



Behind the camera, James hits all the right genre notes right from the start. The cinematography screams moody sci-fi classic — all backlighting and anamorphic lens flares — while the electronic score echoes Vangelis for a true Blade Runner vibe. (It also doesn’t hurt that the bearded Stephens bears an uncanny resemblance to Ridley Scott at times.) The eyes of the implanted soldiers even reflect strangely in the light. Yes, it brings replicants to mind, but it works.

Having reached a research dead-end — McCarthy and his team can’t come up with a machine that beats the Turing test — the scientist meets Ava (Caity Lotz). A researcher in her own right, she’s developed a computer that uses the conversations it has with humans to teach itself. Brought into the inner circle, Ava quickly discovers the Ministry of Defense is trying to build an android super soldier. McCarthy and his team can make lifelike limbs and bodies with superhuman strength — they just need to find a way to bring a completely artificial brain to life. With Ava and her computer, they think they have the final missing pieces.

Before you can say Robocop, Ava is fatally injured, and McCarthy decides to take a shot at creating his android based off Ava’s likeness and brain scans. The result is an indestructible physical clone of Ava simply called The Machine. It has a child-like grasp of the world at first, but it quickly begins to process and learn — and it insists that it’s alive. "Apart from their flesh," it asks about people, "what makes them any different than me?"