Movies like science-fiction film, Annihilation, and the more intensely horrific film Men. However,, the best movies like Ex Machina are the ones that capture that same concentrated burst of high-concept ideas within the framework of an intimate thriller.
Sci-fi horror, though highly entertaining when it's done right, isn't the easiest subgenre to navigate without a guide. There are a number of interesting and popular science fiction movies that revolve around rogue AI, for example. These range from classic science fiction movies like Westworld to films with a more directly comedic angle like M3GAN. However, to find movies that are truly similar to Ex Machina, other considerations like scale and theoretical concepts need to be taken into , not to mention the distinct production design elements that went into making Ex Machina's distinct personality.
11 Transcendence (2014)
Directed By Wally Pfister
Transcendence
- Release Date
- April 18, 2014
- Runtime
- 119minutes
- Director
- Wally Pfister
WHERE TO WATCH
Johnny Depp stars in the sci-fi thriller Transcendence as Dr. Will Caster, a scientist who's working on creating an AI supercomputer that can sur human intelligence. Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, and Cillian Murphy co-star in the 2014 movie directed by acclaimed cinematographer Wally Pfister.
Making his directorial debut after a long career as a cinematographer, during which he frequently collaborated with Christopher Nolan, Wally Pfister crafted a large-scale sci-fi epic from a screenplay from The Black List that revolves around the idea of transferring human consciousness into digital form. Johnny Depp leads the film as a scientist who takes a risky step to place his mind into a computer, creating wider consequences for the rest of humanity.
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Released some months before Ex Machina, the film is a much more extravagantly budgeted take on AI. It is another sci-fi movie that deals with the idea of ambition over artificial intelligence going too far. Depp's character of Will Caster is similar to Oscar Isaac's Nathan in Ex Machina as both men are viewed as brilliant modern geniuses, but show how such people going unchecked can lead to something devastating.
10 Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010)
Directed By Panos Cosmatos
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Beyond the Black Rainbow
- Release Date
- April 22, 2011
- Runtime
- 110 minutes
- Director
- Panos Cosmatos
Cast
Michael Rogers-
Eva Allan
-
Scott Hylands
-
Marilyn Norry
WHERE TO WATCH
Set in a dystopian 1983, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a science fiction horror film directed by Panos Cosmatos. The story revolves around a young woman imprisoned in an experimental laboratory and her struggle against her sinister captor. The film delves into themes of control and liberation, enhanced by its visually striking and atmospheric presentation.
The sci-fi horror movie Beyond the Black Rainbow is hugely stylistic and brimming with an eerie atmosphere from filmmaker Panos Cosmatos. The comparatively minimalist plot follows a young woman attempting to escape from the clutches of a kind of New Age cult that's imprisoned her within their secluded demonic laboratory, and it affords lots of opportunities for some bizarrely horrific sequences.
Beyond the Black Rainbow's Elena finds herself in a similar situation as Ex Machina's Ava in that they are both looking to escape from this sleek, high-tech prison.
The psychedelic flair of the writer/director can be felt in the movie's strong art direction and sound design, but it's equally inspired by the cold tone of classic science-fiction as a movie like Ex Machina is. Beyond the Black Rainbow's Elena finds herself in a similar situation as Ex Machina's Ava in that they are both looking to escape from this sleek, high-tech prison. The difference is that Beyond the Black Rainbow has the audience along on Elena's journey from the beginning, while Ex Machina leaves some mystery as to Ava's plan.
9 Moon (2009)
Directed By Duncan Jones
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Moon
- Release Date
- July 10, 2009
- Runtime
- 97 minutes
- Director
- Duncan Jones
Cast
Sam Rockwell
WHERE TO WATCH
Duncan Jones presents Moon, a sci-fi mystery drama that follows Astronaut Sam Bell, who has spent the last three years working at a lunar mine in isolation and is coming up at the end of his shift. However, as Sam prepares to return home to his family and meet his daughter for the first time, he begins to experience vivid hallucinations of a younger version of himself and begins to experience hazardous events. Before Lunar Industries arrives to relieve him of duty, he must uncover the reason for his recent psychosis and free himself of his mental prison.
Sam Rockwell takes the lead role in this isolated sci-fi hit about a lonely lunar worker who discovers a psychologically devastating twist about his employment that he was never meant to know. Science fiction movies like Ex Machina revolve primarily around the mental state of their main characters, with AI programs helping the audience get a better insight into them, and Moon has its own highly memorable AI that accomplishes that brilliantly while also defying some of the more stale conventions of the genre.
