Ex Machina is one of those films that will completely blindside you, and not in the ways you may think. I struggled with whether or not this interview with star Alicia Vikander should be kept 100 percent spoiler-free—since the less you know about this science fiction thriller before seeing it, the better—and ultimately opted to omit the details regarding its ending.
What you should know, as hard as it may be to believe, is that Ex Machina is Alex Garland’s directorial debut. The talented screenwriter is best known for writing the stunning 28 Days Later and Sunshine (both Danny Boyle-directed films), as well as the adapted screenplays for Beach and Never Let Me Go. Naturally, Garland also wrote Ex Machina, which has a deceptively simple plot, a remarkable cast of just four, and an aesthetic like no other.
