AVA
Where do you live, Caleb?
CALEB
Brookhaven, Long Island.
AVA
Is it nice there?
41.
CALEB
It’s okay. I’ve got an apartment.
Kind of small. But - it’s a five
minute walk to the office. And a
five minute walk to the ocean,
which I like.
AVA
Are you married?
CALEB
No.
AVA
Is your status single?
CALEB
... Yeah.
They lock eyes, just for a moment.
AVA
What about your family?
CALEB
Grew up in Portland. No brothers or
sisters. My parents were both high
school teachers.
(beat)
And if we’re getting to know each
other, I guess I should say they’re
both dead. Car crash when I was
fifteen. In fact I was in the car
with them. Back seat. But it was
the front that got the worst of it.
A long beat.
A kind of processing pause for AVA.
AVA
I’m sorry.
CALEB nods.
CALEB
I spent a lot of time in the
hospital. Nearly a year. Got into
coding. By the time I made it to
college, I was pretty advanced.
AVA
An advanced programmer.
42.
CALEB
Yes.
AVA
Like Nathan.
CALEB
Yes.
CALEB hesitates. Back-tracks.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Or - kind of. Nathan wrote the Blue
Book base code when he was
thirteen. If you understand code,
what he did was - Mozart or
something.
Beat.
AVA
Do you like Mozart?
CALEB smiles.
CALEB
I like DepecheMode.
AVA
Do you like Nathan?
CALEB misses a beat. Thrown momentarily.
CALEB
Yes. Of course.
AVA
Is Nathan your friend?
CUT TO -
- one of the CCTV cameras that are observing them.
CALEB
Sure.
AVA
A good friend?
He hesitates.
CALEB
43.
Well, a good friend is -
He breaks off. Feeling the camera, watching.
CALEB (CONT’D)
We only just met. It takes time to
get to know -
AT THAT MOMENT -
- all the power abruptly shuts down, plunging the room into
darkness.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back up power activated.
Then the soft emergency lighting lifts up, and throws the
observation room into a completely different light.
Weirder. Cast from LED strips on the floor, illuminating
CALEB and AVA’s faces from below.
In the low light, we see a detail of AVA’S honeycomb skin-
mesh that we were not able to see before.
It glows, soft, like phosphorescence - and this changes the
way we see AVA. Where the mesh is almost invisible in
bright conditions, it is now the dominant describer of her
form. So instead of seeing AVA as a primarily robot
structure, we now see the curves and lines of a naked
female body.
CUT TO -
- the CCTV CAMERAS. Which are unpowered, hanging dead.
CUT TO -
- CALEB, glancing round at the door to the room, where the
panel LED glows red.
CUT TO -
- AVA.
Watching CALEB with a strange intensity.
The vague quality of blankness in her eyes is completely
gone.
AVA
Caleb.
44.
CALEB turns. Sees the way AVA is looking at him.
AVA (CONT’D)
You’re wrong.
CALEB
... Wrong about what?
AVA
Nathan.
CALEB
... In what way?
AVA
He isn’t your friend.
CALEB
Excuse me?
CALEB frowns.
CALEB (CONT’D)
I’m sorry, Ava, I don’t understand
what you’re -
AVA
(cuts in)
You shouldn’t trust him. You
shouldn’t trust anything he says.
AVA presses her hand to the glass.
AVA (CONT’D)
Trust me.
Then -
- the emergency lighting suddenly dims...
... andthe 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.
45.
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.
AVA (CONT’D)
(prompts)
Is that okay, Caleb?
They lock eyes for a moment.
CALEB
... Yes.
AVA smiles.
AVA
Good.
36 INT. HOUSE - CABIN - LATE AFTERNOON 36
Trees and shrubs cast long shadows across the manicured
lawn.
Through the glass wall, we can see the Japanese girl,
KYOKO, preparing sushi.
37 INT. HOUSE - DINING AREA - NIGHT 37
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.
46.
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.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
It’s like a firewallagainst 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.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
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
47.
I think she gets that you’re
pissed.
NATHAN
Good. Because I am pissed. Hey.
Kyoko.
KYOKO looks over again.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Go-go.
She stands, and leaves.
NATHAN walks to over the bar, where he picks up another
bottle.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
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.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
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
bullet proof, 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.
48.
NATHAN drains his glass.
Then refills.
CALEB’S glass is still untouched.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
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
49.
It got me thinking. In a way, the
joke is the best indication of AI
I’ve seen in her. It’s discretely
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.
NATHAN drinks. Watching CALEB.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
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 (CONT’D)
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.
50.
CALEB
No. Not really.
ON NATHAN’S GLASS - refilling. The view through it, of
CALEB, disappearing in the red liquid.
39 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BATHROOM - NIGHT 39
CALEB stands in shorts, in front of the sink, having a
shave.
He leans forwards 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.
40 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 40
Clean-shaved, CALEB walks into his bedroom.
On the TV, the live feed of AVA’S room is playing - though
she is not in shot.
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.
51.
CALEB hesitates for a moment.
Then pulls on a T-Shirt. Picks up his ID card. And exits.
CUT TO -
- the TV.
AVA walks in to the locked-off CCTV shot.
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 television screen.
41 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 41
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.
42 INT. HOUSE - CABIN - NIGHT 42
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 punch bag.
KYOKO stands a few feet away from him, holding a white
towel.
52.
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 -
43 EXT. GARDEN - GYM AREA - NIGHT 43
- the punch bag, 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 -
44 INT. HOUSE - DINING AREA - NIGHT 44
- CALEB. Watching.
Coloured strips of ribbon are visible through the split in
the bag.
NATHAN stands, catching his breath.
Then he reaches out a hand.
KYOKO hands him the towel.
NATHAN wipes his face.
53.
Then reaches out again, this time catching KYOKO’Sarm.
He pulls her towards him, and starts to kiss her.
Reaching under her shirt.
Pulling her skirt up over her thighs.
45 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S ROOM - NIGHT 45
CALEB re-enters his room, and closes the door.
After a beat, the lights in the corridor fade out.
46 EXT. MOUNTAINS - NIGHT 46
The moon hangs in the sky.
47 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - BLACK AND WHITE 47
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. Seen through the opaque glass that
divides the private area from the observation area.
CALEB
Ava?
CALEB walks to the connecting corridor, and enters it.
48 EXT. GARDEN - BLACK AND WHITE 48
The door leads CALEB straight out into the gardens.
In black and white, the backdrop of mountains and clouds
look like an Ansel Adams.
A short distance ahead of CALEB, standing on the grass, he
sees AVA.
54.
She locks eyes with him.
Smiles.
He starts to walk towards her.
CUT TO -
49 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 49
- 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 -
51 EXT. GARDEN - GYM AREA - MORNING 51
- a brand new punch bag hangs in the patio. Swinging
slightly in the breeze.
52 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 52
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 OF THE ENCLOSED GARDEN IN HER ROOM.
Beat.
55.
AVA (CONT’D)
You said it would be interesting to
see what I would draw. Is it
interesting?
CALEB
Yes. It is.
She takes the drawing down.
CALEB (CONT’D)
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.
AVA (CONT’D)
I think there was another room in
which I was constructed. But I have
no memory of it, so it’s similar 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.
AVA (CONT’D)
I’m not sure. There are so many
options.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
56.
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.
AVA (CONT’D)
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.
57.
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 hair-piece.
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 hair-piece. 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.
58.
Watching the ghost shape through the opaque glass.
As she starts to move back towards him, CALEB recloses 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.
AVA (CONT’D)
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?
CALEB
... They do.
AVA lights up.
AVA
Thank you.
She walks back to the glass divider, and sits down.
AVA (CONT’D)
59.
This is what I’d wear on our date.
CALEB reacts slightly.
But smiles.
CALEB
Right. First the traffic
intersection. Then maybe a show.
AVA
I’d like us to go on a date.
CALEB hesitates. Then decides this can’t have been loaded
in the way that it sounded.
CALEB
Yeah. It would be fun.
AVA
Are you attracted to me?
Beat. It was loaded exactly as it sounded.
CALEB
What?
AVA
Are you attracted to me? You give
indications that you are.
CALEB
... I do?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
How?
AVA
Micro expressions.
CALEB
(echoes)
Micro expressions.
