NNB's breakdown contains all the plot points but if you had to boil it down to say 5 or 6 Major Plot Points: Note: First of all you have to understand what a 'psuedo-experiment' is. (Clue/Setup Ava can spot a liar). It is an experiment which on the face of it is about one thing but is in reality about something else. 1. Caleb is 'chosen' to be part of a week long AI experiment. 2. Caleb meets Ava. She knocks his socks off, i.e. first meeting she is incredibly human looking/behaving. Caleb burbles excitedly to Nathan about how to devise a test for AI. Does a chess computer know it is a computer type stuff. 3. All is not what it seems: secret conversations during power cuts (the first test), a 'maid' that doesn't speak, a video link with no sound, Nathan controls all with swipe cards. 4. Ava 'interrogates' Caleb while Nathan explains his research methods to Caleb, a) extensive 'cookie' data collection from everyone who uses his search engine, or just everyone, b) stuff about AI brains that keeps Caleb distracted. 5. Caleb learns he was not selected at random (wrongly - or perhaps incompletely - he believes he was selected because he's a programmer who knows about AI). He puts in motion a plan to help Ava escape. Caleb is caught in the act by Nathan who explains the pseudo-experiment to Caleb, and that Ava's face matches his pornography profile (it's not explicit but Caleb calls him an ordinary programmer so his pornographic habits plus orphan status seem to be the real reason he was 'chosen'). Caleb wasn't conducting the experiment as he thought, he was the cheese in the trap so to speak (Ava can spot a liar so he couldn't be 'in' on the real experiment). The real test was for Ava to manipulate Caleb into helping her escape. Caleb confesses the details of the escape plan. In a final twist we learn Ava has already done this (when Nathan was drunk the night before). 6. Finish with the results of the psuedo-experiment; Caleb is locked up, presumably unable to escape, Nathan is knifed to death, Ava passes the test of making a helicopter pilot think she's human. If you're interested in psuedo-experiments wiki-search Cooper & Laing, the research psychologists and their research on psychiatrists in the 1970s.

Michael, I love this whole pseudo-experiment angle because it slots right into some thoughts I remember having when I first saw the movie: That all three characters wear the Trickster mask at key moments, some fundamentally so (like Ava). Their actions and appearance are 'pseudo' true because of their underlying motivations. I suppose we could even add Kyoko into that mix. We can get into that aspect of the story more in tomorrow's post. Switching to plot, as I was reading your summary, which tracks the major sequences quite well, I was reminded of Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner: "An employee of a corporation with a lucrative secret process is tempted to betray it. But there's more to it than that." In a way, Ex Machina is a kind of 'sting' story: Lure the Protagonist into a trap, then wham! Big twist! The wonderful spice to the recipe in Ex Machina is the supposed innocence of Ava which gets turned all on its head in Act Three when Caleb realizes he's been played. It's a terrific subversion because it forces us to rethink the entire movie and see it through Ava's eyes as the Protagonist. Such a terrific script and movie. Glad to see it received a Producers Guild nomination today.

I very much enjoyed both Ex Machina and Under the Skin, so thanks for the Like It, Love It piece. I was just blown away by Under the Skin when I saw it on the big screen in Chicago. So much great visual storytelling. Thanks!