Ex Machina Read Online Free

reads 01:32 a.m.
    The soft glow from the digital readout throws a light on the remote control.
    REVEAL
    – Caleb.
    Eyes closed. For a beat.
    Then his eyes open. He’s wide awake.
    He turns over in the bed.
    Then turns back again.
    CUT TO
    2:28 a.m.
    Caleb lies watching the digital clock as the numbers change to 2:29 a.m.
    CALEB
    God damn it.
    He reaches for the remote control.
    Click.
    The TV at the foot of the bed switches on, suddenly lighting up the room with cold TV glow.
    Caleb squeezes his eyes shut, momentarily dazzled by the brightness.
    When his eyes open again, instead of seeing a TV station, he sees a live feed from a CCTV camera.
    It shows the observation room.
    Caleb sits upright in bed.
    … What the fuck?
    Ava is sitting at the table.
    Drawing.
    Cut between Caleb watching Ava. and varying CCTV angles of Ava as she draws.
    The different TV channels flip between feeds from the various cameras.
    Caleb is transfixed by the imagery.
    Her posture. Her legs tucked beneath the chair. The curve of the breasts on her synthetic torso.
    The CCTV images become Caleb’s point of view. The things he is observing.
    Close-ups of her face. Her eyes. Her mouth.
    The way she bites her lip in an expression of concentration. As when she smiled, there is a powerful sense in this tiny gesture of her feeling sentient and human.
    Even more so because her face fills the screen, hiding the mechanical parts of her form.
    Throughout, we never clearly see what Ava is actually drawing.
    End on –
    – Caleb. Glazed.
    Then abruptly –
    – the TV goes dead.
    And the digital alarm clock goes dead.
    And the windowless room is plunged into total darkness, and total silence. As if the house had been previously filled with a soft hum of power, which we were unaware of until it was gone.
    In this, we hear Caleb breathing.
    AUTOMATED VOICE
    Power cut. Back-up power activated.
    Soft emergency lighting comes on.
    Caleb hesitates a moment.
    Then gets out of bed.
    Goes to his bedroom door.
    Beside the keycard plate, the LED is red.
    He swipes it with his card.
    The LED stays red.
    AUTOMATED VOICE
    Full facility lock-down until main generator is restored.
    CALEB
    … Are you kidding?
    He tries his card again.
    AUTOMATED VOICE
    Full facility lock-down until main generator is restored.
    Caleb looks around his windowless room.
    Which suddenly has the quality of a prison cell.
    Beats pass.
    Then –
    – as abruptly as the power went off, it comes back again.
    The emergency lighting goes off, the TV and digital alarm clock turn back on.
    AUTOMATED VOICE
    Power restored.
    Caleb stands in the flickering TV light.
    Then he tries his card again.
    This time, the LED turns blue, and the door opens. Revealing the glass corridor outside.
    INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – NIGHT
    Caleb walks out of his room.
    The glass corridor illuminates as Caleb enters.
    Ahead, one of the doors off the corridor is ajar.
    INT. HOUSE ⁄ POLLOCK ROOM – NIGHT
    Caleb enters the room with the open door.
    It appears to be empty. Still and silent. Low-lit.
    Only one area is properly illuminated: a wall, on which a large Jackson Pollock drip-painting hangs.
    Caleb walks towards it. Studies the strange strands of looping colour for a moment.
    A telephone, on a low table.
    Caleb walks over to it, with a half-glance over his shoulder, as if sensing he is doing something that – obscurely – he shouldn’t.
    Then he picks up the handset.
    It’s dead.
    He hits some buttons.
    It stays dead.
    There is a slot by the phone.
    Caleb puts two and two together. He reaches into his pocket. Pulls out his keycard. Puts it in the slot –
    – and a light on the handset glows red.
    NATHAN
    Sorry, dude.
    Caleb startles. Turns.
    Nathan is lying on a sofa. A bottle of Peroni rests on his stomach. On the carpet beside him are a couple of empties.
    You don’t have clearance to use the phone.
    Nathan’s voice is very slightly slurred.
    You understand. Given Ava. And you being kind of an unknown. I