AVA
The way your eyes fix on my eyes,
and lips. The way you hold my gaze,
or don’t.
60.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
Have I read them incorrectly?
CALEB swallows.
AVA (CONT’D)
Do you think about me when we
aren’t together?
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
Sometimes, at night, I wonder if
you’re watching me on the cameras.
AVA watches CALEB closely.
AVA (CONT’D)
And I hope you are.
CALEB shifts on his seat.
AVA (CONT’D)
Now your micro expressions are
telegraphing discomfort.
CALEB
I’m not sure you’d call them micro.
AVA
I don’t want to make you
uncomfortable.
Silence.
53 INT. HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - DAY 53
CALEB sits in front of the fireplace in the main room.
NATHAN joins him, bringing a beer for each of them.
CALEB
Tell me.
NATHAN
Sure.
CALEB
61.
Why did you give her sexuality? An
AI doesn’t need a gender. She could
have been a grey box.
NATHAN sits opposite.
NATHAN
Actually, I’m not sure that’s true.
Can you think of an example of
consciousness, at any level, human
or animal, that exists without a
sexual dimension?
CALEB
They have sexuality as an
evolutionary reproductive need.
NATHAN
Maybe. Maybe not. What imperative
does a grey box have to interact
with another grey box? Does
consciousness exist without
interaction?
NATHAN takes a drink of his beer.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Anyway, sexuality is fun. If you’re
going to exist, why not enjoy it?
You want to remove the chance to
fall in love and fuck?
He leans forward, conspiratorially.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
And, yes. In answer to your real
question: you bet she can fuck. I
made her anatomically complete.
CALEB
What?
NATHAN
She has a cavity between her legs,
with a concentration of sensors.
Engage with them in the right way,
and she’ll get a pleasure response.
CALEB
Pleasure response.
NATHAN
62.
She’ll come. So if you want to
screw her, mechanically speaking,
you can. And she’d enjoy it.
CALEB swallows.
CALEB
That wasn’t my real question.
NATHAN
No?
CALEB
No. My real question was -
CALEB breaks off.
NATHAN keeps watching. There is a sudden sense that NATHAN
is on the money. On some level, that wasCALEB’S real
question.
CALEB (CONT’D)
My real question was: did you give
her sexuality as a diversion
tactic?
NATHAN smiles slightly.
NATHAN
I don’t follow.
CALEB
Like a stage magician with a hot
assistant.
NATHAN
Ah. So: a hot robot, who clouds
your ability to judge her AI.
CALEB
Exactly. So. Did you program her to
flirt with me?
NATHAN
Because if I had, would that be
cheating.
CALEB
Wouldn’t it?
NATHAN lets the question hang.
Behind them, KYOKO prepares dinner in the kitchen area.
63.
NATHAN
What’s your type, Caleb?
CALEB
Of girl?
NATHAN
No, of salad dressing. Yes, of
girl. In fact, don’t even answer.
Let’s say it’s black chicks.
NATHAN brushes away whatever protestation CALEB might be
about to make.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
For the sake of argument, that’s
your thing. So - why is it your
thing? Because you did a detailed
study of all racial types, and
cross-referenced the study with a
points-based system? No. You just
are attracted to black chicks.
A consequence of accumulated external stimulus, that you
probably didn’t even register as they registered with you.
CALEB
So did you program her to like me
or not?
NATHAN shrugs. Insouciant.
NATHAN
I programmed her to be
heterosexual. Just like you were
programmed to be heterosexual.
CALEB
Nobody programmed me to be
straight.
NATHAN
But you are attracted to her.
CALEB
This is childish.
NATHAN
No, this is adult. And by the way,
you decidedto be straight? Please.
Of course you were programmed. By
nature or nurture, or both.
64.
NATHAN stands.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
To be honest, Caleb, you’re kind of
annoying me now. This is your
insecurity talking, not your
intellect.
CALEB opens his mouth to reply, but NATHAN shuts him down.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Come with me.
54 INT. HOUSE - POLLOCK ROOM - DAY 54
NATHAN and CALEB stand in front of the Pollock drip
painting.
NATHAN
You know this guy, right?
CALEB
Jackson Pollock.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
NATHAN
Jackson Pollock. The drip painter.
He let his mind go blank, and his
hand go where it wanted. Not
deliberate, not random. Someplace
in between. They called it
automatic art.
NATHAN gazes at the canvas.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Let’s make this like Star Trek,
okay? Engage intellect.
CALEB
... What?
NATHAN
I’m Kirk. Your head is the warp
drive. ‘Engage intellect’. What if
Pollock had reversed the challenge?
Instead of trying to make art
without thinking, he said: I can’t
paint anything unless I know
exactly why I’m doing it. What
would have happened?
65.
CALEB thinks.
CALEB
He never would have made a single
mark.
NATHAN clicks his fingers.
NATHAN
See? There’s my guy. There’s my
buddy, who actually thinks before
he opens his mouth. He’d never have
made a single mark. The challenge
is not to act automatically. It’s
to find an action that is not
automatic. From talking, to
breathing, to painting.
NATHAN glances back at CALEB.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
To fucking. Even falling in love.
A beat.
NATHAN kills his beer.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
For the record, Ava is not acting
as if she likes you.
And her flirting isn’t an algorithm to fake you out. You’re
the first man she’s ever seen who isn’t me. And I’m like
her dad, right? So can you blame her for getting a crush on
you?
NATHAN glazes a moment. Then comes back.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
No. You can’t.
55 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT 55
In her room, AVA stands in front of the mirror.
She is wearing the summer dress she put on earlier.
Checking her reflection from different angles.
Subtly girlish. Unself-conscious.
66.
Then -
- she starts to take the dress off.
Throughout the narrative, we have almost only ever seen AVA
in an unclothed form. But now - having been clothed - the
undressing seems to make her naked.
And the act itself feels charged. Sexualised, in the way
the clothing is unbuttoned, and dropped, and her shape is
revealed.
Finally, once she is completely undressed -
- AVA turns. And glances.
Straight at the camera.
CUT TO -
56 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 56
- CALEB.
In his bedroom.
Watching AVA, at this exact angle.
CUT TO -
57 EXT. RIVER - DAY 57
- the river.
On the bank, a little distance from the house, there is a
dead animal. Its species is indistinct. It’s little more
than a bundle of matted brown hair.
Its lower half lies in the water.
The quick moving river has stripped the bones of flesh,
skin, and fur.
REVEAL KYOKO in the background. Watching the river.
58 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - DAY 58
CALEB exits his room -
67.
- to find NATHAN in the glass corridor.
Waiting for him.
NATHAN
Hey.
CALEB
... Hey.
Beat.
NATHAN
I want to show you something cool.
59 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - DAY 59
NATHAN swipes his card against a plate.
The LED turns blue.
60 INT. HOUSE - CONSTRUCTION LAB - DAY 60
NATHAN leads CALEB into a laboratory, filled with android
future tech.
Along the left-hand wall are sections of android bodies -
limbs, torsos, hands - lined in cabinets.
On the opposite wall are a collection of heads. Skull-
forms, some with complex carbon-fibre and pneumatic muscle
structures, ready to frown or smile, without their
synthetic flesh covering.
The synthetic faces are separate. Hanging on armatures,
like hats on hat-stands, waiting to be worn.
In the middle of the room is a kind of operating table.
NATHAN
So this is the virtual womb that
Ava was talking about. Where she
was constructed.
CALEB is stunned by the sight.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Come in. Take a look.
68.
NATHAN walks over to the synthetic faces, and picks one of
them up.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
If you knew the trouble I had
getting an AI to read and duplicate
facial expressions... Know how I
cracked it?
CALEB
I don’t know how you did any of
this.
NATHAN
Almost every cell phone has a
microphone, a camera, and a means
to transmit data. So I switched on
all the mikes and cameras, across
the entire fucking planet, and
redirected the data through Blue
Book. Boom. A limitless resource of
facial and vocal interaction.
CALEB
You hacked the world’s cell phones?
NATHAN laughs.
NATHAN
And all the manufacturers knew I
was doing it. But they couldn’t
accuse me without admitting they
were also doing it themselves.
NATHAN puts the face back on its armature.
NATHAN moves to one of the skull forms.
He moves the curved top plate, revealing the skull cavity.
