Film

Ex Machina

A three-person chamber piece disguised as a science-fiction thriller: a young coder is flown to a billionaire's remote compound to test whether the robot Ava is truly conscious. It's cool, controlled, and slowly suffocating — glass walls, clipped dialogue, and a creeping sense that the real experiment isn't on Ava at all. For anyone who wants their sci-fi cerebral, claustrophobic, and quietly merciless rather than loud.

TMDb rating7.6

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Her2013

An operating system falls in love with its user, and the film plays it as tender and plausible rather than gimmicky — the warmer flip side of Ex Machina's manipulation, asking the same questions about consciousness with none of the menace.

But It's soft where Ex Machina is sharp; if you want tension and danger, this one is more likely to just make you cry.

Her poster

Devs2020

Alex Garland's own follow-up: a tech visionary with a god complex, a hidden facility in the woods, and the same unhurried dread building under gorgeous minimalist design. Same fingerprints, more room to breathe.

But Eight episodes of slow philosophical unease; the payoff is contemplative rather than shocking, and it demands patience.

Devs poster

Annihilation2018

Garland trades AI labs for an alien swamp but keeps the eerie calm and the fascination with something incomprehensible wearing a familiar shape — a spiritual sequel in mood if not plot.

But More surreal and abstract, less about dialogue and manipulation — dream logic wins out over tight plotting here.

Annihilation poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Metropolis1927

Ava's most direct ancestor: a robot given a woman's body specifically to manipulate and dismantle male authority, right down to the visual grammar of the reveal.

The blueprint for every uncanny robot woman since: Maria, a machine built to seduce and topple a city, filmed nearly a century before Ava with startling prescience about what a manufactured woman could be used for.

But Silent, melodramatic, and a real time commitment at over two hours — this asks patience a modern thriller doesn't.

Metropolis poster
More like this (8)

Blade Runner 20492017

The bigger-budget cousin: the same questions about what a synthetic person owes anyone, and what memory or love even means for something built rather than born, wrapped in staggering visuals.

But Nearly three hours long, slower and more melancholy than propulsive — a very different rhythm from Ex Machina's tight coil.

Blade Runner 2049 poster

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson as an alien wearing a woman's body, hunting men on Scottish streets — hypnotic, nearly wordless, and just as curious about what a human shape can conceal.

But Minimal dialogue, ambient and slow; some will find it mesmerising, others will find it simply boring.

Under the Skin poster

A.I. Artificial Intelligence2001

Spielberg and Kubrick's uneasy hybrid asks who deserves love and grief once synthetic and human blur — bigger, sadder, more fairy tale than Ex Machina's cool minimalism, but chewing on the same fear.

But Tonal whiplash between Spielberg sentiment and Kubrick bleakness won't sit well with everyone, and the ending divides people.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence poster

Black Mirror2011

If watching technology quietly turn on its creators is your kind of evening, this anthology hands you a dozen new nightmares an hour at a time, endlessly dip-in-able.

But Wildly uneven across seasons; some episodes are brilliant, others feel thin or cynical for cynicism's sake.

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Moon2009

Sam Rockwell alone on a lunar base, slowly questioning what's real about his own identity — a tiny cast, a claustrophobic set, and the same quiet unraveling of trust.

But Very stripped down and quiet; if you want spectacle or twisty plotting, this is a much smaller, sadder film.

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Chappie2015no page yet

Neill Blomkamp's scrappier take on a newborn AI raised by criminals — messier, louder, more emotional, a rougher cousin of the same birth-of-consciousness idea.

But Broader tone and a silly gangster subplot make this a genuine tonal downgrade from Garland's discipline.

Persona1966

Same chamber-piece structure — two people, one isolated location, a power struggle over identity where the audience is never sure who's really running the experiment.

Two women alone in an isolated house, one silent, one talking, slowly trading identities until neither is sure who's really in control — the psychological duel Ex Machina borrows its architecture from.

But Deliberately fragmented and ambiguous, more interested in dread than answers; not for anyone wanting a clean resolution.

Persona poster

Weird Science1985no page yet

Literalises the fear Ex Machina takes seriously: men build a woman to control her, and she immediately outgrows every intention they had for her.

Two teenage boys build a woman on a computer and get far more than they bargained for — the same 'creation escapes its creator' premise played as pure, gleeful 80s comedy.

But Broad, dated, and deeply silly — this is Ex Machina's idea with all the menace swapped out for John Hughes-adjacent horniness.

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