What Does The Ending Of Ex Machina Really Mean?

What Does The Final Scene Mean?

Ex Machina doesn't really strive for the same clean realism of other modern cerebral sci-fi movies. Various points are mistily dream-like, influenced by the character's incessant drinking and fracturing mental states, while the ending is a rather abstract resolution.

An upside-down camera shoots the stretched shadows of passers-by on a busy street, until Ava's calmly walks into view. She stands among all the people, taking in the world around as she's always dreamed, then disappears. The basic interpretation can't be misconstrued that much, but what it signifies is pretty impactful on the whole film.

Although stepping into the real world, as in Caleb's mind-game, was the point where Ava became symbolically human, it's here where she literally becomes part of humanity - she's slipped into the crowd, indistinct from everyone else. And not because of her intelligence, but of how she looks. That's one of the underlying points the film has been making - coming up with a resolute measure of human intellect is impossible.

Now all of Nathan's incessant spiels about greatness feel rather flat and self-propagating. In the end, Ava wasn't a dangerous machine out to destroy man, or looking down on us as apes with tools, but merely wanting to be a part of humanity.