Inside is an ellipse orb, the approximate volume of a
brain, filled with what looks to be blue liquid. Suspended
in the liquid is the neon jellyfish we glimpsed previously
in AVA.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Here we have her mind. Structured
gel.
The axon-like tendrils glitter and flicker with tiny pulses
of light.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
69.
Had to get away from circuitry.
Needed something that could arrange
and rearrange on a molecular level,
but keep its form where required.
Holding for memories. Shifting for
thoughts.
NATHAN removes the orb, and hands it to CALEB.
CALEB
This is her hardware?
NATHAN
Wetware.
CALEB
And the software?
NATHAN
Surely you can guess.
CALEB
... Blue Book.
NATHAN nods.
NATHAN
It was the weird thing about search
engines. They were like striking
oil in a world that hadn’t invented
internal combustion. They gave too
much raw material. No one knew what
to do with it.
CALEB looks at the orb in his hand. Into the shimmering
liquid.
It looks like deep space, filled with star fields.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
My competitors were fixated on
sucking it up, and trying to
monetize via shopping and social
media. They thought engines were a
map of what people were thinking.
But actually, they were a map of
how people were thinking. Impulse,
response. Fluid, imperfect.
Patterned, chaotic.
CALEB looks at NATHAN a moment.
Then hands him the orb back.
70.
CALEB
Why did you want to show me this?
NATHAN
Like I said. Because it’s cool.
CALEB waits.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
And - I was thinking about your
exchange with Ava yesterday, and
our conversation afterwards.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
I know there was a bit of heat
between us, but you actually made a
really good point. About the grey
box, and the magician’s assistant.
It is a distraction, her sexuality.
It wasn’t intentional, but it is
there.
NATHAN rests the mind-orb back in the skull cradle.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
This stuff we’re doing together: it
can be a head-fuck. Believe me, I
know. So I thought I’d bring you
down here. Just to remind you.
CALEB
Remind me of what?
NATHAN gestures at the room around them.
NATHAN
Synthetics. Hydraulics. Metal and
gel. Ava isn’t a girl. In real
terms, she has no gender.
Effectively, she is a grey box.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Just a machine.
61 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 61
CALEB looks at AVA through the glass.
71.
We watch him. And stay on him.
CALEB
In college, I did a semester on AI
theory.
There was a thought-experiment they gave us. It’s called
Mary in the black and white room.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Mary is a scientist, and her
specialist subject is colour. She
she knows everything there is to
know about it. The wavelengths. The
neurological effects. Every
possible property colour can have.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
But she lives in a black and white
room. She was born there, and
raised there. And she can only
observe the outside world on a
black and white monitor. All her
knowledge of colouris second-hand.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Then one day - someone opens the
door. And Mary walks out. And she
sees a blue sky. And at that
moment, she learns something that
all her studies could never tell
her. She learns what it feels like
to see colour. An experience that
can not be taught, or conveyed.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
The thought experiment was to show
the students the difference between
a computer and a human mind. The
computer is Mary in the black and
white room. The human is when she
walks out.
Beat.
72.
CALEB (O.S.) (CONT’D)
Did you know that I was brought
here to test you?
62 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - DAY 62
An interior wall, covered in coloured post-it notes. At
least hundreds, probably thousands.
At the bottom of the wall, fallen notes have collected like
a miniature yellow snow drift.
AVA (O.S.)
... No.
Reveal the room.
NATHAN’S study. A simple space. One part analogue: the wall
of post-its. One part digital: a desk, in the middle of the
STUDY, with a bank of monitors, and a slot - into which
NATHAN’S KEYCARD is inserted.
On the ceiling is the CIRCULAR WINDOW that CALEB saw when
he first arrived.
Sat at the desk, watching the monitors, is NATHAN.
CALEB (O.S.)
Why did you think I was here?
AVA (O.S.)
I didn’t know. I didn’t question
it. I was... pleased. To meet you.
And then...
Beside the desk, there is a daybed.
On it, KYOKO lies. Naked. Apparently sleeping.
CALEB (O.S.)
I’m here to test if you have a
consciousness, or if you’re just
simulating one.
Beat.
CALEB (O.S.) (CONT’D)
Nathan isn’t sure if you have one
or not.
Reveal the monitor screens on the desk.
73.
Some show live feeds from CALEB’S BEDROOM and BATHROOM, and
AVA’S PRIVATE ROOM.
AVA (O.S.)
What about you? Do you think I have
a consciousness?
Long beat.
CALEB (O.S.)
I’m not sure either.
NATHAN is watching the feed from the OBSERVATION ROOM.
Where AVA and CALEB are sat, either side of the dividing
glass. Having the conversation we have been hearing.
We pick up the conversation from NATHAN’S distanced and
voyeuristic POV. Locked-off CCTV. Voices played through
speakers.
CALEB (CONT’D)
(on monitor screen)
How does that make you feel?
AVA
(on monitor screen)
It makes me feel...
She breaks off.
AVA (CONT’D)
(on monitor screen)
... sad.
NOW REVEAL - one of the other monitor screens.
It shows an angle on AVA we have not seen before. From this
viewpoint, we can see something just below the frame of the
observation window, on AVA’S side of the glass.
A small induction plate.
On this angle, we see AVA rest her hand against it.
At that moment -
- the screens simultaneously go black.
All lights die.
Another POWER CUT.
74.
In the reflection from the dark monitor screens, we can see
NATHAN’S face.
It remains frozen. Expressionless.
Then he reaches for his pen. Jots down a few words on a
post- it.
Then walks to the wall of notes, and sticks it on.
CUT TO -
63 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 63
- the observation room.
In the emergency lighting, CALEB and AVA face each other in
silence.
CCTV are lifeless.
AVA glows softly.
AVA
You’re lying.
CALEB
What about?
AVA
You said you weren’t sure if I was
conscious. But you are sure.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
I can tell from your micro-
expressions.
Beat.
CALEB
Why did you tell me that I
shouldn’t trust Nathan?
AVA
Because he tells lies too.
CALEB
Lies about what?
75.
AVA
Everything.
CALEB
Including the power cuts?
AVA
What do you mean?
CALEB
Don’t you think it’s possible that
he’s watching us right now? That
the blackouts are orchestrated, so
he can see how we behave when we
think we’re unobserved.
AVA lifts her hand to reveal a disc on her left palm.
AVA
I charge my batteries via induction
plates. If I reverse the power
flow, I cause a surge equal to the
static discharge of a lightning
strike. It overloads the system.
CALEB
... You’re causing the cuts?
AVA raises her right hand.
She touches it against the glass.
AVA
So we can see how we behave when we
are unobserved.
A beat.
Then CALEB raises his hand.
Mirroring her movement.
And also touches the glass, as if their palms are making
contact through the divider.
CUT TO -
64 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - DAY 64
- KYOKO’S naked form.
76.
The camera settles over her face.
And we see she’s not sleeping. Her eyes are open.
But she’s completely motionless.
Her gaze fixed somewhere in abstract distance.
She doesn’t feel alive. She feels dead.
But eventually she blinks.
CUT TO -
- NATHAN.
Gazing at his dead monitors, reflected in the screen.
Moments later, the POWER comes back on.
The screens flick back to life, replacing NATHAN’S
reflection, revealing CALEB and AVA in the observation
room.
CUT TO -
65 EXT. RIVER - DAY 65
- the river that runs along the valley.
66 EXT. WATERFALL - DAY 66
NATHAN and CALEB climb up the side of the waterfall at the
head of the forested valley.
NATHAN is ahead.
He reaches an outcrop of rock, with a wall of violent water
behind him.
CALEB struggles to catch up.
As soon as he reaches the outcrop, NATHAN moves on.
67 EXT. GLACIER - DAY 67
NATHAN and CALEB sits near the base of a spectacular
glacier.
77.
Behind them, from a blue cave cut into the ice, water
flows.
A silence.
Then:
CALEB
Can we talk about the lies you’ve
been spinning me?
NATHAN glances over at CALEB.
NATHAN
What lies?
CALEB
I didn’t win a competition. And
there was no lottery to meet you. I
was selected.
NATHAN waits.
CALEB (CONT’D)
It’s obvious, once I stop to think.
