CALEB
I’m waiting.
AVA
Waiting?
They exchange a look.
Then Ava lifts her hand, and rests it against the induction plate on the console below the window.
A final beat.
Then the power dies.
AUTOMATED VOICE
Power cut. Back-up power activated.
As the emergency lighting lifts, Caleb leans forward slightly.
CALEB
Don’t talk. Just listen. You were right about Nathan. Everything you said.
AVA
What’s he going to do to me?
CALEB
He’s going to reprogram your AI. Which is the same as killing you.
AVA
Caleb, you have to help me.
CALEB
I’m going to. We’re getting out of here tonight.
AVA
What? How?
CALEB
I get Nathan blind drunk. Then I take his keycard, and reprogram all the security protocols in this place. When he wakes, he’s locked inside, and we’ve walked out of here. I only need you to do one thing. At ten o’clock tonight, trigger a power failure. Can you do that?
AVA
Yes.
Caleb nods.
CALEB
How long does your battery charge last?
AVA
Twenty-six hours.
CALEB
So we’ll have about a day to get to a cell phone or kitchen appliance store. Somewhere we can buy an induction plate. After that …
He breaks off.
… we’ll work it out. Together.
Silence.
Then the power returns.
The lights come back.
Ava and Caleb stare at each other.
AVA
Caleb.
Beat.
AVA
I love y—
CUT TO
EXT. GARDEN ⁄ GYM AREA – DAY
Nathan’s fist splitting the punchbag. Like an hourglass, sand runs out.
EXT. MOUNTAINS – DAY
Clouds spill around the mountain peaks.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ MAIN ROOM – DAY
Kyoko stands in front of the fireplace, watching the flames.
Nathan sits on the sofa, watching Kyoko.
Caleb appears.
NATHAN
Dude.
CALEB
Hey.
NATHAN
You know what day it is?
CALEB
No.
NATHAN
Your last. The helicopter is coming tomorrow morning. Eight a.m.
Caleb pauses.
CALEB
Has it been a whole week?
Nathan smiles.
NATHAN
Time flies. But what a thing you and I have shared. Something to tell the grandchildren, right?
Caleb smiles. A little tightly.
CALEB
After they’ve signed their NDAs.
Nathan laughs.
NATHAN
Signed their NDAs! Dude, you crack me up. I’m not getting all maudlin or anything. But straight up. I will miss having you around.
CALEB
I appreciate that. And – let me say: thank you for bringing me here. It’s been a trip.
NATHAN
Yes, it has.
CALEB
You know what?
Caleb walks over to the kitchen area, and pulls two beers from the fridge.
We need to drink to that.
Caleb walks back to Nathan. Extends a hand. Holding a Peroni.
But Nathan doesn’t take it.
NATHAN
Oh, uh … no, I’m good. You go ahead.
Beat.
CALEB
You don’t want a beer?
Nathan shrugs.
NATHAN
No.
CALEB
… Maybe wine or something.
NATHAN
I’m sure you’ve noticed – I’ve been somewhat overdoing it recently. When I woke up this morning, I told myself: time to hit the old detox.
Caleb’s hand remains extended. He smiles again. More tightly.
CALEB
Are you kidding? I’m drinking alone?
NATHAN
Hey – you want to get wasted, knock yourself out. Literally. But I’m on brown rice and mineral water.
A beat.
Caleb puts down Nathan’s beer.
Then raises his own.
CALEB
Cheers, then.
NATHAN
Cheers.
Caleb takes a single sip.
Nathan watches.
NATHAN
So, anyway. Surely this is when you tell me whether Ava passed or if she failed.
Caleb pauses.
Collecting himself slightly. Trying to think how to get his plan back on track.
CALEB
Right.
Beat.
NATHAN
You going to keep me in suspense?
CALEB
Her AI is beyond doubt.
NATHAN
Is it? You mean, she passed?
CALEB
Yes.
NATHAN
Wow. That’s fantastic.
Beat.
NATHAN
Although I’ve got to admit, I’m surprised. I mean, did we ever get past the chess problem, as you phrased it? As in: how do you tell if a machine is expressing a real emotion, or a just a simulated one?
Nathan pauses.
Does Ava actually like you? Or not.
Caleb has a cold realisation dawning. Nathan is playing with him.
Though now I stop to think, there is a third option. Not whether she does or doesn’t have the capacity to like you. But whether she’s pretending to like you.
CALEB
Pretending.
