Ex Machina Structure Breakdown

As always, these breakdowns contain SPOILERS, and are only recommended if you've already seen the movie. You can check my introduction to these breakdowns, to get an overview of my process and philosophy.

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!

The Basics

Director: Alex Garland
Writer: Alex Garland
Release Date: 2015
Runtime: 108 Minutes
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/?ref        

Movie Level Goals

Nominal Protagonist: Caleb
External: To help Ava
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Internal Goal: None
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Goal Relationship: N/A

Actual Protagonist: Ava
External: Escape Nathan’s compound
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Relationship Goal: Get Caleb to fall in love with her (or at least help her)
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Internal Goal: Pass for human
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Goal Relationship: Ava must succeed at the internal goal (pass for human), in order to succeed at the relationship goal (get Caleb to fall in love with her), in order to succeed at the external goal (to escape)

Antagonist: Nathan
External: To solve the AI problem
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Internal Goal: None
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Goal Relationship: N/A

Three Observations

Feel free to watch the video or read the transcript below it.

All three of my observations today revolve around one central question: Who is the protagonist of the movie? Ex Machina has many fascinating elements, but one of the most intriguing aspects of its narrative structure is the way it sets up a protagonist and then reveals, by the end of the movie, that perhaps the person we thought was the protagonist may not be after all.

Observation #1

As the movie starts, we meet what seems to be our main character, Caleb. I'll call him our nominal protagonist. We are aligned with him through much of the first two-thirds of the movie. It starts with him, and the initial inciting incident happens to him. The setup is that he wins a contest, allowing him to go to Nathan’s compound and participate in a Turing test of an AI housed in an android body named Ava.

Once he arrives at the compound, the inciting incident payoff occurs: Caleb meets Ava. In Act 1, his goal is to participate in the Turing test—can he distinguish Ava from an actual human being? By the end of the first act, Ava warns him not to trust Nathan, setting up Act 2, where Caleb must decide whether or not to trust Ava. Over the course of the second act, Caleb decides that he does trust Ava, and in Act 3, he resolves to help her escape, believing that Nathan is mistreating her.

This structure makes sense, as we can see Caleb’s movie-level and act-level goals clearly laid out. However, Caleb seems to lack a strong internal goal. While he has small internal conflicts—like proving himself to Nathan, questioning his own humanity, or considering whether he is in love with Ava—these all tie back to his external goal of determining how he feels about her and whether to help her escape. Despite providing a clear structure, Caleb is missing the internal depth we often look for in a protagonist.

Observation #2

Ava is actually the secret protagonist. Unlike Caleb, Ava not only has a strong internal goal but also external and relationship goals, creating a complex web of objectives. She has an inciting incident when she meets Caleb, and it’s possible that she rigged the contest to ensure that Caleb would be the one to arrive, knowing he would help her escape. While we initially think Nathan is responsible for selecting Caleb, it’s plausible that Ava orchestrated it.

By the end of Act 1, Ava decides Caleb is someone she can manipulate. She tells him not to trust Nathan, sowing the seeds of doubt. In Act 2, while Caleb’s goal is to determine how he feels about Ava, Ava’s goal is to manipulate Caleb into liking her, perhaps even falling in love with her, and ultimately trusting her enough to help her escape. By Act 3, Ava’s external goal becomes clear: she wants to escape Nathan’s compound.

Ava also has an internal goal: passing as human. The Turing test, which Caleb is there to conduct, is Ava’s internal challenge. She must convince Caleb that she is human enough to earn his emotional investment. If she succeeds, Caleb will help her escape, achieving both her relationship goal and her external goal.

What makes Ava’s internal goal particularly interesting is that it’s unclear whether becoming human is genuinely important to her. Does she truly desire to feel human emotions, or is this goal merely a means to an end? The movie leaves this ambiguity open, making her internal goal less straightforward than those of typical protagonists.

Observation #3:

My third observation concerns Nathan, our antagonist. One of the clever ways the film sets up Caleb as the protagonist, only to later shift that role to Ava, is by creating Nathan as the shared antagonist for both characters. Caleb and Ava are united in their distrust, and perhaps even hatred, of Nathan.

For Caleb, Nathan is rude and dismissive, treating him poorly throughout the film. Nathan’s antagonism toward Caleb grows as Caleb trusts him less, prompted both by Ava’s warnings and Nathan’s own abrasive behavior. For Ava, the stakes are even higher. She is Nathan’s prisoner and test subject. If Nathan deems her inadequate, he will erase her and start over. Ava’s survival hinges on escaping with Caleb’s help.

Alex Garland does an excellent job of initially aligning the audience with Caleb as the protagonist, only to later reveal that Ava is the true protagonist by the film’s end. This shift in perspective is bolstered by the shared antagonist, Nathan, whose actions affect both Caleb and Ava in significant ways.

Feel free to leave your thoughts or questions in the comments below!