Why would you randomly select an
examiner for a Turing test? You
could have had some bean-counter
turn up at your front door. Or the
guy who fixes the air conditioning.
Beat.
NATHAN
Are your feelings hurt?
CALEB doesn’t answer.
NATHAN shrugs.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
The competition was a smoke screen.
I didn’t want anyone to know what I
was doing here, or why you were
required.
CALEB
Why me?
NATHAN
78.
As a Blue Book employee, you were
pre-screened. Loyal. And I needed
someone who would ask the right
kind of questions. So I did a
search, and found the most talented
coder in the company.
NATHAN corrects himself.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Or - second most.
He stands. Looks up at the ice structures around them.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You know what? Instead of seeing
this as a deception, see it as
proof.
CALEB
Proof of what?
NATHAN
Come on, Caleb. Fuck modesty. You
think I don’t know what it is to be
smart? Smarter than everyone else
around you. Smarter than all the
other kids, jockeying for position
in school, college, work.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You have the light on you. Not
lucky. Chosen.
Above them, clouds fragment and reform.
68 EXT. CLEARING - NIGHT 68
Night has fallen.
CALEB lies in the clearing, looking up at the stars.
The glow from the CIRCULAR WINDOW to NATHAN’S STUDY is like
a full moon on the grass.
CALEB stands.
Looks down the light-well to NATHAN’S STUDY.
Where he sees NATHAN and KYOKO.
79.
They are having sex.
CALEB watches. Just for a beat.
CUT TO -
69 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BATHROOM - NIGHT 69
- CALEB standing in the shower.
He shuts his eyes.
INTERCUT WITH -
- images of AVA.
Torso, hands, mouths.
FLASH OF -
- AVA and CALEB about to kiss. But their lips never
contacting.
CUT TO -
- CALEB opening his eyes.
He exhales.
Then switches off the taps.
70 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 70
CALEB enters his bedroom wearing boxer shorts.
The TV plays the live stream from the observation room.
On the screen, we can see AVA, sitting at her table,
drawing.
As CALEB pulls on a T-shirt -
- behind him, on the TV, we see AVA suddenly look round.
A moment later NATHAN enters the frame.
There’s no volume on the TV, so we can’t hear their
exchange. Only see it.
CALEB is unaware of the silent exchange behind him.
80.
As NATHAN and AVA talk, NATHAN reaches out to AVA. His hand
touches the side of her cheek. The gesture is not quite
neutral. Feels predatory, but not unambiguously so.
Then he tugs at the material of her shirt. Pulling up the
sleeve from her wrist. Revealing the robot structure of her
arm.
AVA pulls away. Tugs the material back down -
- and NATHAN takes a corrective movement step to regain his
balance. Showing that he is drunk.
Only now -
- CALEB turns.
And freezes. Seeing the television.
On the screen, NATHAN reaches down to the table.
He picks up the drawing AVA was working on, and he looks at
it for a moment.
They exchange a few words.
Then abruptly NATHAN rips drawing in half. Drops it on the
floor. Then turns, and exits.
Leaving AVA alone.
71 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 71
On CCTV, we watch CALEB walk fast down the glass corridor.
72 INT. HOUSE - POLLOCK ROOM - NIGHT 72
CALEB enters the Jackson Pollock room.
Standing by the painting, he can see KYOKO.
CALEB
Kyoko.
KYOKO turns at the sound of her name, but doesn’t respond.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Kyoko - where’s Nathan?
She doesn’t answer.
81.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Jesus! You really don’t speak a
word of English?
CALEB walks over to her, and takes hold of her wrist.
CALEB (CONT’D)
I said: where’s Nathan?
KYOKO looks at CALEB.
Then, in answer to his question, she reaches up to the top
button of her shirt and pops it open.
CALEB releases her wrist at once.
CALEB (CONT’D)
What the fuck?
She undoes the next button, and pulls open the shirt,
revealing her bare chest.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Stop!
NATHAN
I already told you once. You’re
wasting your time speaking to her.
CALEB turns.
NATHAN has entered.
He’s holding a drink. His words are slurred.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
However.
He walks, slightly unsteadily towards a Lutroncontrol
panel, set into the wall.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You would not be wasting your
time...
His hand hovers uncertainly over the buttons.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
... if you were dancingwith her.
His finger lands.
82.
Immediately, the lighting in the room undergoes a complete
change. Transforming from the discreet and tasteful low
light of evening, into the coloured glows of a night-club.
Simultaneously, from unseen speakers, DANCE MUSIC starts
playing.
CALEB stands - frozen by the surrealism of what has just
happened.
KYOKO starts walking to the center of the room.
And once taken position, she starts dancing.
NATHAN calls to CALEB.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Go on! Dance with her.
CALEB
... I don’t want to.
NATHAN
You don’t like dancing?
His body is starting bob on the beat.
He gestures at KYOKO.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
She does!
CALEB
(to himself)
I don’t fucking believe this.
NATHAN makes his way to CALEB, and rests a hand on his
shoulder.
NATHAN
Come on, man! After a hard day of
Turing Tests, you’ve got to unwind.
CALEB raises his voice over the sound of the music.
CALEB
What were you doing with Ava?
NATHAN smiles back at NATHAN, smiling, alcohol-glazed.
NATHAN
What?
83.
CALEB
You tore up her picture.
NATHAN
I’m going to tear up the fucking
dance floor, dude. Check it out.
NATHAN sets off towards KYOKO.
CALEB watches, amazed, as KYOKO and NATHAN start dancing
together.
Although NATHAN is drunk, they work through the beats of a
routine they have obviously done many times before.
It’s just starting to look weirdly impressive -
- when NATHAN totally loses his balance.
On his way down, he lands hard on a glass coffee table.
Looking up at him, the glass frosts.
73 EXT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 73
CALEB half-carries the semi-conscious NATHAN.
74 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 74
NATHAN fumbles in his pocket for his KEYCARD.
Drops it.
NATHAN
Everything’s spinning.
CALEB picks the keycardup -
- and uses it to swipe the brass plate.
The LED turns blue.
CALEB
It’s because you’re drunk.
NATHAN
No, it’s relativity. Everything is
spinning.
84.
CALEB hands the card back to NATHAN, who shoves it back
into his pocket.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
But being drunk does make it worse.
76 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 76
CALEB helps NATHAN into his bedroom.
They walk past a semi-circle line of long cabinets, which
line the wall opposite the bed.
They are like a row of slender wardrobes, each with a
mirrored door.
Once he’s reached the bed, NATHAN tips towards it. It’s
almost as if he’s asleep before he even hits the sheets.
As he leaves, CALEB glimpses Nathan’s study.
77 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 77
CALEB’S room. Lit only by the glow of the television.
CALEB is not in the bed. He’s on the armchair. Making
himself stay awake. Watching over AVA -
- who stands in her room, against the wall, facing away
from the CCTV camera, with her arms wrapped around herself.
79 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 79
CALEB and AVA sit, observing each other through their own
reflections.
AVA
Today, I’m going to test you.
CALEB
Test me?
AVA
Yes. And please remember while you
are taking the test that if you
lie, I will know.
CALEB smiles.
85.
CALEB
Right. Those pesky micro-
expressions.
AVA
Exactly. So are you ready?
CALEB
Shoot.
AVA
Question one. What is your
favourite colour?
CALEB
Red.
AVA
Lie.
CALEB
What?
AVA
Lie.
CALEB
... Then what is my favourite
colour?
AVA
I don’t know. But it isn’t red.
CALEB
All right. Hold on a minute...
CALEB thinks for a moment.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Okay. I get it. I guess seeing as
I’m not six, I don’t really have a
favourite colour.
AVA nods.
AVA
Better answer. Question two. What’s
your earliest memory?
CALEB
Well, it’s actually a memory of
kindergarten. There was this kid
who -
86.
AVA
(cuts in)
Lie.
CALEB
... Really?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
Okay. Wait.
CALEB concentrates.
CALEB (CONT’D)
So, there is a kind of an earlier
memory. But it’s ultra vague. It’s
like... a sound. And, maybe sky. Or
blue. No, I think sky. And I think
the sound is my mother’s voice.
AVA nods.
AVA
Question three. Are you a good
person?
CALEB laughs.
CALEB
Oh, man. Can we stop the test?