Directed by Duncan Jones, the movie received a semi-sequel nine years later with Mute, which takes place in the same stylishly dark and futuristic universe. Similar to Caleb's journey in Ex Machina, Moon finds Rockwell's protagonist Sam Bell questioning his reality and his existence as more of the truth is revealed to him. It is another thought-provoking sci-fi movie that accomplishes a lot with a very small setting.
8 Marjorie Prime (2017)
Directed By Michael Almereyda
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Marjorie Prime
- Release Date
- August 18, 2017
- Director
- Michael Almereyda
- Writers
- Michael Almereyda
Cast
Tim Robbins-
Lois Smith
Geena Davis
Hannah Gross
WHERE TO WATCH
Marjorie Prime, directed by Michael Almereyda, explores themes of memory and identity through a futuristic service that creates holographic projections of deceased family . The story centers on an elderly woman interacting with a projection of her younger, deceased husband, examining the complexities of memory and loss.
A sci-fi movie that focuses more on domestic drama than most do, but still with its own chilling undertones, Michael Almereyda's adaptation of Jordan Harrison's play of the same name is an Ex Machina and Beyond the Black Rainbow, but deals predominantly with the relationship between technology and memory. The plot concerns a small family coping with their elderly matriarch's onset of Alzheimer's disease and their decision to employ the use of a holographic AI system, named Prime, to keep her company and help her certain things.
Like Ex Machina, the movie is a fascinating but often haunting portrait of inherent human flaws. It is a sci-fi movie that is confident enough to explore its big concepts through intimate conversations between characters. However, fans expecting similar intense climaxes as Ex Machina delivers should look elsewhere as the movie remains a quiet and reflective story from beginning to end.
7 Morgan (2016)
Directed By Luke Scott
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Morgan
- Release Date
- September 2, 2016
- Director
- Luke Scott
- Writers
- Seth W. Owen
Cast
-
Michael Yare
WHERE TO WATCH
A corporate risk-management consultant must decide whether or not to terminate an artificially created humanoid being.
A very similar movie to Ex Machina in of plot, Morgan takes place at a remote facility that houses the titular synthetic humanoid life form. The adolescent Morgan, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, has the appearance of a normal teenage girl but possesses lethal abilities and a dangerous will to survive the risk assessment being carried out by the company that made her.
Chilling and packed with plenty of sharp turns in the story as well as a very impressive cast, the movie is the directorial debut of Luke Scott, the son of the iconic film director Ridley Scott, and he keeps up the family tradition of creepy sci-fi horror. While the movie is a much more horror-centric story, it is not hard to see the parallels between Morgan and Ex Machina's Ava. They are both beings who have developed a sense of their own existence and are not willing to be cast aside as some artificial thing.
6 The One I Love (2014)
Directed By Charlie McDowell
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The One I Love
- Release Date
- August 8, 2014
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
- Director
- Charlie McDowell
Cast
Elisabeth Moss
-
Kiana Cason
WHERE TO WATCH
The One I Love is a psychological thriller directed by Charlie McDowell. Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss portray a troubled couple attempting to repair their marriage during a weekend retreat. As they navigate their personal issues, they encounter unexpected challenges that test their relationship in unforeseen ways. The film delves into themes of identity and trust, creating a compelling narrative that keeps the audience engaged throughout.
Funny, scary, and deeply thought-provoking, The One I Love has a lot of staying power even if it isn't quite the visceral gut-punch of a movie like Ex Machina. Elizabeth Moss and Mark Duplass star in this quirky sci-fi indie movie as a couple attempting to save their fraying marriage by taking a trip to a secluded estate. But once there, they discover a much more serious problem with trust and honesty as they each have inexplicable encounters with their doppelgängers.
Like Ex Machina, this is a contained sci-fi story that deals with these ideas through characters interacting. Moss and Duplass' characters similarly try to find the artificiality in their doppelgängers but find it more difficult than it would seem. While it is a more comedic take, it also leads to a similar place as Ex Machina with the idea of these artificial creations not being content to simply remain in one place to serve humans.
