Emotions Destory Humanity
An Analysis of Ex Machina and Robocop
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) and Robocop (Paul Verhoven, 1987) are science fictions films that apply the social construct of gender to the mind and body of advanced robot technology. In doing so, the robots and other central characters follow through with gender expectations and roles of the brain and physicality. Robocop’s technology is a cyborg with a human face and completely mechanical body. Ex Machina’s technology is an AI robot, also paired with a mechanical body and human face, skin, hands, and feet. The films are set in the worlds in which the make dominates, the human mind and body have become unsatisfactory, and working the corporate ladder has precedence over family.
The appearance of Robocop, the doppelgänger of Officer Murphy, is what Todorov terms a special casualty, a theme of the self or of the vision which “evokes the strange and extreme influences of our technology on the individual, as it sets about making us into something other than the self” (Telotte 162). It is about the fear of what can happen when people go to the extreme to remake themselves, to enhance or transform. In the beginning of Robocop, Officer Murphy is visualized as an ordinary, family oriented, stand-up guy who was transferred by OCD to work in the most dangerous area in Detroit. Revealed in a later scene, it was Edward Morton’s goal is to prove himself to OCP’s top executive and use a newly deceased officer who signed a body-release form to become a prototype and protect the city and the company. Murphy’s body is considered a corporate body, a piece of property. After his death, every part of the human self was replaced with technology, with the exception of his face. The doctors offered to save one of his arms but Morton demanded its removal. Anything human might disobey, revolt. In order to reach their goal of the ultimate police officer, OCP needed complete control of the psyche and body. Machines are supposed to do as they’re told.
His new body resembled that of a taller body-builder, paired with bullet-proof armor, a gun holster inside his leg, and a helmet inscribed with ‘OCP product’, that covered everything except Murphy’s mouth. The helmet was also used by OCP to have more control over Robocop. In the scene, his body and mind automatically responded to the scientists’ voice commands. His technology system had the ability to record audio and video through the eyes. Through the subjective shot, the audience watched green lines target a pencil, zoom in, and respond with movement towards certain sounds. This scene revealed Murphy rebranded as Robocop, under complete control of OCP and led by his programmed directives:
1) Serve the public interest
2) Protect the innocent
3) Uphold the law
The directives are reflective of the Three Laws of Robotics of Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s laws were created to suggest how humans could employ the great power of robotics while also maintaining control. Morton took that control one step further. The subjective shot provided a special effect visual of the directives and also listed a fourth directive as the scene moved on. Its description was classified but later revealed that it protected any high ranking OCP employee from Robocop repercussions. The Robocop body and programmed mind, and the structure of the OCP support the implication of gender roles in science fiction. OCP is a male dominance hierarchy in the corporate world and Robocop was produced in the fight of dominance between Jones and Morton. In such respects, it is humanist, “having assumed the primacy of man and his values… expressed confidence and conviction concerning man’s ability and need to survive any inscrutable universe” (Telotte 38). A news broadcast featured at the beginning of the films shares that the community is looking for a solution to Boddicker and his crime spree. Robocop is a physical and mental protection for the community and OCP’s leaders.
Robocop proved to be a successful product, until he begins to have flashbacks of his past life, his wife and son. For the product to work, Robocop had to be anything but human. Any individual thoughts or feelings caused a lag. In the film, the engineer explained that the system was not designed to “experience sematic response.” As a male cyborg, Robocop was expected to be a protector, strong, brave, and a role model. Patriarchy considers emotional responses to be mere of a feminine trait and therefore a weakness. Female officer Lewis used to accompany Murphy as his partner. She is only seen as a sexual object, aligned with her gender role. The criminal gang did not view her as a credible threat. In the eyes of OCP, she wanted to ruin Robocop and she was threatened for trying to humanize him. After the continuous malfunctioning, OCP thought Lewis’ weaknesses robbed off and Robocop was only on the path to destruction. Still, he managed to take out the members of the gang and Jones.
It is true that the introduction of emotions and discovery of a past self had an effect in the programming, but it led to a realization called doubling, or unifying multiple selves. He removed his helmet with Lewis’ help, depicting the full merge of machine Robocop and human Murphy, free of OCP’s patriarchal constraints.
Ava, the AI robot in Ex Machina, also shares similar advantages to Robocop. She is controllable, contained by a man and patriarchal views, and has an ideal physicality based on gender. Unlike Robocop, Ava and her creator never shared the goal. Nathan, the scientist in the film, wanted to create AI robots that could pass for human and could maintain their own consciousness. Through sound effects and music, the audience is always unsure of Nathan’s true motives for the robots. Later, through Nathan’s drunken interactions with Caleb its proven that in a patriarchal viewpoint, his motivations are sexual. Caleb’s discovery of Nathan’s past AI experiments revealed only female bodies, all naked while conducting the trials. His nonverbal houseguest Kyoko signified Nathan’s ideal sexual partner: fun, quiet, simple, and sexual.