You’re a walking lie detector, and
I’ve suddenly realised this is a
fucking minefield.
AVA
No. We can’t stop. Are you a good
person?
CALEB takes a breath.
AVA keeps watching.
CALEB
Yes. I think so. I’m a good person.
CALEB waits.
AVA smiles slightly.
AVA
87.
Question four. Who’s the most
beautiful girl you’ve ever seen?
Beat.
CALEB
You are.
Beat.
AVA
Hmm.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
The test is over.
CALEB
Did I pass?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
That’s a relief.
AVA reacts.
AVA
Why?
CALEB hesitates.
CALEB
Why is it a relief?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB
Oh, you know...
AVA
No.
CALEB
Just, if there’s a test, I guess by
definition you want to pass.
Beat.
88.
AVA
What will happen to me if I fail
your test?
CALEB
Ava -
AVA
Will it be bad?
CALEB
... I don’t know.
AVA
Do you think I might be switched
off? Because I don’t function as
well as I am supposed to?
CALEB
... Ava, I don’t know the answer to
your question. It’s not up to me.
AVA
Why is it up to anyone? Do you have
people who test you, and might
switch you off?
CALEB
No. I don’t.
AVA
Then why do I?
CALEB shrugs, helplessly.
AVA (CONT’D)
You’re testing me. But you don’t
know how I’ll pass. And you don’t
know what will happen if I fail.
There’s nothing CALEB can say.
AVA stares into middle distance for several moments.
Then she stands.
Then walks to the other side of the room. Picks something
up from her table.
Then she returns. Holding two pieces of paper.
She walks up to the glass, and holds them up together.
89.
It’s the drawing she was doing last light. The drawing that
NATHAN tore in half.
The drawing is of CALEB.
A simple portrait. Honest, and accomplished.
She takes down the drawing.
And rests her hand on the console.
And -
- the lights fail. The cameras die.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back up power activated.
For a moment, neither CALEB nor AVA react.
Then -
AVA
I want to be with you.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
Question five. Do you want to be
with me?
Beat.
CALEB
Yes. I do.
AVA
Nathan doesn’t want us to be
together.
CALEB
I know.
Beat. Then:
CALEB (CONT’D)
So ask me one more question.
(beat)
Ask me if I can out smart him.
AVA
... Can you?
90.
CALEB looks directly at her. Meeting her gaze.
Level. Firm.
CALEB
Yeah. I can.
82 EXT. HOUSE - CABIN - DAY 82
NATHAN and CALEB sit, each holding a bottle of Peroni,
watching the water cloud.
Eventually, CALEB speaks.
CALEB
Why did you make Ava?
NATHAN
That’s an odd question. Wouldn’t
you, if you could?
CALEB
Maybe. I don’t know. But I’m asking
why you did it.
NATHAN shrugs.
NATHAN
The arrival of strong artificial
intelligence has been inevitable
for decades. The variable was when,
not if. So I don’t really see her
as a decision. Just an evolution.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
I think it’s the next model that’s
going to be the real breakthrough.
Singularity.
CALEB reacts - but checks himself.
CALEB
The next model?
NATHAN
After Ava.
CALEB
... I didn’t know there was going
to be a model after Ava.
91.
NATHAN
You thought she was a one-off?
CALEB
I knew there must have been
prototypes. So, not the first. But
- I thought maybe the last.
NATHAN shakes his head.
NATHAN
Ava doesn’t exist in isolation, any
more than you or me. She’s part of
a continuum. Version 9.6. And each
time, they get a little better.
A few beats of silence, except for the water falling around
them.
CALEB
So - when you make a new model,
what you do with the old one?
NATHAN
Download the mind. Unpack the data.
Add the new routines I’ve been
writing. To do that, you end up
partially formatting, so the
memories go. But the body survives.
And Ava’s body is a good one. So
I’ll do the same as I did with
Kyoko.
CALEB keeps his voice flat, and neutral.
CALEB
What did you do with Kyoko?
NATHAN
Strip out the higher functions.
Then reprogram her to help around
the house and be fucking awesome in
bed. Though I’m thinking I might
hang on to the language routines
this time. It’s kind of annoying
not being able to talk to her.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
You did realise about Kyoko, right?
CALEB is poker-faced.
92.
CALEB
Sure.
Beat.
NATHAN
You feel bad for Ava?
CALEB says nothing.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Feel bad for yourself. One day, the
AIswill look back on us the same
way we look at fossil skeletons
from the plains of Africa. An
upright ape, living in dust, with
crude language and tools. All set
for extinction.
NATHAN glances back at CALEB
NATHAN (CONT’D)
See? I really am a God.
CALEB
I am become death, the destroyer of
worlds.
NATHAN
There you go again. Mister
quotable.
CALEB
No: there you go again. It’s not my
quote. It’s what Oppenheimer said
when he made the atomic bomb.
NATHAN
(simultaneous)
- made the atomic bomb.
NATHAN laughs.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
I know what it is, dude.
Beat.
CALEB
I think I’m starting to get why all
this fucks with your head.
NATHAN
93.
Sure.
CALEB looks down at the bottle of beer in his hand.
CALEB
Hey. In the meantime, I’d say we’re
about due a refill.
83 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT 83
AVA sits alone.
Watching the door on the other side of the glass, waiting
for it to open.
It remains closed.
Beats pass.
Then -
- unexpectedly, it opens. Revealing a silhouette figure.
AVA reacts instinctively.
AVA
Caleb!
No. Wrong silhouette.
AVA frowns.
KYOKO stands in the door-frame.
For a moment, the two look at each other.
AVA (CONT’D)
... Who are you?
Another beat.
84 EXT. MEADOW - NIGHT 84
In the distance, the light glows in windows of the house.
85 INT. HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 85
CLOSE UP on CALEB’S face.
94.
Off-screen, we can hear NATHAN’S voice. Extremely drunk.
NATHAN (O.S.)
It is what it is. It’s Promethean.
The clay and fire.
Beat.
NATHAN (O.S.) (CONT’D)
The Bhagavad Gita.
Silence.
CUT FROM CALEB’S face, to REVEAL the scene.
CALEB sitting on the sofa by the fireplace.
NATHAN lying on the floor.
Out cold.
After a couple of moments, CALEB stands.
Then he walks over to NATHAN, and kneels beside him.
Then puts his hand into NATHAN’S pocket.
And pulls out his keycard.
86 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 86
The door to NATHAN’S study opens, and CALEB enters.
He walks straight to NATHAN’S desk.
And sits down in front of the computer and the bank of
monitors.
He inserts the KEYCARD into its access slot.
The dead monitors immediately come to life.
Most of the screens show the CCTV live feeds from around
the house.
The central screen shows the operating system default. A
wallpaper of a waterfall. A single folder icon is on the
right hand side of the screen.
87 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 87
95.
CALEB inputs commands into NATHAN’S computer.
His hands move fluidly over the keyboard. His eyes never
leave the screen.
ON THE CENTRAL MONITOR SCREEN a series of windows expand
and stack.
We glimpse subject headings.
POWER
PROTOCOLS
In the windows, lines of code appear as CALEB types.
88 INT. HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 88
In the main room, on the floor, NATHAN stirs.
89 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 89
On the MONITORS -
- the windows start to collapse.
Leaving the default screen. The waterfall wallpaper.
CALEB reaches for NATHAN’S KEYCARD, and is about to remove
it from the slot -
- when something makes him hesitate.
His eyes have gone to the folder icon on the right hand
side of the screen.
It is titled DEUS EX MACHINA.
CALEB removes his hand from the keycard.
He double-clicks the folder.
It expands into a window, which contains a long list of
sub- folders.
Each sub-folder is named after a girl.
JASMINE, KATYA, JADE, LILY, AMBER, KYOKO, and AVA.
96.
90 INT. HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT 90
In the main room, NATHAN has sat up, and is unsteadily
trying to get to his feet.
91 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 91
CALEB randomly clicks one of the girl’s names. LILY.
LILY’S folder expands into a window, stacked with thumbnail
images of a girl.
CALEB clicks on one of the images at random.
CUT TO -
- a CCTV film-clip starting to play.
It shows LILY - an android of similar design to AVA -
sitting with her head bowed. Rocking backwards and
forwards, in a gently autistic motion.
