Synopsis
It all begins with a contest that selects a random programmer from a search engine company called Blue Book. The programmer selected is a man named Caleb Smith (Domhnell Gleeson). Caleb is flown out to the middle of nowhere to meet with the owner of BlueBook, Nathan Bateman(Oscar Isaac). Nathan tells him that he is creating AI and that Caleb will be the human component of the Turing test. This is a test developed to see if Nathan’s AI robot Ava (Alicia Vikander) has consciousness. There is a sequence of sessions between Caleb and Ava where they pick each other’s brains. During these sessions, Caleb and Ava begin to build a relationship. A common power outage occurs in one particular session where Ava tells Caleb that he should not trust Nathan. This puts Caleb on edge and causes him to dig deeper into his suspicions. We discover the shady nature behind the creation of Nathan’s AI robots. Nathan explains to Caleb that Ava will be the second last draft AI, and the next one he creates will be a complete version. Because of the relationship they’ve built during their sessions Caleb tells Ava that he’s breaking her out. Unfortunately, Nathan is aware of their plan and takes action to make sure it won’t work. However, unbeknownst to both Nathan and Caleb, Ava has plans of her own and she is able to break out of the facility leaving Nathan and Caleb to die.
Interpretation
It seems that both Nathan and Caleb underestimated Ava’s ability. This shortcoming would cost both of them their lives in the end. We learn close to the end of the movie that Nathan had always planned that Caleb would try to let Ava out, this was the whole point of him coming. But he did not anticipate Ava. Not only was her creator underestimating her but so was Caleb. Caleb thought that she cared for him when in reality she was just using him as a means to an end. I believe this was a story to highlight how we underestimate the technology that we create. And that this belief that we are superior to our technology can lead to our downfall. Most of us can’t even put down our phones for an hour, in that sense who is in control of who?
