Ex Machina (eBook)

Alex Garland (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015 | 1. Auflage
112 Seiten
Faber & Faber (Verlag)
978-0-571-32535-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Caleb, a 24 year old coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl. EX MACHINA is an intense psychological thriller, played out in a love triangle. It explores big ideas about the nature of consciousness, emotion, sexuality, truth and lies.

Alex Garland is the author of the bestselling novels The Beach ,The Tesseract, and The Coma, which was created with images by his father Nicholas Garland. He is the co-author of the videogame, Enslaved. He has written the screenplays for 28 DaysLater, Sunshine and adapted Kuzuo Ishiguro's Never Let MeGo for the screen.

Textauszug

Ex Machina

Music starts.

Open on:

INT. OFFICE – DAY

A computer monitor.

Lines of code appear, as they are typed.

main ( ) {

extrn a, b, c;

putchar (a); putchar (b); putchar (c); putchar(‘!’*n’);

}a ‘hell’;

b ‘o, w’;

c ‘or

CUT TO

– a view above a huge open-plan office.

Just over the heads of the young men and women who sit at desks, in front of a computer screen and keyboard.

Each workstation is personalised. Photographs of friends or family, or pets. Cutting from magazines. Ironic superhero/video-game figurines.

CUT TO

– the hands of the young man doing the coding. He types fast, with two fingers.

CUT TO

– extreme close-up of a pinhole webcam lens in Caleb’s monitor.

CUT TO

– the point of view of the webcam.

Looking back at Caleb.

Twenty-four. Glazed. Ear buds in, connected to cell phone. Head bobbing slightly to the music.

As we watch from the monitor point of view, we can see the computer’s facial recognition system in operation. Imaged as vector boxes, which track Caleb’s face, and the faces of all the people behind him.

CUT TO

– the computer monitor.

On which a message appears, in a small window, over the code.

VIP EMAIL RECEIVED

Subject: HIDDEN

CUT TO

– the monitor webcam point of view.

As Caleb stops typing –

– he gazes at the message. Then clicks on the link. Then mouths the word: ‘Fuck’. Caleb reaches for his cell phone.

CUT TO

– the cell phone point of view, seen from the tiny camera above the screen, as Caleb lifts the phone, and starts keying in a text.

We see facial-recognition software flickering over Caleb’s features, and reacting to shifts in his expression.

CUT TO

– the cell phone. The screen. The tiny camera nestled above it. Lens glinting.

On the screen, a time-bar extends next to the word:

Sending

A beat later, a reply text message appears.

WTF? seriously!?

CUT TO

– the webcam point of view, watching Caleb react to the arrival of the text.

CUT TO

– cell phone screen.

Caleb sends the word:

Yes

A beat later, a stream of text messages start appearing:

Buena estoria bro

omfg fucking AWESOME

:o

take me take me?!?

Caleb > ∞

CUT TO

– the computer monitor point of view.

A few of the people behind Caleb in the office are reacting.

One stands and applauds.

A girl comes out from behind her desk, runs over to Caleb, and embraces him from behind, planting a kiss on his cheek.

Caleb still looks dazed.

He still has his headphones in. Still in the audio bubble, which, despite the commotion around him, remains unburst.

Title:

EX MACHINA

EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAY

A spectacular mountain landscape. Waterfalls drop down massive rock faces to inland lakes. Rivers push through forest. Forest spreads across valley floors, which rise to snow peaks.

INT. HELICOPTER – DAY

Caleb wakes abruptly –

– to find himself in the front seat of a helicopter.

The pilot, Jay, is a man in his forties.

Outside the window is the mountain landscape.

CALEB

How long was I out?

JAY

You fell asleep almost as soon as we left the airport.

Caleb looks around. Wipes sleep out of his eyes. Gets his bearings.

CALEB

Damn. Can’t believe I’ve been missing this. I was so psyched to be coming here, I was awake all night.

Jay smiles.

JAY

You’re a programmer, right?

CALEB

Yeah.

JAY

Bay facility?

CALEB

Long Island. I work on algorithms for the search engine.

JAY

Algorithms. Nice.

CALEB

You know what they are?

JAY

Nope. But I knew you were a programmer. Soon as I set eyes on you.

CALEB

Is that a good thing?

JAY

Means you and Mr Bateman speak the same language. I’d say that’s a good thing.

Beat.

CALEB

I guess you know him pretty well.

The pilot laughs.

JAY

I’ve never even met him. I only fly this shuttle between the airport and his residence. I did see him one time. Stood on one of these mountain ridges.

He shrugs.

Assume it was him, anyway. No one else around for a hundred miles.

He glances over at Caleb.

So how does a programmer from Long Island get to be meeting the CEO?

CALEB

I won a competition. It was kind of like a lottery, for employees. The winner got to spend a week with him.

JAY

The President can’t get Mr Bateman on the phone, but you got the golden ticket.

CALEB

Yep.

JAY

Hell of an opportunity.

CALEB

Believe me. I know it.

Caleb looks out of the window.

Incredible here.

JAY

Alaska. Most beautiful place on Earth.

Beat.

CALEB

How long until we get to his estate?

Jay chuckles.

JAY

We’ve been flying over his estate for the past two hours.

EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAY

The helicopter flies over a vast white glacier.

EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAY

A CCTV camera is hidden in the rock and snow.

As the helicopter glides past, the lens of the camera twitches.

EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAY

The helicopter flies over the lip of the glacier, revealing a valley.

The valley floor is a bright green meadow. Sunlit, like a jewel in the icy mountains.

A whitewater river runs alongside it, leading to a waterfall.

INT. HELICOPTER – DAY

Caleb looks down at the breathtaking view as the helicopter banks, turns and descends.

EXT. MEADOW ⁄ LANDING SITE – DAY

Meadow flowers whip in the rotor wash as the helicopter touches down in the vast meadow.

By the landing site is a collection of huge metal crates. All have Chinese characters on the side.

The rotor blades slow, but don’t stop.

Jay exits.

EXT. MEADOW ⁄ LANDING SITE – DAY

Jay holds open the door as Caleb exits the helicopter cabin.

Caleb looks around, his eyes adjusting to the bright sunshine outside.

Jay goes to the side of the helicopter, pops open a hatch, and removes Caleb’s luggage. A large suitcase with wheels.

Caleb looks around. Apart from the packing crates, there are no man-made structures to be seen.

Caleb shouts over the engine noise.

CALEB

You’re leaving me here?

JAY

This is as close as I’m allowed to the building.

CALEB

… What building?

The pilot gestures vaguely towards the whitewater.

JAY

Follow the river.

Jay puts Caleb’s bag on the ground.

Caleb reaches into his pocket.

Produces a wallet, and pulls out some crumpled bank notes.

JAY

No tip required. Please get a safe distance from the blades.

The pilot gets back inside the helicopter, and closes the door.

Caleb hurriedly retreats with his bag.

Moments later, in a roar of wind and noise, the helicopter is lifting off.

Equally suddenly, the noise is fading, and the helicopter is soaring upwards, and banking back towards the glacier.

Then it is gone. Birdsong and wind-rush replace engine noise.

Caleb suddenly looks very isolated.

EXT. RIVER – DAY

Caleb walks along the banks of the fast-flowing river, awkwardly bumping his wheeled suitcase over the ground.

The banks of the river start to climb, to an...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.1.2015
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• Schlagworte: 28 Days Later • Artificial Intelligence • robot • The Beach
• ISBN-10: 0-571-32535-1 / 0571325351
• ISBN-13: 978-0-571-32535-1 / 9780571325351