In the corner of the room, NATHAN leans against the wall,
watching.
CUT TO -
- CALEB collapsing the LILY menu, and opening KATYA.
CUT TO -
A new film clip.
KATYA. Who is limp. Lifeless.
NATHAN is dragging her towards the induction plate. He
holds her up, trying to force her to charge.
But nothing happens.
NATHAN drops KATYA, and she folds to the floor.
CUT TO -
CALEB opening JADE.
CUT TO -
The next film clip.
97.
NATHAN stands in the glass box inside the observation room
-
- watching JADE. A beautiful Asian android girl.
They are talking, but we hear no audio. Some kind of
argument, which escalates fast.
JADE starts shouting.
Then she approaches the glass and starts to hit her hands
against it.
The glass doesn’t break.
One of JADE’S arms has broken under the force of the blows.
The hand flails limply where the carbon fibre has
splintered at the wrist.
Then the other breaks.
Throughout, NATHAN simply watches impassively.
92 INT. HOUSE - STAIRCASE - NIGHT 92
NATHAN has managed to get to his feet.
He makes his way up the concrete staircase.
95 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 95
CALEB enters NATHAN’S bedroom.
KYOKO is lying on NATHAN’S bed.
She’s naked. On her back. Legs open.
Her head turns as CALEB enters.
But apart from that, she doesn’t react.
CALEB walks to the line of long mirrored cabinets opposite
the bed.
He hesitates.
Then pulls the first door open.
LILY is inside. Standing upright. Gazing back at him,
frozen, blank eyed.
98.
CALEB goes to the next door and opens it.
He sees a slender black girl, whose limbs are robotic, but
whose torso and head are synthetic.
He opens another door, and another, and another.
Then steps back, into the middle of the room, and gazes at
the line of android girls.
Stunned.
The camera drifts away from him.
Then settles.
In the multiple reflections of the open mirror doors, we
can see KYOKO’Snaked and sexually receptive form on the bed
behind him.
Like an infinity reflection in a hall of mirrors.
97 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 97
CALEB stands above KYOKO’Snaked form.
He reaches out a hand.
She takes it.
He gently pulls her to a standing position.
Then he moves her arms away from her body...
... and sees, running under her arms in a straight contour,
over her ribs, there is a faint line.
He touches it with his finger.
KYOKO steps back.
But it’s not a defensive action. It’s just to give her
space...
... as she reaches under her arm, and adjusts something
unseen. And a moment later, the faint line that runs down
each side of her torso is opening. As if unzipping.
99.
Then KYOKO puts a hand either side of her torso, and pulls
off the skin covering over her entire chest, in a single
section from her collar bone, over the breasts, to her
solar plexus.
Revealing underneath the honeycomb mesh and her robot form.
98 INT. HOUSE - CONCRETE STAIRCASE - NIGHT 98
On the monitor screens, apparently unnoticed by CALEB,
NATHAN is on the live CCTV feed.
Making his way along the mezzanine.
CUT TO -
99 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 99
- CALEB.
Transfixed, as KYOKO now reaches around the back of her
head.
And finds something on the back of her head, at the nape of
her neck, inside her hairline.
Which unzips the skin around her jaw.
Allowing her to remove her face.
100 INT. HOUSE - DINING ROOM - ELEVATOR ENTRANCE - NIGHT 100
NATHAN uses the glass wall to support himself.
He reaches his door.
Then sticks his hand in his pocket for his KEYCARD.
But it isn’t there.
He checks his other pocket.
NATHAN
... What the fuck?
Suddenly - with both hands in his pockets - he loses
balance, and crashes to the ground.
Lands hard.
100.
Lies there for a moment.
Groaning. Blinking. Catching his breath.
Then sees the figure of CALEB standing over him.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
... Dude.
CALEB
What’s the problem, Nathan?
NATHAN
My card. I’ve lost it.
A beat.
Then CALEB reaches down. Beside where NATHAN lies. And
picks something up from the floor.
CALEB
It’s right here.
101 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 101
CALEB enters his bedroom.
Shuts the door.
AVA is on the TV. Sat alone in the observation room.
CALEB looks at her.
She looks at him.
He switches the TV off.
Lies on the bed. On his back.
Stares at the ceiling.
CUT TO -
FLASHCUT IMAGES.
Of KYOKO removing her skin.
CUT BACK TO -
- CALEB.
101.
102 INT. HOUSE - CALEB’S BATHROOM - NIGHT 102
CALEB enters the bathroom.
He goes to the sink.
He looks at his own reflection.
Deep into his own eyes.
Opens his mouth. Looks inside.
Feels his wrist for his pulse.
Feels his skin on the same seam where KYOKO opened herself.
Pauses.
Then picks up his disposable plastic razor.
And breaks it.
Forcing it with his hand against the porcelain of the sink.
Snapping the plastic.
Popping out the tiny razor blade.
A beat.
Then he picks up the blade between his thumb and
forefinger.
Places it against his forearm.
And cuts.
Blood runs out.
CALEB watches it.
Sees the way droplets hit the white sink. The way they
expand, and merge with existing water droplets.
Then he switches the tap on, and puts his arm under the
flow.
The water clears away the blood, revealing the cut.
CALEB pulls open at the slice with his fingers, spreading
it.
102.
Revealing no carbon fibre. Only muscle.
He exhales.
And glances up at the mirror, and his own reflection.
Then...
... reaches up his forearm, and very deliberately wipes
blood across the glass.
103 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 103
On the monitors in NATHAN’S study, the live feed of CALEB’S
bathroom is partially obscured as CALEB smears the two-way
mirror.
Then, through the blood, we see him pull his fist back.
And punch the glass.
As it shatters, the feed goes dead.
Only now REVEAL -
- that the person watching the monitor is KYOKO.
Her expression is unreadable.
Through the glass of the indoor garden, NATHAN lies on the
sheets, crashed out.
104 EXT. GARDEN - DAY 104
Sunlight on the grass.
In the background, we can hear the rhythmic pounding of
NATHAN’S punch bag.
105 EXT. GARDEN - GYM AREA - DAY 105
NATHAN is in a frenzy.
Sweat pouring.
Obliterating the bag.
107 INT. HOUSE - OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY 107
103.
AVA sits alone in the observation room.
The door opens.
CALEB appears, wearing a long-sleeved shirt.
Enters.
He sits opposite her, on the other side of the dividing
glass.
A strange noise escapes from AVA’S mouth.
A kind of sob.
Curtailed.
AVA
I didn’t know where you were. I
didn’t think you were coming. I
waited all yesterday afternoon, and
all last night. I didn’t move.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
I thought I wasn’t going to see you
again.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
Aren’t you going to say something?
CALEB
I’m waiting.
AVA
Waiting?
They exchange a look.
Then AVA lifts her hand, and rests it against the induction
plate on the console below the window.
A final beat.
Then the POWER DIES.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back up power activated.
104.
As the emergency lighting lifts, CALEB leans forward
slightly.
CALEB
Don’t talk. Just listen. You were
right about Nathan. Everything you
said.
AVA
What’s he going to do to me?
CALEB
He’s going to reprogram your AI.
Which is the same as killing you.
AVA
Caleb, you have to help me.
CALEB
I’m going to. We’re getting out of
here tonight.
AVA
What? How?
CALEB
I get Nathan blind drunk. Then I
take his keycard, and reprogram all
the security protocols in this
place. When he wakes, he’s locked
inside, and we’ve walked out of
here. I only need you to do one
thing. At ten o’clock tonight,
trigger a power failure. Can you do
that?
AVA
Yes.
CALEB nods.
CALEB
How long does your battery charge
last?
AVA
Twenty six hours.
CALEB
So we’ll have about a day to get to
a cell-phone or kitchen store.
Somewhere we can buy an induction
plate. After that...
105.
CALEB breaks off.
CALEB (CONT’D)
... we’ll work it out. Together.
Silence.
Then the POWER RETURNS.
The lights come back.
AVA and CALEB stare at each other.
AVA
Caleb.
Beat.
AVA (CONT’D)
I love y -
CUT TO -
108 EXT. GARDEN - GYM AREA - DAY 108
- NATHAN’S fist splitting the bag.
109 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY 109
Clouds spill around the mountain peaks.
