The Machine

The Machine Photos

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Cast & Crew

Caity Lotz
Ava

Toby Stephens
Vincent

Denis Lawson
Thomson

Lee Nicholas Harris
Implant Soldier Harris

Sam Hazeldine
James

Helen Griffin
Mrs. Dawson

Sule Rimi
Dr. Giwa-Amu

Jonathan Byrne
Tim

Ben McGregor
Implant Soldier Ben

Jade Croot
Mary

Pooneh Hajimohammadi
Suri

Caradog W. James
Director

Caradog W. James
Screenwriter

Jamie Carmichael
Executive Producer

Paul Eyres
Executive Producer

Robert Graham
Executive Producer

Caradog W. James
Executive Producer

John Giwa-Amu
Producer

Tom Raybould
Original Music

Nicolai Brüel
Cinematographer

Matt Platts-Mills
Film Editing

Manuel Puro
Casting

Erik Rehl
Production Design

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News & Interviews for The Machine

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Now Streaming: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Fifth Element, and More

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Audience Reviews for The Machine

• Dec 01, 2015

  Released a year before Ex Machina, The Machine is very nearly the basic blueprint for it, to wit: scientists create a lovable AI (that happens to be a bodacious femme as well, natch) and begin to fall in love with it, er, her, ah, the program ("she's the only one who really understands me, yah?). This time out the government wants the robot/android/girlbot to be a killer soldier application as well, and homie don't play dat, yo! The technology part of the tale is on the backburner so this is very user friendly.
  Super Reviewer
• Nov 18, 2014

  A rather solid first entry for this director that doesn't exactly shows us anything we haven't seen before but has plenty of heart and good ideas to make it an interesting experience. Still, some characters are a bit dull and clichéd but thanks to a decent conclusion with a very poignant warning, they round up their stories rather well by the end. Worth a shot for serious in tone b sci-fi fans.
  Super Reviewer
• Oct 29, 2014

  The British sci-fi thriller The Machine explores the age-old question of A.I. giving birth to artificial life. Set in a dystopian future where Britain and China are in a protracted world war, a MOD research scientist develops a neural network which he believes could be the key to creating artificial life. Caity Lotz stars as "The Machine" and gives an interesting performance. But, the script is pretty weak and does a poor job at explaining the war and how technology fits into it (other than the generic super-soldier cliche). There are also some leaps in logic and dropped subplots that add to the film's unevenness. Yet while it's problematic, The Machine does present some intriguing questions about man's evolving relationship with technology.
  Dann M Super Reviewer
• Sep 10, 2014

  Caradog James (what a name) gives us a debut worthy of one of the best CGI science fiction flicks since anything involving Tom Cruise. The Machine might not be as in depth or as long as something you'd be accustomed to with a Cruise film, but there is plenty on the surface with just enough digging up the top soil to find a good product. Former James Bond villain Toby Stephens is the genius engineer who along with an American scientist of the same intellect, breed the first conscious AI program. It's actually a pretty violent beginning for the machine, who is played expertly by Caity Lotz. She needs the CGI and audio dub to really make her robot self come to life, but it's seamless. As for the rest of the cast, many of the no-names act their part with a bit of a Total Recall, Blade Runner bad guy in Denis Lawson, who was in Star Wars as one of the pilots in the X-Wings I found out! It gets a tad heavy on the emotional stuff, but that's mainly because this film is trying to find an even balance between a new world order, action, and emotion production all in one with robots. If the movie could have expanded into more of the real world, you're probably looking at a fully fleshed out mega movie. Instead, we're left with a pretty satisfying independent feel that plays it somewhat safe with a harrowing ending.
  Lane Z Super Reviewer