History YMMV / ExMachina

* {{Narm}}: After the reveal that Kyoko is [[spoiler:a robot by her removing the skin from her abdomen]], we then cut back to her taking off [[spoiler:a piece of her face]]. The scene is treated with the exact same amount of drama as the previous reveal despite the surprise being done already.

* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler:After the reveal that Kyoko is a robot by her removing the skin from her abdomen, we then cut back to her taking off a piece of her face which is treated with the exact same amount of drama despite the surprise being done already.]]

!![[ComiBook/ExMachina The Comic]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One of the lyrics of the song that plays in the dance scene is "work your fingers to the bone". Later when Caleb [[spoiler:watches the video of Jade banging her arms on the door, her ''fingers'' are the first to disintegrate. Additionally, her ''arms worked to the bone'']]

** [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that Mitchell rigged his election to get elected. Considering how idealistic he was throughout the series, that he'd resort to cheating is a major downer.]]
** [[spoiler:Mitchell kills Kremlin to prevent the latter from blackmailing him, especially since Kremlin realises what Mitchell's done in the split second before the gun shoots.]]
** [[spoiler:The implication that the extra-dimensional invaders ''will'' invade again and ultimately succeed.]]

** Caleb: Although Caleb is the nicest of the four and seems to be a genuinely good person, how much of his wanting to help Ava was based out of genuine empathy and how much of it was [[spoiler:based on him desiring to enact his pornographic fantasies - Ava's face having been designed off of Caleb's preferences? What really does Caleb watch and how does it inform how he thinks of women? A case could be made for all his good intentions, he would be just as controlling and abusive to Ava as Nathan, and she left him behind because leaving with him would be trading one jailer for another.]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: One of the lyrics of the song that plays in the dance scene is "work your fingers to the bone". Later when Caleb [[spoiler:watches the video Jade banging her arms on the door, her ''fingers'' are the first to disintegrate. Additionally, her ''arms worked to the bone'']]

** Caleb: Although Caleb is the nicest of the four and seems to be a genuinely good person, how much of his wanting to help Ava was based out of genuine empathy and how much of it was [[spoiler:based on him desiring to enact his pornographic fantasies - Ava's face having been designed off of Caleb's preferences? What really does Caleb watch and how does it inform how he thinks of women?]]

* DarkHorseVictory: The film's Oscar win for Best Visual Effects was considered a ''huge'' upset, beating out ''Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens'' and Best Picture nominees ''Film/TheRevenant'', ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', and ''Film/TheMartian''. Notably, this was the first time that a film that wasn't nominated for Best Picture won the category against a film that was in 45 years (when ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' beat ''Patton''), and it was for an independent film that had grossed less than $40 million instead of ''Star Wars'' (the highest grossing movie of that year and one of the top earners of all time, even adjusted for inflation). Quite a feat.

* DarkHorseVictory: The film's Oscar win for Best Visual Effects was considered a ''huge'' upset, beating out ''Film/StarWarsTheForceAwakens'' and Best Picture nominees ''Film/TheRevenant'', ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', and ''Film/The Martian''. Notably, this was the first time that a film that wasn't nominated for Best Picture won the category against a film that was in 45 years (when ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' beat ''Patton''), and it was for an independent film that had grossed less than $40 million instead of ''Star Wars'' (the highest grossing movie of that year and one of the top earners of all time, even adjusted for inflation). Quite a feat.

** [[spoiler:Nathan having sex with his (''non-human'') creations]] could also count.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The scene where Ava [[spoiler:takes skin from the Kyoko spare looks really odd. Kyoko’s Asian skin becomes Caucasian once Ava applies it to herself. Ava's normal torso looks like a busty woman wearing a bra and clothes, rendered in chickenwire. But when ''applying more material'' (skin from the spare android) she turns into a woman with smaller unsupported breasts]].

** Nathan: It's hard to tell whether we're seeing the 'real' Nathan or the predatory, misogynistic, and threatening bad guy he's deliberately presenting himself as in order to get the reaction he wants out of Caleb. How bad he looks also has to do with what you think about his robots. If you ask yourself WhatMeasureIsANonHuman and decide that he's technically just working with advanced programs, then it's hard to accuse him of more than being a person of poor character who indulges in sick but ultimately victimless fantasies. If you think that his creations are really sentient, then he looks like a serial killer of the worst kind.
** Ava: Is Ava really capable of human consciousness, emotion, and moral judgement? Or is it a product of her hyper competence as a robot? If so, then was her reaction understandable given the abuse and manipulation she had suffered or unforgivable because [[spoiler: she betrayed Caleb after he freed her]]? If not, then is she even really responsible for her actions since it was her creator's fault she turned out that way? [[spoiler: Did she betray Caleb because she doesn't care about him, or did she come to actively not like him during their sessions?]]