NATHAN
Yeah.
Beat.
CALEB
Why would she do that?
NATHAN
I don’t know.
Nathan gazes at Caleb evenly.
Perhaps – if she saw you as a means of escape.
And now Caleb knows: Nathan knows.
How’s that beer tasting?
Caleb puts the beer down.
Silence.
NATHAN
Buddy. Your head has been so fucked with.
CALEB
I don’t think it’s me whose head is fucked.
NATHAN
I’m not sure, dude. When I woke up this morning, I saw a tape of you cutting open your arm. Smashing up the mirror. You looked pretty fucked to me.
CALEB
You’re a bastard.
NATHAN
I understand why you’d think that.
He steps over to Caleb, and rests a hand on his shoulder.
But strange as it may seem, I’m actually the guy who’s on your side.
He starts walking.
Come with me. I’m going to let you off the hook.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
Outside the window of Nathan’s study, night has fallen.
Nathan and Caleb stand in front of the computer.
On it, a clip of film is playing.
It shows the scene that Caleb witnessed two nights before, of Nathan entering Ava’s room, and an exchange between them. But whereas the first time the sound was muted, this time we can hear the audio.
CCTV FILM
Nathan stands above Ava. Drunk.
Ava is sitting at the table, with her drawing.
NATHAN
You think he’s watching us right now, don’t you?
AVA
The cameras are on.
NATHAN
Yeah. But he doesn’t get an audio feed. I didn’t want you two communicating outside of my line of sight.
Nathan reaches over and picks up her picture of Caleb.
So all he can see is two people having a chat
.
Nathan studies the picture for a moment.
This is cute.
AVA
Is it strange to have made something that hates you?
A beat.
Then abruptly, Nathan rips the picture.
He lets the two pieces fall to the floor.
As Ava reaches for them, Nathan turns.
And exits.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
Nathan hits PAUSE.
Glances at Caleb.
NATHAN
You were right about the hot magician’s assistant.
CALEB
What are you talking about?
NATHAN
Misdirection. I rip her picture, which she can then present as an illustration of my cruelty to her, and her love for you. And at the same time, in full view of you both …
As he talks, Nathan rewinds the film clip slightly –
… it allows me to do this.
Then freezes the film again.
This time, on the screen:
Ava is reaching for her torn picture.
And Nathan is reaching out with his hand.
And his hand is holding something.
NATHAN
Put a new camera in the room. Battery-powered, of course.
Nathan unfreezes the image.
And we quite clearly see Nathan place the object on Ava’s bookcase.
[Note that on the two previous occasions we have seen this clip of film, we will have seen him do this action. But not register it, instead reading the action as him drunkenly using the shelf to steady himself.]
Caleb stares at the monitor for a few moments.
Then turns.
He walks towards a chair. And sits down.
As he does so, Nathan has started to play another clip.
Caleb can hear the audio.
CALEB
(recording)
We’re getting out of here tonight.
AVA
(recording)
What? How?
CALEB
(recording)
I get Nathan blind drunk. Then I take his keycard, and reprogram all the security protocols in this place. When he wakes, he’s locked inside, and we’ve walked out of here. I only need you to do one thing. At ten o’clock tonight trigger a power failure
CALEB
Turn it off.
NATHAN
Sure.
The recording stops.
Caleb feels short of breath.
You feel stupid. But you shouldn’t. Proving an AI is exactly as problematic as you said it was.
CALEB
What was the real test?
NATHAN
You.
Beat.
NATHAN
Ava was a mouse in a mousetrap. And I gave her one way out. To escape, she would have to use imagination, sexuality, self-awareness, empathy, manipulation – and she did. If that isn’t AI, what the fuck is?
Caleb looks upwards.
Directly above, he sees a spotlight in the ceiling.
It dazzles him.
CALEB
So my only function was to be someone she could use to escape.
NATHAN
… Yes.
CALEB
And you didn’t select me because I was good at coding.
Nathan hesitates.
NATHAN
Don’t get me wrong. You’re okay. Even pretty good, but –
CALEB
You selected me by my search-engine inputs.
NATHAN
They showed a good kid.
CALEB
With no family.
NATHAN
With a moral compass.
CALEB
And no girlfriend.
Caleb stares into the brightness above him.
CALEB
Did you design her face based on my pornography profile?
NATHAN
Shit, dude.
CALEB
Did you?
Beat.
NATHAN
Hey. If a search engine’s good for anything – right?
Silence.
