Ex Machina Page #6

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 Peroni beer.

CALEB stands by panoramic window, looking at the view.

NATHAN:

So?

CALEB turns.

CALEB:

Sorry. I was just ordering my

thoughts.

NATHAN:

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.

25.

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 - f***. 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:

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.

(MORE)

26.

NATHAN (CONT'D)

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 realise the model was

probabalistic, with statistical

training - or at least some kind of

hybrid.

Silence.

CALEB (CONT'D)

... No?

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.

27.

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)

... that she's f***ing amazing.

NATHAN smiles.

Then lifts his bottle.

NATHAN:

Dude. Cheers.

CALEB lifts his bottle too.

CALEB:

Cheers.

The glass of the bottles touch.

23 23

INT. HOUSE/CALEB'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

CUT:

24 24

INT. HOUSE/CALEB'S BATHROOM - NIGHT

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.

25 25

INT. HOUSE/CALEB'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

CUT:

26 26

INT. HOUSE/CALEB'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Darkness.

The clock reads 01:32 am.

The soft glow from the digital readout throws a light on the

remote control.

28.

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.

It shows the OBSERVATION ROOM.

CALEB sits upright in bed.

CALEB (CONT'D)

... What the f***?

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.

29.

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.

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