Movies to Watch Like ‘Ex Machina’
Horny for robots, are you?
Ex Machina managed to scratch that itch, didn’t it? Something about those doe-eyed robots begging to be rescued from billionaire tech bro douchebag made you wanna give them your own sort of Turing test? Filthy.
I bet you turned to the ever-controversial ChatGPT to see if it would talk dirty to you, didn’t you? You make me sick. Ex Machina is FAR more than a human x robot slash fiction. It’s a film about loneliness! Isolation! Connection! What it means to be human! But all that went over your head, didn’t it? Then allow me to give you a list of films like Ex Machina to see if we can educate you about the communion of modern technology and art. And I don’t mean THAT kind of communion.
Her
Spike Jonze’s Her is a film that I’m certain a technosexual like you will get a kick out of. Set in a futuristic Los Angeles, a lonely writer named Theodore craves real intimacy and connection, but doesn’t know how to go about finding it. So what does he do? He downloads a dating app. I don’t mean Tinder, I mean an artificially intelligent dating app. He begins a romantic relationship with a sultry-voiced A.I. intelligence, and the pair cross their circuits if you know what I mean.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is many things, and a romantic fic between an astronaut and a tsundere A.I is one of them. On a spaceflight mission to Jupiter, an astronaut named Dave begins to become suspicious that the HAL 9000, the A.I. responsible for running his spaceship, is malfunctioning. Upon discovering that Dave intends to shut it off, HAL 9000 takes retaliatory measures to ensure its operations. The sexual tension between the pair made cinema history.
Blade Runner
In a cyberpunk future ripped straight out of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner tells the tale of Rick Deckard, a “Blade Runner” charged with hunting down robotic humanoids known as “replicants.” While Deckard initially believes that the replicants are nothing more than 1’s and 0’s running on self-preservation programming, he eventually discovers that these bioengineered beings are perhaps more human than the humans that are attempting to destroy them.
The Matrix Trilogy
The Wachowskis siblings’ The Matrix is one of the most iconic robot flicks ever made! A computer hacker named Neo discovers that his waking reality is actually a sophisticated simulation—a “matrix”—created by the true rulers of the Earth: machines. After freeing his mind from the matrix, he joins up with a group of human revolutionaries to overthrow their robot overlords. While the action sequences are top notch, a robot-kinkster like you is sure to appreciate the simmering tension between Neo and the antagonist computer program known as Agent Smith.
Ghost In The Shell
Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in The Shell is a landmark piece of animation, and perhaps the most sophisticated anime film ever made, but you won’t care about any of that. The only thing about this film that will catch your thirsty eye is the cybernetic government agent Motoko Kusanagi, leader of a futuristic Japan’s counter-cyberterrorism team. After a string of hacking incidents orchestrated by the mysterious Puppet Master, Major Kusanagi is forced to take matters into her own hands to track the criminal down.
Moon
Moon‘s main character Sam Bell is just an average Joe! He works an average corporate job, a three-year stint on a lunar base where he lives in total isolation. He has a totally normal relationship with his coworker, a company-controlled A.I. named GERTY. Soon he’ll be going home to see his totally normal family! Or will he? After experiencing strange hallucinations, Sam crashes his lunar rover and wakes up in the infirmary under GERTY’s care. Then everything goes back to normal! Until he encounters another person on the lunar base: a younger version of himself.
Transcendence
While many of these films are about commingling with A.I., Wally Pfister’s Transcendence takes it a step further by featuring a character who becomes one! After surviving an assassination attempt, Dr. Will Caster uploads his consciousness into a computer in order to avoid shuffling off the mortal coil too soon. Naturally, his decision has unforeseen consequences. After rubbing his codestreams across every major technological network in the world, Caster begins to integrate himself with other humans. If this sounds like a bad idea to you, that’s because it is. Caster realizes that he is able to dominate human beings who are linked to him, leading his former colleagues to try and pull the plug.
Westworld
Before HBO came along and turned the Westworld I.P. into robot murder porn, Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name attempted to… well… do the same thing. Set in a Wild West themed amusement park populated by lifelike androids, guests from far and wide come to play out their wildest cowboy dreams by using the robots for target practice. After a systemwide malfunction, the robots lead a violent uprising against their captors in an attempt to secure freedom.
Annihilation
While Alex Garland’s Annihilation doesn’t feature any sexy A.I. per se, it does concern a flirtation between human beings and non-human intelligence beyond comprehension. Hot! After an anomaly called “The Shimmer” begins swallowing up Earth’s environments, a team of scientists venture into the The Shimmer to uncover its origin and prevent its spread. I’m sure the mind-bending geometries and horrifying creatures they discover within will really help you get your rocks off.
Under The Skin
Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin is a film about sex. Sex with biomass consuming extraterrestrial in particular. Scarlett Johansson plays an alien disguised as a human woman who wanders the backroads of Scotland, seducing and consuming isolated men. The film is an atmospheric exploration of human identity, but you don’t care about any of that, do you? You’re too busy buying a one-way ticket to Scotland and a pair of nice walking shoes aren’t you?
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