‘Ex Machina’ Is Coming to Free Streaming and It’s the Perfect Time to Revisit This AI Masterpiece
Few films have captured the anxious wonder of artificial intelligence quite like Alex Garland’s ‘Ex Machina’. Written and directed by Garland in his feature directorial debut, the film stars Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac in a tightly coiled story about a programmer invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an intelligent humanoid robot. From the moment it premiered, it was clear this was something rare and quietly devastating.
The film shot principal photography over just six weeks across Pinewood Studios and the remote Juvet Landscape Hotel in Valldalen, Norway, with Garland opting to work on as small a budget as possible in pursuit of total creative freedom. That restraint paid off in every frame. Garland even avoided greenscreen or tracking markers during filming, with Ava’s robot body achieved using a detailed costume made from polyurethane with metal powder poured onto it to create the mesh effect.
As Collider reported, the acclaimed sci-fi gem will be available to stream for free on Plex beginning July 1. It is the latest in a series of platforms to carry the film, and arguably the most accessible yet, placing it within reach of anyone with a free account and a curiosity about where the AI conversation really started in cinema. The film is also currently available on Netflix and Netflix Standard with Ads, as well as for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
‘Ex Machina’ earned just shy of $40 million at the box office against a reported budget of just $13 million, becoming the highest-grossing A24 movie of all time worldwide at the time of its release, though that record has since been broken several times over. At the 88th Academy Awards, it won Best Visual Effects and earned Garland a nomination for Best Original Screenplay, while Alicia Vikander received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. For a film with such a modest footprint, its trophy case is impressive.
Critics fell hard for it too. The film holds a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus noting that it leans heavier on ideas than effects but remains a visually polished and uncommonly engaging sci-fi feature. Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, who caught the film at SXSW in 2015, praised it as a strong feature and a huge achievement in a number of ways, highlighting Isaac’s surprisingly effective humor, the riveting central scenario, and the stunning visual work throughout.
As one of A24’s earliest releases, ‘Ex Machina’ helped establish the studio’s reputation as one of the defining names in modern film. It also arrived at a cultural moment that has only grown more relevant with time. In a world now consumed by conversations about large language models, synthetic minds, and the ethics of machine consciousness, Garland’s claustrophobic thriller reads less like science fiction and more like prescient documentary.
With its arrival on Plex making it free for an entirely new generation of viewers, this is the ideal moment to sit with one of the sharpest films the genre has produced in decades. If you’ve already seen it, this news is the perfect excuse to revisit it and decide whether Ava’s final choice chills you just as much the second time around.
