Poster © A24. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreDrama, Sci-Fi & Thriller
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 48 mins
ReleasedApril 10, 2015
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorAlex Garland
StarringDomhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac
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Ex Machina (2014)
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| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
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| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Ex Machina's Details | |
| Genre | Drama, Sci-Fi & Thriller |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 12/16/2014 (BFI Southbank); 01/21/2015 (United Kingdom); 04/10/2015 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 48 mins |
| Budget | $15M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United Kingdom, United States |
| Language | English |
| Ex Machina's Interests | |
| General | Keycards, glass walls, power cuts, Turing tests, a house with no windows that open. |
| Music | Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow. Synths that sound like something is thinking. |
| Movies | Her (2013). Another guy getting very attached to some software. |
| Television | Devs. Alex Garland again: another tech genius, another glass box. |
| Heroes | Alan Turing. Everyone in this house owes him a thank-you note. |
| Ex Machina's Crew | |
| Director | Alex Garland |
| Writers | Alex Garland |
| Producers | Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich |
| Cinematography | Rob Hardy |
| Music | Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow |
| Edited By | Mark Day |
| Production | Film4, DNA Films |
| Distributed By | A24 (United States), Universal Pictures International (International) |
Caleb is supposed to be a brilliant coder, and he makes worse decisions than anyone who has ever been handed a keycard. Domhnall Gleeson plays him as a sweet guy who never once wonders why his boss lives alone in the woods with a robot and a lot of locked doors. Oscar Isaac’s Nathan is the real show: a tech bro with a gym membership who drinks too much, talks like a startup podcast, and breaks into a perfectly timed disco dance you will never unsee. Alicia Vikander is unreal as Ava, and every little head tilt feels like math happening. Alex Garland keeps it calm and cold, and the quiet is scarier than any jump scare. The catch is that if you’ve seen even one robot movie, you’ll call a couple of the turns early. It cost a reported $15 million and looks like a lot more. An 8.5 because it’s the smartest small movie about AI out there. $28.45 says you say please to your voice assistant tonight, just in case.
What works: Alicia Vikander’s precise, eerie Ava, Oscar Isaac’s unpredictable Nathan, and a quiet, glassy house that feels more dangerous every scene.
What doesn’t: Caleb is too easy to read for a supposed genius, and seasoned sci-fi fans will see some of the turns coming well before he does.
Who it’s for: People who like their sci-fi small and talky, and anyone who has ever wondered whether their smart speaker is judging them.
Spoilers
Ava has been playing Caleb the whole time. She and Kyoko turn on Nathan, Ava leaves Caleb locked inside the house, and she walks out into the world, last seen blending into a busy city crowd.
Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a coder at search giant Blue Book, wins a company contest and gets flown out to the remote estate of the boss nobody ever sees, CEO Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). The getaway turns out to be homework. Nathan's secret project is Ava (Alicia Vikander), an artificial intelligence in a robot body, and he wants Caleb to give her a Turing test: talk to her every day and decide whether she really thinks or just fakes it very well. The power keeps cutting out. Alex Garland directs. One hundred eight minutes, one keycard, a lot of glass.
Anyone who can pass a Turing test. Asking for a friend.
| Domhnall Gleeson | Caleb Smith |
| Oscar Isaac | Nathan Bateman |
| Alicia Vikander | Ava |
| Sonoya Mizuno | Kyoko |
| Gana Bayarsaikhan | Jade |
| Corey Johnson | Jay |
| Claire Selby | Lily |
| Symara Templeman | Jasmine |
| Tiffany Pisani | Katya |
| Lina Alminas | Amber |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +400 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $37.4M; Domestic box office $25.4M; Opening weekend $237K; Profit / loss (est.) -$3.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 92%; box office chart updated; RT 92% (289 reviews); Metacritic 78 / 100; IMDb users 7.7 / 10 (647,467 votes); movie.guru score 9.0.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.