5 Splice (2009)
Directed By Vincenzo Natali
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Splice
- Release Date
- June 4, 2010
- Runtime
- 104 minutes
- Director
- Vincenzo Natali
Cast
-
Sarah Polley
WHERE TO WATCH
Produced by Guillermo del Toro, Splice stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley as a young scientist couple who, after introducing human DNA into their work with genetic splicing, create a human-animal hybrid being called Dren, who becomes like the couple's child. Initially positive that they can raise Dren as their daughter, the couple soon finds out that Dren's nature is far more sinister than it seems.
Movies like Ex Machina intrigue sci-fi fans because they deal with the ever-important topic of unethical scientific experimentation. Science runs amok once again in Splice, the story of scientists who create their own humanoid life form by splicing together various types of DNA. The main characters' Frankenstein-like hubris, of course, comes back to bite them in the end.
Helmed by the director of cult sci-fi horror favorite Cube, Vincenzo Natali, and with monster movie maestro Guillermo del Toro as an executive producer, Splice explores eroticism and arrogance in an unrelenting fashion that fans of Ex Machina will appreciate thanks to its emphasis on classic horror tropes. While the story of genetic experimentation differs from the artificial intelligence storyline explored in Ex Machina, they both head in a similar direction of this quest for science becoming something unethical and resulting in deadly consequences.
4 Her (2013)
Directed By Spike Jonze
Showcasing a much more sweetly upbeat and sentimental examination of artificial intelligence than is usually seen in sci-fi movies, Spike Jonze's romantic dramedy Her follows the whirlwind relationship between a relatable loner from the not-too-distant future, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and the program that lives on his devices, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. While Johansson's Samantha begins as a digital assistant, she and Phoenix's Theodore form a connection that blurs the lines of their respective existences.
Her has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Though the futuristic spaces depicted in Her are much wider and warmer than Ex Machina and most other sci-fi movies in general, the film is still overflowing with pertinent insights into the progression of modern life. The conversations between Theodore and Samantha feel similar to how Caleb and Ava interact with each other. Yet, by the end of Her, it feels as though this was a typical movie romance, despite the fact that you never see one half of the couple on screen.
3 Upgrade (2018)
Directed By Leigh Whannell
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Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, Upgrade is a Sci-Fi, Action, and Cyberpunk film starring Betty Gabriel, Logan Marshall-Green, and Harrison Gilbertson. The plot sees a man suffering a tragic accident and becoming paralyzed as a result. He soon accepts a STEM implant that gives him back his body and much more.
The second directorial effort of famed horror screenwriter–and sometimes actor–Leigh Whannell, Upgrade is a darkly fun throwback to the heyday of Verhoeven-esque cynicism and body horror in sci-fi action movies. Following a man who is paralyzed in an attack that leaves his wife dead, needing to rely on an advanced AI system to control his body for him, the revenge plot takes a lot from Whannell's collaborations with his creative partner James Wan, particularly the gory detective elements of their Saw franchise.
Like Ex Machina, the movie also has plenty to say about freedom of choice and how that may inevitably intersect with AI technology.
Like Ex Machina, the movie also has plenty to say about freedom of choice and how that may inevitably intersect with AI technology. While Ex Machina has a violent climax, those who are squeamish with gore should avoid Upgrade. The film also has a dark sense of humor that is not seen in Ex Machina. However, both movies head in a similar direction of the seemingly helpful AI having ulterior plans to ensure its own freedom and control.
2 Arrival (2016)
Directed By Denis Villeneuve
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Arrival
- Release Date
- November 10, 2016
- Runtime
- 116 Minutes
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
Cast
Forest Whitaker
WHERE TO WATCH
Based on Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life", Denis Villeneuve's Arrival follows Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist brought in to establish a line of communication with an alien species that have recently landed on Earth. With the help of physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Banks begins to understand more of the aliens' communications, and it alters her perception of life forevermore.
Denis Villeneuve's first alien movie Arrival is sometimes lost in people's memories due to the director's high rate of turnover as well as his relatively newfound penchant for the science-fiction genre. Despite not getting talked about nearly enough now, Arrival was nominated for a substantial number of Oscars when it was released, including Best Picture, though Amy Adams was famously snubbed despite a standout lead performance.
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The movie stars Adams as a linguistics expert who is brought in to help establish communication with some newly arrived extra-terrestrial visitors. Though it may not involve artificial intelligence, this thriller's plot is all about communication and reasoning, which will resonate a lot with an Ex Machina fan, to say nothing of the effectiveness of Arrival's simultaneously tense and subdued atmosphere. It is also another sci-fi movie that explores the idea of humanity relating to more than just humans.
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