10 Greatest Directorial Debut Sci-Fi Movies

10. Ex Machina

Alex Garland was no stranger to the big screen when he made his directorial debut with Ex Machina in 2014. Having a few writing credits under his belt already, including 28 Days Later, Sunshine, and Dredd, Garland proved he wasn't just a one-trick pony with his own feature.

The film follows programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who's invited to the solitary residence of his company's CEO (Oscar Isaac) to administer the Turing test on his latest creation, an intelligent, humanoid robot (Alicia Vikander). But what starts as a moody, introspective sci-fi thriller about what it means to be human, slowly begins to unravel along with its characters into something far more unique.

The brilliance of Ex Machina is in its simplicity, with its three main characters being given space to breathe (or in Oscar Isaac's case, dance) against the stark, modernist architecture. The film unravels like a play, albeit with a haunting soundtrack from Portishead's Geoff Barrow, which superbly blends artificial and natural sounds to complement its main themes.