Can I say one thing?
Caleb doesn’t answer.
The test worked. It was a success. Ava demonstrated true AI. And you were fundamental to that. If you could just separate –
Nathan cuts off. Because at that moment –
– the lights and the monitors suddenly die.
EXT. GARDEN – NIGHT
Through the circular window, the emergency lighting lifts up. The window glows red.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ AVA’S ROOM – NIGHT
Ava’s head turns to the door of her room.
Where, discreetly, the LED by the keycard plate glows blue.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
Nathan checks his watch.
NATHAN
The power cut. Must be ten o’clock.
He glances at Caleb.
Guess Ava’s going to be wondering where you are.
Caleb says nothing.
How was that escape going to go down, anyway? You didn’t completely explain. You said you were going to get me drunk, take my card, then reprogram the security protocols. But, reprogram them to – what?
CALEB
To change the lockdown procedure. So that in the event of a power cut, instead of sealing, the doors all opened.
NATHAN
Huh.
Beat.
CALEB
Well, we’ll find out.
Nathan frowns.
NATHAN
What do you mean?
Caleb looks away from the dimmed ceiling light, to Nathan.
CALEB
I figured you were probably watching us during the power cuts.
Beat.
So I already did all those things. When I got you drunk yesterday.
Nathan freezes.
NATHAN
… What?
At that moment, the power comes back on.
The lights rise.
The computer monitors come back to life.
Revealing something.
On the CCTV feed of Ava’s room, the door is open.
And on the feed of the glass corridor –
– Ava is walking down it.
Nathan freezes as he sees her.
… Fuck.
Both Nathan and Caleb simultaneously rise.
Almost as an afterthought, Nathan lands a deceptive, fast punch into Caleb’s solar plexus.
Caleb folds, the air forced out of him, gasping for breath.
Nathan helps him down to the floor.
A couple of yards away is one of his curl dumbbells.
He walks over.
Picks the dumbbell up.
Spins off the weights. Leaving him with a thick metal bar.
Then exits.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – NIGHT
Nathan enters the glass corridor.
He sees, directly ahead of him, Ava and Kyoko. By their proximity, it is as if they have just been talking.
Both women turn.
Kyoko glances at Ava.
NATHAN
Ava – now listen to me -
Ava breaks into a run –
– sprinting in Nathan’s direction.
EXT. GARDEN – NIGHT
Quiet in the garden.
Soft wind rush.
Moon and stars reflected in the windows of the house.
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – NIGHT
Ava impacts Nathan, and they fly backwards.
Then land hard.
Nathan gets to his feet first.
Ava tries to rise too.
And he kicks her extremely hard in the torso.
She is knocked back down.
Nathan glances around.
There is no talking.
Just Nathan’s laboured breathing.
Then he walks back to Ava, looking do
wn at her.
He swings the metal bar.
Ava raises her left arm defensively –
– and shockingly, the bar smashes through it. Crushing the delicate mesh, shattering the carbon-fibre bone structure.
Breaking the arm halfway down the forearm.
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
Caleb, dragging himself up, stunned by the sight on the CCTV feed.
CUT BACK TO
INT. HOUSE ⁄ GLASS CORRIDOR – NIGHT
Nathan. Preparing to deliver a lethal blow.
But as he does so, we see something.
Kyoko.
Approaching behind Nathan.
She’s holding something in her hand.
She walks directly up to Nathan.
And does something behind his back.
As she does so, Kyoko emits the first sound we have heard her make. A little gasp, or sigh.
Nathan jolts.
NATHAN
Aah!
He looks down.
Something is under his shirt, just above his solar plexus. A little ridge.
He tugs the material of his shirt open –
– and reveals a tiny triangle of metal. Protruding from his skin.
NATHAN
What –
He turns.
The handle of a kitchen knife is jutting out of the middle of his back, just left of his spine. It has been jammed so deep that the tip of the blade has poked out of his chest.
Blood soaks into his shirt material with amazing speed, blossoming from the point of the wound.
He sees Kyoko.
Oh shit. No.
He lashes out with the metal bar.
It catches Kyoko in the jaw.
Her entire lower jaw snaps off.
It reveals metal armature, and carbon fibre, and spurting pneumatic fluid. And something in her neck, glowing and sparking.
Then she folds down to the ground, as her power abruptly cuts out.
Fucking – unreal –
As Nathan stares down at Kyoko –
REVEAL
– that Ava has got to her feet behind him.