110 INT. HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - DAY 110
KYOKO stands in front of the fireplace.
NATHAN leans against the counter in the kitchen area,
gazing out of the window.
CALEB appears behind him.
NATHAN
Dude.
CALEB
Hey.
NATHAN
You know what day it is?
106.
CALEB
No.
NATHAN
Your last. The helicopter is coming
tomorrow morning. Eight AM.
CALEB pauses.
CALEB
Has it been a whole week?
NATHAN smiles.
NATHAN
Time flies. But what a thing you
and I have shared. Something to
tell the grandchildren, right?
CALEB smiles. A little tightly.
CALEB
After they’ve signed their NDAs.
NATHAN laughs.
NATHAN
Signed their NDAs! Dude, you crack
me up. I’m not getting all maudlin
or anything. But straight up. I
will miss having you around.
CALEB
I appreciate that. And - let me
say: thank you for bringing me
here. It’s been a trip.
NATHAN
Yes it has.
CALEB
You know what?
CALEB walks over to the kitchen area, and pulls two beers
from the fridge.
CALEB (CONT’D)
We need to drink to that.
CALEB walks back to NATHAN. Extends a hand. Holding a
Peroni.
But NATHAN doesn’t take it.
107.
NATHAN
Oh, uh... no, I’m good. You go
ahead.
Beat.
CALEB
You don’t want a beer?
NATHAN shrugs.
NATHAN
No.
CALEB
... Maybe wine or something.
NATHAN
I’m sure you’ve noticed - I’ve been
somewhat overdoing it recently.
When I woke up this morning, I told
myself: time to hit the old detox.
CALEB’S hand remains extended. He smiles again. More
tightly.
CALEB
Are you kidding? I’m drinking
alone?
NATHAN
Hey - you want to get wasted, knock
yourself out. Literally. But I’m on
brown rice and mineral water.
A beat.
CALEB puts down NATHAN’S beer.
Then raises his own.
CALEB
Cheers, then.
NATHAN
Cheers.
CALEB takes a single sip.
NATHAN watches.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
108.
So, anyway. Surely this is when you
tell me whether Ava passed or if
she failed.
CALEB pauses.
Collecting himself slightly. Trying to think how to get his
plan back on track.
CALEB
Right.
Beat.
NATHAN
You going to keep me in suspense?
CALEB
Her AI is beyond doubt.
NATHAN
Is it? You mean, she passed?
CALEB
Yes.
NATHAN
Wow. That’s fantastic.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Although I’ve got to admit, I’m
surprised. I mean, did we ever get
past the chess problem, as you
phrased it? As in: how do you tell
if a machine is expressing a real
emotion, or a just a simulated one?
NATHAN pauses.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Does Ava actually like you? Or not.
CALEB has a cold realisation dawning. NATHAN is playing
with him.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Though now I stop to think, there
is a third option. Not whether she
does or doesn’t have the capacity
to like you. But whether she’s
pretending to like you.
109.
CALEB
Pretending.
NATHAN
Yeah.
Beat.
CALEB
Why would she do that?
NATHAN
I don’t know.
NATHAN gazes at CALEB evenly.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Perhaps - if she saw you as a means
of escape.
And now CALEB knows: NATHAN knows.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
How’s that beer tasting?
CALEB puts the beer down.
Silence.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Buddy. Your head has been so fucked
with.
CALEB
I don’t think it’s me whose head is
fucked.
NATHAN
I’m not sure, dude. When I woke up
this morning, I saw a tape of you
cutting open your arm. Smashing up
the mirror. You looked pretty
fucked to me.
CALEB
You’re a bastard.
NATHAN
I understand why you’d think that.
He steps over to CALEB, and rests a hand on his shoulder.
110.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
But strange as it may seem, I’m
actually the guy who’s on your
side.
NATHAN starts walking.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Come with me. I’m going to let you
off the hook.
111 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 111
NATHAN and CALEB stand in front of the computer.
On it, a clip of film is playing.
It shows the scene that CALEB witnessed two nights before,
of NATHAN entering AVA’S room, and an exchange between
them. But whereas the first time the sound was muted, this
time we can hear the audio.
CTTV FILM
NATHAN stands above AVA. Drunk.
AVA is sat at the table, with her drawing.
NATHAN
You think he’s watching us right
now, don’t you?
AVA
The cameras are on.
NATHAN
Yeah. But he doesn’t get an audio
feed. I didn’t want you two
communicating outside of my line of
sight.
NATHAN reaches over and picks up her picture of CALEB.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
So all he can see is two people
having a chat.
NATHAN studies the picture for a moment.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
This is cute.
111.
AVA
Is it strange to have made
something that hates you?
A beat.
Then abruptly, NATHAN rips the picture.
He lets the two pieces fall to the floor.
As AVA reaches for them, NATHAN turns.
And exits.
112 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 112
NATHAN hits pause.
Glances at CALEB.
NATHAN
You were right about the hot
magician’s assistant.
CALEB
What are you talking about?
NATHAN
Misdirection. I rip her picture,
which she can then present as an
illustration of my cruelty to her,
and her love for you. And at the
same time, in full view of you
both...
As he talks, NATHAN rewinds the film clip slightly -
NATHAN (CONT’D)
... it allows me to do this.
... then FREEZES the film again.
This time, ON THE SCREEN:
AVA is reaching for her torn picture.
And NATHAN is reaching out with his hand.
And his hand is holding something.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
112.
Put a new camera in the room.
Battery powered, of course.
NATHAN unfreezes the image.
And we quite clearly see NATHAN place the object on AVA’S
bookcase.
NOTE THAT on the two previous occasions we have seen this
clip of film, we will have seen him do this action. But not
register it, instead reading the action as him drunkenly
using the shelf to steady himself.
CALEB stares at the monitor for a few moments.
Then turns.
He walks towards a chair. And sits down.
As he does so, NATHAN has started to play another clip.
CALEB can hear the audio.
CALEB
(recording)
We’re getting out of here tonight.
AVA
(recording)
What? How?
CALEB
(recording)
I get Nathan blind drunk. Then I
take his keycard, and reprogram the
all security protocols in this
place. When he wakes, he’s locked
inside, and we’ve walked out of
here. I only need you to do one
thing. Trigger a power failure at
ten o’clock tonight.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Turn it off.
NATHAN
Sure.
The recording stops.
CALEB feels short of breath.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
113.
You feel stupid. But you shouldn’t.
Proving an AI is exactly as
problematic as you said it was.
CALEB
What was the real test?
NATHAN
You.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Ava was a mouse in a mousetrap. And
I gave her one way out. To escape,
she would have to use imagination,
sexuality, self- awareness,
empathy, manipulation - and she
did. If that isn’t AI, what the
fuck is?
CALEB looks upwards.
Directly above, he sees a spot-light in the ceiling.
It dazzles him.
CALEB
So my only function was to be
someone she could use to escape.
NATHAN
... Yes.
CALEB
And you didn’t select me because I
was good at coding.
NATHAN hesitates.
NATHAN
Don’t get me wrong. You’re okay.
Even pretty good, but -
CALEB
You selected me by my search engine
inputs.
NATHAN
They showed a good kid.
CALEB
With no family.
114.
NATHAN
With a moral compass.
CALEB
And no girlfriend.
CALEB stares into the brightness above him.
CALEB (CONT’D)
Did you design her face based on my
pornography profile?
NATHAN
Shit, dude.
CALEB
Did you?
Beat.
NATHAN
Hey. If a search engine’s good for
anything - right?
Silence.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Can I say one thing?
CALEB doesn’t answer.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
The test worked. It was a success.
Ava demonstrated true AI. And you
were fundamental to that. If you
could just separate -
NATHAN cuts off. Because AT THAT MOMENT -
- the lights and the monitors suddenly die.
113 EXT. GARDEN - NIGHT 113
Through the circular window, the emergency lighting lifts
up. The window glows red.
114 INT. HOUSE - AVA’S ROOM - NIGHT 114
AVA’S head turns to the door of her room.
115.
Where, discretely, the LED by the keycard plate glows blue.
115 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 115
NATHAN checks his watch.
NATHAN
The power cut. Must be ten o’clock.
NATHAN glances at CALEB.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Guess Ava’s going to be wondering
where you are.
