Ex-Machina Scene Analysis PDF

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ENG 180 10/25/18 Ex-Machina Scene Analysis Scene: 1hr min 29min and 30sec to 1hr and 33min Blade Runner and Ex-Machina both have similar storylines, with Artificial Intelligence trying to figure out the world on their own. With humans involved in some way. More specifically in Blade runner, Humans are enslaving the replicants to a point where they feel threatened and need to be violent. Which leads to the overall theme that the replicants are viewed as the bad guys, but it is the humans that are. I think this theme is almost opposite, in that the AIs in Ex- Machina are the bad guys, that exploit their way to get what they want. I think the scene I selected clearly depicts this. I will show how Alex Garland, the director of Ex- Machina, developed the over-arching theme using cinematography. The scene I selected is one of the final scenes of the movie. It is when Kyoto and Ava team up and take down Nathan. The scientist, rapist, drunk that created them. Garland uses cinematography in a ton of different ways throughout this scene, such as: lighting, camera angles, shot size and other camera related effects such as a free hand shot. These techniques all create a certain atmosphere, that I think helps us as viewers determine the theme. The first thing I noticed, which is key here throughout the entire scene, is the lighting. It is a bright angelic type of light that makes it feel like 2 powerful sides are fighting for something. In this case it is the power hungry side (Nathan) and the revenge heavy (Ava and Kyoko). Camera angles play into this as well. There is a low angle, sort of medium shot near the beginning when Ava runs at Nathan full speed into a tackle. The side view gives us as viewers a clear view of Nathan getting tacked and the angle at which we see it emphasizes the force behind

the tackle. The low angle type shots continue throughout the scene, as Ava chokes Nathan. The power shifts quickly as Nathan regains positioning on top of Ava once again. He even goes as far as to cut her arm off. This implies t hat Nathan is the one in charge still, but this view is quickly changed as there is, yet another low angle shot of Kyoto as the tallest figure, stabbing Nathan in the back. After getting stabbed, Nathan turns around and starts to stumble. As this happens, the camera shakes a bit as well. I’m assuming this a free hand shot, that gives us a feeling as to how Nathan feels after getting stabbed. The scene ends with a very long shot of Nathan walking to his death, with only a few seconds of breath. At the same time there is a medium shot that captures his wound, movements and expressions. His expressions are especially important when we look at the over-arching theme. His expressions look like shock rather than pain. He even said, “this is unreal.” This likely means that he never thought his creations could ever do something like this. Overall, I think that the overall theme is that these AIs overwhelmed with poor treatment from Nathan, manipulated things in every way possible to gain the freedom the wanted. This happened through manipulating Caleb into hacking the system, to killing Nathan, and finally locking Caleb in the self-destructing house, as if he was no longer needed in their end goal. The main thing that made Ex-Machina’s AIs different from Blade Runner’s is that they were also seen as more evil, with the killing of Nathan. Whereas the Blade Runner replicants, ended up being even more humane than the humans. For example, this was mainly seen through Roy saving Deckard moments before he died, even though he has been treated poorly by people like Deckard....