Free Ex Machina by Alex Garland Page B

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 down 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.
    She pulls the knife out of his back.
    Feeling this happen, Nathan turns –
    – and Ava pushes the knife into his chest.
    Nathan stares at Ava.
    Then takes a slight step away from her.
    And sits down heavily on the white carpet.
    Crimson drips on to bleached fibre.
    Beats pass on this strange image:
    Kyoko sprawled on the floor with her broken face.
    Nathan sitting upright, his upper torso now drenched in blood.
    Ava standing. Watching Nathan.
    After a few moments, Nathan slumps sideways.
    And stops breathing.
    INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S STUDY – NIGHT
    Caleb sees this same view, on the CCTV camera feed, on Nathan’s monitors.
    Then –
    – Ava starts walking.
    On the cameras, he watches her progress through the house. Down the glass corridor. Through the threshold to Nathan’s private quarters.
    Then –
    – Caleb raises his head from the screens.
    To see Ava standing at the open door to Nathan’s study.
    Ava and Caleb look at each other.
    AVA
    Will you stay here?
    Beat.
    CALEB
    … Okay.
    Ava leaves, closing the door behind her.
    CUT TO
    – the monitors.
    The CCTV feed of Ava walking down the connecting corridor to Nathan’s bedroom.
    INT. HOUSE ⁄ NATHAN’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
    Ava stands in Nathan’s bedroom, in front of the previous AI androids.
    She is unclothed.
    She gazes at the androids.
    Then she removes the arm from one of the girls, and replaces her own shattered limb.
    She takes a moment to see how the new limb looks in the mirrors.
    Then she starts removing sections of their skin.
    And putting it on herself.
    The skin sucks itself to the honeycomb mesh, as if the mesh