What Does The Ending Of Ex Machina Really Mean?

What Happens Next?

As with any film with an open ending, speculation about what happens after the credits of Ex Machina is hard to avoid. What does the future, both for the characters and the world the film presents, hold.

The final shot suggests a typically mundane, but personally exciting, life for Ava, with her integrating into humanity, something she'll no doubt excel at given the amount of knowledge stored up from her search engine origins.

Of course, the aftermath of what happened in Nathan's house will eventually be discovered, but without the security footage (inaccessible without a keycard) the collection of bodies presents a different story - Kyoko will be mistaken for the rogue A.I., with Ava not implicated at all in events. Rather than starting a Blade Runner style man-hunt, the events will just serve as a minor cautionary tale against playing God.

Still, as Nathan said, in this world the question of A.I. isn't an if, but a when. And if his typically self-inflated assessment was correct, then there'll no doubt be further leaps forward in technology, eventually forcing society at large to face the movie's own questions of what it means to be human.

What did you take away from the ending of Ex Machina? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments below.