I really like the way Nathan is created so distinctly as a self-absorbed computer scientist. Caleb is a curious programmer that Nathan thinks is more gullible than he actually is. I think of Caleb as the "straight line" compared to Nathan being the "wavy line". They make a nice contrast. I can see that a very reasonable interpretation of Ava is as a trickster who just wants to escape, but is that the only one? Because, I see Ava as super-intelligent character playing a cat-and-mouse game with humans - whether it's flirting or taking down the power - but with rather benevolent intentions. It isn't until Caleb tells her that Nathan's plans include "killing her" that she takes action to survive. Does this alternative seem reasonable to anyone else?

David, I like your take on Ava and this is what is so fascinating about these AI characters. They are programs, not humans. They have no past, they only do what they're told. And when they start to act independently, they become wholly unpredictable. Despite having a computer for a brain, their emotional core is a blank slate and, I believe, remains so. To me, a machine cannot *feel* they same way a human being can, it can only pretend. The simulation and the unpredictability make AIs very scary to me - I would be terrified of having one in my everyday life. Reminds me of the Swedish TV show REAL HUMANS - I don't know if it was shown in the States? Nathan is a curious character indeed. "A self-absorbed computer scientist". We don't see a lot of those in movies, they're usually more like Caleb - introverts, ill at ease in society/around people, a little weird in the head... Speaking of Caleb, I like how he remains very human, very accessible. He's full of emotions and goodwill. As for the AIs stored away in the closets, oh wow! Predictable but still a gut-punching image.

David and Marija, that's the thing about characters: They are organic... or should come across that way. So anytime we ascribe this category a la archetypes to them, which are artifices, things get rather fluid. That's why I say we ought not think of "right" or "wrong" in analysis. Besides each of us is different and brings our own life-experience to the interpretive mix. The three of us would doubtless have 'seen' the movie in somewhat different ways. Re "self-absorbed": I'd say Nathan is pretty much a narcissist. Genius, yes, but filled with self-aggrandizement. That's in part what makes him such an interesting character. Marija, your comments brought to mind a thought I had about Ava in the end. Standing amidst Humans. I thought of her as New-Man. Like this is the birth of a new human race... and the people around her are the 'beasts' of the world, another reinterpretation of the Genesis creation myths.

It's a dictum of computer programming that people tend to program their personality, especially the flaws in their thinking, their bad habits, into their code. And I've read and cleaned up enough spaghetti code to know it's more than a dictum. It occurs to me that if Ava is a Trickster, capable of manipulating and deceiving others that can only be because Nathan programmed her that way. Intentionally or inadvertently, Nathan coded his personality problems, to wit, his Shadow, into the code for Ava. Ava is a projection of Nathan's own Shadow.