* {{Squick}}: The scene where Caleb [[spoiler:tests himself to make sure he isn't one of Nathan's androids by cutting deeply into his arm with a razor blade and squeezing quite a bit of blood out. Satisfied, he smears his blood across his bathroom mirror before striking the glass]].

* HilariousInHindsight: Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac would appear together again, with reversed roles, in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''.
* SpecialEffectFailure: The scene where Ava [[spoiler:takes skin from the Kyoko spare looks really odd. Kyoko’s asian skin becomes caucasian once Ava applies it to herself. Ava's normal torso looks like a busty woman wearing bra and clothes, rendered in chickenwire. But when ''applying more material'' (skin from the spare android) she turns into a women with smaller unsupported breasts]].

** Kyoko: [[spoiler: Her actions are consistent with her being just a non-sentient mechanical butler without volition that could follow instructions, which may be why Nathan felt safe letting her have the run of the compound while carefully keeping more advanced models in a locked room. Ava's whispering to Kyoko could have been giving her orders about using the knife (after which Kyoko just stood there as if awaiting further instructions until Nathan struck her down), and Kyoko's reveal to Caleb was implied to be something Nathan had instructed her to do to mess with Caleb. However, there are several moments that suggest she feels genuine emotion. After Nathan shouts at her for spilling the wine, there is a shot of her in the corridor looking extremely upset. And after she stabs him, she caresses his face as a deliberate callback to the way she did in the scene where they had sex--the same way Ava threw Caleb's words back at him. Whether she has any measure of awareness or not is up to the viewer.]]
** Caleb: Although Caleb is the nicest of the four and seems to be a genuinely good person, how much of his wanting to help Ava was based out of genuine empathy and how much of it was [[spoiler: based on him desiring to enact his pornographic fantasies - Ava's face having been designed off of Caleb's preferences? What really does Caleb watch and how does it inform how he thinks of women?]]
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The bizarre, synchronized dance scene with Kyoko and Nathan. Nathan is shown to be a somewhat eccentric billionaire, but that was over the top even for him. It had no bearing on the plot, and was never mentioned again. Unless you see it as subtle foreshadowing that [[spoiler: Kyoko is a robot]].

* SpecialEffectFailure: Borderline example but the scene where Ava [[spoiler: takes skin from the Kyoto spare looked really odd.]]
** [[spoiler: How come asian skin turned white once Ava applied it to herself?]]
** [[spoiler: Ava's normal torso looks like a busty woman wearing bra & clothes, rendered in chickenwire. So how come ''applying more material'' (skin from the spare android) turns her into a women with smaller unsupported breasts? Can she change shape? That seems an odd ability to not show the viewers.]]
* {{Squick}}: The scene where Caleb [[spoiler: tests himself to make sure he isn't one of Nathan's androids by cutting deeply into his arm with a razor blade and squeezing quite a bit of blood out. Satisfied, he smears his blood across his bathroom mirror before striking the glass.]]

* GeniusBonus: Many, many points to boot - from the discussion of Jackson Pollock's automatic painting, to Ava's language acquisition functions to Nathan's [=BlueBook=] software being named after Wittgenstein's book on language games, to the names of the characters and the labels on the alcohol bottles. There's no doubt that the creators really did their work here.
** Fans of Artificial Intelligence studies will realize that [[spoiler: Caleb was brought in not for a Turing Test, but rather a modified version of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_box#AI-box_experiment AI Box Experiment]].]]

* HeartDrive: While all of the proto-Ava models were given some degree of intelligence and awareness, Nathan thinks nothing of "formatting the drive" and starting over to make a new version. However, as any even half-way decent tech will tell you, recovering data from a formatted drive is not impossible, as ultimately, traces of residual data are left behind. This is why security experts recommend DESTROYING the drive once it's been formatted, if the information was extremely sensitive. Nathan's carelessness to avoid this step is possibly why Kyoko seems to remember and act upon past memories. Seems the hacker got hacked...literally!

* TheUntwist:
** Although it isn't explicitly shown until near the climax, [[spoiler: discovering Kyoto is a robot]] may come as less of a surprise than [[spoiler:discovering that the audience wasn't supposed to know that already]].
** GenreSavvy filmgoers will suspect that [[spoiler:Ava is pulling a WoundedGazelleGambit due to the many many films about a man trying to rescue a woman in need that have this kind of TwistEnding.]]

* UncannyValley: According to the film-makers, Ava was specifically designed to invoke and play with this. Large parts of her body are transparent and contain visible electronics, while wherever she wears skin she looks lifelike yet impossibly perfect. Her movement is not like a stereotypical robot's with jerky movements and mechanical noises, but instead very smooth and accompanied by soft, hard-to-pinpoint sounds. Alicia Vikander, having been a ballet dancer, manages to make her graceful walk and other movements look almost human but with something inexplicably ''off''. The whole concept of her character is to find out whether someone knowing she is a machine will be able to overcome or even skip the discomfort/revulsion caused by the uncanny valley, and instead find her human and sympathetic.