After meeting with Ava, Caleb decided that more emotional responses would be more informative than the logical questions. In response, Ava began to feminize and humanize more. She began to cover her mechanical parts with clothes and wear wigs to simulate being a real woman. In her ‘room’ she has pictures of woman in inspirational outfits taped to the wall, reminiscent of teen idolizing celebrities and their looks. In a patriarchal perspective, women are objects of desire, sexual beings, indecisive, and manipulative. Women live to please men and will do and change anything to do so. With the unexpected change of appearance and discourse with Ava, Caleb questions the application of sexuality and gender to the AI. At first Nathan asks a question as an answer, “can consciousness exist without interaction?” He also implicates gender or sexuality as the only motivation or stimulation of the brain, by asking “what imperative does a gray box?” More truthfully, he then simply states that sexuality is fun, and proceeds to explain how he built a pleasure center inside Ava that resembled the vagina. The proposal of Caleb having sex with Ava was less of a question than instruction. Nathan used Caleb’s online porn profile to construct Ava’s face to his personal tastes. This could have been a way for Nathan to confirm his own sexual desires as normal, confirm that other humans could be attracted to a robot the same as a human.
Although Nathan is aware that Caleb has humanized Ava towards the end of the film, he does reveal that at the end of the experiment Ava’s body he has become attracted to may or may not survive, while the consciousness he has grown to like would be downloaded and reformatted, erasing any memories Ava collected. The closets of robot bodies revealed once by Caleb, and again by Ava, showcased Nathan’s patriarchal psyche. It showed his beliefs that woman and their bodies are disposable once they no longer satisfy men. Women’s sexuality and desire are the primary purposes and advantages. As described by Mary Ann Doane, it is a story of “cultural repression, a chronicling of the dominant culture’s efforts to ‘control, supervise, regulate the maternal – to put limits upon it’.” (Telotte 50). The cameras that provide Nathan with a recording of everything in the house confirm this theory of supervision. His decision to remove Kyoko’s ability to speak and to limit the movement of the robots during the experiments is also done to exhibit his dominance over the subjects.
Nathan finds no issue with his treatment of his creations. Judith Hess Wright believes that the genre’s films “build on fears of the intrusive and the overpowering and thereby promote isolationism. They also imply that science is good only insomuch as it serves to support the existing class structure” (Telotte 43). Living in isolation, Nathan can convince himself that his relationships with the robots are normal and serve to support his status. Like Morton, he too wants to stay at the top of the corporate ladder, the search engine he created was not enough. Technology advancement tried to fill the void left by the lack of any intimate human relationships. As a kid genius, he believed he was above all. He twisted Caleb’s words to support this idea, “…if I’ve invented consciousness, I’m not a man, I’m a God.” Once Caleb confirms that Ava does in fact have a consciousness, she has confirmed Nathan’s ‘God’ status, but she is no longer good as is to science or to the structure. She needs to be better.
But, before Nathan can reconstruct the consciousness yet again, Caleb codes Ava an escape out of her patriarchal physical and mental restraints, as well as Kyokyo. Caleb’s character functioned similar to Officer Lewis’ in Robocop, as a disruption to the goal of the creator. Caleb’s focus on the emotion and humanization of Ava resulted in the collapse of the boundaries of body and mind, of human consciousness and machine. Just as Robocop repaired himself and removed OCP’s limitations, Ava and Kyoko destroyed their maker and Ava reconstructed herself with parts of the older-model showcased robots. She was now able to make herself in her own image, not what Caleb or Nathan wanted her to look like. The humanization of Ava, a discovery of the sense of self, served a new perspective for the gender roles of women in sci-fi and speaks to fears women have about their bodies. There is more to women than sex. A consciousness exists, something or someone not disposable. A woman’s mind and physicality is mutable but going to the extreme to satisfy any gender expectations can be dangerous.
Both Robocop and Ex Machina visualize the worst fears of playing God, body modifications, and using technology to create superior beings as replacements. Both robot technologies fall victim to human weaknesses, in the eyes of mad scientists. The films emphasize societal fear of politics in the workplace, scientific advancement, sexuality, and survival against technology. The films also used gender to restructure the ideas and expectations of physicality and the brain in terms of technology and reality.
Works Cited
Codell, Julie, F. Robocop Murphy's law, Robocop's body, and capitalism's work from Jump Cut, no. 34, March, 1989, pp. 12-19
Garland, Alexander. Ex Machina. 2014
Telotte, J.P. Science Fiction Film. 2001
Verhoven, Paul. Robocop. 1987
