Ex Machina (2015)
There is nothing more human than the will to survive.
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 21 January 2015 |
| Genre | Drama, Science Fiction |
| Director | Alex Garland |
| Starring | Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac |
| Runtime | 108 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes 92% · Rotten Tomatoes (average) 8.1/10 · Metacritic 78/100 · TMDB users 7.6/10 |
| Budget | $15 million |
Where to watch Ex Machina
Ex Machina is streaming on Hulu ($18.99 a month) in the US. If that is the only reason to subscribe, one month of Hulu is $18.99 at list price.
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What kind of watch this is
Alex Garland directs this 108-minute drama. The premise is a Turing test, but the execution is a psychological siege. Nathan’s mountain retreat feels less like a laboratory and more like a pressure cooker. The tagline—there is nothing more human than the will to survive—does a lot of heavy lifting. It frames the robot’s actions as purely instinctual, stripping away the debate about consciousness and leaving only biology. It is a tight, claustrophobic character study that trusts its audience to read the silences.
What the critics said
Critics largely agreed on the quality, though they disagreed on the genre. Rotten Tomatoes lists a 92% approval rating as of March 2024. Metacritic sits at 78 out of 100, which its own scale defines as generally favorable. The consensus leans on the writing rather than the spectacle. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called it a smart, sleek movie about men and the machines they make. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times saw a spooky piece of speculative fiction that is completely plausible. Some reviewers noted the Frankenstein lineage, swapping stitches for fiber optics. It is a cerebral thriller that works because the ideas do the heavy lifting.
How it did with audiences
The studio spent $15 million to make it. It never reported a box office figure, so we can’t tell you if it paid for itself or just paid for the tea. On TMDB, users rate it 7.6 out of 10. That’s a solid score. The audience seems to have done the thinking, even if the studio stayed quiet about the receipts.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Ex Machina.
Sources
- Ex Machina on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q16635326 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Ex Machina (film)” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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