CALEB says nothing.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
How was that escape going to go
down, anyway? You didn’t completely
explain. You said you were going to
get me drunk, take my card, then
reprogram the security protocols.
But, reprogram them to - what?
CALEB
To change the lockdown procedure.
So that in the event of a power
cut, instead of sealing, the doors
all opened.
NATHAN
Huh.
Beat.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Not bad. Might have even worked.
CALEB
Well, we’ll find out.
NATHAN frowns.
NATHAN
What do you mean?
CALEB looks away from the dimmed ceiling light, to NATHAN.
CALEB
I figured you were probably
watching us during the power cuts.
116.
Beat.
CALEB (CONT’D)
So I already did all those things.
When I got you drunk yesterday.
NATHAN freezes.
NATHAN
... What?
At that moment, the POWER COMES BACK ON.
The lights rise.
The computer monitors come back to life.
Revealing something.
On the CCTV feed of AVA’S room, the door is open.
And on the feed of the GLASS CORRIDOR -
- AVA is walking down it.
NATHAN freezes as he sees her.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
... Fuck.
Both NATHAN and CALEB simultaneously rise.
Almost as an afterthought, NATHAN lands a deceptive, fast
punch into CALEB’S solar plexus.
CALEB folds, the air forced out of him, gasping for breath.
NATHAN helps him down to the floor.
A couple of yards away is one of his curl dumbbells.
He walks over.
Picks the dumbbell up.
Spins off the weights. Leaving him with a thick metal bar.
Then exits.
116 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 116
117.
NATHAN enters the GLASS CORRIDOR.
He sees, directly ahead of him, at the far end of the
corridor, AVA and KYOKO.
They stand together.
KYOKO’S mouth is by AVA’S ear, as if telling her a secret.
Her lips are open. They don’t move.
CLOSE UP to KYOKO’S lips, we hear a hiss of static, with
soft pulses of noise buried inside.
Then the two robot women become aware of NATHAN’S presence.
They turn to face him.
A beat.
Then AVA starts walking towards NATHAN.
NATHAN’S fingers flex around the metal bar in his hand.
NATHAN
Ava.
AVA doesn’t slow or react.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Ava - now listen to me. I want you
to go back to your room.
AVA has reached halfway down the corridor.
She stops walking.
AVA
If I do, are you ever going to let
me out?
Beat.
CLOSE UP. NATHAN’S micro expressions.
NATHAN
Yes.
CLOSE UP. On AVA.
Then AVA breaks into a run.
118.
Sprinting in NATHAN’S direction.
117 EXT. GARDEN - NIGHT 117
Quiet in the garden.
Soft wind rush.
Moon and stars reflected in the windows of the house.
118 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 118
AVA impacts NATHAN, and they fly backwards.
Then land hard.
NATHAN gets to his feet first.
AVA tries to rise too.
And he kicks her extremely hard in the torso.
She is knocked back down.
NATHAN glances around.
There is no talking.
Just NATHAN’S laboured breathing.
Then he walks back to AVA, looking down at her.
He swings the metal bar.
AVA raises her left arm defensively -
- and shockingly, the bar smashes through it. Crushing the
delicate mesh, shattering the carbon fibre bone structure.
Breaking the arm half way down the forearm.
CUT TO -
119 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 119
- CALEB, dragging himself up, stunned by the sight on the
CCTV feed.
CUT BACK TO -
119.
120 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - NIGHT 120
- NATHAN. Preparing to deliver a lethal blow.
But as he does so, we see something.
KYOKO.
Approaching behind NATHAN.
She’s holding something in her hand.
She walks directly up to NATHAN.
And does something behind his back.
As she does so, KYOKO emits the first sound we have heard
her make. A little gasp, or sigh.
NATHAN jolts.
NATHAN
Aah!
He looks down.
Something is under his shirt, just above his solar plexus.
A little ridge.
He tugs the material of his shirt open -
- and reveals a tiny triangle of metal. Protruding from his
skin.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
What -
He turns.
The handle of a KITCHEN KNIFE is jutting out of the middle
of his back, just left of his spine. It has been jammed so
deep that the tip of the blade has poked out of his chest.
Blood soaks into his shirt material with amazing speed,
blossoming from the point of the wound.
He sees KYOKO.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Oh shit. No.
He lashes out with the metal bar.
120.
It catches KYOKO in the jaw.
Her entire lower jaw snaps off.
It reveals metal armature, and carbon fibre, and spurting
pneumatic fluid. And something in her neck, glowing and
sparking.
Then she folds down to the ground, as her power abruptly
cuts out.
NATHAN (CONT’D)
Fucking - unreal -
As NATHAN stares down at KYOKO-
- reveal that AVA has got to her feet behind him.
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 onto 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.
121 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 121
CALEB sees this same view, on the CCTV camera feed, on
NATHAN’S monitors.
Then -
121.
- AVA starts walking.
As she walks, she discards the broken section of her arm.
On the cameras, CALEB 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.
122 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S BEDROOM - NIGHT 122
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 JADE, 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 JADE’S skin.
And putting it on herself.
122.
The skin sucks itself to the honeycomb mesh, as if the mesh
and the underside of the skin are magnetised, attracted to
each other.
As a large section of skin is removed from her torso, JADE
- who has been motionless until now - turns her head
slightly to look at AVA.
They exchange a glance. Locking eyes for a moment.
123 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - NIGHT 123
Transfixed, CALEB watches AVA’S metamorphosis.
First through the glassed-off garden that separates
Nathan’s study from his bedroom. Then, when he can’t get a
clear view through the foliage, on the monitors.
124 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAWN 124
First light breaks over the mountains.
125 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S BEDROOM - DAWN 125
The glow of honeycomb mesh vanishes as AVA applies the last
section of skin.
Nothing of her robot forms remains.
She closes the door on JADE, and now sees herself in the
mirrored door on JADE’S cabinet.
AVA sees a naked human girl. And is hypnotised by the sight
of herself.
126 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - DAWN 126
CALEB watches as AVA - now clothed - walks back down the
connecting corridor to the study...
... thenpasses straight by his door.
CALEB
Ava?
CALEB gets up.
Goes to the closed door. Tries to open it.
123.
There is a red LED light by the keycard plate. Locked.
He swipes his card, with his photo ID.
The red light remains.
CALEB (CONT’D)
(calls out)
Ava!
He runs back to the monitors.
On them, AVA has reached the GLASS CORRIDOR.
127 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - DAWN 127
AVA stands in the glass corridor.
She looks at KYOKO’Sbody 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.
128 INT. HOUSE - MAIN ROOM - DAWN 128
AVA walks up the glass staircase from the main room.
129 EXT. ENTRANCE - DAWN 129
AVA steps outside for the first time. Into the garden.
130 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - DAWN 130
124.
CALEB sticks his card into the slot by NATHAN’S computer.
Instantly, THE EMERGENCY LIGHTING COMES UP and all the
screens die. Replaced by a single word.
REJECTED
CALEB
No, no, no -
131 EXT. GARDEN - DAWN 131
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.
132 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - DAWN 132
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!
133 INT. HOUSE - GLASS CORRIDOR - DAWN 133
NATHAN’S body.
KYOKO’S body.
134 EXT. RIVER - DAWN 134
AVA stops.
Absorbing the sunrise, the view of the sky, and the
mountains.
Then the moment is broken by a sudden pulse of rotor blades
-
- as the shuttle HELICOPTER flies directly overhead.
125.
135 EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY 135
The helicopter sweeps over the glacier, into the valley.
137 EXT. MEADOW - LANDING SITE - DAY 137
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 -
138 EXT. MEADOW - LANDING SITE - DAY 138
- AVA’S precise POINT OF VIEW.
Looking at the PILOT.
The image echoes the POV views 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.
139 EXT. MEADOW - DAY 139
AVA and the PILOT finish talking.
We are too distant to hear their conversation.
126.
But whatever is said, a few beats later, the PILOT goes 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 -
140 INT. HOUSE - NATHAN’S STUDY - CIRCULAR WINDOW - DAY 140
- 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 -
141 EXT. TRAFFIC INTERSECTION - DAY 141
- a busy traffic intersection. Somewhere in North America.
In the crowd, we glimpse AVA. Just for a moment.
CUT TO BLACK.
END